LinkedIn Marketing Tips for B2B Small Businesses in India.

Often known as a virtual networking event, LinkedIn could be way more effective for your small business than you think! LinkedIn is the power hub of professionals across the globe. LinkedIn has it all from sharing your professional experience, certifications, recommendations, articles, and thoughts.   According to Alexa, 38.6% of LinkedIn’s traffic comes from the US (as of late November 2019). India is second, providing 16.8%. 

Having the second-largest user base in the world, LinkedIn marketing in India has a massive scope. It needs to be implemented by small and rising businesses to make better connections and enhance their brand value. One of the best features of LinkedIn is that members use the platform only for professional purposes. Thus, making it a lot easier to define your target audience and create content accordingly.  

LinkedIn is known to be one of the biggest hubs for marketing B2B businesses. Here are a few steps to get you started!

Primary Aim: To create a strong network, establish influential connections, and pitch new clients/vendors. 

Step 1: Create a personal profile and a company page. Your profile gives an identity to the creator of your brand. It adds brand value, credibility and makes your brand a lot more relatable. 

Step 2: Make sure to have a robust personal profile with all your experience, interests, and achievements on point. A professional display picture and an attractive profile are just what you need to get started. Recommendations and endorsements are a bonus! This profile will help you create the personal connections you need for your business, so it HAS to be extremely appealing. 

Step 3: The best way to keep your professional page active is to create or share content that your potential clients want to see. Your company page is a key social media channel for your brand as it reflects your brand image and what you stand for. The best content for B2B businesses is your company’s expertise and solutions. You can share informative blogs, posts, and articles that relate to your brand. Suppose you are interested in creating your own blog section on your company website. In that case, LinkedIn is the best place to share it as you can find the appropriate target audience who would be interested in reading it. If you choose to share posts and other social media content, make sure to keep it as realistic as possible. I have always noticed that the audience on LinkedIn prefers more meaningful interactions. 

In most cases, I’ve learned that it’s imperative to have the right balance of posts. LinkedIn majorly focuses on Industry news, so talking about your industry 2-3 times a week is a good strategy. You can split the other 2-3 posts between company insights, culture, expertise, etc. 

Keep optimizing all your content via relevant hashtags, pictures, and videos. 

REMEMBER! On your personal page, you can occasionally keep sharing whatever you post on the company page with additional comments. It’s essential to understand how to differentiate between your personal profile and company page and recognize their respective objectives. 

Step 4: Once you have a decent amount of content on your page and a reliable personal profile, make a list of companies you want to target and find Senior-level executives and decision-makers who work for them. (LinkedIn Advanced People Search can help you with that) 

You can find it in the new updated interface here:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/advanced-search-gone-new-linkedin-interface-robert-knop/

Step 5: Request to connect with them and look for mutual contacts to introduce you. If you wish to reach out by yourself, send them an In-Mail or a personalized message when you request to connect. While sending them a personalized message, try to fit in your main reason for wanting to connect with them.

Step 6: Once connected, keep the conversation going. This does not necessarily mean keeping in touch at all times, but if you are really interested in working with someone, you have to actively engage with them. Comments, shares, and tags are a great way to do just that! Make sure to do enough background research about the person and try to find commonalities between you’ll. Mutual Interests are great conversation makers on LinkedIn.

Step 7: Lastly, keep it going; your posts, your shares, your comments, and all those personal thoughts and articles. Don’t get demotivated if you don’t get the desired results. LinkedIn is a slow process at times, but it’s definitely worth the wait! It’s raw, it’s upcoming, and now that almost everything is virtual, it’s the BEST way to make connections for your B2B business.