When LinkedIn was launched in May 2003, it was mainly perceived as a professional networking site. However, in less than two decades, LinkedIn has attracted 660 million users spread across 200 countries.

When executed properly, it can help you build brand awareness and forge long-term professional relationships. It can also be effective for lead generation.

Now, let’s now take a look at the steps for creating a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy.

1. Define Your Goals

The type of content you publish and the approach you use to distribute it on LinkedIn depends on your final objective. That is why it is crucial to outline your goals at the onset of your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

Typically, you may want to target one or more of the following goals:

• Build brand awareness
• Generate qualified leads
• Strengthen brand reputation
• Engage with your target audience
• Sell your product or service

2. Understand Your Audience

Once you have a clear idea of your marketing goals, it is time to define your target audience. That’s a prerequisite for developing a solid LinkedIn marketing strategy.

You can outline your audience on the basis of different parameters such as job title, geographic location, industry, etc.

Let’s say your goal is to sell an ebook on influencer marketing for brands. In this case, your target audience may consist of marketing professionals. They may have job titles such as “social media manager,” “social media executive,” etc.

3. Create a Captivating Company Page

Your LinkedIn Company Page is one of the biggest assets of your LinkedIn marketing strategy. It is one of the first interactions your target audience is going to have with your personal brand.

As such, it should help them learn everything they want to know about your business. This includes your information about your products/services, employees, and headquarters etc.

Make sure you provide your company logo, website URL, industry, company size, and other details. Adding these details builds your company’s credibility and can indirectly help make your LinkedIn marketing stronger.

In addition, you should craft an appropriate description that conveys crucial details about your company and your offerings.

You can add a cover image that resonates with your brand. A comprehensive and up-to-date Company Page strengthens your brand’s image by reinforcing your credibility and professionalism.

4. Optimize Your Company Page

Just like your website, you should also optimize your LinkedIn Company Page for search. In fact, it is an integral part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy.

A well-optimized Company Page will help you gain increased visibility in search results, both on and off LinkedIn. This makes it easier for people to learn about your company using search engines as well as LinkedIn.

You can optimize your Company Page for search with the following techniques:

Use Keywords

Keywords are crucial to your LinkedIn marketing. Don’t limit the usage of your targeted keywords to your website and blog.

Identify the terms and phrases that your target audience is likely to use when searching for your products or services. Then incorporate them into your company description as well as your list of specialties.

Publish Relevant Content

In addition to helping you engage with your audience, uploading and sharing relevant content regularly allows it to be indexed by Google.

5. Analyze Competitors’ Company Pages

To amplify your LinkedIn marketing, you need to know how you fare up against your competitors.

LinkedIn provides a feature called “Companies to track” that reveals a list of companies similar to yours. It also gives you access to a few key metrics.

These include the total number of followers, follower growth, and social media engagement. Evaluating these pages can help you understand how your own Company Page fares in comparison.

6. Create Relevant and Engaging Content

Attracting a significant number of followers to your Company Page is a difficult task. However, achieving a high follower count doesn’t mark the end of your LinkedIn strategy.

Retaining your audience and engaging with them is a challenge in its own right. The only way to achieve this is by publishing and sharing meaningful content that will resonate with your audience.

The quality of your content can make or break your LinkedIn marketing efforts. Publishing content on LinkedIn requires a thorough understanding of why people spend their time on the platform.

It has grown into a powerful marketing tool that can help you build brand awareness and sell your products or services.

So it is high time that you recognize its importance and start crafting a powerful LinkedIn marketing campaign.