Without a plan or process, you will spend double the amount of time trying to promote your company and figuring out the right method. Read more to learn how to start your LinkedIn Marketing Plan.

Many businesses still haven’t tapped into the power of a great LinkedIn marketing plan with best practices. Don’t let this be you. It’s vital to the success of your company’s social media marketing efforts to identify specific goals and learn how to reach them. With these tactics established, you’ll learn how to properly locate and engage with your niche audience and grow your business.

Step 1 – Use Your LinkedIn Marketing Plan For A New Group

Why build a group on LinkedIn? Wouldn’t it be nice having a targeted group of decision makers and industry enthusiasts eager to talk about your products, content and more…right at your fingertips. Once you actually create and grow a group of your own, you can learn more about your target audience and what your customer actually like. Having a group is a very useful tool for building brand presence, building a targeted list, promoting your products or services, creating customer advocacy and improving your lead generation.

Why build a group on LinkedIn? Wouldn’t it be nice having a targeted group of decision makers and industry enthusiasts eager to talk about your products, content and more right at your fingertips. Once you actually create and grow a group of your own, you can learn more about your target audience and what your customer actually like. This is a very useful tool for brand presence, building a list, promoting your products or services, customer advocacy and lead generation.

So why don’t most companies have thier own group? Most companies fail at this simply because they make excuses like they “have no time”, or don’t know how to manage one correctly. But in as little as 20 minutes a day, you can create a group and build a community, which is just like having a party where everyone is talking about you. Here are the steps to get started:

  1. Start by creating your group and complete the information and upload your image thumbnail
  2. Next, create a content calendar weeks ahead of time
  3. Schedule blocks of time in your personal calendar to work on your group
  4. Have a set time each day for moderation
  5. Find influencers in your industry to join as managers or moderators

Get started today with step one and keep in mind, it takes consistency to get a good group going.

Step 2 – Engagement In Groups

Finding a specific type of group you would want to promote and engage with, keeping your specific audience in mind is important. Take time to find specific groups which have a large enough follower base will help you promote your content well and drive engagement. Groups with thousands of related professionals is greatest thing about LinkedIn, your audience is already waiting for you. I would suggest starting with just a few groups, and regularly post good content to become a top contributor, remembering to reply and comment often.

  1. Find key influencers and prospects and follow them
  2. Focus engaging with people who are important to you only

Step 3 – Promote Your Content In Groups

LinkedIn’s new group design is very different which allows you to search and find specific groups you are a member in. Once you are in the specific group you would like to post in, take your time and use a short link (google link shortener) to create your post link. Post in groups manually to avoid LinkedIn’s moderation blockers which may catch multiple postings at once. If that happens they will start moderating all your posts briefly. (With LinkedIn’s new groups design, now you have to go into each group and post manually, so this you won’t have to worry about).

  1. Don’t waste time posting content into groups which aren’t of use to you or related (Also can get you flagged for spam)
  2. Share often and follow up on comments and discussion to keep your audience engaged

Step 4 – Personal Message Campaigns – InMail

Personal message campaigns are very useful if done correctly. When you craft a really great inviting opener message about how useful your company is and how much value you have to offer, results can be amazing. It’s really great to use the Inmail campaigns feature and promote your content professionally. Here is a great helpful article about how to create an Inmail campaign.

  1. Develop a script for your send
  2. Track who you send to
  3. Track who responds and follow up quickly

Step 5 – Start & Manage A Company Page

Having a company page is really important for gaining credibility and brand awareness to a new audience. It gives a viewer a chance to learn everything there is to know about your company and build social proof with credibility. Having a complete company page with followers is very strong social status indicator in today’s digital business to business world. Take the time to complete the profile and even add showcase pages.

  1. Automate updates using Hootsuite (Create a calendar)
  2. Leverage other social media properties and LinkedIn tactics to grow followers (Use targeting to segment your audience)
  3. Post often as possible and create a calendar

Step 6 – Measurement & ROI for your LinkedIn Marketing Plan

Having access and the data from your LinkedIn marketing efforts is without a doubt extremely important. Setup your metrics and KPI goals before you start. For example, you would like to drive 2,000 visitors from LinkedIn to your website and convert 5% into new leads for your business each month. So that’s 100 new leads each month from your LinkedIn activities. Setup these metrics and goals ahead of time to avoid confusion when giving your reports to other executives and superiors in your company.

  1. Sign up to Google Analytics and set goals for LinkedIn traffic and conversions
  2. Setup your website and content to success with call’s-to-action and special offers
  3. Develop great content such as webinars, white papers, blog posts, promotions to drive engagement on LinkedIn and convert more prospects

If you feel like adding more comments or suggestions to these tactics, please feel free to leave them below. Please also share your ideas for other types of marketing on LinkedIn which has worked well for your business!

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