The Ultimate Guide on How to Use LinkedIn for Marketing and Business Growth

LinkedIn marketing is a powerful way to set yourself apart and fuel business growth.

With over 900 million users, the platform offers a huge audience ready to engage.

That’s why so many brands are tapping into LinkedIn to build a community that boosts their brand image.

However, without a solid LinkedIn marketing strategy, your efforts can feel like they're just disappearing into the digital crowd.

Therefore, in this guide, we will share how to craft a LinkedIn marketing strategy that works. You’ll see how to connect with your audience, grow a loyal following, and promote your brand effectively.

What is LinkedIn Marketing?

LinkedIn marketing means using the platform to build connections, generate leads, increase brand visibility, grow business relationships, share content, and drive traffic to your website. For many, LinkedIn is essential in their marketing toolkit because it’s so effective at expanding professional networks.

When you use LinkedIn for marketing, you access tools for analytics, connections, and brand-building—just a few of the features we’ll dive into soon.

Why Use LinkedIn for Marketing?

Marketing on LinkedIn lets you reach a broader B2B audience, and the perks go way beyond that. Here are five key benefits:

• Highly Targeted Leads With LinkedIn’s targeting features and tools like Cognism, businesses can zero in on specific industries, job titles, and company sizes. This tailored approach means your message lands with the right people, boosting the chances of qualified leads and conversions.
• Boost Your Professional Image LinkedIn’s professional environment makes it the perfect place to build and showcase your business’s reputation.
• Partnership Potential LinkedIn opens doors for networking with potential clients, partners, and industry leaders. By joining groups, participating in conversations, and reaching out to connections, you can grow your network and uncover partnership opportunities.
• Enhanced Brand Visibility A well-optimised LinkedIn page and regular content can significantly increase brand visibility. This exposure attracts new customers, raises awareness, and builds credibility with potential clients.
• Lead Generation LinkedIn is a strong platform for lead generation. Share engaging content, prospect with InMail, and interact with target profiles to create demand for your products. A well-crafted LinkedIn strategy can help you reach your marketing goals effectively.

How to Use LinkedIn for Marketing: 10 Effective LinkedIn Marketing Strategies

Boost your brand with the below LinkedIn marketing strategies that drive engagement and reach your target audience. 

1. Optimise Your Company’s LinkedIn page

To make the most of LinkedIn, start by optimising and keeping your company’s page fresh and relevant.

With just a few tweaks, your brand can catch the eye of the right audience and build trust.

Begin with a standout headline and summary.

Some businesses overlook this step, but a great headline and summary can take your LinkedIn strategy up a notch.

Create a headline that captures attention and clearly shows how your business benefits your target audience. Include relevant keywords to boost your visibility and attract more potential clients.

Don’t skip the visuals. Encourage your team to enhance their profiles, too, with personalised LinkedIn banners that align with your brand’s style.

2. Define Goals

To succeed with LinkedIn marketing, start by setting clear goals. Without them, it’s easy for your strategy to lose focus.

Identify Your LinkedIn Audience

Consider who you want to connect with on LinkedIn. Define your target audience by looking at factors like:

• Demographics
• Location
• Job titles
• Industry
  And any other traits that shape your ideal customer. Knowing this will help you tailor your approach and create content that speaks to the right people.

Set Your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KPIs allow you to measure your progress. These can vary depending on your goals. If you aim to grow brand awareness on LinkedIn, focus on metrics like followers, engagement rate, reach, and impressions.

Tracking these KPIs shows whether you’re moving toward your goals or need to adjust your approach.

Align LinkedIn Goals with Broader Marketing Objectives

Ensure your LinkedIn goals work alongside your overall marketing strategy. Whether you’re aiming to boost brand visibility, attract leads, or drive conversions, your LinkedIn efforts should support and not clash with your broader business goals.

3. Create a Content Strategy

B2B brands benefit from making the most of their content strategies, and LinkedIn can play a key role in that. With LinkedIn's engagement potential, it’s a powerful addition to any social media plan. Start by defining the types of content you’ll create and how you’ll share it effectively on the platform.

