Around 61 million users on LinkedIn are senior level influencers and 40 million are in decision-making positions. The “professional” Social Media giant is widely used by many within the B2B industry and it is reported that it accounts for more than 50% of Social traffic to B2B websites. If you’re not currently using LinkedIn to its full potential as a B2B automotive business then you’re missing a trick. Here’s how to use LinkedIn effectively for B2B automotive marketing:
Ensure your company page is optimised
The first place to start before getting serious with LinkedIn is your company page. Your company page is a representation of your brand so firstly ensure it is accurate and inline with your existing branding and marketing communications. Here are some core areas to optimise:
- Your page heading, tagline and page overview – be sure to sprinkle in your target keywords here.
- Add a compelling banner image.
- Fill in the “about” section including your website, phone number, industry, company size and type, and finally add your specialities (you can have up to 20).
- Add your business location.
- Add hashtags to associate with your page – you can have up to 3. These can be used to help you discover relevant content that you can engage with.
- Create informative and engaging showcase pages for your key services.
Publish content on a regular basis
Post great content, regularly. There are lots of companies within the B2B automotive sector that are publishing content on LinkedIn on a weekly basis, some bi-weekly and some monthly. The more content you can publish (providing it is of good quality) the better. Quality is always better than quantity but if you can do both then you’re already ahead of your competition. Long form posts still work really well on LinkedIn both as the basic company update or as a LinkedIn article. LinkedIn’s “write an article” option enables you to publish a long form article with imagery and video. We’d recommend utilising this in addition to your company blog as LinkedIn content often features highly in organic search due to its authority.
Utilise imagery and video
Although LinkedIn is probably the only Social Media platform where text based content still works well and gets engagement – visual content is still superior. If you can incorporate images into your LinkedIn posts and articles or if you can make use of video content then you’ll start enjoying increased engagement rates and more traffic to your website. Here’s a little rule of thumb… Text < Imagery < Video < Live Video.
Live coming soon
Following on from my above point, go live… soon! In February, LinkedIn announced its own live-streaming option – ‘LinkedIn Live’. Currently, a select amount of users have been given the privilege to test LinkedIn Live on an invite-only basis. It is reported that LInkedIn would like to see how the initial beta testing goes before rolling it out to a wider audience. When it does launch however it will provide automotive brands with another great opportunity to use video content AND in live format. Not sure what sort of content to share with your followers live? How about holding a Q and A session? Sharing your live attendance at a leading automotive event? Starting a weekly live series that covers tips or tricks that your prospects and customers will find useful? That’s just a handful of ideas to help get you started when it officially rolls out.
Engage with the community
Social Media is all about community and being social. LinkedIn is no different. Engage with your followers by liking the content they put out, sharing it and commenting. Don’t stop there though. If you only engage with your followers you’ll be losing out to increased brand awareness and exposure. This starts with selecting the hashtags for your profile as discussed earlier (these can be changed when required). These hashtags will show up on the right hand side of your company page (when logged in) under “Communities”. Look at the content being shared with these hashtags, pick out some of the top posts or posts that you feel you can add value to and leave a comment. Comment on as many of these posts as you can each day, the more the better, providing you’re adding value to the original post. This will help to grow your brand’s authority on the platform, increase your brand presence and awareness, grow your following and drive more traffic to your website.
Personal brands
Personal brands are on the rise. They are one of the hottest marketing properties out there, period. As a business owner or marketing manager, start with your own personal brand. Connect with relevant industry professionals and potential prospects to grow your following. Start sharing your company page updates, post additional content that’s not on your company page and engage with the community on a personal level. Also, encourage your employees to grow their own personal brands too and start enjoying further growth in brand awareness and website referrals from the platform.
LinkedIn ads
I believe paid advertising should always run alongside your organic efforts – especially while the organic is gaining traction. LinkedIn Ads are ideal for all budgets and goals and they provide B2B automotive brands the option to target industry professionals by job title, function and more. Ads can be set up to drive traffic, increase brand awareness or generate leads. Alternatively, if you’ve just published a great piece of content that you want more “eyeballs” on, simply promoting that particular update would be the best way forward. Test your ads and review your ad performance regularly to ensure you’re hitting your goals!
Review your analytics
Regular analytics monitoring is crucial to your LinkedIn success. Take the time each month to review that month’s organic performance by analysing your visitor stats, performance of that month’s updates and follower metrics. During your analysis make a note of what’s working and what isn’t working so well – highlighting key areas for improvement. Don’t forget to delve into Google Analytics as well to monitor the performance of any LinkedIn referral traffic.