20 years of LinkedIn: How it became indispensable in marketing strategies + how to use it

On the 5th of May of 2003 LinkedIn was born. 20 years later we look back, as the platform went through some changes along the way. It now is the place to be for influencers, B2B marketers, recruiters, and more. 

A perfect place to start advertising your products and gain traffic to your website, or leads for your business. Keep reading to discover how we used LinkedIn in several of our marketing strategies, and how you can start too. 

What can we learn from LinkedIn’s success story? 

Started out as a place you could publish your CV, nowadays LinkedIn is much more than that. Here are three inspiring takeaways from LinkedIn’s journey. 

• Focus on one location or target group: think small first. When building your user base, focus on convincing a small group first before expanding your target audience. LinkedIn first focussed on growing their user base in the San Francisco Bay Area, before expanding to other areas and countries.
• Find early adopters to bring value to your product: start with targeting the right people. LinkedIn first found venture capitalists to invest in the platform, and then expanded their target audience to recruiters, influencers, and more.
• Build a network effect and build trust: if those we trust support a new technology, we’ll feel more inclined to try it out. For example, the more people use a particular social media platform, the more valuable it becomes to its users, as there are more people to connect with and share content with. For LinkedIn, they achieved their network by finding important early adopters and building trust with them, building their network from there.

Why you should advertise on LinkedIn

Personal branding and networking

LinkedIn is known for having a user base that differs significantly from other social networks. Its users are generally older, more educated, and have a higher income compared to those on other platforms. 

Nearly a quarter of LinkedIn users are senior-level influencers, including decision-makers, business builders, and C-level executives, making it an excellent platform for networking with the right people. 

It’s the ideal platform for growing your personal brand, especially if you want to establish your business, or yourself as a business owner or entrepreneur.

Recruitment

LinkedIn profiles tend to be more detailed and comprehensive than resumes or CVs, providing valuable information about a candidate’s education, work experience, skills, and endorsements. This allows you to screen candidates more effectively and identify those who have the skills and experience you need.

Other than that, using LinkedIn to recruit can help you build your employer brand by showcasing your company culture, values, and mission. This can help attract top talent and make your company more appealing to potential candidates.

Advertising

With almost 90% of B2B marketers using it for lead generation, LinkedIn is a great place to find new leads and advertise your business. 

If your target audience consists of educated professionals with some work experience, or businesses, LinkedIn is a platform you should consider. But always keep in mind that this is a platform used for professional purposes and that your product has to fit this environment. 

Convinced that LinkedIn advertising is the way to grow your business? We can help you get started. Contact us, or book a 15 minute call.

How we use LinkedIn in our campaigns

LinkedIn is a powerful platform that can be used for marketing purposes in a variety of ways. It can be a valuable addition to your marketing strategy, especially if you’re targeting B2B audiences or looking to establish your company as a thought leader in your industry. 

LinkedIn has over 740 million users worldwide, making it an excellent platform for lead generation. We used LinkedIn’s advanced search filters to find leads for Jorssen, a car dealer. Our growth experiment got them qualitative leads for them to work with. 

For Pluginvest, a company that offers accessible solutions regarding charging stations, we reached a lot of people with our ads and multiple downloads on our lead magnets. This resulted in qualitative leads who they could call up and convert into clients.

LinkedIn’s advertising platform allows you to target specific audiences based on their job titles, industries, and other criteria. As one last example, we generated qualified candidates with a recruitment campaign for Moore, an accounting and consulting company. 

As you can gather from this, we use LinkedIn in several ways. The platform can be used in both marketing campaigns and recruitment campaigns. It’s important to define your goal and your target audience before setting up your campaign.