With over 722 Million users worldwide, LinkedIn is easily the largest resource for B2B marketing. The right LinkedIn marketing strategy can propel your personal and business brand. Below you will find ways to grow your network and best utilize LinkedIn and your time to build better B2B relationships.
Grow Your Network
On LinkedIn, people in your network are called connections. Your network is made up of your 1st-degree, 2nd-degree, and 3rd-degree connections, as well as fellow members of your LinkedIn groups. You can build your network by sending invitations to connect with other LinkedIn members and the contacts you’ve imported, or by accepting invites from others. The degree of connection you have with another member affects how you can interact with them on LinkedIn.
1st-degree Connections
LinkedIn members can have a maximum of 30,000 1st-degree connections.1st-degree connections are people you’re directly connected to because you’ve accepted their invitation to connect, or they’ve accepted your invitation. You’ll see a 1st-degree icon next to their name in search results and on their profile. You can contact them by sending a message on LinkedIn.
2nd-Degree Connections
People who are connected to your 1st-degree connections. You’ll see a 2nd-degree icon next to their name in search results and on their profile. You can send them an invitation by clicking the Connect button on their profile page, or by contacting them through an InMail.
3rd-degree connections
People who are connected to your 2nd-degree connections. You’ll see a 3rd-degree icon next to their name in search results and on their profile.
- If their full first and last names are displayed, you can send them an invitation by clicking Connect.
- If only the first letter of their last name is displayed, clicking Connect isn’t an option but you can contact them through an InMail.
Fellow members
People who are considered part of your network because you’re members of the same group. The Highlights section of a member profile may display the groups you’re both a part of. You can contact them by sending a message on LinkedIn or directly through the group.
LinkedIn Member (Out of Network)
LinkedIn members who fall outside the categories listed above. Profiles out of your network have limited visibility but you can build your network with other valuable connections to see more profiles. If the option is available, you can also send them an InMail to introduce yourself.
Be Consistent, Not Aggressive
LinkedIn connection request limits aren’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future. The key, therefore, is to change strategies when it comes to growing your network: instead of growing fast, you want to connect with the right people, consistently every single day. Make the most use of the number of invites you can send out every week.
Here are a few things you can do to get started:
Mindful Targeting
Selecting who and where your target is depends on your campaign objectives and your buyer persona. Be sure to define these before launching a campaign on LinkedIn. Determine if your campaign goal is to drive a ton of conversions or to simply drive a smaller, more select group of folks to engage and respond. Targeting by industry works well when your business is specific to one industry. If your business can serve many industries then it makes sense to leave this attribute out of your targeting.
Personalization
Generic messages won’t be effective, and they may up your chances of reaching a limit. Get personal. Consider sending personalized InMail. Although this feature is only available to individual Premium accounts, and not through a LinkedIn Company Page, this would be the opportunity to tap into the expertise of other individuals or employees in your organization.
Engaging Messages
Message your connections. No spam! The idea is to send more meaningful messages that drive the conversation and build a relationship. Don’t send a message if you’re not confident that it will be well received. The secret behind messaging connections is to be consistent, to reply quickly, and to give value first before asking anything. Make your message more interesting and engaging with Loom videos or images. If there’s one thing people find engaging, it’s a fresh idea. Publishing thought leadership content on your Company Page is one of the most powerful ways to grow your audience. Naturally, you will want to publish and promote your content, but it’s also a good idea to share engaging and insightful content from others as well.
Use Sales Navigator
This is a must if you’re serious about using LinkedIn for your marketing. LinkedIn Sales Navigator, available for individuals or teams, is the best version of LinkedIn for sales professionals. Sales Navigator features a powerful set of search capabilities to help you reach your target market.
Still, filter with caution. LinkedIn Sales Navigator, however, allows you to only target accounts that have posted something on the platform in the last 30 days.
The number of people you will find using this filter varies greatly by industry, but it can help you increase your acceptance rate as they are the ones most likely to accept your invites to connect. Why? Because they’re simply more active on the platform. If you’re sending out invites to connect to someone that never uses LinkedIn, that person won’t even see your request.
Engage With Other Users
Invest time in commenting and engaging in other people’s content. This will boost your visibility and will be appreciated by the other person. Also, it will increase your own content’s engagement. One trick that will almost always get you more engagement and reach: ending your posts with a question or call to action (CTA).
Do a survey, ask people to respond with what they think, whether they agree or not, or their expertise on the matter. This tactic will help you get more responses so that your post creates a more dynamic discussion, which will get the LinkedIn algorithm to recommend it in more people’s news feeds. A bonus to all of this is that whenever someone comments on your post, the post gets shown to some of their connections as well.
Create Content
Content is the best way for creating visibility on LinkedIn. Organic reach is significant, and users go to the platform to consume it. In other words, if your content is well done, your connections will happily see it and appreciate it.
Content Strategy
You need to have a strong content strategy to attract the right people. When you connect, LinkedIn will put your content in front of them. Having regular content is mandatory for success. Just focusing on lead generation is not enough, the pivot must be a holistic system with a content strategy.
B2B Marketing on LinkedIn
LinkedIn isn’t just social media for professionals. It’s a driving tool behind B2B marketing success. It’s especially effective in B2B marketing models because of its targeting analytics and diverse array of channels through which to connect with new leads and keep them interested. Using LinkedIn B2B marketing tools is one of the best ways of turning your sales objectives into profitable returns.
