10 LinkedIn Marketing Hacks That Will Skyrocket Your Business

LinkedIn marketing has the potential to propel your business to new heights. If you have yet to start utilizing LinkedIn for your business, you are passing up on a valuable opportunity.

Unlike Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, LinkedIn is a social networking platform aimed at professionals. However, LinkedIn is now more than just a platform for job seekers and recruiters. With over 875 million members, it has become a powerful tool for businesses to reach important clients, partners, and influencers, allowing them to establish and strengthen business connections.

Here are some of the LinkedIn marketing statistics you should know:

• 25% YoY increase in public conversations on LinkedIn
• 4x higher open rates and engagement (conversation ads versus traditional email)
• Linkedin members interact with Linkedin pages more than 2 billion times every month
• An increase of 10% to 15% in short-term sales performance after the ads were seen

While using LinkedIn marketing to expand your business can be an advantageous move, it takes skill to emerge from the crowd. So, here are 10 secret marketing hacks that will bound to grant you the extra boost you need on LinkedIn!

1. Optimize your company’s LinkedIn page

Source:

The very first step is to create your company's LinkedIn page. It is essential to establish a strong professional presence on the platform. 

A LinkedIn page serves as an extension of your brand and allows you to connect with potential clients, partners, and employees. A LinkedIn page can help you increase your visibility and be a hub for sharing valuable content and promoting your products and services.

Here are some ways to optimize your company's profile:

Company Name and Logo: Ensure that your company name and logo accurately represent your brand and are easily recognizable. 

Profile Picture: A profile picture on a company's LinkedIn profile is essential to establishing a strong professional presence on the platform. It can help increase credibility, professionalism, and visibility, leading to increased business opportunities.

LinkedIn Bio: Write a compelling description summarizing your company's mission, values, and products or services. 

2. Identify your audience and target the right one

Identifying and targeting the right audience is critical to the success of any LinkedIn marketing strategy. LinkedIn offers various targeting options to help you reach your ideal customers and connections.

You can use these questions as a guideline:

• Who is my ideal customer?
• What are their pain points, interests, and needs?
• What type of content do they engage with on LinkedIn?

Once you have identified your target audience, now you can use LinkedIn's targeting options to reach them based on their job title, industry, company size, location, and more. 

3. Utilize LinkedIn groups and stay active

Utilizing groups on LinkedIn can help you create and grow highly professional relationships since LinkedIn Groups make an excellent space to connect with like-minded individuals. They provide users with similar interests a forum to share valuable content, ask and answer questions, and keep up-to-date with the latest industry news and trends.

By joining groups relevant to your business and participating actively in discussions, you can increase your visibility on the platform and build connections with potential clients and partners. 

Below are a few suggestions to optimize your experience with LinkedIn Groups:

• Look for groups that are relevant to your business and interests
• Take time to read and engage with the content posted by other members of the group you have joined
• Share your own content and insights, ask questions, and participate in discussions

By staying active and engaged in these LinkedIn Groups, you will be able to expand your network, build your reputation, and drive business growth in no time.

4. Establish a LinkedIn group of your own

Source:

Another reason why you should join relevant LinkedIn Groups is that this is where your prospects hang out! This creates a brilliant opportunity for you to establish your own LinkedIn group and invite all of them to join. Welcome to your party, right?

An additional bonus for creating your own LinkedIn Group: You will have all the control over your group, so you can ensure no competitors get in!

Here is a simple guideline on how to kickstart your first LinkedIn Group: 

1. Head into one of the LinkedIn Groups that you have joined
2. Go to the Members page to look for your prospects
3. To speed things up, you can utilize filters to search for specific job titles too
4. Invite your prospects to join your very own LinkedIn Group

With time and effort, your LinkedIn Group can grow to become a valuable resource for your target audience, help position yourself as an authority and build a reputation for your brand in your industry.

5. Avoid hard selling and product promotion

Surely the goal for every business is to promote their products or services, but trying to hard-sell your products or services in your content may end up being counterproductive and annoy your followers instead. There is a chance they might even unfollow your company's LinkedIn page! 

When it comes to LinkedIn marketing, it is vital to remember that the platform is primarily designed for networking and professional development rather than blatant product promotion. Therefore, businesses need to be tactful in their sales approach on LinkedIn. Hard selling and in-your-face product promotions are big no-nos on the platform. So, what can you do instead?

First, position yourself as an authority in your industry. 

Next, build trust with your audience. 

Finally, tell. Don't sell! Instead of trying overly hard to close a deal, it is recommended to focus on creating valuable content that educates and informs your audience while showcasing your expertise at the same time. When this is done successfully, organic leads and conversions will follow.

6. Create valuable content that shows your expertise

No matter which platform you are using for marketing, content is always king. Posting valuable content that displays your expertise and knowledge is crucial for building a strong presence on LinkedIn and attracting potential clients and partners. 

Valuable content can take many forms, including thought-provoking articles, helpful tips and tricks, informative videos, and engaging infographics. 

The key is to create content that resonates with your target audience and provides value to them. To ensure your content is valuable, it is important to first understand your target audience's needs and interests before tailoring your content to fulfill them. 

Take Richard van der Blom as an example. He is the Founder and CEO of Just Connecting, a company based in the Netherlands that supports businesses and individuals with training and advice on ​​social selling and LinkedIn. He is also an active user on LinkedIn and frequently posts on the platform to share advice revolving around his area of expertise.

