LinkedIn Pages adds tools to help businesses connect with users in more personal and interactive ways

• LinkedIn, Pages
linkedin-pages-adds-tools-to-help-businesses-connect-with-users-in-more-personal-and-interactive-ways

LinkedIn rolled out three new Page tools designed to make it easier for businesses to engage with their customers, prospects, and employees on Wednesday.

Invite to Follow. To help businesses grow their communities and reach new audiences, Page Admins are now able to invite first-degree Profile connections to follow their LinkedIn Page. Page admins are limited to sending no more than 50 invites per day, and users have the option to opt-out of receiving invites altogether.

Users can invite first-degree Profile connections to follow their LinkedIn Pages.

LinkedIn Live Streaming. LinkedIn Live, which originally rolled out in beta last February, is now broadly available on Pages. The feature enables businesses to engage in two-way conversations on-screen and through comments with real-time participation through broadcast notifications. Over the next few weeks, LinkedIn said it will be rolling out a “stream targeting” feature that uses third-party tools (including Restream, Wirecast and Socialive), to help brands reach audiences with different languages and locations around the world. LinkedIn has also introduced private testing capabilities for Live Stream, giving brands an opportunity to rehearse and test before going live.

LinkedIn Live streaming is now available for Pages.

Post as Page or Member. With the new updates, Page Admins can choose whether they would like to post as an individual or as their organization. Admins can share an update from their profile, business Page, or directly from the platform’s homepage with a new toggle switch on the homepage.

Page Admins can select whether to post from their personal profile or from their Page.

Why we care. These updates are designed to deliver more value from the community-driven features on the platform to help brands build stronger relationships with followers, customers and employees. The new features give Page admins more ways to streamline posting from specific pages, expand audience reach with the new ‘Invite’ tool, and create impactful connections in a live streaming environment.


About The Author

Taylor Peterson is Third Door Media’s Deputy Editor, managing industry-leading coverage that informs and inspires marketers. Based in New York, Taylor brings marketing expertise grounded in creative production and agency advertising for global brands. Taylor’s editorial focus blends digital marketing and creative strategy with topics like campaign management, emerging formats, and display advertising.



LinkedIn user rate to grow faster than expected through 2023

• Faster, LinkedIn
linkedin-user-rate-to-grow-faster-than-expected-through-2023

LinkedIn is growing faster than previously expected, according to a new report from research firm eMarketer. In 2019, the number of monthly U.S. adult users increased by 8.8% year over year – up from eMarketer’s previous estimate of just over 7%. The new numbers are based on updated membership data from parent-company Microsoft and other sources.

Despite a faster growth rate forecasted for 2019, eMarketer projects slowing user growth in the years ahead. U.S. users are expected to grow by 6.2% this year to 62.1 million and reach 68.8 million by 2022, eMarketer forecasts.

LinkedIn Users in the US, 2018-2022

Why we care

LinkedIn users make up around one-third of all social network users in the U.S., according to eMarketer. For the most part, that number will stay the same as other social platforms also expand their user bases. But for businesses on LinkedIn, user growth could mean an uptick in ad performance and content engagement. The Microsoft-owned network has been steadily building out ad capabilities including new targeting and format options over the past few years.

More on the news

  • The new numbers are based on updated membership data from parent-company Microsoft and other sources, eMarketer said.
  • eMarketer’s estimate is derived from U.S. internet users, aged 18 , who access LinkedIn from any device at least once per month.
  • eMarketer reports that LinkedIn will see $1.59 billion in ad revenues in 2020, growing another 11.2% to $1.77 billion in 2021.


About The Author

Taylor Peterson is Third Door Media’s Deputy Editor, managing industry-leading coverage that informs and inspires marketers. Based in New York, Taylor brings marketing expertise grounded in creative production and agency advertising for global brands. Taylor’s editorial focus blends digital marketing and creative strategy with topics like campaign management, emerging formats, and display advertising.



Want better leads on LinkedIn? Focus on your content

• leads, LinkedIn
want-better-leads-on-linkedin?-focus-on-your-content

Contributor and SMX speaker, AJ Wilcox, explains why this is the year to be working hand-in-hand with your sales team to track leads with your LinkedIn Ads.

