How to become a subject matter expert using LinkedIn in 12 weeks

Digital Strategy & Transformation Consultant, Roger Jones of Actionable Insights shares tips and know-how to improve engagement, lead and sales generation using 4 functions within LinkedIn.

Situation

‘Taking that knowledge from your head and sharing it will improve engagement, lead and sales generation and build your reputation as a subject matter expert’

Task

To generate engagement, leads and sales using four functions within LinkedIn:

  • LinkedIn Personal Articles (increase social profile)
  • LinkedIn Sponsored Ad Campaign (increase social awareness)
  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator (increase social network)

Actions:

Blog posts, LinkedIn Personal Profile Articles (1) and LinkedIn Company Pages (2) Posts (to become a subject matter expert)

  • Use Brandwatch (Social Media Monitoring), Google Trends, Answer the Public and SEMRush (Organic and Paid Search Analysis) Topic Research to research and shortlist the top 10 trending questions that you believe your target audience segment(s) are searching for online (by location and device) that align with your expertise
  • Write a long-form 1000+ words (10 x question with 100-word answer) blog post. Each section should be headed by a question, with the body of that section answering the question.
  • Post the blog on your own website with an optimised SEO Page Title, the answer to the main question you wish to answer and Meta Description, the executive summary of the article) to your website blog/news.
  • Ensure you have a call to action (Subscribe to the blog newsletter, Get notifications and/or Get in Touch) on the blog
  • Cut and paste the blog post into your LinkedIn personal profile – as a LinkedIn
  • Cut and paste the blog post into your LinkedIn Company page and
  • Send an internal notification to all team members asking them to read the article, like, comment and share together with their expert/supporting comments to their personal profile LinkedIn
  • Measure, evaluate and repeat each week for the 12-week programme, episodically (posting the same time and day each week).

LinkedIn Sponsored Ad Campaign (3) (to make sure you are in your target audience segment(s)’ newsfeed)

  • Set up an account including payment details in LinkedIn Campaign
  • Get the LinkedIn tracking code and apply to your website (that way you can see the results in both LinkedIn Campaign Manager and Google Analytics).
  • Create a LinkedIn Sponsored Content Campaign defining your audience via:-
    • Location (United Kingdom)
    • Language (English)
    • Audience attributes
      • Company (Growth rate and category)
      • Demographics (Age and gender, if at all relevant)
      • Education (Level and location of education)
      • Job Experience (Number of years, if at all relevant)
      • Interests and Traits (LinkedIn Groups, if at all relevant) Name and save the audience 🙂

N.B. Untick LinkedIn Audience Network as it can share to really random places)

  • Run a 3-5 day campaign for £80-£100 to the specified target
  • Measure, evaluate and repeat each week for the 12-week programme, episodically (posting the same time and day each week).

LinkedIn Sales Navigator (4) (to be in your target audience’s LinkedIn Inmail inbox)

Set up an account including payment details in LinkedIn Sales Navigator Go to Lead search and filter according to:

Top filters

  • Keywords
  • Geography
  • Industry
  • Relationship
  • School
  • (Custom Lists – you can upload)
  • Language
  • Name

Role filters

  • Job Title
  • Function
  • Seniority level
  • Years in position, at current company and experience

Company filters

  • Company
  • Company headcount
  • Company type
  • Past company

Create a shortlist by saving within the LinkedIn Sales Navigator tool and either:

  • Send a connection request (with a personalised note)
  • LinkedIn Inmail (you will be allocated a monthly allowance based upon your account type)

N.B. You will only have one chance to make a first impression so only press send once you have researched the business, the individual and tried to understand what they want to get from connecting and or engaging with you…

  • Measure, evaluate and repeat each week for the 12-week programme, scheduling for the same time and day each week)

Results

Subject to how “interesting” your articles (all down to the quality of the questions) and/or engaging your proactive approaches are, you will now have increased your social profile, social awareness and social network.

Measure and evaluate blog posts using Google Analytics:

  • Pageviews and engagement (time spent on the page as an indication of reading time)
  • Increase in blog newsletter subscriptions/notifications
  • Number of inbound calls and or contact forms

Measure and evaluate LinkedIn Company profile

  • Number of posts
  • Post engagement
  • Number of followers

Measure and evaluate LinkedIn Sponsored Campaigns using LinkedIn Campaign Manager (and Quintly social media measurement)

  • Content engagement**
  • Spend
  • Impressions
  • Clicks
  • Average click-through rate
  • Bid
  • Average CPM
  • Average CPC
  • Conversions
  • Cost Per Conversion
  • Leads
  • Cost Per Lead

Measure and evaluate LinkedIn Sales Navigator using LinkedIn Personal Profile stats

  • Number of LinkedIn Inmails sent
  • Number of responses
  • Number of connections requests sent
  • Number of connections made

Measure and evaluate using Brandwatch Audiences and or another Key Opinion Leader/Influencer tool like Traackr

  • Increased ranking of the personal profile upon subject matter and location search

** Quintly evaluates engagement ratio as the number of likes, comments and shares divided by the number of posts x 100 divided by the number of fans (followers)

About the author

Roger Jones is a highly experienced senior Digital Strategy & Transformation Consultant. Roger provides strategic change and support to organisations and helps define their digital transformation programmes to optimise performance and reach new levels of growth.

For more information about working with Roger Jones of Actionable Insights, please go to: https://actionableinsight.co.uk/

If you’re interested to hear more from Roger Jones, you’re welcome to view the previous webinars below.

How to get your small business online
Digital Transformation: Drive your sales online