How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn

Disclaimer: This article is a waste of time for those looking to truly leverage Linkedin through trial and error. This is a LinkedIn survival guide, a fast track for those who believe in results.

Start by not sucking the blood of the poor agency guys who literally put in their sweat, blood, and time by ignoring the need to have a life to create a robust LinkedIn strategy so that YOU can gain ‘thousands of organic followers in a peanut budget.” Internet marketing literature is filled with delusional maxims that are “always true”. We thought it was time to separate facts from obsessions.

Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman at LinkedIn has a beautiful cover image – “Connecting talent with opportunity at a massive scale.” That’s what LinkedIn focuses on; Connection & Opportunities. About scaling up performance on LinkedIn – the how, the what, the why and other faqs we have tried to put together an idea of what clients want vs what agencies can deliver.

Brands are earning Millions via LinkedIn lead generation; why not you!
Social media can be a lot like a petting zoo gone awry. Tracking competitors, creating unique content, connecting with niche TGs, designing visuals, applying KPIs and analytics, and strategizing ads need discipline, acumen, patience, effort, time, and money. So the first step to being able to earn is to invest in your LinkedIn marketing goals.

Step 1: Understanding the Secret OF ROI

So how do we justify social media spends & ROI?
Did you know social media ROI can be measured in monetary and NON MONETARY ways?
For example: If the goal of a paid campaign on LinkedIn is to increase brand awareness and influence, ROI is measured by growth in follower count or post impressions.
I know it is heart-breaking not being able to count the money every time you pay your agency to run the ad. But the truth is simpler than expectations. So simplify your expectations and focus on the infinite game. If your LinkedIn strategy is to grow, give it time.

Summary: Increased revenue is almost always the ultimate goal for businesses using social media, but many steps need to happen along the way to that goal.

Step 2: Understanding the importance of personal branding on LinkedIn

Knock! Knock! – Who’s there? An opportunity to leverage your brand presence.
Personal branding can be a rather hollow term thrown around by individuals in different industries and has been mocked on “How I met your mother?!” But what’s great about personal branding, especially on a platform like LinkedIn, is that it helps you gain more credibility and harness trust. Personal branding is the act of giving your customers a true personality. A personality that makes people remember you and makes them want to follow you.

In addition, depending on how you use it, personal branding can help distinguish you & your brand from your competitors. Therefore, apart from investing in brand profiles, pay equal attention to your personal one.

Summary: When people feel like they know you, trust in you, and like you, they come to rely on you and eventually buy from you.

Step 3: Understanding the importance of creating the right network

Some People Search all Day and Find Nothing. Other People Find Things Faster Using LinkedIn
If you are trying to search success on LinkedIn first know how to ‘Search’. Looking to increase your network? Search people & communities who share similar goals. Looking to hire? Search talent that can be a long-term asset.

Search and find gains a whole new level of command, thanks to Linkedin Advanced search & Boolean operation! Search by names, interest, location, groups, companies, work experience, job title, industry and what not. Linkedin is the only platform that allows you to search multiple options by using ‘AND; while filtering out search by using ‘NOT’. Example: CEO AND Founder Sales, or Executive NOT Ceo. Another amazing thing is that LinkedIn enables you to save your searches so you can run them in the future. How cool is that!

Summary: Don’t just increase your network; build a quality network.

Step 4: Understanding social media ‘objectives’!

NO, Getting ‘10,000 followers’ is not an objective; it’s an outcome. Get that right.
Define your brief in terms of short-term, achievable targets. Objectivity is the fuel that drives digital marketing success. Talk to your agency people about marketing objectives and limitations, whether budget or information! In my opinion, discussing limitations is as important as discussing the scope of expansion. It helps us avoid expensive mistakes. In addition, having a proper brief helps set much clearer social media goals.

Summary: Having no clear goals will impede the growth expected from social media marketing. So align your Linkedin marketing goals to measurable outcomes.

Step 5: Understanding market competition

4 out of 5 clients will ask for competitors’ analysis!
Maybe be your competitors, especially those who are pulling off a remarkable LinkedIn stance, is paying more to the agency to do good work! Who knows?! In 15 years of service I have come across multiple such company reps who talk about competitor analysis without actually bothering to evaluate in depth the painstaking efforts that go into it.

When we say competitor analysis we unfortunately don’t mean to stalk every threat of competition or block every critic. We identify competitor’s profile, analyse consumers’ need, the gaps that remain with extensive evidence-based research.

To help you design a competitive advantage we go beyond checking SEO, keywords, & pulling out three brilliant references of things not done before!

Summary: Be realistic an don’t design a look-alike social media strategy just because it’s working for your competitor.

Step 6: Understanding key LinkedIn aspects

How many posts to publish? Well the answer is not-so-simple.

Slipshod or inconsistent efforts are unreliable for any social media channels to vet successful results. Overdoing or underdoing, may affect your brand engagement with consumers in a negative way. So, be consistent. Start with one post a day and increase your activity range. Being active on LinkedIn does not mean publishing something on the page. It also includes participation to engage in comments, likes, & shares. You simply cannot be active for over a month and expect reaction. In an impressionable space as LinkedIn you have to up your engagement quotient by showing overall interactive skills. Answer to inboxes.

How to make Linkedin Ads work?

In the year 2020, LinkedIn generated US$ 3 Billion through advertisement. Now calculate how much ad money you contributed to this US$ 3 Billion in the year 2021.

IN LINKEDIN’s own words, Cost may fluctuate through the learning phase of the campaign, up to the first 50 key result events. We recommend evaluating your campaign’s performance after 50 key results have been achieved.

I have come across clients who demanded campaign performance analytics within 24 hours of the first ad. No wonder such clients never get to reach their ideal ad numbers because all they understand is rush.

Average cost of advertising on LinkedIn

Are you aware that LinkedIn is the most expensive social network by cost per click?

Yes, on an average a click on an ad costs between $5-20 depending on the ad type and your target audience. For relatively new brands the average click rate is 1.5% as opposed to popular brands which can gain 4% and above.

Realistically, it’s hard to advertise and see any results without spending at least $100-$250 for a campaign.

Text ads are the lowest cost per click of all ad types and range between $3 and $ 7. The click-through rate of text ads is 0.02%, making it harder to capture a viewer’s interest.

Messenger ads or InMail are preferred for account-based marketing with a click-through rate of 50%, meaning half of the targeted audience are likely to see your message. However, messenger ads are expensive, costing almost $20-$50.

Linkedin is a great place for businesses looking to connect with customers through sponsored content. What makes Linkedin different though is the cost-per-click (CPC) rates. Expensive CPC means that you need to be very specific and intentional with the audience you target.

Summary: The Good news is that once you’ve identified your ideal customers, LinkedIn doesn’t require a huge budget to get results.

It’s not very difficult to get noticed and convert leads into sales on LinkedIn. But for that to happen, you need not keep jumping guns at your ad guys. To help iron out your social media plan, here’s a little help – include mixed content formats, storytelling-long format, informative posts, uphold the company’s expertise & knowledge, show appreciation to employees, avoid copy-paste for all social channels, avoid blocking criticism, place outbound links, do not automate reach and most importantly do not threat agency guys by withholding payments. So don’t wait to be discovered; pitch your story to the right audience on LinkedIn and make an impression.

Anushree Dey Tapadar