Below is the video transcript:

All right, marketers. So in 2020 here’s what you’re going to want to make sure that you are doing with your LinkedIn ads.

Now I know your boss told you that they want more demo requests from your social media, But, let’s be honest. People are more likely to be swimming with sharks then they are to want to hop on the phone with your sales rep before they get to know, like and trust you. So what you’re going to need to do is approach them with really interesting, valuable gated content in order to get their information. If you go right for the kill, if you get any leads at all, they’ll be crazy expensive, and they’ll convert it like one and half to 4%. Crazy low.

Instead, what you want to do is make sure that you release good gated content that converts at 15% or higher. What that will do is it will give you real scalable traffic where you can get 10 names in the database rather than just one. And at the same time, you’re paying 1/10 of that. So you end up with more people to nurture.

You’re going to be working with sales to make sure that they can convert 10 to 20% of those to people on the phone with them. So that’s the right way to do it.

Gone are the days where marketers can really just toss that lead over the fence into sales, wash their hands of it and say: ‘Hey, I’ve done my job.’ You’re going to be working hand-in-hand with your sales team this year, tracking that lead at every stage through making sure that you are helping your sales team understand what to do with that lead and you’re attributing all the way down. And you know what your costs-per are at every one of those stages. So make sure you’re adapting. Take advantage of all the technology that we have for all of these efforts in 2020.

I’m AJ. Wilcox on the founder of B2Linked.com, and we are the LinkedIn ads agency. I’m cheering you on. Happy advertising!

More predictions for 2020

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About The Author

AJ Wilcox is a long-time digital marketer who fell in love with the LinkedIn Ads platform back in 2011. Since then, he’s scaled and managed among the world’s most sophisticated accounts worldwide. In 2014, he founded B2Linked.com which specializes in LinkedIn Ads training, consulting, and account management, and recently became a Certified LinkedIn Ads Partner. He’s a ginger, triathlete, and his company car is a gokart. He lives in Utah with his wife and 4 kids.



Keep your LinkedIn advertising strategy focused in 2020

• advertising, LinkedIn
keep-your-linkedin-advertising-strategy-focused-in-2020

Contributor and SMX speaker, AJ Wilcox, explains in this video how a simple message and focused audience works best when advertising on LinkedIn.

Below is the video transcript:

All right advertisers. Here’s the strategic approach you need to have for LinkedIn ads in 2020.

Use the A-M-O strategy

I like to use the acronym AMO, A-M-O for understanding how to attack any sort of social advertising, but especially LinkedIn. So “A” is your audience. It’s who you’re targeting. “M” is the message. So how your prospects see the message. And then “O” is your offer. This is really what is in it for the user, and what you’re asking them to.

Choosing your LinkedIn audience

So your audience on LinkedIn, keep it tight. There’s no reason to target more people than who you’re really going after just because you’re trying to chase some arbitrary audience size.

I like to keep my audiences between about 20,000 and 80,000 but certainly, there’s no reason to make that broader if they’re not a good fit. So just go with whatever size audience and don’t listen to anyone who recommends otherwise.

Ad format and copy

The message really is what the user sees. So there’s the ad format, the image or video, and the ad copy.

For the ad copy, make sure your messaging is short, sweet and to the point. People on LinkedIn are busy.

For the imagery, make sure it’s bright and contrasts against LinkedIn’s blues, grays and whites color palette. Go heavy on the oranges, greens and reds.

Make your offer valuable

Always start with sponsored content if you can, bidding just cost per click. It’s the simplest, easiest to troubleshoot kind of ad formats and simplest to make. It’s really easy to predict. and so there’s a problem, you’ll be able to see it very quickly.

Bid cost per click because that’s by far the most efficient way, at least when you’re starting out.

The offer, “O” in AMO, is by far the most important part of LinkedIn Ads. No one wants to hop on the phone with your sales rep before they’ve ever heard about your company. So quit trying to push people right to a demo request. Instead, go for gated content first that truly is valuable. We’re talking a free checklist or cheat sheet or guide, ebook, webinar or free in-person event. Those are the types of things that do well here.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Marketing Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About The Author

AJ Wilcox is a long-time digital marketer who fell in love with the LinkedIn Ads platform back in 2011. Since then, he’s scaled and managed among the world’s most sophisticated accounts worldwide. In 2014, he founded B2Linked.com which specializes in LinkedIn Ads training, consulting, and account management, and recently became a Certified LinkedIn Ads Partner. He’s a ginger, triathlete, and his company car is a gokart. He lives in Utah with his wife and 4 kids.



