Are you feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of tactics you need to consider and plan for as you prepare for 2013? If so, you’re not alone. B2B companies can reach prospective buyers in many ways, and finding a focus can be tough. But, at least when it comes to social media, there is one tactic that stands out above the rest. That’s LinkedIn marketing.
Here are five reasons why LinkedIn must be a key element of your 2013 marketing strategy:
- Lead conversion. Have you heard the new statistic? A recent study from HubSpot found that LinkedIn is 4x better than Twitter and 7x better than Facebook at converting visitors to leads for B2B companies. Do you really need any more reason to get focused than that?
- A decision maker audience. According to one of LinkedIn’s own studies, 88% of IT decision makers visit LinkedIn monthly. High level decision makers have historically been a difficult audience to identify and interact with on social media, but it seems that they’re more likely to be on LinkedIn than anywhere else.
- Targeting. There’s no other social network where you can narrowly target users based on company, job profiles and what we like to call “employment demographics” as well as on LinkedIn. This means you’ll have better luck finding your ideal customer on LinkedIn than on other social networks. Once you’ve identified your customers on LinkedIn, you can always start interacting with them on Facebook and Twitter if you like.
- Thought leadership comes naturally. In our opinion, the biggest value of LinkedIn is in the groups functionality. There are professionally minded groups in almost every niche imaginable, where you can go to ask questions, share information and generally establish yourself as an expert in your industry. LinkedIn also has built in capabilities for distributing thought leadership assets like white papers that will help build your expertise further.
- New functionality. As if all of the above weren’t enough reason to prioritize LinkedIn, the site recently unveiled a new API program that makes it easier to target specific customers, uncover leads, automate campaigns, distribute and determine ROI. The new API is currently in beta but will be released in 2013.
How are you planning to use LinkedIn in the year ahead?
Featured image via: HubSpot
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