LinkedIn Marketing Guide for Business in 2021 by BestBusinessBooks - HTML preview

Section 6

Tools to enhance your business’s LinkedIn Marketing Strategy

Fortunately, LinkedIn provides a variety of marketing tools for businesses that can help them generate insights and develop strategies. Some of them like LinkedIn Analytics are free whereas others such as InMail are paid. Here are multiple LinkedIn Marketing Tools that you can use for your business’s marketing.

LinkedIn Analytics for data driven results

LinkedIn Analytics is a free tool that enables you to look at your company’s post, campaigns and advertisements performances over time. Using metrics like leads, click rates, views etc, you can measure the ROI of your marketing efforts on LinkedIn. Moreover, LinkedIn campaign demographics help you to understand the audience of your advertisements.

The Analytics tab provides companies with metrics and trends about their company page. Company page administrators can view rich data about their company page divided into specific sections: Updates, Followers and Visitors.

UPDATES

A table showing the most recent updates and the following data.

PREVIEW

Shows the first few words of your post if it included text. If only an image was posted, the administrator will see the image’s alt text or file type.

DATE

The date on which each update was posted.

AUDIENCE

Indicates whether the update was targeted or sent to all followers.

SPONSORED

Shows which campaign(s) you’ve sponsored an update in, if any. Learn about sponsoring updates.

IMPRESSIONS

The number of times each update was shown to LinkedIn members.

CLICKS

The number of clicks on your content, company name or logo. This doesn’t include interactions (shares, likes and comments).

INTERACTIONS

The number of times people have liked, commented on or shared each update.

FOLLOWERS ACQUIRED

How many followers you gained by promoting each update.

ENGAGEMENT RATE

This percentage shows the number of interactions plus the number of clicks and followers acquired, divided by the number of impressions.

REACH

A graph showing the trend on the number of times your updates were seen both organically and through paid campaigns on a daily basis.

ENGAGEMENT

A graph displaying the number of times members clicked, liked, commented on and shared your content in both organic and sponsored campaigns. You can adjust the date range with the dropdown on the left.

FOLLOWERS

The Followers section is divided into four areas and provides information on where followers are coming from, their demographics, trends and competitive comparisons.

TOTAL

The total number of LinkedIn members following your company page. The number displayed here is updated only once a day, so it may be different from the current number on your Overview tab, which is updated in real time. Organic – Followers you gained naturally, without advertising. Acquired – Followers you gained through sponsored updates and/or company follow ads.

FOLLOWER DEMOGRAPHICS

A breakdown of who’s following your company using five types of demographic data. Use the dropdown menu on the right to see seniority, industry, job function, company size and more.

FOLLOWER TRENDS

Showing how your number of followers has changed over time. Use the dropdown on the right to select preferred date ranges.

HOW YOU COMPARE

Your number of followers compared with other companies.

VISITORS SECTION

The visitors section contains information on visitors and viewers of your page. This information was previously available under Page Insights and was moved into the Analytics tab. It has four main areas.

PAGE VIEWS

A graph showing how many times your Company Page was viewed. If you have a Career Page, you’ll see page views for this too. You can adjust the date range with the drop-down menu.

CAREER PAGE CLICKS

If you have a career page, this graph shows you how many times viewers clicked various elements of it. You can adjust the date range with the dropdown above.

UNIQUE VISITORS

A graph showing how many LinkedIn members visited your page. This is similar to page views, but removes duplicate visits to a single page such as when a member refreshes your company page or navigates away from it, but returns later. You can adjust the date range with the drop- down menu.

VISITOR DEMOGRAPHICS

This is a graph showing a breakdown of who’s visiting your company page using five types of demographic data: seniority, industry, function, company size.

PULSE ANALYTICS

Pulse analytics break down the amount of views your content has had, charting peaks and troughs in engagement.

It also displays demographic information on your readership, informing you who is reading your content, where they are from, which industry and job title they have, and how they reached your content.

This then informs any future content in terms of what you write about, how you share it and who you are writing to.

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn Groups help people with interests in similar topics to meet and communicate. This is an excellent way for your company to meet your target users and build connections with them. Post content on such LinkedIn Groups which your business deals with. This way, you develop connections as well as develop a reputation for expertise. However, there are still a lot of industries or groups of professionals not yet represented in LinkedIn groups. If no one has created a group for your industry, go create one.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD LINKEDIN GROUP?

