In today’s day, digital marketing, specifically social media marketing is a no-brainer. Every company is advertising online, whatever the product or service. While everyone is flocking to Facebook and Instagram, one often overlooked platform for marketing, specifically for non-profits, is LinkedIn.
LinkedIn’s advantage lies in its community. Because of the platform’s professional nature that has been embraced by all its users, there is an implicit understanding that the content shared by users on LinkedIn is rich and informative. With 500 mn users on LinkedIn, and it being the most used platform amongst the Fortune 500 companies, it is a useful platform. Even though this is significantly less that the users of Facebook or Twitter, LinkedIn has proven to generate 3x more conversions than the other platforms because of the targeted audience.
LinkedIn is used solely for B2B marketing. Non-profits traditionally concentrate on marketing on other social media platforms to get their message across to volunteers, beneficiaries and the society at large. While this strategy is sound, LinkedIn, being a more professional platform, is ideal to target corporates, foundations, HNI donors and other targets for fundraising. Just as you would tweak your conversation while using traditional forms of marketing, digital marketing also requires you to tweak the platform used, and messaging strategy depending on the target group of stakeholders.
Basics of LinkedIn Marketing:
Non-profits typically have limited time, financial and money resources, so while it is important to create an online presence given your target audience, it is also important to be able to ration your resources to make the best use of them. It is a good idea to study each platform, and the available channels for marketing for time commitment, messaging strategies and personalization options within the platform to best make the decision on how to best reach the target market.
The various available LinkedIn channels for marketing are:
1. Company Page
What: This is the landing page for each company. It is the first point of contact between prospective connections and the company
Target: This is the face of the company on LinkedIn, the target is all LinkedIn members
Personalisation: This presents a generalized message to the community
Time Commitment: Low, needs to be updated every time there is a significant change
Messaging: This presents general company information
2. InMail
What: This is a paid service that allows a company to directly contact a person of interest. InMail’s have a 30% more open rate than emails
Target: An individual who is a potential partner/ an agent of a potential partner
Personalisation: Very personalized messaging possible. Group messaging is also possible.
Time Commitment: High, need to research potential targets, personalize each message and send out individually
Messaging: Flexibility to form messages according to the need of the time and target
3. Groups
What: Groups are micro-communities within LinkedIn that enable a company to brand itself as a thought leader in the selected community
Target: Members of the groups that you are a member of
Personalisation: Can personalize message based on the ‘personality’ of a particular group
Time Commitment: Medium-High, need to regularly post on groups, and even start own group, to be recognized as a thought leader
Messaging: Information sharing platform to be seen as thought leader, not the correct place for marketing messages
4. Content Updates
What: These are written and visual updates on the business page to generate engagement with the company
Target: This is targeting the existing and potential followers of your company page on LinkedIn
Personalisation: This presents a generalized message to the community
Time Commitment: High, need to develop a template and schedule for messaging
Messaging: Company information and general industry information
5. Paid Advertisements
What: Similar to FB ads, these are different formats of paid advertisements to ensure that a company’s messaging is being viewed by the targeted audience
Target: Can hyper-target to groups by filters
Personalisation: Can be moderately personalized to each search group
Time Commitment: Medium, need to form advertising message and create groups to target
Messaging: Should include calls to actions, such as leads to website