LinkedIn adds Data Validation to Sales Navigator

• LinkedIn, validation
linkedin-adds-data-validation-to-sales-navigator

LinkedIn launched Data Validation, a feature designed to help users manage their contacts and ensure they have the most up-to-date contact data. Data Validation will automatically flag contacts who are no longer with the company listed in users’ CRM.

Contacts who update their employer on LinkedIn will be automatically marked with a “Not at Company Flag” field in the CRM and can be used to trigger different CRM activities to keep records updated.

The latest update to Sales Navigator also includes an integration with Bing geographic data design to help users identify the best prospects on a location-based level.

Why we should care

For sales and marketing teams that rely on Sales Navigator, the combining of LinkedIn and CRM data through data validation could positively impact their efforts by proactively keeping accounts updated.

Syncing account data between LinkedIn and the CRM will help users identify opportunities at risk due to prospects leaving a position during an open opportunity. It also identifies contacts from past customers or opportunities who have started roles at new companies. These factors, along with a report flagging potential contacts that need to be updated, are all included in out-of-the-box reports from Sales Navigator.

More on the news

LinkedIn is also adding new capabilities to Sales Navigator for administrators, including:

  • InMail performance stats: Admins will have the ability to see reps’ InMail acceptance rates, measured by positive responses from LinkedIn members.
  • Expertise levels: Admins will be able to have insight into each team member’s performance and level within Sales Navigator to identify team members in need of additional enablement.
  • Additional filters and exports: Improved CSV exports give administrators the ability to filter out inactive users and organize charts by custom date ranges, groups and users.
  • Data update: LinkedIn has also added the ability for Saved Leads and Accounts to include all save actions to provide an accurate view of activity on a specific day.


About The Author

Jennifer Videtta Cannon serves as Third Door Media’s Senior Editor, covering topics from email marketing and analytics to CRM and project management. With over a decade of organizational digital marketing experience, she has overseen digital marketing operations for NHL franchises and held roles at tech companies including Salesforce, advising enterprise marketers on maximizing their martech capabilities. Jennifer formerly organized the Inbound Marketing Summit and holds a certificate in Digital Marketing Analytics from MIT Sloan School of Management.



LinkedIn gives Page admins tools to notify company employees of updates

• admins, LinkedIn
linkedin-gives-page-admins-tools-to-notify-company-employees-of-updates

LinkedIn introduced three new features for Page admins on Tuesday, including an “Employee Notifications” tool that lets admins alert employees when new updates are posted on the company Page and a “Kudos and Team Moments” feature to highlight new team members, work achievements and more.

There is also a new “Completion Meter” that identifies missing fields on a LinkedIn Page so that Page Admins can make sure their company’s page is complete.

Employee Notifications for LinkedIn Pages. The new Employee Notifications feature will allow Page Admins to let employees on the platform know when an update has been posted on the company’s Page so that they can share it with their LinkedIn connections. (When posting an update, Page Admins will have the option to “Notify employees of post” which is listed under the three dots in the top right-hand corner of the post composer.)

The tool includes safeguards that limit notifications to once every seven days — making sure employees do not spam their feed by sharing multiple company updates in a short amount of time.

Recognizing new employees and major achievements. The Kudos and Team Moments feature provides custom content formats for posting new hire announcements, spotlighting work achievements and highlighting employees on LinkedIn Pages.

“By highlighting the people behind your brand, you reveal the human side of your organization to prospective customers and employees,” writes LinkedIn’s Senior Director of Product Management Rishi Jobanputra.

Company Page Completion Meter. The newly introduced completion meter lets Page Admins know what information is missing on a company Page. According to LinkedIn, completed Pages earn 30% more page views per week compared to Pages with incomplete information. LinkedIn said that less than 5% of Page Admins with an incomplete Page update the company Page becuse they don’t know what details are missing.