The quality of content will determine whether or not your time is worth spending within a LinkedIn group. Good quality discussions and high quality content mean you are spending your time efficiently.

The size of the group is a factor to be considered. For example, hyper- locally focused groups will not want masses of people joining, but rather a select few important contributors. On the other hand, a worldwide marketing discussion group will hope to attract thousands of marketers from around the world.

The success of a group is based on its user engagement. We join LinkedIn groups to join in and start conversations, so an active group with engaged users will mean that more quality discussions will take place.

TIPS WHEN STARTING A GROUP ON LINKEDIN:

• Your name is important! Consider which keywords your target members will search for. Make sure your group name is clear and includes these keywords;
• Create a group for your industry, not your company. People are more likely to join a group when it's not simply for fans of your company;
• Design the group logo to fit the small standard logo size. The group logos that are displayed on profiles will actually be quite small - keep this in mind, and don't cram lots of hard-to-read-text into the small image;
• Create a custom webpage for the group on your website. This type of page will provide more context, engagement and visibility for your group. It can have as much or as little information as you like;
• Display the group in the Group Directory and on members' profiles. Take advantage of the functionality already in place on LinkedIn to help your group get more visibility;
• Invite your peers;
• Stimulate relevant, industry-specific conversations Solve problems, answer questions;
• Become an authoritative voice;
• Showcase your skills without necessarily pushing your company’s products or services.

TIPS WHEN PROMOTING A LINKEDIN GROUP:

• Invite coworkers, past colleagues, and customers to join and start discussions. Leverage your existing network to get your group started. After all, who wants to join a group with no members?
• Promote the group on your website, blog, email newsletter, and social media networks. Make sure people know that you have a group and how to join.
• Invite key industry experts to join and engage. If there are some heavy-hitters in your industry, invite them to engage with the community.
• Cross-market to related groups that you manage on different social media networks. Create a similar group or Page on Facebook and invite members of each network to join the group on the other network.
• Integrate LinkedIn into all of your marketing efforts. Every time you do a webinar or go to a conference, notify your group and invite those you meet to join the group as well.

TIPS FOR MANAGING A LINKEDIN GROUP:

• Add discussions, news and jobs. The more opportunities for interaction you add to your group, the more valuable your group will be to the community. All of these features are standard for LinkedIn groups.
• Use “Most Popular Discussions” to highlight particular content or offers. The group discussions can quickly get overrun and it can be hard to get your discussion thread noticed. But you can browse by “Most Popular Discussions” to see which articles are getting the most attention and which you can highlight particular content in.
• Send announcements. Announcements are emails sent by you through LinkedIn to your group members. The benefit of sending these announcements through LinkedIn is that your recipients -- and their ISPs -- are more likely to recognize the email as trustworthy and your deliverability may be higher than if you had sent the email yourself. Announcements will also get added as a discussion thread for your group, and you also have the option to mark this thread as a featured discussion for extra visibility. Announcements are text-only, and have no analytics, so if you want to track clicks, use a URL shortener with analytics to measure the response to your announcement.
• Import your blog RSS feed. If you write a blog that's relevant to the group, you can import your articles automatically to the News section. Go to News and then Manage news feeds and add the RSS feed for  your blog.
• Make your own LinkedIn analytics. LinkedIn does not have an analytics features. So, if you want to track the success of your group, you'll need to make your own LinkedIn analytics. To track the growth of your group, check the number of members every week and keep track of the group size in a spreadsheet. To track the click through rate of links in your announcements, use a URL shortener with analytics like bit.ly. And, of course, be sure to measure the traffic, leads, and customers you get from LinkedIn over time. This will help you understand how effective your LinkedIn profile or group is in terms of lead generation.

CONSIDER JOINING OTHER GROUPS:

• Local business groups;
• Industry-specific groups;
• Groups with a specific purpose (job seekers, entrepreneurs, marketing etc).

ENGAGING WITH GROUPS

Have a look through current ‘conversations’ and see if any topics fit your expertise, industry, business etc.

You often find people in groups looking for an answer to a problem, or general advice within groups. Help them find the solution or provide the solution yourself.

