LinkedIn stands out from other social media platforms because of its emphasis on business. If you’re starting your own business, you can use a LinkedIn company page to build brand awareness, recruit employees, and generate leads from fellow LinkedIn users. You can also run LinkedIn ads to massively scale up your exposure. It’s not hard to craft an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy to grow your business. Here’s how to get started.

Why use LinkedIn for marketing?

When it comes to business-to-business (B2B) marketing, LinkedIn reigns supreme. Eighty-nine percent of B2B marketers surveyed by digital marketing agency Wpromote said they use LinkedIn for lead generation. What’s more, 62% of those marketers reported successfully acquiring new leads from their LinkedIn posts. That’s more than other social media platforms.

At the center of any LinkedIn strategy is company visibility. You can use your LinkedIn account to showcase your business to others in your network. You can also expand your network by purchasing ads that lead LinkedIn members to your business page. For many business professionals, a LinkedIn profile conveys legitimacy. By actively engaging in LinkedIn marketing efforts, you can bolster your brand image in the eyes of your business peers and potential clients.

How do businesses use LinkedIn for marketing?

Brand recognition
Lead generation
Recruiting
Reinforcing company culture

Businesses use their LinkedIn pages to accomplish four principal goals. You can focus your LinkedIn marketing plan on:

1. Brand recognition

Business owners use LinkedIn as a marketing tool to promote brand awareness and share company accomplishments. Use your company pages to inform potential customers about the services you offer. You can also post content on company LinkedIn pages to announce an expansion, new hires, accolades, and prominent contracts. Consider highlighting team members with links to their personal LinkedIn profiles. 

One of the best ways to attract the attention of your client base is to post content relevant to them. LinkedIn’s internal data indicates 97% of B2B marketers use the platform for content marketing with the platform serving as a hub for key audiences. Keep up with the competition by routinely adding engaging content such as polls and updates to your LinkedIn feed.

2. Lead generation

You can use LinkedIn to generate leads from other businesses (B2B marketing) or via business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. While both digital marketing strategies can be effective, LinkedIn stands out from other social networking sites for its ability to reach business customers. Many companies tailor their LinkedIn content to engage professionals using the platform via their own business LinkedIn accounts. LinkedIn analytics data reveals the platform’s B2B buyers typically work in IT, finance, business development, accounting, and operations.

3. Recruiting

Businesses use LinkedIn marketing to boost their employer brand and recruit new team members. In most cases, this means using LinkedIn to post job listings. Instead of running a broad campaign, you might target individual LinkedIn users by sending personalized messages. You’ll improve your recruitment efforts by keeping your business LinkedIn page up to date with an accurate company description and location.

4. Reinforcing company culture

LinkedIn can be a useful tool for communicating with your workforce and existing customers. You can use a LinkedIn post to articulate company values and goals. These will be seen by potential clients but also by those already connected to your organization. You can also suggest your employees create and maintain their own profiles where they provide updates about work they do at your company.

How to align marketing content with the LinkedIn algorithm

Like other leading social media platforms, LinkedIn uses an algorithm to deliver relevant content to its user base. The algorithm prioritizes keeping users engaged by delivering quality content and minimizing spam. Use these general LinkedIn marketing tips to ensure your content shows up in the feed of your target audience:

Make your posts easy to read

Use concise sentences. Avoid littering your prose with marketing language.

Stay relevant to your industry

Talk about topics that connect to the services you offer. For instance, if you sell software as a service (SaaS), consider writing posts about developments in the information technology space.

Minimize outbound links

The LinkedIn algorithm may flag outbound links as spam or low-quality content. If you do need to include a website URL, use the real address (not a shortened link) and provide some context about the site you’re linking to.

Include images and video

LinkedIn metrics indicate that video posts are 20 times more likely to be shared on LinkedIn than any other type of post.

Use hashtags for relevant keywords

Hashtags can help your content turn up in LinkedIn searches. Make sure these hashtags relate to the core subject of your posts; avoid hashtags like #subscribe or #follow, which are not useful to users and can come across as spam.

Tag LinkedIn users within reason

Tagging other LinkedIn profiles can inspire the tagged people to share your content with their networks. However, tagging too many people may cause the LinkedIn algorithm to flag your post and limit its exposure.

6 tips for an effective LinkedIn marketing strategy

Post at the right times
Offer high-quality content
Leverage your LinkedIn connections
Post on group pages
Encourage team members to contribute
Respond to comments

You can boost your LinkedIn exposure by adhering to six simple guidelines. Start with these tips for publishing content on LinkedIn:

1. Post at the right times

Research suggests there are good times to post on LinkedIn. Weekday mornings tend to get strong engagement, while nighttime and weekend posts see less exposure.

2. Offer high-quality content

Approach your content posting strategy with the goal of informing your readers. Hone in on a niche and publish content regularly. You can link to your company’s website or highlight your accomplishments, but take care not to bombard your reader with sales language.

3. Leverage your LinkedIn connections

LinkedIn offers opportunities to connect with other business professionals online. As you add people and businesses to your LinkedIn network, include them in your posts. For instance, you can tag them in a post and ask them to weigh in with their opinion. You can also share their posts, adding commentary of your own.

4. Post on group pages

LinkedIn groups are opt-in forums for people who share an industry or general interest. You can join as many LinkedIn groups as you like. While it’s unwise to post overt marketing content in these forums, you can still build brand awareness by staying active and participating in group threads. Establish yourself as an honest and reputable group member.

5. Encourage team members to contribute

Your employees are among your best ambassadors. Encourage them to share content from your LinkedIn business page and to post updates of their own. Their posts can reach LinkedIn users who don’t already follow your company on the site.

6. Respond to comments

User engagement is one of the key metrics that LinkedIn’s algorithm relies on to recommend posts. In other words, a post with lots of comments may appear in more people’s feeds than one with no comments. You can promote dialogue by joining in the discussion yourself. Pose questions in your posts and respond to others’ comments.

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LinkedIn marketing strategy FAQ

How effective is LinkedIn marketing?

LinkedIn can be an effective tool for generating leads and driving web traffic to your site or ecommerce store. According to an internal study by LinkedIn, 96% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content.

Is LinkedIn marketing expensive?

LinkedIn ads often cost more than ads on other social media networks. Based on 2023 data from digital marketing agency WebFX, the average cost of LinkedIn ads is $8 to $11 per click, $33.80 per 1,000 impressions, and 50¢ to $1 per send.

Can I get leads on LinkedIn?

Yes, digital marketing agency Wpromote reports that 89% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for lead generation, and 62% say it generates leads for them.

Is influencer marketing effective on LinkedIn?

Some businesses use LinkedIn for influencer marketing, but the practice is not as common as may be observed on video-forward social media networks such as TikTok.

How can I get more traffic to my company page?

You can drive more traffic to your LinkedIn company page by posting on a regular basis (several times per week), tagging your LinkedIn connections, posting at the right time (weekday mornings are generally a good time), and offering concrete data and useful information in your posts.