“Thought leadership” content is essential for B2B on LinkedIn. This includes:

• Storytelling posts
• Firsthand advice and experiences
• Open discussions and threads

Have you noticed that most viral LinkedIn posts come from personal accounts? That’s because personal stories and experiences resonate deeply with audiences. So, be sure to incorporate these types of posts into your LinkedIn approach.

However, thought leadership shouldn’t be the only type of content you post. Mix it up with blog articles, infographics, original reports, case studies, and testimonials.

Also, consider using native documents—they tend to reach more people. For example, Sprout Social often shares trend reports and benchmarks as native documents to capture attention.

Regardless of the format, focus on content that speaks to your audience’s needs and challenges. Answer their questions, provide guidance, and share insights that help them refine their strategies.

To streamline your posting process, consider LinkedIn automation tools for efficient scheduling and publishing.

4. Post Relevant Content

Creating quality content is essential for building a strong online presence, not just on LinkedIn but across all platforms. Here’s how to make LinkedIn content marketing work effectively:

Identify Your Audience’s Pain Points: To connect with your audience, understand their challenges and what topics they’re interested in. By addressing these needs, you can position your business as a solution to their toughest issues.

Experiment with Different Content Formats: The way you present content matters. Enhance your LinkedIn strategy by trying out various formats like articles, videos, images, and carousels. Different messages may call for different formats, so choose carefully to best engage with your audience.

Maintain a Consistent Content Calendar: Consistency is key. A content calendar helps you post regularly and stay organised. Use social media management tools to plan content, set reminders, and track your schedule. Just remember, as your posting frequency increases, content quality shouldn’t drop. Refresh existing content to keep it relevant and engaging.

Monitor Analytics and Gather Feedback: Finally, keep an eye on analytics and pay attention to audience feedback. Regularly assess your content’s performance to see what resonates. These insights are valuable for refining and improving your content marketing strategy.

5. Use Employee Advocacy

Even though LinkedIn focuses on business, personal profiles bring even more value. This applies whether you’re an employee, a business owner, or an executive.

Personal accounts can also support business profiles by helping spread the word about the brand.

This is why employee advocacy plays a key role in LinkedIn marketing.

Start by encouraging your team to share company content on their profiles. This increases the reach of your content significantly. Plus, employees can add their unique spin to the posts, making them more relatable.

Employee-driven content can also strengthen your hiring efforts. Employees can be your brand’s biggest advocates. By empowering them to share the perks of working with your company, you’ll attract skilled professionals who align with your values.

6. Always Stay Active

Simply creating a LinkedIn account and posting content won’t lead to real success.

To truly benefit, focus on building a loyal, engaged community around your LinkedIn business profile. This boosts your brand’s credibility and opens doors to connect with people who could be valuable for your business.

The best part? Building a community doesn’t have to be complicated!

Here’s how:

• Use automation tools to schedule your posts and follow a solid content plan.
• Interact consistently with other creators and professionals.
• Contribute valuable insights to collaborative articles, newsletters, and similar projects.

LinkedIn groups are also a powerful resource. Join discussions, share advice, and answer questions to establish connections and build your reputation as a go-to source in your field.

Keep in mind: Networking on LinkedIn is all about give and take. The more you invest in meaningful interactions, the stronger and more beneficial your relationships will become.

7. Stick to a Consistent Publishing Schedule

Unlike some social platforms, LinkedIn doesn’t require you to post constantly. What matters more is maintaining a regular rhythm.

Whether you post daily, every other day, or weekly, a steady schedule helps your network know when to expect your content, building reliability and trust. Pick a frequency that fits your business needs, and try it out for at least a month.

Tip: If your audience is in a different timezone, it’s worth finding out the best times for visibility on LinkedIn. Hootsuite’s research suggests Mondays at 1 pm PST as an optimal posting time. If that doesn’t align with your needs, take a look at your past posts to find when you received the most engagement.

8. Direct Messages to a Prospect’s LinkedIn Inbox

Some prospects are more likely to engage with a LinkedIn message than with a cold email.

This is where smart LinkedIn marketing campaigns can make a difference.

On LinkedIn, you can reach out with a voice note or use pre-saved messaging templates. Alternatively, you can choose LinkedIn’s paid InMail plan, which offers several advantages:

• Directly message prospects without needing a connection request.
• Personalise messages to leave a memorable first impression.
• Track message performance through built-in analytics.