LinkedIn Page completion meter

Also, only completed Pages have access to additional LinkedIn features, such as the Content Suggestions tool which helps identify trending content topics within a company’s target audience.

Why we should care. These new features are designed to help brands expand their organic reach on the site — it also gives them an opportunity to amplify their content through employee brand advocacy initiatives. The updates are part of LinkedIn’s larger efforts to drive more niche conversations and deliver more engagement for businesses on the platform outside of their ad campaigns.


About The Author

Amy Gesenhues is a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.



LinkedIn Campaign Manager adds audience targeting logic, demographic forecasts

• LinkedIn

LinkedIn is adding audience forecasting information directly to the Campaign Manager dashboard and introducing new Boolean targeting logic for building audiences — both available globally Tuesday. The platform is also introducing new demographic reporting metrics that will begin rolling out to all advertisers over the next two weeks.

Refreshed dashboard includes audience forecasting insights. LinkedIn has added audience forecasting insights in the Campaign Manager dashboard, giving advertisers quick access to the the make-up of their target audiences. Advertisers will also be able to customize the forecasting panel to show specific targeting data, such as top industries, years of experience or company size.

contacts you’ve uploaded to Matched Audiences, you can be sure that you’re not only serving ads to the specific prospects you’re trying to reach, but that you’ll have the demographic insights to deliver the content and creative mix that will resonate with them,” wrote LinkedIn Director of Product Management Abhishek Shirvastava.

Boolean logic for targeting queries. Advertisers will now be able to create targeting queries using Boolean logic terms (and/or) which will allow them to build larger audiences for campaigns as they can target multiple profile facets, such as job function, seniority and titles.

“For example, let’s say you wanted to target people using Director seniority and the Finance job function. Previously, within a campaign you could only do so by targeting Directors in Finance roles,” wrote Shirvastava, “Now, with Boolean targeting, you can use a single campaign to reach people who are Directors at any job function, as well as people in Finance roles of any seniority.”

Coming demographic metrics. Over the next two weeks, LinkedIn will be rolling out new metrics at the audience level for leads, Sponsored InMail opens and video ad views. The company said demographic reporting has been one if its most popular Campaign Manager features, and that it is invested in “making this even better” with audience-level insights.

Why we should care. LinkedIn has been focused on building out its Campaign Manager to attract advertisers managing high volume campaigns for more than a year now. By expanding its audience forecasting features, adding Boolean logic to targeting queries and ramping up metrics, LinkedIn is giving advertisers with sizeable budgets the type of tools they expect when creating and managing social campaigns.


About The Author

LinkedIn Sales Navigator will now surface more content for sales teams to share

• LinkedIn, sales
linkedin-sales-navigator-will-now-surface-more-content-for-sales-teams-to-share

LinkedIn Sales Navigator released product updates on Wednesday, adding more features for discovering and managing leads, a redesigned Help Center and an integration with its content-sharing app Elevate.

Bringing more content into Sales Navigator. LinkedIn first launched Elevate — an app designed to help users curate and share content on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook — in 2015. Now, Sales Navigator users who also use the Elevate app will receive alerts on their Sales Navigator homepage when new content is available.

Users will be able to access the content without having to log into Elevate, and then share it on LinkedIn as well as Twitter and Facebook.

“Marketers will still be able to control what content they’d like to see employees post,” writes Doug Camplejohn on LinkedIn’s Sales Blog, “But now Sales Navigator users will have an even easier time boosting their brand and the brand of their company.”

LinkedIn reports salespeople who regularly share content are 45% more likely to surpass their quota.

New ways to manage lead lists. As part of the quarterly update, Sales Navigator will now let users sort Custom Lead Lists by Name Account and Geography, and Custom Account Lists can be sorted by Name and Geography.

Users will also be able to copy a lead list that was shared with them, creating a new list that they can own, and perform a “bulk save” for all leads or accounts from a shared list. There’s also a new feature that lets users remove shared lists from their list hub.

Lead discovery updates. Sales Navigator is increasing the number of results when performing a search for new leads. Previously, it capped the total available search results at 1,000, but is increasing that number to 2,500, giving users a longer list of potential leads.

