Professional services companies need to rethink their strategy for finding new clients. For decades, these B2B service providers have relied on referrals and in-person networking to secure new contracts. But now, things have changed. Corporate buyers rely on online searches and the social media to find products and services they need. And professional services providers need to develop a LinkedIn marketing strategy in order to be found.
How Does LinkedIn Marketing Impact Your Lead Generation Efforts?
The paradigm shift in searching for B2B products and services is not new. But at this point, social media searches have become the primary source of information and selection for corporate buyers.
According to statistical data:
- 50% of LinkedIn users are likely to make a purchase after interacting with a company on the social media platform;
- 35% of users log on to LinkedIn every day;
- 22% top level executives have LinkedIn accounts.
This means that a significant proportion of decision makers are active on LinkedIn every day. Thus, your company should also be present there and build a solid LinkedIn marketing strategy.
What Exactly Do You Have to Do to Boost Sales with LinkedIn Marketing?
While there is no magic formula that works for everyone, we have created a sort of blueprint that will help you sketch your LinkedIn marketing strategy. Once you start measuring the results and the level of interactions you get, you will find your own unique way of marketing your professional services company on LinkedIn.
1. Create a Professional Looking Company Page
LinkedIn company pages have a very specific feature compared to other social media business pages. You have a generous amount of space to describe your company and its mission and value.
This company presentation text must be carefully crafted and rich in keywords. It will help prospective clients find your business not only on LinkedIn, but also through Google searches. However, you should also make sure that your profile and cover photos look professional, crisp and relevant for your field of activity.
2. Leverage Personal Connections and Networking
LinkedIn marketing works best when everyone in your company is vested and motivated to become a brand ambassador. The best way of reaching out to potential clients is through conversations between connections.
To make the connection faster and more relevant, ask your employees to add their current workplace to their LinkedIn profile. Thus, when someone opens your company page, they can also see your list of employees with profiles on the social network. This will create a connection point between the person they know and the company this person works for,
3. Groups Are the Point of Origin for Future Contracts
LinkedIn marketing relies heavily on groups. Here are just a few significant data for you:
- There are over 2 million LinkedIn groups;
- LinkedIn users can join up to 100 groups;
- A person can create and manage up to 30 groups.
LinkedIn groups are highly specialised. They are focused on professions and business interests. Thus, as a representative of a professional services company, you can easily find dozens of relevant groups to join. However, you should remember that only personal accounts can join LinkedIn.
4. Share Thought Leadership Content
LinkedIn is the perfect social media network for building your company reputation as a leader in its field of activity. LinkedIn Pulse and SlideShare (which now is part of LinkedIn) are valuable content platforms where your company can publish articles, presentations and white papers.
As part of your content strategy, these pieces should focus on two key aspects:
- Adequate keyword optimisation for SEO;
- Topics of interest for your potential clients;
- Proper branding to help your audience recognise who published them.
Once published, these articles can be shared on:
- Your company LinkedIn page;
- Your personal timeline;
- In groups.
5. Be Considerate in Interactions with New Connections
As part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy, you should strive to enlarge your network and connect with decision makers from companies you target with promotions. However, once you have persuaded a person to connect with you, do not start sending then offers and other commercial messages.
This is the shortest route to losing these valuable connections. Also, as you must know, the B2b buying process is quite long and involves several persons. You won’t make sales directly on LinkedIn. Instead, you can foster good communication and a propitious environment for initiating business talks later on.