To use InMail, a premium LinkedIn account is required. LinkedIn offers four subscription options, including message bundles and Sales Navigator, which are ideal for targeted marketing campaigns.

However, InMail does have a limit on the number of messages you can send, depending on your plan.

If these restrictions limit your outreach, consider exporting LinkedIn contacts with a tool like Cognism. With a contact list in hand, you can then leverage email marketing tools to automate outreach and connect LinkedIn efforts to your email campaigns, expanding your reach to a larger audience.

9. Leverage LinkedIn Ads

Using LinkedIn ads can make a huge impact on your marketing efforts, offering a direct way to reach your ideal audience on the platform.

LinkedIn provides several ad formats and targeting options to fit various campaign goals. Here’s a breakdown of the key options:

• Sponsored Content: Boosts your posts to reach a wider audience, increasing visibility.
• Text Ads: A cost-effective way to generate leads, with space for a logo, headline, and brief description.
• InMail Ads: Send personalised messages straight to key contacts who are important to your business.

To get the best results from LinkedIn ads, start by setting clear objectives for your campaign. Are you aiming to build brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate leads? Your ad strategy should align with these specific goals.

Targeting is essential, so use LinkedIn’s options like job title, industry, location, and company size to focus on the right audience. As you gather data from your campaigns, adjust your targeting as needed for better results.

Keep an eye on your campaign metrics, like click-through rates, conversions, and engagement. These insights allow you to make data-informed decisions, helping you refine your ad content, visuals, and targeting for improved outcomes.

10. Keep a Track of Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts

Regularly evaluating your LinkedIn B2B marketing efforts is key to fine-tuning your strategy and reaching your goals. This helps you pinpoint what’s working well and where there’s room for improvement.

Start by choosing metrics that align with your LinkedIn marketing objectives. Pick indicators that truly reflect these goals, and use LinkedIn’s analytics or other tools to monitor and analyse your performance.

Analytics tools can show which content strikes a chord with your audience and which topics or formats see the most engagement. This step is crucial, as uninteresting content can discourage potential connections and diminish your chances of building strong business relationships.

If you’re running LinkedIn ads for B2B marketing, check their performance by reviewing click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROI. If the ads aren’t delivering as expected, consider refining your ad approach or exploring other methods of social selling to reach your target audience more effectively.

Boost Your LinkedIn Marketing Strategy with ScaleStation’s LinkedIn Ads Services

ScaleStation’s LinkedIn Ads services offer a strategic way to reach your ideal B2B audience, build brand awareness, and drive meaningful engagement. Our team at ScaleStation understands the unique targeting options LinkedIn provides, allowing us to connect you with decision-makers and industry leaders who are most relevant to your business. Here’s what you can expect with ScaleStation:

• Precise Targeting: We tailor campaigns to specific industries, job roles, company sizes, and more, ensuring your message reaches those most likely to engage.
• Engaging Ad Formats: From Sponsored Content to InMail Ads, we select and optimise the best ad formats for your goals.
• Data-Driven Insights: Our team tracks performance metrics closely, refining your campaigns based on real-time data to maximise ROI.
• Personalised Messaging: We help craft messages that resonate, using LinkedIn’s tools to make each interaction feel relevant and impactful.

Partnering with ScaleStation’s LinkedIn Ads experts gives you a streamlined approach to LinkedIn advertising, helping you achieve stronger results with every campaign. Let’s connect your brand with the right audience and grow your presence on LinkedIn. Schedule a call now.

Conclusion: Make LinkedIn a Core Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Using LinkedIn for marketing offers direct ways to connect with valuable contacts, strengthen brand trust, and engage your ideal audience. With profile optimisation, valuable content sharing, targeted advertising, and regular performance reviews, each element contributes to a solid presence on the platform.

LinkedIn marketing builds connections and provides meaningful value to your network. By consistently posting, experimenting with content, and fine-tuning based on insights, LinkedIn can become a powerful part of your marketing efforts. Embrace LinkedIn’s unique tools and advantages to elevate your brand’s visibility and success.