LinkedIn is one of the world’s largest social network with over 470 million users globally. While most use LinkedIn to manage their professional profile on the web, SMEs have made the most valuable use of the professional network. Today, LinkedIn is considered to be amongst the top platforms for B2B lead generation globally.
The most powerful way for B2B businesses to increase sales while reducing the overall cost of selling is to build powerfully engaged customer communities. Building customer communities provide deeper insights into what customers find valuable.
The three stages to building an engaged customer community!
Clearly define who your customer is and search
Business happens between people. Your customer is another person and hence you must clearly define who it is. The second level of defining your customer is his/her geographical location.
Once you define your customer clearly, use ‘LinkedIn Search’. The powerful LinkedIn Search shows results categorized into people, companies, and jobs. LinkedIn will show the people working in various organizations who are your target audience.
Connect and build relationships
Once you have a list of potential customers, it is time to make connections. Making new connections is always the tricky part on LinkedIn. Being a professional network, it is important to keep in mind that you must not choose people at random and send them LinkedIn invites. You must see if you have a common connection between you and the person you intend to connect with and ask for a recommendation/referral.
If you want to still explore the option of doing it yourself, ensure that you write a ‘custom message’. A custom message will ensure that there is a powerful context established between you and the person that you intend to connect with. The right context increases the probability of a third person accepting your LinkedIn invite.
Engage and communicate the value
LinkedIn offers a powerful way to engage with one’s network at scale. Use the LinkedIn Posts feature to author blog posts that you feel will be highly valuable and relevant for your network.
Share actionable insights and thought leadership via your LinkedIn posts. As your network starts engaging with your content, your LinkedIn profile discovery increases.
How do the above 3 steps grow business?
LinkedIn is a powerful platform for SMEs and start-ups. When combined with great quality content marketing it can help SMEs establish great relationships and grow faster.
If you like guidelines like these that take some of the guesswork out of your content marketing, we will help you to know more. Connect with us!
