LinkedIn, Member Directories, or Both?

LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media networks. With 65 million members worldwide, it’s certainly no stranger to the arena.

With an increasing number of industries moving to a hybrid workforce, more and more businesses are discovering the power of LinkedIn. It’s not uncommon to see a business owner or manager use LinkedIn as a more traditional “water cooler” or team communications tool to connect with potential employees, vendors, and business partners.

However, with the increasing popularity of social media, it’s becoming quite clear that LinkedIn is more than just a job hunting or business tool. Today, many companies and organizations are recognizing the power of LinkedIn and the impact it can have on their marketing strategies and digital footprint.

Why Should You Be Doing Marketing On LinkedIn?

If your business is just beginning to explore the world of social media, then LinkedIn might not be the right network for you. However, if you’re looking for a more established brand or product, then LinkedIn is a perfect fit.

Here are a few reasons why you should be doing marketing on LinkedIn:

1. Talent Pool.

With a current membership of over 65 million users, LinkedIn is the perfect network to tap into a potentially endless supply of candidates. This is particularly useful if you’re looking to hire for a marketing or communications role. Instead of spending hours trawling through job boards and sifting through CVs, you can sit back and browse through the profiles of your target audience. You can even filter the results to find the best candidates for the job you have in mind.

2. Targeted Audience.

As mentioned above, LinkedIn is a popular network. With over 65 million members worldwide, it has a very high level of traffic. This makes it a perfect place to target a specific audience rather than just wide-reaching demographics. For example, if you’re a lingerie brand, you might want to target younger audiences to ensure that your products are seen as a novelty rather than a traditional product. In today’s world, where content is constantly evolving to be more personal and tailored to specific demographics, this is a very appealing feature.

3. Influencer Marketing.

With influencer marketing, you’re not just targeting consumers, you’re also attracting influential people in your niche. If you can gain the support of a few highly-valued personalities in your niche, you can exponentially increase the reach of your campaigns. While you might not need to go that far, gaining the support of a popular blogger or social media star can do wonders for your image and credibility.

4. Brand Awareness.

Branding is an important element to any marketing strategy. Without it, you’ll have zero chance of differentiating yourself from your competitors. By establishing your brand in the marketplace, you’re giving your business the best chance of being recognized as a legitimate and trusted source of information and opinion.

Building brand awareness doesn’t necessarily mean you need to do branding exercises or create a brand identity. It simply means you need to be mindful of what your customers and potential customers know about your brand. While there’s no set formula for determining your brand’s identity, you can begin by asking yourself questions such as:

  • Who are my customers?
  • What do they need or want?
  • What is my brand promise?
  • How do I intend to deliver on that promise?

By gaining a deeper understanding of your customers’ needs and wants, you’ll be able to craft compelling marketing messages that will resonate with them and convince them to buy your products or services. Establishing a brand identity also means you’re able to have a unified voice for all your marketing material. This will help customers, employees, and others familiar with your brand, understand what to expect from your business. It’s all about delivering value and meeting the needs of your customers. By doing this, you’ll gain credibility with consumers and create lifelong customers who will happily recommend your brand to their friends and contacts.

5. Marketing Funnels.

If you’re not having fun while you’re doing your marketing, then you might as well not be doing it properly. This is why it’s important to look for the fun parts of any marketing activity. When you find them, you’ll realize how much more effective and efficient they can be compared to the drudgery parts. For example, you can assign a specific sales rep to each stage of the buying process, meaning they’ll only be focused on engaging with the customer at the right moment. This can help improve conversion rates, as well as enable you to measure the progress of your marketing campaign. You can also set up automated emails to be sent to customers after they’ve engaged with your brand. Setting up these automated emails can enable you to follow up with customers with one click, rather than having to hunt them down manually. This alone can save you a lot of time and effort while also improving your overall conversion rates.

6. Scalability.

One of the biggest advantages of online platforms is that you can scale your efforts as needed. If you run out of storage space on your existing platform, you can quickly shift to a different one without the need for massive technical overhauls. This is why many large businesses have chosen to host their websites and social media pages on platforms like WordPress or Square. When it comes to marketing, scalability is particularly important. When you reach a certain size, it’s no longer feasible to keep all of your online content in-house. This is where the importance of the CMS (content management system) comes in. A content management system gives you the ability to quickly and easily publish content to your various platforms from one location. Using a content management system to power your website also means easier content migration should you decide to switch social media platforms or web hosts in the future.

7. Product Knowledge.

As a business owner or manager, it’s important to have an awareness of what products you sell. Without this knowledge, you’ll have no idea how to market your products effectively. You’ll also have no way of gauging the success of your marketing campaign. Establishing a relationship with a reputable source of information when it comes to your niche can help you gain a better understanding of the marketplace and how your products fit within it.

Pro-Tip: If you don’t have the time to research the products you sell, then hire someone who does. Having an expert help you navigate the details of your product line will pay off in big ways, especially when it comes to marketing.

8. Measurement.

It’s important to have measurable goals when it comes to marketing. This way, you’ll know if you’re making progress or need to shift gears and come up with a new strategy. Without measurement, it’s quite difficult to determine the success of any marketing campaign. There are a variety of fun and easy ways to measure the success of your marketing efforts. For example, you can track the number of website visits, social media followers, email subscribers, and sales. Getting these numbers in front of you will make it easier to judge the effectiveness of your campaign. Then, you can begin to determine what worked and what didn’t.

Pro-Tip: If you don’t have the time to measure the success of your campaign, then you might as well not be doing any marketing. The simple act of measuring the results of your campaign will enable you to determine its success and will also help you find the most suitable points along the way to assess its efficacy. You can also use these results to determine the next step in your marketing strategy. This way, you’ll constantly be moving forward, learning, and adapting as you go.

9. Tracking Clients.

If you’re running a marketing agency or business, it’s important to be able to track the results of your campaigns for individual clients. This way, you can determine not only the effectiveness of the campaign but also which products or platforms worked best for specific categories or markets. It’s easy for an agency to lose track of the sources of their revenue if they don’t have access to this information. Being able to track clients individually, rather than just as a group, means you can identify potential areas for growth and increase your profitability.