How do you use LinkedIn for Marketing B2B?
A
re you in the B2B business and struggling with business growth?
Are you struggling to generate new leads, get new clients or generate new referrals?
Do you want to be seen as a go-to expert in your industry and have clients approaching you for your expertise?
Then you must use LinkedIn Marketing, especially for B2B.
Why?
Because LinkedIn is the only networking platform that can act as a complete business development opportunity for your B2B.
I know LinkedIn may appear to be an intimidating social network to use for you. It was for me as well until I understood how to use it and was able to attract new business opportunities.
It is daunting if you don’t know how to use it.
First, realize the power LinkedIn has to offer. LinkedIn gives you access to millions of highly successful people working at some of the most premium companies around the world. And all these people are available to you online without moving out of your office.
Imagine if you had to hire a marketing person for a similar role.
How difficult it is to get the right person and how much will be time and expenses involved?
What if this person leaves the job after a few months?
What if he joins your competitor?
He not only leaves your growth mid-way but also has all your Network contacts.
Whereas LinkedIn stays with you forever with all its connections.
Check out the LinkedIn B2B Facts below
Isn’t it amazing?
How do you use LinkedIn for marketing b2b?
Here are three steps to help you maximize your B2B marketing Success Rate with LinkedIn.
1. Connect to Your Ideal Prospects
LinkedIn is a great platform to find and connect with potential partners, customers, and clients. You can build relationships with them in the form of connections.
LinkedIn offers you various choices to build the right kind of connection that your business needs.
Be careful not to rack up your connections as most people do on social media platforms. LinkedIn is about building quality connections. It’s not only just connecting with present and past colleagues but, more importantly, connecting with the right prospective clients.
You need to be focused and attract Ideal clients and business opportunities with your profile.
You should have a clear goal to have your connections to buy into you and then buy from you.
You need to be proactive about connecting with professionals whom you see as potential clients or partners. And be very specific about who you want to reach.
The “who” is the Key and it’s very important to define it in advance.
While your product, service, or solution could work for several audiences, you have to be very clear about the clients you prefer working with.
What is your Niche?
Who do you help the most?
What types of professionals are the key decision-makers for your business than others?
Answers to these questions will help you identify who to target while sending out your connection requests on LinkedIn.
With your Niche and Ideal client clearly defined, LinkedIn allows you to search your prospects by industry, location, job title, etc. You can also search based on company size and many other parameters which you can use to hone on your ideal clients.
You can then begin to send these prospects connection requests. Add a personal message with each request, clearly stating why you want to connect with them.
Do this daily & consistently. LinkedIn does NOT allow you to send a large number of requests to people in a single day. It has daily limits to the number of requests and messages you can send each day to avoid spamming.
Think of it this way.
If you have a marketing person, he cannot reach all prospects in a single day. He will engage with a few potential prospects each day and within a few months, he will have a large funnel of prospects to work with.
Similarly, with LinkedIn, you need to engage with a few prospects daily and within a few months, you will have created a large connection pool for your business.
Consistency with sustained effort is the game-changer here.
2. Nurture your LinkedIn Connections
Let’s be honest here. If you own a business, you want to make money. You probably also have a great product or service that genuinely helps people. So once the connection is made the immediate desire is to sell and make an income.
As a business owner, you’re probably extremely busy and eager to do the sale at the earliest so that it contributes to your bottom line.
Refrain from doing this. Networking on LinkedIn is not about an immediate sale but about nurturing your connections.
Let’s be honest here. If you own a business, you want to make money. You probably also have a great product or service that genuinely helps people. So once the connection is made, the immediate desire is to sell and make an income.
As a business owner, you’re probably extremely busy and eager to make the sale at the earliest so that it contributes to your bottom line.
Refrain from doing this. Networking on LinkedIn is not about an immediate sale but about nurturing your connections.
Nurture Your Network |
LinkedIn is a long-term game. You need to nurture your connection which will in the future generate new business, which will lead to future earnings.
Once you have a connection made, you need to strategically send messages on a regular basis to stay on top of their mind.
It’s important that you refrain from bombarding your prospects with information. Go gentle. Send them useful blogs, articles, and webinars that may be helpful to them and pertain to their business.
The key here is to provide value to them so that you stay on top of their mind.
You just need to say that you’re reaching out to share some valuable information. Explain to them what you’re sharing and why it’s beneficial to them. The goal here is not to sell them with a hard pitch but to provide value and become the go-to expert in your industry.
The simple reason is he may not need your service right now.
But if you stay top of their mind, you’ll be the first person they think of when they do.
And you can do that by saying the right things in the right sequence. Don’t be too eager to make an immediate sale. When you are too eager, you can do more harm than good.
Nurture your prospects and you can have success with these connections r whom you would otherwise never have had the chance to meet.
3. Manage your LinkedIn with a CRM or other Tracking System
The final and most important step is to manage your LinkedIn with a CRM or other Tracking System. One of the biggest mistakes people make with LinkedIn Marketing is not properly documenting their progress and results.
Get Organized.
As once you start getting connected with hundreds of people and sending several messages, it may get confusing to manage them. I suggest you manage your LinkedIn with a CRM or other tracking system from the beginning.
If you don’t want to invest in a CRM system then manage your progress with regular updates in an Excel file.
You just need to follow this 3-step system and then the process will give you the desired results.
If you follow the steps mentioned in this blog the results you will achieve will be nothing short of stunning.
So Get Started with LinkedIn!
As a fellow business owner, I know you’re busy.
You may not have enough time to get the most out of LinkedIn even though it is a great source for generating new business. Then make sure you delegate it to someone but don’t avoid using LinkedIn for marketing purposes.
If you want to implement these strategies with predictable outcomes feel free to connect with us.
Click here to read the Ultimate B2BMarketing Guide
Remember, LinkedIn is the world’s largest Business to Business network with over 450 million users and you need today on top of it to grow your business.
