With over 770 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is one of the largest professional networks and continues to grow rapidly each year. LinkedIn provides a unique opportunity for businesses and brands to connect with their target audience without spending a dime through organic content marketing.
While LinkedIn does offer paid advertising options like Sponsored Content and Sponsored InMail for businesses looking to boost their reach, many brands have found success driving targeted traffic to their LinkedIn Company Pages and employee profiles simply using 100% organic tactics.
If you’re looking for low-cost ways to increase brand awareness and generate leads on LinkedIn, here are some of the top techniques to advertise your business for free:
Leverage Your LinkedIn Company Page
Your LinkedIn Company Page serves as your business’ profile on the platform. Make sure yours is fully optimized with your logo, description, employee profiles, products/services, contact info, and more.
Post regular status updates sharing company news, industry articles, how-to’s, behind-the-scenes photos, infographics, videos, hiring notices, and any other engaging content.
Company Pages let you segment followers based on their industry and job role. Target content topics specifically for your ideal audiences.
Use relevant hashtags in posts to expand reach. LinkedIn automatically monitors hashtags like #hiring, #jobs, and #careers.
Ask happy customers to leave recommendations on your Company Page to build credibility.
Make sure to highlight core products/services with in-depth descriptions, imagery, videos, and presentations using the Products and Services tabs.
Turn on the “Follow Company” button to let LinkedIn members subscribe for updates from your brand.
Encourage Employee Advocacy
Empower your employees to advocate for your brand on their personal LinkedIn profiles.
Provide them with content assets to easily share like articles, infographics, case studies, SlideShare presentations, videos, and webinars.
Incentivize team members to like, share, and comment on Company Page posts to expand visibility.
Employees should publish their own status updates, videos, and articles related to your industry, products, culture, etc.
Consider creating an employee advocacy program with goals, guidelines, training resources, and rewards.
The broader your workforce’s combined network is, the further your brand’s reach will extend organically.
Join LinkedIn Groups
LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content and engage in discussions.
Join Groups relevant to your target audience and niche. Contribute valuable insights through comments and posts.
Share helpful resources and content like ebooks, whitepapers, and blog articles published on your website.
Participate in Group conversations to establish your brand as a thought leader.
Avoid blatant self-promotion and instead aim to provide value to the Group community.
Keep an eye out for Group members asking for service recommendations and politely offer your company as an option where appropriate.
Follow Related Companies
Follow industry leaders, partners, clients, and potential customers on LinkedIn.
Like and reshare content published from their Company Pages and employee profiles.
Tag them in relevant industry discussions and share your perspective.
Congratulate them on major company announcements, hirings, campaigns, etc.
Engage with their content builds relationships and may lead to cross-promotion opportunities.
Building connections within your niche expands your brand’s visibility to new professional audiences organically.
Publish Long-form Content
The LinkedIn Publishing Platform lets users create and distribute long-form thought leadership content.
Publish in-depth articles, ebooks, whitepapers, and presentations providing value for your target audience.
Content should educate and inform – not overtly self-promote.
Insert relevant hashtags and mentions connecting your content to broader topics and industry influencers.
Include high-quality images, infographics, data visualizations, videos, etc. to increase engagement.
Share links to your published content across other platforms like Twitter and Facebook to maximize reach.
Use LinkedIn Sponsored Content Ads
Once you’ve built up an engaged organic audience on LinkedIn, consider testing their self-serve Sponsored Content advertising.
Sponsored Content lets you promote organic Company Page posts beyond your current follower base to reach more of your target audience.
Ad sets are flexible – choose to promote content to specific Groups, job roles, industries, seniority levels, geographic locations, etc.
You pay for Sponsored Content ads only when people engage with them, starting at just $2 per click.
Measure impact and optimize based on impressions, clicks, conversions, and your other KPIs.
Start slow with a limited daily budget and increase spend as needed to scale results.
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Targets your ideal audience | Requires ad spend |
Boosts organic content reach | Lower engagement than organic content |
Flexible targeting options | Easy to overspend if not cautious |
Conclusion
Growing your brand’s visibility and generating leads on LinkedIn doesn’t necessarily require an advertising budget. Leverage your Company Page, encourage employees to advocate, actively participate in Groups, engage with related companies, and publish valuable long-form content.
Once you build an engaged organic audience, you can amplify your reach and results via Sponsored Content ads. Just be sure to track performance closely and adjust spend accordingly.
With a thoughtful organic and paid social strategy tailored specifically for LinkedIn’s professional audience, your business can drive relevant brand exposures, leads, and sales cost-effectively.