Do you want to know how to best use LinkedIn?
You’re in the right place! LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful resource for business professionals. It’s also becoming ever more popular as a place to find potential customers, by 80% of B2B marketers ( Forrester Research). So it makes sense to use LinkedIn as part of your sales strategy.
If you’re aren’t already using LinkedIn, it’s about time you start. In fact, if we are going to recommend one social media platform for business development professionals, it would be this one hands down.
Here are some top tips on how to build a successful LinkedIn sales strategy:
1. Look for groups relevant to your business.
LinkedIn asks all users whether they work in specific roles (e.g Marketing Manager, Director, etc). Using this information automatically creates several groups based on these suggestions (here’s an example of what mine looks like).
Join similar groups and engage with the members, especially by asking and answering questions. This is a great way of building up your personal brand (more on this later) and also identifying potential leads.
2. Don’t Just Go For B2C Opportunities
Don’t just go for B2C opportunities. Look at B2B areas too. Forrester Research found that 80% of marketers use LinkedIn to find business-to-business (B2B) information, compared to just 52% using Facebook and 38% using Twitter. So if you’re marketing a B2C product like an app or contact lenses, don’t forget that LinkedIn can also be useful to you.
You can dramatically maximize your sales from LinkedIn by integrating with Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Go here for more info.
3. Use the Right Keywords in Your Profile Summary.
This is often the only profile text that appears in searches, so make sure you use keywords related to your business. I’ve started including my role in the summary, which enables me to be found by clients looking for this type of person (and is also convenient when people ask me what I do!)
4. Use LinkedIn’s New Blogging Function if You Want to Write Longer Articles.
LinkedIn recently launched a blogging platform (more info here), which enables you to write long-form articles and publish them on your profile. The advantage of this over traditional blogging is that people can comment directly underneath the article, so it’s easier to generate discussion about your business area.
5. Use the Advanced Search Function to Identify Leads and Position Yourself as an Expert.
One of the most under-used LinkedIn features is its advanced search function, which enables you to find potential leads by searching for people in a particular role or company, and includes filtering options such as location. To identify leads, use this function to find people who work at your target companies, then position yourself as an expert by commenting on their updates or sending them messages.
Want Help Developing Your B2B Sales Strategy Plan?
We hope you have found this article helpful and that it inspires you to use LinkedIn more as one of your strategies to increase sales. There are, of course, many other ways that you can integrate social media into your overall sales channel strategy (for example using Facebook and Twitter), but we’ve focused on LinkedIn here as it tends to be under-used compared to these other platforms.
If you’d like more help, please check out this website for more help building your sales strategy template! And don’t forget to share our articles with anyone you know who may be looking to grow their business.
