Written By Danielle Fauteaux
As a small business owner, you want to utilize an array of low-cost tools to help you grow your business in a sustainable way.
LinkedIn has become an indispensable tool for marketing agencies wanting to scale up. When used correctly, the platform can help you connect with and engage partners and clients, generate new leads, recruit top-notch talent, and establish yourself as a thought leader within your industry niche.
How Do You Use LinkedIn as a Marketing Strategy?
It’s normal to have a selection of social media tools within your digital marketing strategy. That’s because each platform offers different features that make it suitable for a tailored purpose or to reach a select demographic.
LinkedIn is one such platform. It shares similarities with other social media networks, but it also possesses unique characteristics that lend itself well to B2B business development efforts. Users are particularly focused on making business connections and topics shared lean more professional in nature.
Adhering to the best practices for LinkedIn in 2022 will enable you to leverage this network to scale your marketing agency. Here are few steps you should be taking to get the most out of LinkedIn:
1. Align Your Entire Team on LinkedIn
While your company LinkedIn page and main salespeople’s individual accounts will be your main avenue for connecting with prospective clients or networking with potential partners, other team members who are individual contributors also should be connected to your agency’s LinkedIn strategy in some way.
For starters, you can have everyone on the team use a company LinkedIn banner for consistency and to enhance brand recognition. Before selecting a banner image, decide collectively what message you want to convey and who you hope to interact with and influence.
The same goes for your individual profile pictures. Try to match or at least ensure all team members have a professional profile picture. Make sure there is a deliberate organizational thread that ties these pages together and gives an aligned message.
2. Use Strategic Research When Building a Profile
Put the same effort into building your agency’s LinkedIn page as you would into a website. When filling out the About and Experience sections, put your audience first.
When it comes to those using LinkedIn, what do they need to hear to further trust you and your team and to choose to interact further with your brand?
What problems are they battling day in and day out?
Keep these sections simple and straightforward so your audience—whether that be potential leads, business partners, or other meaningful connections—can quickly ascertain what they need to and have clear expectations from the start.
3. Engage Your Target Audience
LinkedIn is first and foremost a social networking site, which makes engagement with others’ content as, or more, important as curating your own content on the platform.
Engagement includes posting valuable content and then responding to everyone who leaves a comment on your posts. This demonstrates that you are active on your profile and encourages others to also engage.
LinkedIn is also a great place to bolster your company reputation and appeal to prospective employees. Integrating tactful posts that highlight the team culture, what your agency’s day to day work life is like, and the ways your company is fulfilling it’s mission is another way to engage the portion of your audience that you eventually will want to hire.
4. Make New Connections [Within Your Niche]
Another way to accelerate the relevance of your marketing agency is to make conscientious connections that will enhance your reach. Prioritize connections within your industry niche.
Now, that doesn’t just mean businesses who might benefit from your product-services mix, but also trade organizations or community partners.
When messaging people, try to add a personal touch, rather than relying too heavily on automation. While a good template can save you time, people don’t respond as well to clearly generic pitches.
If you are a member of any niche organizations or associations, take the time to personally connect with the other members. You can even delegate that task to a trusted team member who you are willing to let have temporary access to your LinkedIn profile to conduct outreach on your behalf.
5. Create and Share LinkedIn Articles
As the founder or manager of your marketing agency, it’s critical to be publishing content that comes directly from you. This will foster credibility and establish you professionally as a thought leader within your niche.
Additionally, encourage individual contributions from other client facing voices on your team.
LinkedIn gives you the ability to share content within specific groups that you join as well. Choose LinkedIn groups whose members are active and who are most likely to care about the type of content you’re generating. Then, set a reminder for yourself every so often to post fresh content to the group specifically and spend time engaging with what others post.
6. Post Videos
Along with written content, you should be posting and promoting videos, which rank highly in LinkedIn’s algorithm and will increase your engagement potential. Three main types of videos include video ads, native videos and embedded videos. Whichever you choose, start by developing a clear campaign with a desired objective. You only have people’s attention for a short time, so put the most important information up front and include specific calls-to-action. Additionally, many people watch videos without sound these days, so when able, include some captions or make sure the story is clear visually.
7. Consider Upgrading to Sales Navigator
LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator is an internal tool that is designed to help agencies like yours “target the right buyers, understand key insights, and engage with personalized outreach,” in their own words.
It provides more data about the users visiting your profile, gives real-time sales updates, and can be integrated with your existing CRM.
There is a cost to use Sales Navigator rather than just the basic LinkedIn platform, so decide if it’s worth the investment. If you feel like your agency has plateaued with the basic LinkedIn and keep being stymied by limits in the basic features, it might be time to upgrade.
However, most small agencies can get by without another subscription eating away at your profit margins as long as you consistently work an outreach plan rather than trying to conduct all your outreach at one time.
Leveraging LinkedIn as a Marketing Agency
LinkedIn has the potential to be a uniquely valuable part of your marketing agency’s own digital strategy. It’s all about how you put this tool to use individually as the owner and collectively as a team.
Snag time for a virtual coffee to learn more about employing LinkedIn and other tactics for marketing your marketing agency.
Building a successful marketing agency takes grit, a focus on your value, and sometimes a *loving* kick in the pants.
Needing an ally as you achieve your long-term goals?
I’d be happy to help.
