Use LinkedIn for sales and marketing promotions

LinkedIn, the world’s leading professional social network, is now playing an important role in the sales sector. In order to expand its customer network, it is strongly advised to follow some marketing tips and strategies.

Join LinkedIn today if you do not have an account

For newcomers, LinkedIn is the most popular social network of professionals, with more than 500 million users worldwide, spread across more than 200 countries. 80% of these professionals hold decision-making roles within their respective companies. Since its creation in 2003 in Mountain View, LinkedIn has been spreading throughout the world. It has become a major challenge for many companies and organizations, whatever their scope.

One of the first actions to be taken on LinkedIn is to upload your resume and connect with your professional network. From there, you will be able to establish, as you go along, relationships directly with other members, creating a network of contacts.

The network offers many opportunities to naturally come in contact with recruiters or reach new job opportunities. As a result, opportunities are developing to create a network to promote a business. In addition, LinkedIn has improved its platform by integrating a range of features for influencers. In this context, this social network helps to facilitate the dialogue between professionals and to propose a personalized approach to marketing.

It is possible to sell in B2B with LinkedIn

From now on, it is possible to sell more effectively your products and services on this platform, as well as to optimize your marketing. The fact that LinkedIn attracts many followers helps promote brand image. In terms of B2B, LinkedIn promises to be one of the social networks of reference, like Viadeo for that matter. It is part of the sites welcoming a plethora of visitors, an ideal context to obtain a new contract. It is the same for recruitment consultants who come to discover and get to discover new candidates.

In addition to these opportunities, it is possible to make sales and marketing on LinkedIn. This network has a very different public of professionals, which is now interested in commercial actions.

Five strategies to promote sales on LinkedIn

In order to successfully sell products and services on LinkedIn and to stand out from competitors, five strategies are essential.

The content is worth the money

It is essential to focus on the quality of the content to be published, since ROI (return on investment) will depend on it. In this case, save time by paying more attention and interest on all prospects on LinkedIn. If you want to attract potential customers to the network, the ideal is to produce legitimate and regularly powered content. It is possible to use relevant keywords in order to maximize visibility.

Being humble in your actions

Having confidence in yourself is important, provided you do not pretend to be the king of your industry.

Valuing relationships to earn trust

Gaining trust on LinkedIn does not happen at first contact. Additionally, tracking or targeting only people is not enough to promote a business. You need to showcase relationships with all your contacts.

Touching a particular audience is essential

In order to mark your presence on LinkedIn, it is better to direct a structure affecting a niche audience. Targeting a particular population provides a profitable market.

Publish content with a catchy headline

Choosing attractive headlines on LinkedIn encourages visitors to read the content and interact on it. The latter must resemble a kind of informative, essential and strategic guide.

Conclusion

Going through LinkedIn to promote sales and marketing is beneficial for multiple reasons. Given the rise of social networks on the web, the professional world has not escaped it. Many startups have fully understood the value of being active on this platform. Whether it is to establish privileged relations with customers, employees or suppliers, everything is based on the speed with which the message is disseminated. Social networks are flexible, fast and inventive, with features that can fit perfectly with the corporate world. The richness of the displayed content is synonymous with the know-how and confidence to improve your turnover.

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Ten must-know tips for great content curation

Content curation is the blogger’s process of gleaning information from other sources and putting it together in an original article relevant to a particular topic. This way they can be known for the newest, freshest content on the web, and grow their own brand.

Growing your brand using content curation

All blogs are there to share information. And bloggers need to find the newest and freshest information to share, or their online presence will wither and die. People want to read the latest news on their desired topic, and will often go back to a blog or tweet that is fresh and original for more.

To do this they often use curation strategies to ensure their content is eye-catching, original and will grow their brand. And with a good brand, curators can often catch the eye of big businesses and end up with paid projects. Curation can lead to much more as well. A growth in followers can lead to other valuable relationships which can lead on to job offers, freelance work and even your own business.

Add value to the original content

A lot of people post their content every day, in a number of different formats. And while some just rehash or repost what others have written, others are posting new and unique content. These are the ones people rely on for sharing things they want to read, and, ideally, this is how we want our content to be seen. And being important in other people’s lives can result in lots of new opportunities. So how can we make sure our curation tactics are going to bring real results? Using these tips we can make sure our efforts get results.

Find new content from unknown sources

To be effective in content curation you need to find new and fresh content that readers have not seen before. And write it in a way that highlights the content and adds value to the subject. You need to be” the” place people go to in order to find the best content, to build your brand and grow your followers. You are the content trend-setter.

One way you can find that “unseen” content is to use RSS feeds. Other blogs, twitter and other social media outlets have already used the content, and it is no longer new. With RSS you can get the unique content you need. RSS feeds alert you to the articles as they go live, so you get the first “heads-up” on what is happening. Sometimes you can share it even before the business can market their content.

