7 min
It’s no surprise.
With more than 560 million users, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social media platforms for your marketing efforts.
However, your LinkedIn success relies not on peddling your service, but on “Social Selling.”
Social selling is building relationships online by answering questions and promoting engaging content to position yourself as an industry expert.
The more value you provide through posts or answers, the more you’ll establish yourself as an authority, which will lead to bigger rewards down the road.
Today, I’ll discuss the key aspects to work on to succeed with your LinkedIn marketing efforts and give you links to the best resources online to learn more about each section. Let’s get started.
A well-written business page will help tell your company’s story. This might be the first interaction a person has with your company, so put your best foot forward to create a great first impression. Here are six items to help you stand out from your competitors:
This is the hardest thing to do but focus on the person who is reading this section. This is a great blog post to help get you started.
Showcase pages are great for highlighting your past projects. You can create up to 10 free showcases pages, so create a page for every market segment you cover. If you do any specialty paving such as sports courts or running tracks, create a page for those, too. Check out this Guide on how to create Showcase Page
Think of endorsements as mini-reviews; they help build credibility for your company. Ask other paving contractors you have a friendly relationship to endorse your company. Your vendors are a great source to give and get endorsements. Also, your current employees are an excellent resource for endorsements. Finally, past customers are the best endorsements you can get. Here’s a Guide on Endorsements
Simple post in your showcase pages will help increase your visibility and keep you front and center of people who follow your showcases. The easiest thing to post is images, and a short write up about a project that you recently completed.
Since you will be reaching out to property managers with your personal profile, make sure your profile is fully updated. You wouldn’t invite prospects to visit your physical office if it was a mess, so make sure you don’t invite them to visit your profile page without first cleaning things up. This guide from Smarp is a good starting point on setting up your personal profile.
LinkedIn groups are an essential tool for driving leads. They are full of likeminded buyers congregating in the same spot.
By joining these groups and establishing your presence and adding value, over time, you can position yourself as an expert in asphalt and parking lot management. Here are a few pointers when joining LinkedIn Groups:
LinkedIn Groups vary in quality. Search for property management groups, commercial real estate groups and HOA groups. You can also search for state and city-specific groups. Groups with a higher number of members are usually better, but this is not always the case.
2. Don’t Start Selling
People join these groups to network and find answers to problems they are having. No one wants to be sold to inside these groups. Besides, if it’s your first post, it’s a good way to get yourself removed from the group.
When someone asks a question about parking lot maintenance, paving, etc., jump in and try and be helpful. While the person asking the question might not be a good fit, someone else reading your response could be your next big client.
It’s a social media network, after all, but you want to maintain a level of professionalism. Keep your messages positive, never talk bad about others, and take the high road if someone is trolling you.
Share content which is relevant to the group. You can share someone else’s content, better yet share your content if it’s relevant to them. We’ll discuss more about creating content later.
Once you have your business and personal profile polished, its time to start connecting with potential buyers.
First, you need to have a clear grasp of who your target market is. Think of titles of people you have worked with in the past such as “property manager”, “director of facilities operations”, “director of maintenance” and use these for your advanced search.
Also, create a list of all the property management companies, HOA Management Companies, and commercial real estate agencies and use those for searches, too.
Don’t have a list yet? Contact me and I’ll build you one free of charge.
Tip: When you are viewing someone’s profile look at their “Interests” where there is a list of groups they belong to, which might be good for you, too.
When sending a connection request, you always want to send a custom message. People can spot spam from a mile away while a tailored message makes people feel special, giving you a better chance of having your request accepted.
Look for something you have in common, why you want to connect with them and what the benefit is for them. “The benefit” is you have some great articles which might help them with XYZ.
Just keep it short and to the point.
Once a person accepts your request, send a simple thank you note, but don’t make them regret it by trying to sell to them right away. Take your time delivering value through your content and they’ll come running to you when the need arises.
Tip: When trying to connect with people, make sure you do it from the person’s full profile page so you can create a custom message. If you try to connect from any other page, this option won’t be available to you.
Publishing content on Linked can help establish your expertise, but picking the right topic is key.
You’ll want to write content that is relevant to property managers but is about paving. For example, “Is Road Salt Shortening The Life of Your Parking Lot?” or “Does Selling My Parking Lot Extend Its Life?” or “5 Steps to Determining If Your Parking Lot is ADA Compliant.”
I would recommend publishing at least one post per month. If you’re not a writer, you can hire a writer on Upwork for $75-$100 per article.
Lastly, provide a clear Call to Action to finish off every content you publish. Offer a free phone consultation or Skype call to answer any questions or even ask them to leave a comment. This keeps them from being left hanging after a good read.
Regardless of how value-packed your content is, if no one reads it, everything will be put to waste.
GetResponse has a great guide on how to promote content on LinkedIn, you can read it here.
LinkedIn is a great way to expand your network, build your authority, and pick up new clients.
Like any marketing channel, it takes time before you can see significant results. But with consistent efforts in providing value and expanding your reach, LinkedIn can give you a continuous flow of clients over time.
35 min
6 min
6 min