There was a time when cold calling played an essential role in sales. The phone was the only way to establish new relationships, apart from face-to-face conversations, so cold calling had a place. Of course, door-to-door sales were a thing, too, and that has long since been abandoned.
LinkedIn is an extremely valuable platform for both marketing and sales initiatives. Here are some strategies on how to effectively use LinkedIn for marketing and sales:
- Create a Strong Company Page: Your company’s LinkedIn page is an essential part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy. This should include your company’s story, purpose, and values. Make sure to use relevant keywords to increase visibility in search results.
- Build Your Network: Connect with professionals in your industry and beyond. You should also join industry-related groups on LinkedIn to share your content, participate in discussions and expand your network. This will increase your visibility and credibility.
- Regularly Post Engaging Content: Sharing valuable, high-quality content is one of the best ways to establish your brand as a leader in your field and engage your audience. You could share blog posts, industry news, company updates, or other relevant content.
- LinkedIn Advertising: LinkedIn’s ad platform can be a powerful tool. You can target ads based on job title, job function, industry, and more, making it easier to reach decision-makers. The platform offers several ad formats like sponsored content, message ads, dynamic ads, and text ads.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator: This subscription-based tool provides advanced search and lead recommendation features to help you find and build relationships with prospects and customers. You can use it to save leads, send InMail messages, and get real-time updates on your accounts and leads.
- Personalize Connection Requests and InMails: Personalize your message when you reach out to connect with someone on LinkedIn. People are more likely to accept your request if you explain why you want to connect and how it could be mutually beneficial.
- Engage with Your Network’s Content: LinkedIn is a social network, so be social! Respond to comments on your own content, engage with your connections’ posts, and participate in group discussions. This not only keeps you visible to your network but also helps you understand the needs and interests of your audience.
- Use Analytics: LinkedIn provides a range of analytical tools. Use these to monitor the effectiveness of your posts, learn more about your audience, and refine your LinkedIn marketing strategy based on data.
- Encourage Employees to Become Brand Ambassadors: Employees can play a major role in amplifying your company’s reach on LinkedIn. Encourage them to share updates, accomplishments, and perspectives to showcase your organization’s culture and opportunities.
- Use LinkedIn for B2B Marketing: If you are in a B2B industry, LinkedIn can be a goldmine for leads. Studies show that LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform for delivering content and securing audience engagement for B2B businesses.
Remember, the goal of using LinkedIn for marketing and sales is not just to sell but to build relationships, demonstrate thought leadership, and create opportunities for meaningful engagement.
How LinkedIn Can Improve Your Marketing and Sales Success
Here’s a statistic that should get you excited. 76% of B2B buyers prefer to work with recommendations from their professional network. They’re not interested in getting a sales pitch from a person or a business they’ve never heard of. They want warm connections that have been pre-vetted by trusted associates. That is why cold calling is no longer useful. It’s also why LinkedIn is so powerful.
LinkedIn is a social network built for professional and business development. Its purpose is to help business people make connections, find quality hires, and widen their network. It’s tailormade for establishing the professional network that B2B buyers prefer.
Linkedin business premium costs about $60 a month and will be your best investment that will propel your sales unlike anything before.
As a premium Linkedin account holder, you will be able to get in touch with prospects that were earlier blocked. You will be able to send precise messages to contacts that were otherwise blocked with a standard contact. Your network of contacts will expand at a pace like never before. A Linkedin premium membership is completely worth an investment into your own business.
Passive Marketing Opportunities
Businesses can use the platform both actively and passively. Setting up your profile and keeping it updated creates a passive destination that other LinkedIn users can find as they search for opportunities, partners, and vendors.
As you build your network, you can leverage connections for recommendations and testimonials. You’ll find new links, and parlay them into an even larger network.
Active Marketing Options
As you extend your network you can take a more active role as well. You can post updates and generate useful content that you can promote to your connections and others interested in your subject matter. Join groups of like-minded people and participate consistently to establish yourself as an expert in your field.
The platform also has a multifaceted advertising system that you can use to supplement your other activities. With sponsored content, you can pay to promote your updates and posts directly to your target market’s feeds. Sponsored InMail gives you a direct line to other user’s LinkedIn mailboxes. Both of these are highly targetable, more so than on any other social network.
Also offered are dynamic ads, text ads, and lead generation forms. All of these fully integrate with the LinkedIn experience, and all can be very effective for generating leads, driving traffic to your website, and creating an extensive network of warm connections.
Out With the Old, LinkedIn With the New
We said that cold calling is outdated, but that isn’t entirely accurate. In reality, it’s dead, and LinkedIn killed it. That’s because the call isn’t cold anymore when you call people after establishing a relationship with them on LinkedIn. It’s a warm call to someone with whom you now share a digital history.
LinkedIn helps with the heavy lifting of relationship building. It gives users a host of tools to find new customers and establish fresh points of contact. Referral marketing and warm market lead generation have replaced cold calling. So if sales are flagging, you don’t need to do more cold calling. You must ditch the practice entirely and throw your hat in with LinkedIn. Your bottom line will thank you.