The use of LinkedIn Groups for Marketing to your target audience could be one of the most underutilized tools-opportunities which LinkedIn provides. Have you tested this yet by joining groups, posting links back to your website/blog, or engaging in a discussion?
In a blog posting on the MarketingProfs Blog, the following comments were made:
Links in LinkedIn Groups tend to convert fairly well (57%), so post links in LinkedIn Groups. The added benefit of LinkedIn Groups is that you are allowed to message other group members even if they are not part of your network.
I'm not sure I would concur with MarketingProfs statistic that links posted convert at almost 60% - however, our experience is that links posted from your blog, especially if you have a high reputation for trust, quality content, and a strong personal awareness/brand, do convert at a much higher rate than other traditional forms of marketing and lead generation, such as cold-calling or email campaigns. Conversion is when someone in the group clicks on your link to read the link you've posted. There are numerous tools to track how many clicked the link and in which group did the conversion occur. Once group members start clicking your link and trusting you - they'll start to engage with you by posting discussion points, comments, and emailing you directly. Similar to my article on creating ripples in content marketing/blogging, posting into LinkedIn Groups is a simple, inexpensive, high leverage activity that creates viral (ripples) opportunity for your message/content to be distributed far beyond just the immediate members in your LinkedIn Group.
Where does your target audience hang out? How do you engage potential CEOs in trade groups, alumni associations, community based groups, and executive forums? It should be part of an integrated plan to leverage LinkedIn to find potential CEOs. We talk about leveraging groups in our Chair Advanced LinkedIn e-Course. Hopefully, by now, you've completed the first level-foundation Chair e-Course on using LinkedIn to Find Members.
To read the full article on the MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog, click the link below:
Getting the Most out of LinkedIn for B2B and Beyond
Barry Deutsch
