How to Market Your Small Business on LinkedIn

Who Should Use LinkedIn For Marketing?

Because Linkedin is a professional network, it is particularly well-suited for B2B companies and executives. While B2C companies tend to do well on other organic social media networks like Instagram or Facebook, B2B companies can get great ROI from LinkedIn. Over 25% of adults in the U.S. who use social media are on LinkedIn, and there are over 65 million decision-makers on the network, meaning there is no shortage of opportunities available. 

If you run a B2B business and are looking to boost your brand awareness and overall revenue through social media, LinkedIn is an excellent place to start. However, anyone with a strong enough strategy can find success on LinkedIn. Much of LinkedIn’s successful content is related to thought leadership, which can apply to any kind of business. 

How to Use LinkedIn For Your Small Business

Ready to get on LinkedIn, but not sure how to start? Here are a few tips to launch your small business’ company page on LinkedIn and get posting.

Create a Linkedin Company Page

In order to create a LinkedIn page for your business, you’ll first need to have a personal LinkedIn account. Once you’re logged into your personal account, you’ll see ‘For Business’ in the upper right corner. 

From there, click ‘Create a Company Page’. Select what kind of page you want to create and fill in all the subsequent fields, like your company name, website, logo, and more. Once all your basic information is input, hit ‘Create page’ and your page will be live.  

But that’s not all. From there, you’ll want to optimize your page so it looks great and has more than just bare-bones information. Hit the ‘Edit page’ button to add more info. Here, you can fill in the description, which should include some SEO keywords to help boost your organic reach. The description should also cover your primary products and services and compel page visitors to learn more about your small business, either by continuing to scroll through your LinkedIn page or by going to your website. 

Beyond written content, it’s important that your LinkedIn page looks good too. You’ll have both a profile photo, which will likely be your logo, and a cover photo. Pro tip: your cover photo should not be an actual picture—that’s a wasted opportunity! Instead, your cover photo should compel page visitors to keep scrolling and learn more, so it’s wise to include some text. This can include your company tagline, information about an upcoming event, or other timely information. 

Identify Your Goals and Audience

Now that your page is set up, the next step is to start posting content. But before you do that, you should take some time to identify your audience and goals for your LinkedIn content. While this audience is probably similar to your target customers, it might skew a bit differently based on LinkedIn users. 

From there, determine your objectives for LinkedIn. Are you going to use it to increase leads? Recruitment? Industry content? With this intention in mind, what kind of numbers are you trying to hit? Do you want to build a following? Use content to differentiate your brand from the competition? Write out these goals to then create a content strategy.

Choose a Content Strategy

With your goals in mind, it’s time to build out a content strategy. This is where you define your voice and content style. Decide if your content is going to be educational, helpful, insightful, or something else. Are you going to be posting about your products or customers? Are you going to share the latest industry news and insights? 

Keep in mind that if you’re already posting on social media, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel for LinkedIn. You can (and should) repurpose content to save time and effort. You can reshare other social media accounts or other content like blogs on your LinkedIn feed. Reposting content from other LinkedIn pages is also an option. Just be sure to add your own thoughts when resharing to provide additional value. 

It’s also important to interact with other pages’ and users’ content. After all, LinkedIn is for networking, and commenting on and resharing others’ posts is a great way to connect with fellow small businesses.

Develop a Posting Cadence

Now that your LinkedIn strategy is set, it’s time to develop a content calendar. A content calendar is not just a helpful guide, but also a great way to save time and keep you accountable to your goals. Build it out ahead of time and do your best to stick to the schedule. Having content pre-planned will save you from scrambling when it’s time to post and will ultimately result in more strategic content. 

Your LinkedIn posting cadence should be realistic for your capacity. Don’t aim to post every day if daily content isn’t possible with your work schedule. Try to post enough that your audience doesn’t forget about you, but not so frequently that they tire of your content and your engagement goes down. Consistency is key! 

Tips For LinkedIn Content Creation

1. Offer Value 

Imagine that you’re browsing a social network and encounter an advertisement. Do you click on it? Not unless there’s something exceptionally valuable or relevant in the ad.

Establish your small business as a source of quality content. If you write an interesting blog post, share it. If you find an excellent post written by someone else in your industry, share it as well, adding your analysis in the caption.

2. Make It Visually Appealing 

Whether you’re sharing an article, a product promotion, or a business update, always include a visual component. You can use any sort of related photograph or graphic. Additionally, YouTube videos will autoplay on LinkedIn, making them a perfect way to add engagement to a post.

3. Get Your Employees on Board 

The people inside the walls of your own building are critical to your networking abilities. Their engagement with your LinkedIn page allows you to access their professional connections. Additionally, businesses with strong followings from their employees can back up their claims about culture. The proof is in the pudding, and if your people are supporting you online, they probably support you in real life.

4. Tap into a LinkedIn Group 

Don’t just rely on your employees as a source for expanding your network. By joining a LinkedIn Group, you’ll have the opportunity to branch out from your circle of first- and second-level connections. To leverage these new interactions, join in discussions and comment on content.

Start by searching LinkedIn for relevant groups. If you use the Groups discover feature, you can get suggestions for your small business. Of course, you aren’t limited to what’s currently available. If you feel a new Group would fill a void, go ahead and create it.

Analyze Results

As a wise pilot said, “Never fly blind.” The same can be said for LinkedIn marketing. Start by using the platform’s analytics to begin determining the best content to share and when to promote it.

To check out the analytics for your account, go to the “Me” tab in the top navigation. From there, go to ‘Manage’ in the dropdown, and select your company. You can select the analytics from there, focusing on factors such as visitors and followers.

It’s smart to check in on your analytics on a monthly basis to see how your numbers are trending. Keep in mind that a month is just a snapshot, and organic social media is a long game. Eventually, you’ll be able to see your growth over a year and longer and can pinpoint what exactly works and what doesn’t. 

Launching Your Small Business LinkedIn Marketing Strategy

While LinkedIn might feel different than other social media platforms, it can prove to be a valuable tool to grow your business’ credibility and overall following. Take some time to get familiar with the platform to learn all its capabilities, so you feel confident as you start posting. 

Remember that LinkedIn is ultimately about connecting with other professionals and other businesses. It is an opportunity to increase your small business’ authority, leads, and more, so all of your content should support that. With time, you’ll see just what it can do for your brand.

_{Information provided on this blog is for educational purposes only, and is not intended to be business, legal, tax, or accounting advice. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Lendio. While Lendio strives to keep its content up-to-date, it is only accurate as of the date posted. Offers or trends may expire, or may no longer be relevant.}