LinkedIn is no longer just a place to post your resumé. It’s the epicenter of business and professional marketing, which helps make it a perfect platform for your real estate agency or law firm. Finding your audience among LinkedIn’s 756 million users can help you grow your client base and discover new business opportunities with the right tailored marketing strategy.

What is LinkedIn marketing?

LinkedIn marketing is about building meaningful connections. You’re interacting with real people and positioning your services to meet their needs. Brand image and story are as important on LinkedIn as on any other social media site.

The difference between LinkedIn and other social media sites like Facebook and Twitter is that you’re connecting with people who come to read about only one thing: their professional needs. This makes it a conducive sales environment where you can be more overt in pitching your services.

Why you should use LinkedIn to market your services

The platform offers you a lot of highly targeted advantages:

• LinkedIn outperforms Facebook and Twitter. LinkedIn is three times more effective than Facebook at generating leads. Real estate marketing on LinkedIn can be especially successful, given LinkedIn’s demographics: 90% of LinkedIn users make household decisions and nearly half earn more than $75,000 per year.
• Executives are active on LinkedIn. Accounting firm marketing plans usually involve targeting established businesses and high-net-worth individuals. Buy-in from decision makers is crucial to inking a new deal. LinkedIn offers tactical solutions for reaching these B2B execs who influence decisions.
• You can have your own LinkedIn company page to build your identity. Companies and individuals do their research before hiring a professional services firm. An impressive, well-planned, frequently updated company page, where you can post on topics like your company direction, your leaders, your success stories and your positions on trends, will help build your followers.

Four keys to success in LinkedIn marketing

With the right strategy, LinkedIn can catapult your professional services business toward the next deal. Here are four ways you can take advantage of LinkedIn marketing:

1. Create a LinkedIn company page with all the right elements.

This is not your company website. This is your business-to-business environment, so keep it focused and professional. Use this simple guide for getting started and best practices. If you already have a company page with a complete profile, consider making a few updates:

• Utilize banner space. The banner image on your profile is a place where you can brag about achievements and awards. It should be a visual representation of what you’re capable of. Did your company recently win a corporate wellness competition? Design a banner logo that showcases that feat! The banner is also a place where you can briefly describe your services or display a company slogan.
• Add keywords to your description. The description on your profile not only lets visitors know what you do, it can also be a tool for driving more traffic to your company page. Make sure your description includes your website, industry, sector and other keywords that improve SEO. For example, if you’re a law firm specializing in mergers and acquisitions, make sure to list that in the description.
• Encourage employees to follow your page. It’s likely that most of your employees have LinkedIn profiles. Encourage them to follow your page and share your content to their network. This helps the company and also benefits employees who can align their professional reputation with a recognized LinkedIn presence.

2. Target your audience and curate content they’ll want to share.

Content is everything. By posting photos, videos and updates that your network will engage with, comment on and share, you’re staying social on the platform.

Here are a few ways to ensure that your company is playing all the hits when you take the stage:

• Join two or three LinkedIn groups. Groups are a great way to stay social. By joining a few and actively posting and commenting, you might find prospective partners and clients. You can do this through the company page or through your own LinkedIn profile. Whether you’re an accountant, real estate agent or lawyer, it’s easy to find a group and engage actively with it.
• Create content that can go viral. People engage with LinkedIn posts that are fun to read and highlight popular trends. In the last few years, photos and videos (especially those that have a professional look) have become more popular on LinkedIn. Consider building an in-house team to share content on LinkedIn or contract it out on a site like Fiverr or Upwork.
• Leverage private messaging. One InMail message could change the trajectory of your business. If you’re trying to work with high-net-worth individuals, for example, a meticulously crafted private message could help you get your foot in the door. Identify an association you have with your target prospect—a university, mutual connection or even a penchant for self-driving cars—and play with that in your introductory message. InMail is not the place for a hard sell, but it could lead to your next opportunity.

3. Consistently share updates with your network.

It’s important to dedicate several hours each week to maintaining your presence. Develop a schedule of when you want to post, comment, share in groups and send private messages.

Whether or not you want to be a thought leader, speaking as an expert on popular trends in your industry will help your business thrive. Consider keeping track of achievements and taking pictures at company outings to share later as LinkedIn posts. Or better yet, share them in the moment with LinkedIn Stories!

4. Leverage LinkedIn ads to expand your network.

Paid advertising on LinkedIn can get your services in front of an even more defined audience. By using ad filters and narrowing your target market, advertising on LinkedIn can help you reach a greater B2B audience. And combined with your organic social media posts, you’ll have a more rounded approach.

Check out LinkedIn Marketing Solutions to start building out a more robust paid marketing strategy. These services make LinkedIn advertising clear and accessible for law firms, accounting firms and other professional services businesses. LinkedIn exists to help you succeed. Take advantage of their tips, suggestions, invitations to give feedback and more. LinkedIn is always growing, rethinking and presenting new opportunities for you—and your business—to grow.

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