As he understands the growing pains of his target audience – who are business owners and professionals like himself – he was able to create content that is both compelling and valuable for them, earning him a devoted following of close to 100,000, as well as opportunities to promote his own business offerings all at the same time! What a win-win.

7. Improve the potential reach and impact of your posts through optimization

Optimizing your LinkedIn posts is essential to improve your content's potential reach and impact. So, how can you exactly optimize your LinkedIn posts?

Here are some tips:

• Use relevant keywords in your posts and headlines to ensure your content is easily discoverable by your target audience.
• Research popular hashtags that are relevant and utilize them in your post, this maximizes your reach. However, aim to use 1-3 hashtags per post to avoid looking spammy.
• Consider the format of your posts. LinkedIn offers a variety of post formats, including text, images, videos, and even documents. Experiment with different formats to see which resonates best with your audience and generates the most engagement.
• Including visuals like images or videos in your posts can increase engagement and make your content more shareable.
• Posting at the right time can ensure that your content reaches the maximum number of people possible. Timing your uploads is crucial to ensure that your posts are not buried during off-peak hours or overshadowed by other posts. By scheduling your uploads strategically, you can increase the likelihood of your posts remaining visible and garner maximum engagement. On LinkedIn, the best times to post are generally during business hours on weekdays, when professionals are most likely to be active on the platform.
• Using a content calendar is also an effective way to optimize your content on LinkedIn. With a content calendar, you can plan and organize your posts in advance, ensuring that you are consistently publishing high-quality content that resonates with your target audience.
• Remember to engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages. This can help foster connections with potential customers or clients, which may lead to potential partnerships or sales opportunities in the future. 

Optimizing your posts for reach and impact can take your LinkedIn marketing strategy to the next level and achieve greater success on the platform.

8. Promote your LinkedIn page by utilizing LinkedIn ads

Utilizing LinkedIn Ads to promote your LinkedIn page can help your business reach audiences that you care about. It allows you to create and display targeted ads to specific audiences based on their job title, industry, location, and more. With all these targeting features in place, it ensures your ads are shown to people who are most likely to be interested in your business and what you have to offer.

Let us look at one of HubSpot’s most successful lead generation campaigns on LinkedIn. They wanted to engage marketing professionals from small and medium-sized businesses with e-books, webinars, and how-to guides. As most of their target audience can be found on LinkedIn, they made use of LinkedIn Ads to reach out to specific audiences and led to great results. The company ended up seeing 400% more leads within their target audience as compared to other lead generation efforts on other platforms.

If you are new to LinkedIn Ads, getting started with LinkedIn Ads is relatively easy. Start by creating a campaign using the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. From there, you can choose your ad format, target audience, set your budget and then bid. You can also track the performance of your ads and make adjustments as needed to maximize their effectiveness.

9. Expand your Email marketing subscriber list

Email marketing remains a crucial aspect of any marketing strategy. With over 850 million users, LinkedIn offers an excellent opportunity for you to expand your email marketing subscriber list. 

Now, what are the ways to leverage on this pool of users?

Include a call-to-action in your profile

You can encourage people to join your email list by including a call-to-action (CTA) on your profile. You can combine it with a brief description of your business and services, a link to your website's landing page or even a lead magnet, such as a free eBook or white paper, in exchange for their email subscription.

LinkedIn Groups

Join relevant groups in your industry or niche and participate in discussions. When people engage with your posts or comments, you can message them and ask if they want to join your email list for more valuable content related to your business or industry. However, make sure you obtain their consent first before adding them to your list.

LinkedIn's Sponsored InMail

Sponsored InMail allows you to send personalized messages to targeted LinkedIn users, promoting your business and encouraging them to join your email list. You can customize the message and include a CTA with a link to your landing page or lead magnet.

Leverage LinkedIn connections

Send personalized messages to your connections, asking them to join your email list and share your content with their networks. You can also offer a referral program or exclusive content for those who refer others to join your email list.

10. Take advantage of LinkedIn influencers

Source:

LinkedIn influencers – like Neil Patel, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Ann Handley to name a few – are people who have established a strong presence on LinkedIn and built up a significant amount of followers. These individuals can influence their followers' opinions and behaviors. Working with influencers is a great way to expand your reach, increase your credibility, and gain new followers.

To take advantage of LinkedIn influencers, you should first identify the influencers within your industry or niche. Look for individuals with a large following and regularly post content about your industry or niche. Once you have identified these influencers, start engaging with them by commenting on their posts and sharing their content with your own followers.

You can also reach out to the influencers and propose a collaboration. This could involve co-creating content, guest posting on each other's pages, or simply featuring each other in your content. Collaborating with influencers is a great way to tap into their existing audience pool.

Remember to always approach influencers with a genuine and authentic interest in their work. Be respectful of their time and avoid being pushy or overly promotional. By building genuine relationships with influencers, you can create valuable partnerships that benefit both parties.

Conclusion

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for businesses looking to expand their reach, establish themselves as an authority in their industry and ultimately, drive business growth. Do not be intimidated by the platform's professional nature or its vast user base. With a solid strategy and a commitment to engaging with your audience, you can create meaningful connections, build brand awareness, and generate leads that can lead to significant return on investment (ROI). 

Whether you are just starting out or looking to take your LinkedIn marketing efforts to the next level, there are plenty of resources and experts available to help you achieve your goals. I hope this article has empowered you to harness the power of LinkedIn for your business. Good luck!