Using companies like Moz or HubSpot means you can find the best content before others, and curate it in your own style. And remember, just sharing their content is not going to grow your brand. Your “share” has to be original and written in a way to attract your followers.

Finding the right RSS option is a must. Google used to be a great source, but since it shut down, you can try Digg Reader for its user-friendly feeds. Another excellent source is Feedly. It has a built-in share count and offers tips on which content could be useful based on its own click-rate.

Be picky about the content you curate

Be selective about what you “share”. Take the time to really read what you find, and understand it. That way you will be able to curate it better. Only the best content should be shared. If you just share every feed from your favorite source, you will soon lose those hard-won followers.

Find other relevant sources outside your niche

It can often help to get good fresh content from places where only 10 to 20 percent of the content is relevant to your followers. Dig deep to find the content that is new and unseen by people in your crowd. Some examples of those sources are:

• Hacker News — mostly targeted at start-up founders, employees, and engineers, and surfaces relevant content or SEO-driven news from time to time
• Product Hunt — great place to find new and interesting tools, some of which may apply to your industry
• Reddit/r/dataisbeautiful or /r/internetisbeautiful — good threads to find content inspiration

And every niche has its own “thought leaders”, the people who come up with the freshest content. And although these can be good, you will only normally get good content you can use around 5 per cent of the time.

The first impression can make or break a blog

The first sentence in any tweet or blog will make or break your post. So make sure it is attractive and eye-catching, and makes your followers want to read on. If the first sentence is not compelling enough, your readers will breeze right past without a second glance. And try not to auto-share or schedule the postings. While it is important that you get it out there first, and every second counts, scheduling it will mean it is not your own original style, and will turn your readers off.

Make the blog your own with curation

By tweaking the headline of an article you want to share, you can make it more interesting and give it more value. Great curation improves the content by showing it in a different light or adding new twists, making it exciting and more shareable.

The title should attract the audience

Twisting or rehashing the words in the title can make all the difference. The title – % Things You Need To Know About… – gives the reader a sense of urgency. They want to know what this is, because the title suggests they “need” to know. People will think, “Do I already know this?” and, “I should check this out.”

If your title is better than the original, you will get more visibility, and so will the original creator. Which I am sure they would appreciate.

Improve the design of the content

The best way to improve the content you are curating is to improve the design. Some of the ways you can improve the design are:

• Optimize the photos for the relevant media. Photoshop or PicResize work well for this
• Use full-width photos on blog posts. Full-width photos look better on a blog than social media
• Pull images together to make one image. This can create a full-width image for the blog if your best photos are too small to resize.

Make a lasting impression on the originator

One of the things you want to do with your content curation is to impress the original creator. As well as being likely to share your version of their post, they may well follow you. And that can only improve your following in the long term.

Tips on making that impression include:

• Tag their handle. Always notify them of your curation of their content.
• Send them a note of thanks, but only if you already know them. Showing them your curated content has generated traffic will help them too.
• Be ethical. Never share anything that specifically states it is not to be shared. Not everyone allows sharing.
• Ask permission before using someone else’s content. Photos, especially, require you to ask permission, unless it states that republishing is allowed.

And you should always follow these few rules:

• Link the content to the original source.
• Don’t steal traffic, push traffic. Post an excerpt with a link – don’t publish the original content in its entirety.
• Before you begin curating content, make sure to use this checklist for ethical content curation.

You can have an impact on your audience

Content curation gives you the opportunity to have an impact on people’s lives, and have your voice be heard. Experiment with your curation to find your own style. And always watch the reactions of people and be ready to empathise. And most of all enjoy what you do.

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Image: Shutterstock

 

Six Content Marketing trends to keep an eye on in 2017

In 2016, 62 percent B2B companies consider that they have (significantly or slightly) improved their content marketing practice. This is a reflective figure that makes new marketers orient towards the most effective, but also the most trendy, techniques of Content Marketing. Here are six techniques on which you should reflect on in 2017.

Video is an attractive format

We have an amazing statistic, which will guide your content strategy over the year: it is expected that 74 percent of the traffic on the internet will be generated… by video. Ultra-engaging, easily shared and integrated into social networks, which makes it potentially viral, the format of the video has beautiful days ahead. With or without sound, motion-design or customer interviews, short-term for a quick impact or longer format to bring background content … the format is malleable, to fit any type of content marketing strategy.

Influencers make your Content Marketing visible

Knowing how to capture the great influencers followed by thousands of Internet users is a bit like touching the Grail. What they post and comment is gospel for many of their followers. If one of them shares your content, it is guaranteed success!