When a user sends a request to connect on LinkedIn via the Sales Navigator platform, they now will be able to save that potential connection as a lead. Regardless if the person connects, the user will still get alerts on the lead and the account — notifying them of new activity like a promotion or company funding announcement. It is also adding a feature that lets users know when an existing lead is currently on LinkedIn (putting a green status dot by their profile picture).

A redesigned Help Center with new chat function. LinkedIn has redesigned the Sales Navigator Help Center, giving more visibility to shortcuts, recommended topics and the “Contact Us” link. It is also rolling out a “Chat with Us” feature that lets users contact support rep via a chat function in real-time.

Whey we should care. LinkedIn says more than 1.3 million lead and account lists have been created in Sales Navigator. For marketers managing B2B campaigns, this latest update will benefit their content strategy efforts, helping them push more content to their sales team. On the sales side, the update offers more functionality with improved lead discovery and management features.


About The Author

LinkedIn launches Audience Engagement Insights with addition of 5 new marketing partners

• launches, LinkedIn
linkedin-launches-audience-engagement-insights-with-addition-of-5-new-marketing-partners
Audience Engagement Insights category as part of its marketing partner program, and adding five new third-party analytics platforms that integrate with the LinkedIn Audience Engagement API: Amobee, Annalect, Hootsuite, Ogilvy and Sprinklr.

“With these insights, you can better refine your content strategy and make smarter decisions to help deliver better ROI for your LinkedIn ad campaigns and organic posts,” writes LinkedIn Senior Product Manager Amita Paul.

Why we should care

Marketers on LinkedIn will now have a broader view of what works on the platform with access to audience discovery insights, content recommendations and industry benchmarks. And with the five new integration partners now available to deliver those insights, many marketers will be able to choose a platform they may already be using.

“We’re excited to blend LinkedIn insights with Amobee’s Brand Intelligence solution to give new perspective into professional content and engagement trends,” said Amobee Senior Vice President of Social Sales and Partnerships Johnny Horgan, “This unique collaboration allows Amobee to paint a more holistic picture for clients.”

Hootsuite Vice President of Alliances Stefan Krepiakevich said the new integration capabilities with LinkedIn will enable their customers to improve campaign targeting efforts while increasing performance around organic and paid posts.

More on the news

  • LinkedIn said access to the Audience Engagement API is limited to the five new third-party marketing partners only.
  • The aggregated insights offered by the Audience Engagement API do not identify LinkedIn members.
  • Earlier this year, LinkedIn expanded its Sales Navigator Application Platform (SNAP) with the addition of Altify, Drift, G2 Crowd and MixMax.


About The Author

LinkedIn rolls out new feature to help SMBs promote their service offerings

• LinkedIn, rolls
linkedin-rolls-out-new-feature-to-help-smbs-promote-their-service-offerings
Small and midsize business owners will now be able to list the services they offer directly on their LinkedIn profile pages, the company announced Tuesday.

When an SMB owner adds service listings to their individual profile, they will automatically be eligible to show up in relevant search results for those services.

“From now on, members looking for help will be able to filter their general LinkedIn searches for service providers,” writes LinkedIn’s Group Product Manager Vidya Chandra on the LinkedIn blog, “When you add services to your profile, you’ll show up in these search results.”

Why we should care

LinkedIn reports it has more than 10 million small business leaders in the U.S. using its platform. Giving SMB owners (and freelancers alike) the ability to list their services directly on their profile pages could help them promote their services outside of their LinkedIn company pages — if they even have one. Making sure their profile page shows up in searches for the specified services adds an extra layer of exposure for the business.

This is a bonus for any company lacking the time and resources to build out a comprehensive social media marketing presence. Chandra writes, “This is a great way to quickly indicate to members that you are open for business.”

Not only is LinkedIn adding SMB service providers to search results, it will encourage members to message the SMB directly to ask about services.

More on the news

  • The new feature is first being rolled out to small business leaders and freelancers in the U.S. with a Premium Business LinkedIn subscription, but the company said it will make it available to all SMB owners this fall.
  • To add service listings, Premium Business subscribers can go to their profile pages on mobile or desktop to see if the feature has been activated. LinkedIn said users should see a box under their profile photo and headline to “Add Services.”
  • Any SMBs that currently do not have access to the “Add Services” box can request to be placed on a waiting list for the new feature.


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