While there are lots of great people (especially on BuBul!) that can help you build a successful strategy on LinkedIn we know that many owners of small businesses either want to do it themselves or don’t have the money available to get help, so we asked Lisa East, one of our experts*, for her advice on what you can do yourself to successfully win customers on LinkedIn without spending a penny!
As Lisa says: “This guide only includes things you can do for free because I love helping other business owners to make the most of LinkedIn. Without paying for any extra features, you can learn to generate leads and build a great brand reputation – all by nurturing your audience through content”.
By creating a LinkedIn content strategy, you can consistently reach the right people. But where do you start?
Here’s Lisa’s 7-step process to create a successful LinkedIn content strategy…
Now, let’s run through these in more detail so you can hit the ground running with your LinkedIn content strategy.
1.Identify your target audience
Like with all marketing, you need to know who you’re targeting. Painting a clear picture of your ideal customer is the first step to creating a LinkedIn content strategy. If you’ve not yet done this for your business, you can find out more about why you need an ideal customer persona for social media content here.
2.Decide on your content pillars
What industry are you in and what do you want to be known for? Your content pillars are the key themes that should run through all your LinkedIn content. Choose 3-5 topics that relate to your industry, products, services, job title, and personal interests that you can talk about easily.
Deciding on content pillars makes it easy to identify whether your content aligns with your LinkedIn content strategy and means you won’t run out of things to talk about.
3.Use a variety of content types
To cater for the different types of people within your audience, try using a mixture of content types. This will help your content to appeal to a wider range of potential customers. For example, some people like to consume content in text-only, others prefer video or images. All social media platform algorithms prefer you use a mix of post types too.
No matter which type of content you’re using, you should always make sure your content is accessible. That means any videos have subtitles (or captions), images have alt text, and you’re using images with a good contrast level.
If you’re new to posting on social media, this part could take some time to test. If you’ve already been producing social media content for other platforms or blog posts for your website, you will have a head start. See which content types get the best engagement from your audience.
4.Look at your competitors’ profiles
Identify some key leaders within your industry and look at their profiles. What are they doing well? What areas are they missing the mark on?
Seeing the content they’re producing and who’s engaging with it will give you an insight into what works and also allows you to spot opportunities to do things differently.
5.Create a social media content calendar
A key part of making your LinkedIn strategy work is being organised and staying consistent with posting. By creating a social media content calendar, you can plan the content ahead of time and create a bank of content to look back on.
You can include topical awareness days within your content calendar and plan around key dates and seasons. If you’ve never created one before, read Lisa’s guide on how to create an effective social media content calendar.
6.Define what success means to you
When you’re outlining a LinkedIn content strategy, you need to know what you’re looking to achieve. What are your goals for using LinkedIn?
Is it simply to generate new business leads? Are you looking for strategic partner relationships? Maybe you’re looking to build authority within your industry and get invited as a podcast guest, or get bums on seats to an event?
No matter what your goals are, setting these targets gives you something to focus on.
7.Test, measure, and tweak
Now you need to evaluate the goals you set for yourself and keep them in mind throughout your LinkedIn content strategy. By testing different content types, different messaging and tone of voice styles, you should learn what works best.
Depending on what your goals are, it may be which content got the most engagement, gained the most followers from, or opened the door to new opportunities. Take some time to review your goals and results regularly, analysing what worked and spotting opportunities. Learn more about how to analyse your social media metrics and tweak your content.
For more advice, contact your accountant or the organisation that gave you access to BuBul. They may offer help or refer you to someone they trust. If not, email hello@bubulexpert.com telling us what you need advice on, and we’ll connect you with one of our trusted experts*.
*Our experts don’t pay to be on BuBul, and they don’t pay us commission. They will offer you 30 minutes of free advice.