How to win on LinkedIn: Brand-boosting tips from key marketers

Leading marketers share their tips about how to promote your brand on LinkedIn tips as part of a new series of how-to articles produced in association with Lead Monitor, New Statesman Media Group’s AI-driven marketing solution.

Previous articles in this series:

Networking giant LinkedIn has bolstered its business offering by combining LinkedIn Live & Events from November 2021 to make further inroads into the live events sector.

Although the streaming feature was available to some businesses back in 2020, LinkedIn now offers event planning and targeting as part of the package while inviting more companies to become ‘broadcasters’.

With over 800m members and 57million companies listed on the platform, LinkedIn is one of the largest social media organisations, and particularly useful for B2B communications.

We reached out to business leaders, PR experts and senior marketers to discover how to make the most of this massive audience.

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Find like-minded members attending events

Rik Courtney, entrepreneur, public speaker and CEO of Be More Social, a social media marketing agency: “There are a lot of things that you could do with LinkedIn outreach. For example, you can attend events, not necessarily physically attending, but you can identify events that are happening that support your marketplace. By attending or clicking that you’re going to attend an event, you’ll see a list of active LinkedIn members that are actively seeking your service or are people in support of the services that you deliver.

“This means you can then engage instantly with a like-minded person that is attending the event, that you already know is interested in the services you offer.”

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One word: Retargeting

Alex Bussey, PPC marketing specialist at Red Evolution, a digital and inbound marketing agency: “One word: Retargeting. People already know and recognise your brand name because they’ve been on your website; they’re primed to interact and even if they don’t, the very fact that they’re seeing your ad means they’re subconsciously building a picture of your brand as a major player in the space they’ve been researching. There are other, much more effective ways of getting fresh eyes on your website but nothing as good as LinkedIn advertising for re-engaging lost leads or making that all-important conversion.”

Combine business and personal content

Philip Bacon, Director at Bacon Marketing, a marketing management agency. “LinkedIn is and has been an absolute goldmine for us. The biggest challenge is creating regular content, but a mix of informative and engaging business posts with personal pieces works well to grow brand awareness and also generate inbound leads. Starting conversations with people through LinkedIn has a definite impact as part of the outbound lead generation mix.”

Consider when your business is posting

Emily Boswell, Account Director at PR & social media agency Prohibition: “LinkedIn is a massively underestimated platform for digital marketing, and many businesses are failing to use the platform to its full potential. One of the first things to consider is what your business is posting. LinkedIn offers a range of content types – from articles, videos, polls – so make sure that your feed is varied, instead of simply posting pictures or links every time. Utilising some of the platform’s newer content types, such as documents, can also help to improve your post’s performance within the platform’s algorithm, to improve reach and engagement.

“The next thing to consider is when your business is posting. The general rule of thumb is the most active days on LinkedIn are Tuesday through to Thursday.”

Spend 15 minutes or so before posting

Charlotte Sheridan, Director of The Small Biz Expert, a digital marketing agency: “The LinkedIn algorithm is one of the most transparent of all social media platforms so there are plenty of ways you can make sure to increase the reach of what you are posting. Firstly, engage with your ideal audience before you post – so get commenting and involved in the discussions from your ideal clients before putting up that ‘killer post’. Spend 15 minutes or so before posting.

“If you have a post that’s getting plenty of reach and engagement – wait before posting again. LinkedIn tends to prioritise your most recent content. So while you may be chomping at the bit to get something else up – wait! Let your successful post work its magic.”

It is a more sociable place

Danny Ward, Account Manager at Fourth Day PR: “Traditionally, LinkedIn was for business-only conversations, but it has since evolved into a much more sociable place with people sharing everything from their day-to-day life in the office to what it’s like working from home. If you approach the platform in a conversational way, rather than instantly using your sales pitch, you’ll find that you start building more fruitful relationships.”

Use LinkedIn tools for insight

Sertan Djelal, Digital Marketing Consultant and CMO: “Often forgotten or missed is using LinkedIn’s on-platform tools together with your website insights (by means of installing the LinkedIn Insights tag). This offers additional benefits such as being able to target specific users who have visited your website or key pages, as well as providing LinkedIn more data to optimise the delivery of your content to a more engaged audience set.

“Another under utilised feature, mainly by small to medium sized businesses, is using the business page profile to create a loyal and more focused follower base for your brand.”