It is nowadays the most effective method of disseminating its content with impact, in BtoB or BtoC. A study of TapInfluence and Nielsen proves that influence marketing created a Return on Investment (ROI) of 11 times higher than traditional advertising. You must also target the most influential influencers to promote your products or services, with a target ready to follow his advice. With the proliferation of “stars” from Instagram, Facebook or even YouTube, the promotion price from an Influencer is now much lower than before in most sectors.

A truly documented content marketing strategy

Creating content is good. Formalize a strategy to create it, and document it in concrete tools, it becomes essential in 2017! Computer graphics tells us that 41 percent of B2B content marketers have a strategy in mind but not on paper. This is unthinkable if one really wants to have a clear view of the lead generation goals on which to align its creative efforts. Here is the B.A-BA to absolutely create in 2017, if not already done:

• A map of your contents, to know especially if you are currently addressing all the stages of maturity of your targets
• A Content Marketing Framework, or a year-round plan that allows you to determine who will be involved in creating your content, when, and for what purposes

Snapchat is an ultra-dynamic network and a true magnet for prospects

The latest addition to the long list of social networks, Snapchat is undeniably the trend of recent months. Before you even send your communications on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram, use Snapchat as a teaser! “Snapchaters” like to have access to the information in preview. The goal is to entice your contacts. Because they will not be able to transmit your photos, GIF or videos, you have to make them want to encourage their friends to take an interest in the page of your company. To encourage them to share, be original, young and ultra dynamic! That is the biggest job. Challenge your teams’ creativity and your designers-editors to find the “punchy” right tone.

With Snapchat, you can tease your new communications, your next webinar, a special event and much more … A major advantage, you will be able to judge in preview the impact that your campaigns could have. If the number of subscribers to your account increases … bingo! The prospects will rain.

Additionally, you can convert your blog to snap. To make your blog posts even more impactful, make them consistently snaps. Again, be creative! Choose a photo or a GIF that reflects the angle of your article with originality, and take care of the wording you are going to put on it. You can also transform your articles into video. This will maximize the spread of your blog, promote it and attract more leads. The more snaps you make, the more likely you are to attract visitors to your blog! Moreover, thanks to Snapchat’s stories, you can create compilations of snap items. These albums have the characteristic of lasting more than 24h. A Snap Story is the set of your snaps of the last 24h collected in an album.

Launch a successful localized email marketing strategy

Email marketing is more than never in the news in 2017, with more than 269 billion emails sent every day. Unfortunately, according to Email Monday, of these 269 billion only 22 percent of e-commerce e-mails are opened. This is significantly lower than the 34 percent opening rate driven by other types of emails. It is also important to note that on emails opened by consumers, 45 percent are made via a mobile device. So much so that email marketing is becoming synonymous with mobile marketing.
If your company’s email campaign is unsuccessful and you find yourself in the 78 percent of e-commerce emails finally sent in spam, you will definitely want to rethink your strategy. From creating to updating your campaign, focus more on local marketing could be the answer you were looking for.
There are many good reasons that suggest a radiant future to local (or even hyperlocal) email marketing.

Sales and content represent a perfect marriage

The choice of the formats used for the diffusion of your content must be the object of your attention and be correlated with the objective fixed. You want to increase your sales by removing the brakes of your customers and to provide reinsurance elements? Prefer “rational” media such as fact sheets, case studies or interactive demonstrations. Also, take care of your product sheets and insert a rating module by the users.

At the same time, opting for a strong and constructed editorial strategy favors targeting your audience, personalizing your message and interacting with your current and future consumers on social networks. This strategy actually contributes to creating an emotional connection with the consumer, thus promoting loyalty to the brand. Unlike traditional advertising, which can only arouse a desire to buy, content marketing covers all stages of the sales process: from zero moments of truth to after-sales.

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Image: Shutterstock

Email marketing might sound as old-fashioned, especially amidst booming marketing strategies on social media platforms and mobile. Emailing, however, remains a powerful tool used by 93 percent of B2B marketers to spread out their content. This channel of distribution has earned the title of a key player in an efficient content marketing strategy and it is not going to be outdated so soon. The real challenge lies in managing to get the guarantee that the recipients do open the email and that they get interested in the content.

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Influencer Marketing is particularly popular in “marketing driven” brands but many other brands struggle to measure the impact of qualitative content that their ambassadors produce to reach their audience. Collective Bias, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Inmar, Inc. recently published a Landmark Research Study that highlights the content produced by these influencers. Their contents have been segmented, sorted and tracked in order to assess their impact.

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Content marketing is on the rise. Whether it is to stand out from the competition, attract more traffic or generate more leads, many marketers are leading a content strategy on social media. But how can we ensure the relevance of our actions? How to measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of our content marketing?

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It has been proven that personalizing content in a marketing strategy is vital to boost growth. Customers need to feel related to your brand to remain captivated. 

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