LinkedIn is the world’s largest social network for professionals. It is the best platforms for B2B marketers to connect with each other and build strategic relationships. According to a survey by Oktopost.com, more than 80% of the leads generated via social media, come from LinkedIn.
The platform provides you with an opportunity to create unique content in your niche that reaches out to a more relevant audience. It is common knowledge in the B2B community that buyers on social media check the references of vendors with their friends and colleagues. More than 49% of these buyers check the LinkedIn profiles of the vendors before making a buying decision. It is also relevant here, that 84% of the buyers on social networks are purchasing for their companies or business units and as such, wield more power than others.
In such a scenario, LinkedIn should definitely be an important part of your social media marketing strategy.
6 Reasons Why B2B Marketers Should Use LinkedIn
We list out 6 Reasons Why B2B Marketers Should Use LinkedIn:
1. From Thought Leadership to Brand Awareness
Whether it is thought Leadership or increasing Brand awareness, LinkedIn is tailored to cater to all your Business needs.
For B2B marketers, LinkedIn provides the perfect platform to share professional expertise within their niche. LinkedIn users, in general, are professionals who use the network as a tool and to assimilate industry insights, which can help further their own business interests. They prefer their advice from experts in the field, who can analyse situations and provide critical insights. It provides the perfect opportunity for company executives to become thought leaders in their community by publishing unique and informative content on your business page. In addition, LinkedIn provides a great opportunity to learn or pick up fresh information and inspiration.
Focused, informative content can go a long way to create brand awareness, while increasing the online visibility of your brand.
You can extend the reach of your company’s content to a specific audience using LinkedIn sponsored updates, which appear in their news feeds.
Sponsored updates allow you to target the audience based on:
- Demographics
- Company name, size, and industry
- Job title and seniority
- Level of education
- Interests
- Associated LinkedIn groups
2. Promote Product Launches
If you are a B2B marketer, LinkedIn can be the best place for product launches. By launching a product on LinkedIn, you can be sure that you are targeting an audience who is most likely to be interested in your product.
3. Social CRM
LinkedIn allows us to gain an understanding of prospective customers and other contacts. You can integrate your Google contacts with LinkedIn. Social CRM tools allow you to analyse the interests of your contacts on LinkedIn in real-time, offering valuable additional information on their behaviour and preferences. Besides using LinkedIn’s inbuilt CRM tool, you can also integrate other Social CRM solutions with LinkedIn.
4. Drive New Website Visitors and Generate Quality Leads
You can drive new traffic to your blog and generate relevant leads by publishing content on your LinkedIn page. Linking your original blog post on LinkedIn, or including a landing page link is a great way to discover leads and increase engagement. Another way to identify potential leads on LinkedIn is by listening, participating, and responding to the conversations within LinkedIn groups. Engaging with potential leads can be the first step towards turning them into customers.
In addition, the new lead accelerator tool on LinkedIn helps marketers to display their ads to the right people at the right time. This allows marketers to organize their ad campaigns and marketing strategy.
5. LinkedIn for Gated Content
B2B sales cycles and buying processes usually involve a large amount of money. It is therefore natural for the parties involved to gather plenty of information before closing the deal. Gated content assumes importance for such players. It benefits both parties; by providing relevant information to the buyer at various stages of the buying cycle and by providing additional leads including email-ids to the sellers.
6. Increase social proximity
By bringing together buyers and sellers of the business community on a common platform, LinkedIn has the stage set for lucrative offers and opportunities. You can leverage your businesses just by growing your network on LinkedIn and engaging with social influencers. According to a recent survey, 44%of social buyers found potential vendors by looking at shared connections on LinkedIn.
In today’s ever-expanding online market, where sales are initiated and closed virtually, trust is of paramount importance. Professionals are increasingly using LinkedIn to verify and seek recommendations of any professional with whom they are engaging. In fact, 73% of social buyers prefer to work with sales professionals who are referred by someone they know.
LinkedIn can take your social media marketing strategy to another level. B2B marketing experts are responsible for lead generation, increasing brand awareness and reputation and providing real, measurable results. By exploiting LinkedIn to its full potential B2B, marketers can secure phenomenal results in all these areas.
Social Media can do a lot for your business growth if used the right way. To understand the complete manner in which Social Media can help you grow, enroll in our Social Media Certification Course.
