How to Grow Your Startup Using LinkedIn Marketing

Contributed post.

Startup founders are amazing people. They take the leap despite knowing the odds are against them, with a 90% probability of eventual failure.

There are many reasons why startups may not make it, and many of those are outside the control of the founders. That makes effectively managing the elements of the business environment that can be controlled absolutely essential.

Marketing efforts for growing your startup company using existing social network platforms are within those controllable factors, and as such should be maximized.

This post covers several proven and useful techniques for growing your startup business using the largest business network platform there is: LinkedIn.

SEO for Your LinkedIn Page

For new business startups, market visibility is crucial. The faster potential business associates or clients become aware of your company’s existence and the products or services you offer, the greater the options for your growth.

Your LinkedIn page is, in that sense, your window to the world. It should have all the elements of a properly optimized LinkedIn page:

• Professional logo and banner;
• Relevant keywords in the startup description;
• Regular updates about business endeavors; and
• Potential job listings.

Special attention should be paid to those keywords, being key to solid LinkedIn search optimization. With the right keywords, visibility and organic traffic of your page can be dramatically improved, both on LinkedIn and popular search engines such as Google.

Customize your LinkedIn URL to be short and relevant. The tagline should be concise and keyword-rich while summarizing what your startup does.

Write a detailed and engaging description using relevant keywords. Explain what your startup offers, its mission, and its value proposition. Try to include your primary keywords naturally within the text.

Your services or products should be listed using descriptive keywords. This helps LinkedIn’s algorithm understand your business and display your page in relevant searches.

Implement Advanced Search Techniques for Lead Generation

LinkedIn was created and is constantly improved with one goal – to make connecting with other business professionals as easy and as precise as possible. This means that just by opening a LinkedIn company page, you have at your disposal a variety of ready-to-use tools for various tasks. One of them is searching for qualified connections for lead generation.

You can instantly set a search filter in the following manner:

• Location: narrow your search by geographic area to target leads within specific regions or cities;
• Industry: focus on leads within sectors that are most relevant to your startup;
• Company size: search for companies of a specific size (e.g., startups, SMEs, large enterprises) that align with your target market;
• Keywords: use specific keywords relevant to your product or service to find leads who mention these in their profiles;
• Seniority level: target important individuals by filtering for seniority levels such as managers, directors, VPs, and C-suite executives.

Apart from the content of your search, you can also tweak the structure.

For example, there are Boolean search techniques that are not difficult to use but can do wonders in narrowing your search.

Operators AND, OR, NOT can be used just as in programming to look for exact professions. In the same manner, you can use quotes. For example, “product development manager” returns profiles with that exact title.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator itself is fully equipped with advanced search tools, and it may be  useful to get familiar with those.

Also available are advanced lead filters that can narrow your search based on years of experience, function, and company headcount growth.

These searches can be saved and used in the future. Not only that, but LinkedIn offers future lead recommendations that are in line with your previous search criteria and interactions.

Sales Navigator has one “drawback”: you can grow the number of your connections very fast, almost uncontrollably. If this becomes a real problem and you are wondering how to remove connections on LinkedIn in bulk without spending too much time on it, it’s best to deploy some sort of personal CRM software.

Engage with Influential Content Creators

Once your LinkedIn page is set up for connecting, and you’ve mastered some search techniques, it’s time to connect with others.

This process of creating your online business environment and building the right connections can be streamlined by one game-changing move: working with influencers.

Each social network has an ever-changing list of the most influential people who have highly engaged (and often large) audiences, and offer impactful marketing possibilities.

Your first task in LinkedIn influencer marketing is to identify those who carry some weight in your field of business:

• Relevance: those individuals should be active in your industry, and their audience can be perceived as your audience,
• Quality: to become an influencer, you need to possess certain qualities that should be in this case assessed; if this person’s LinkedIn presence provides value, they may be the right person for your startup;
• Metrics: the level of their online engagement should be evaluated first; high levels of engagement should indicate a strong and active community behind them.

After you figure out who to contact, it is time to engage. Choose influencer content that is topical for your line of business and add value by liking, sharing, and commenting. In time, the influencer should notice your contribution.

Follow their LinkedIn page, but do it with a personalized message. Briefly explain who you are and state the reasons for following them. Continue connecting by reposting their content and tagging them.

After some time of interaction, consider sending them a direct message. Here you could list some ideas on collaboration, interviews, podcasts, seminars, or any other similar activity with the end goal of promoting your startup and its activities.

The Bottom Line on Growing Your Startup Using LinkedIn Marketing

As a startup, the odds of success are against you. Only one out of ten businesses will ultimately thrive over the long term. But you wouldn’t be reading this post if you didn’t believe these odds can be defied.

The strategies covered above on how to improve your LinkedIn marketing experience are only a one element in marketing strategy. But though small, they are controllable.

Optimizing your LinkedIn page for maximum traffic, creating a pool of associates and clients through high-quality lead generation, and propelling your brand into the business stratosphere by directly affiliating with influential individuals – all these are realistic, actionable strategies with one goal: to become that one startup that grows and succeeds.