Is your company on LinkedIn? If not, you’re missing out on opportunities to network with individuals who are out looking for your manufacturing company’s products and services.

LinkedIn marketing is a powerful tactic in the B2B space. It is the only social media platform designed to connect businesses and professionals alike.

While mindless browsing is common on Instagram and Facebook, LinkedIn has users on the platform for a specific purpose. In other words, they truly mean business. No one is there to scroll their feed to pass the time casually.

While most of LinkedIn’s 766 million users are job seekers and recruiters, as of January 2021, 63 million are in decision-making positions. In addition, 90 million are senior-level influencers, those who can affect the decision-making process.

Have a Content Strategy for Your Company Profile

The use of LinkedIn for B2B company marketing is not uncommon. 94% of them use the platform to distribute content.

Whatever your role is at your manufacturing or industrial company, your profile is an extension of your company’s profile and brand.

Before you start posting, it’s important to know what works on the platform. Studies show that content types such as “how-to’s” and “listicles” perform the best. Share links to your content. Likewise, create posts to share your manufacturing company’s achievements and milestones.

Additionally, be discoverable by using hashtags and following other companies connected to your business. Encourage your employees, especially salespeople, to be on the platform.

Ask them to support your content. Likes and comments boost posts and make them appear on others’ feeds even if they don’t follow your company in the first place.

Build Your Personal Brand

Be the face of your brand. Your company profile is best for building awareness and establishing an online brand presence. However, most people would be more comfortable engaging with an actual person.

Since LinkedIn is not the mainstream social media platform, engagement is not easy to come by. So when you engage with prospects on LinkedIn to increase sales, you are most likely to get their attention.

Pro Tip: Commenting is the most effective way to go.

With this in mind, your prospective clients will appreciate you taking the time to make a comment and share an insight. Plus, you’re most likely to get a reply when you do this.

When it comes to building your company’s brand and your personal brand, work with a team who knows your industry. We know how to build a brand and keep it relevant by growing sales, traffic, and customer loyalty.

Keep Your Profile Up-to-Date

As the face of your company’s brand, make sure that your profile is updated. Champion your manufacturing company through your posts.

To boost your profile, even more, take the time to fill out the following:

• Profile headline
• About section
• Licenses and certifications (if any)
• Endorsements and recommendations

In the end, you and your employees are the best ambassadors for your manufacturing company.

Establish Relationships

Once you’ve grabbed your prospect’s attention, don’t be too aggressive and message them to sell your capabilities right away. Create interest first. You don’t want to come across as creepy and desperate as this will drive your potential customers away.

A hard sell pitch will not work unless you’ve been connected for a few months and have been engaging with each other’s posts consistently.

Besides interacting with posts, keep in mind that you can also share industry-related content such as articles. Provide value and make the content the jumping-off point for natural and friendly conversations.

Make It Personal

By the time you’re ready to do your sales pitch, send a personal message. Avoid using templates that tend to be void of emotions. You have to connect with your prospects on a human level based on how you know them through your interactions on LinkedIn.

Even if you don’t get the conversion that you’re after, you’ll still have a LinkedIn connection who can support your posts. When they’re ready, they can still be converted to increase your revenue.

Connection Opportunities

The challenge now is to establish this same type of relationship with not just one but with as many prospects as possible. Remember that it’s possible to authentically engage with your network even with the plan of converting them into sales.

Keep in mind, engagement on LinkedIn is not the only indicator of your LinkedIn marketing’s success. The size of your network and the way you interact with your connections are also good indicators of the awareness that you’re building for your brand.

As the leader in industrial marketing, MFG Tribe has been helping Industrial companies from $2 million – $3 billion dominate their competition with the most aggressive marketing tactics that work in today’s competitive environment for over five years. Our strategy adjusts based on what’s most effective for YOUR company, and we only work with industrial companies. If you’re looking to set up your marketing efforts with the Industrial Marketing leader, schedule a discovery call today.