Facebook may be the No. 1 social media channel in the world. However, when it comes to reaching business executives and high-level decision makers, LinkedIn is saturated with more than 675 million monthly users from every industry and sector of the marketplace.
Whether you own a flat glass or automotive window film company (or both), LinkedIn should be considered among your communications marketing strategies. Here are six reasons why.
Reason No. 1: LinkedIn’s Audience is Actively Seeking Relevant, Informative Content
LinkedIn is more than just a place where job seekers connect and grow their network for future employment. In 2014, a LinkedIn-led study showed business professionals spend an average of 8 hours a week on LinkedIn, consuming content as a way to educate themselves on industry news. It is now considered a go-to business news source, where professionals are able to stay on top of changing trends.
This means that your company has the ability to reach an audience with relevant, informative content.
Consider posting about the flat glass benefits for the home and business (including lower energy costs, reduction in glare, decrease in fading and prevention of heat.) Post photos of 3M installations of auto tint or clear bra on a Tesla or Ferrari. Be sure, in your posts, to be informative as people are actively seeking educational content.
Reason No. 2: Target the Ideal Audience on LinkedIn
With more than 675 million active monthly users, LinkedIn’s audience consists of professionals from every industry.
LinkedIn audiences tend to be educated (51 percent have a college education) with 57 percent men and 43 percent women. An estimated 49 percent make more than $75,000 per year, and 61 percent of LinkedIn users are between the ages of 25 and 34. An estimated 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn reportedly “drive business decisions.”
Boost posts or paid ads that target an audience geographically, by industry and by job title. LinkedIn provides a robust menu of advertising choices, including ad content placed directly within a news feed. A sponsored message can be sent directly to a defined audience using LinkedIn’s inbox.
This means your window film company can reach employees of any industry. For instance, reach school principals and school facility managers with messages about safety film. Or reach commercial operation managers or retail store owners to tell them about the benefits of sun control films. Tell the story of 3M™ DI-NOC™ Architectural Finishes to bank managers, hotel operations managers or health care facility managers.
Reason No. 3: Reach People at the Right Time on LinkedIn
Timing is everything when it comes to marketing messages. Reaching an audience with a message at the right time – when their mindset is in the right place – is a goal for all content marketing strategists.
When LinkedIn users are on the channel, they tend to be in a work mode mindset. This means they are primed to learn more about how to enhance their business experience or professional status.
When you make posts about window film on LinkedIn, you may be reaching an audience at the time they are interested in learning more.
Reason No. 4: Building Relationships with Prospects, Influencers on LinkedIn
Ultimately, the LinkedIn channel is designed for business networking. Changes to the channel’s algorithm over the years has led to increased attention on people-to-people connections. News feeds now reflect when someone comments, likes or shares content.
If your window film company has sales managers on staff, make sure that they are actively engaged on LinkedIn professionally and using the platform to follow up with prospects, leads and associates. It should be common practice to send an invite to connect on LinkedIn after meeting someone for the first time. It should also be a common practice for employees to share company posts on LinkedIn.
Having employees engage on LinkedIn can help cultivate more customers. For example, once prospects have connected with a sales manager on LinkedIn, they then start to see that sales manager’s activity on their news feeds, including shares, likes and comments on posts. The information is “dripping” window film information (a form of drip marketing) to the contact. This is designed to get the prospect further into the sales funnel.
Reason No. 5: Use LinkedIn as a Research Tool
Gain a deeper understanding of your audience and the marketplace by following trends and information on what matters most.
To assist companies in curating content, LinkedIn offers a content section for page managers. This feature provides the ability to read trending posts and articles by industry. This can be useful in learning hot topics at the time of posting and can help drive content decisions.
In addition, be sure to follow influencers within the window film industry and those industries in which you are targeting (such as health care, hospitality, retail, etc.). This also will help you to stay in tune with what is going on.
Reason No. 6: LinkedIn Provides Measurement Tools to Meet Company Objectives
Understand how your LinkedIn company page is performing. LinkedIn Analytics provides a detailed analysis of visitors (who have visited your company page and what industry they are from), posts (what posts are performing well) and followers (who is new versus returning).
LinkedIn also provides information about who has shared, liked and commented on your company’s posts. Follow-up with these contacts privately to further the business relationship. One company even suggests inviting them to join your electronic newsletter.
Consider Adding LinkedIn Among Your Marketing Strategies
Create a company page on LinkedIn and begin engaging on the world’s largest social media channel for working professionals.
On LinkedIn, you will be able to reach an audience actively seeking information and in the right mindset to receive details about your products and services. LinkedIn allows you to specifically target audiences down to geography, industry and job titles. The channel can be used by employees to foster stronger relationships with prospects. Meanwhile, LinkedIn’s research tools help you stay abreast of changing trends in the marketplace while the measurement tools make sure your content strategy is meeting company goals.
In the coming months, we will provide posts about creating a LinkedIn company page, how to refresh your own profile page and ideas on how to convince your employees (especially sales managers) to become more active on the platform.
Accent Distributing provides marketing assistance as part of its value-added benefits. For more information about using LinkedIn for your business or to speak to a marketing professional about other ways to enhance your efforts, contact Inside Sales at (941) 922-5268 or [email protected].