Within LinkedIn discussions there are lots of points of view on various topics of debate. Consider adding your opinion to the debate, and constructively offer your viewpoint.

Start conversations by posting your own content in groups, then engage with those who comment on it.

PREMIUM ACCOUNTS

LinkedIn offer   basic (free) accounts as well as various upgraded premium accounts.

A basic account is suited to creating and maintaining a professional profile online.

Its capabilities include:

• Building your professional identity on the web
• Building and maintaining a large trusted professional network
• Finding and reconnecting with colleagues and classmates
• Requesting and providing recommendations
• Requesting up to five introductions at a time
• Searching for and viewing profiles of other LinkedIn members
• Receiving unlimited InMail messages
• Saving up to three searches and getting weekly alerts on those searches.

A premium account is suited to job seekers, sales and talent professionals, as well as general professionals who want to get more out of LinkedIn.

Premium account types include:

BUSINESS PLUS

InMail messages, advanced search options and unlimited profile search.

SALES NAVIGATOR

Lead recommendations, sales leads and sales intelligence.

RECRUITMENT LITE

Candidate tracking – integrated hiring – recruitment specific design.

JOB SEEKER

For individuals looking for new opportunities. Features include comparing your profile against those of other candidates.

Using LinkedIn Applications

Like Facebook, LinkedIn offers valuable applications too. The applications below will help you to promote your content and your brand.

• Blog Link: Connect your blog to your LinkedIn profile to continually share your content with your network. Additionally, Blog Link automatically pulls in the latest blog posts from around your network.

• Box.net File: Share and collaborate on files with others in your LinkedIn network.
• Slide Share: Promote your content by sharing slides from past webinars or presentations. If you already have a SlideShare.net account, you can import your existing presentations into LinkedIn. This will reinforce your thought leadership and help drive more qualified traffic to the resource you host on your site

LinkedIn Automation tool

LinkedIn Automation tool is a software, designed for any business looking to maximize their marketing efforts and save invaluable time. It is an easy to manage Chrome extension that allows to automate the most important marketing, boosts lead generation and sales, expands targeted social media outreach, engages your network and more.

KEY LINKEDIN AUTOMATION FEATURES INCLUDE:

LinkedIn Auto Connection

The LinkedIn Automated Connection Tool allows you to connect to your targeted group by sending connection requests with or without personal messages and signature.

LinkedIn Automated Messaging

The LinkedIn Automated Messaging Tool allows you to send bulk messages to your contacts. It will help you stay top of mind with your LinkedIn Connections, start essential business conversations and get a massive targeted LinkedIn Lead Generation.

LinkedIn Auto Endorse

This feature allows you to visit and auto endorses the skills of your LinkedIn connections. This feature will provide value to your connections.

Auto View with CSV

Auto Profile Viewer CSV Feature Allows You to Automatically View Profiles by simply uploading a previously downloaded CSV. LinkedIn Users receive a notification each time someone visits their profile. Visibility a significant factor when it comes to handling lead generation activities.

Auto Message with CSV

Auto Messaging with CSV allows you to send bulk messages with signature to your contacts by using a previously downloaded SCV

Auto Message to ANY Group Members

The Group Auto-Messaging Feature enables You to Send Fully Automated Messages to Members of any LinkedIn Groups you have joined and will help you connect with people interested in your business's primary subjects.

Auto Message to YOUR LinkedIn Company Page Members

Auto Message to Page Members allows you to message your LinkedIn company page members. An excellent way to communicate with your LinkedIn Business page followers without the hassle of manual work.

allows its users to automate most important marketing tasks on LinkedIn, like auto-invitations to the target audience, automated messages to your contacts or joined groups, auto endorsement, and much more.

LinkedIn Automation tool allows to:

• Send Automatically Connection Requests;
• Message Automatically To People You Are Connect With;
• Endorse Profiles Autonomously;
• Auto Visit (with CSV);
• Auto Message (with CSV);
• Auto Message to Group Members;
• Auto Message to Your LinkedIn Company Page Members;
• Save Messages And Signatures As Templates.

Basically, instead of spending hours using the basic features of LinkedIn with minimal results, you can automate the most important marketing tasks in mere minutes. Click here to find out more and get leads on autopilot!