Sales & Marketing Quick Guides for MSPs: Part 2 – LinkedIn
Your MSP’s social media presence is about more than just Likes and Followers; it’s a strategy for business growth. In fact, LinkedIn is 277% more effective at generating leads than Facebook and Twitter.
Generally speaking, MSPs are up against tight marketing budgets and little to no internal marketing team. Despite that, you can pull a variety of low-cost levers to reinforce the digital imprint you make on potential and existing clients and desirable talent. For example, social media pages tell visitors about your business and are often one of the first results revealed when someone Googles you.
While all of your social media profiles across platforms contribute to the overall appearance of your MSP online, this quick guide focuses on the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn. LinkedIn drives 46% of social traffic to B2B sites and is considered the most credible content source. With 810 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, LinkedIn’s mission is to “connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful” – and that’s why, unlike other platforms, it’s the most critical platform for business growth.
In this quick guide:
- Understand the true value of LinkedIn with the top 3 reasons MSPs should prioritize their business page.
- Get a stats-based view of LinkedIn with shocking numbers that illustrate how popular the platform really is.
- Assess your page’s current look and vibe to identify areas of improvement that can be applied across social media platforms.
Top 3 Reasons For MSPs to Invest Resources in LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s professional network offers MSPs the ability to easily connect with colleagues, peers, channel experts, industry leaders, prospective new clients, and potential new hires. It’s a hub for business-based interactions that can grow your MSP in various ways. If you’re not already putting resources into your free business page, here are four reasons why you should be taking advantage of the opportunity.
#1: Engage Your Community. Let’s look at LinkedIn from a numbers perspective to understand who’s there and why you should be too. Fifty-eight percent of your MSP peers are on LinkedIn every day. Four out of five people on LinkedIn “drive business decisions.” Eighty percent of B2B leads come from LinkedIn, and 40% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn is their most effective channel for driving high-quality leads. Not only are your people on LinkedIn – including peers and prospects – but the platform actually gives you the ability to target audiences by their job rather than just their demographics. This opens the door for lead generation, email marketing campaigns, sales calls, and other sales and marketing strategies that win new clients to grow your bottom line.
Being amongst industry players also provides insight into your competition, what’s trending in the channel, and gives you access to subject matter experts. Immersing your MSP in these conversations will generate content ideas that can be used throughout the sales funnel and to establish your MSP as a thought-leader in the channel. Everything from writing blogs and developing collateral that SMBs actually want to read to setting sales teams up for success with competitor battlecards, solutions for the latest pain points, and relevant conversation starters get your MSP closer to signing new clients.
#2: Attract New Talent. The technical skills gap continues to make it difficult for companies to find and recruit technical talent and resources. It’s a competitive market and LinkedIn is a hot spot for promoting career opportunities and snagging the right employees. Forty-nine million people search for jobs each week, 77 job applications are submitted every second, and six people are hired every minute – all on LinkedIn.
Due to the structure of LinkedIn, user profiles are actually resumes. Not only does that make it easy to qualify applicants for the next round of hiring steps, but it also makes it easy for talent to apply. MSPs can post job opportunities in the ‘recent job openings’ field of their business page and quickly receive a slew of candidates – all for free and all within the LinkedIn platform. With simplicity, ease, and organization on both sides of the equation, LinkedIn is one of the best ways to support your MSP with a capable team.
#3. Utilize Premium Features. One of the hidden gems of LinkedIn is the ability to sort people in your business network by distance, industry, and seniority. You can hone in on specific demographics to find ideal client prospects with these filters. For example, if your MSP services the dental industry, you can quickly generate a list of dental practice owners within 25 miles of your office.
Additionally, LinkedIn offers Premium tier memberships at affordable monthly rates to expand sales opportunities, find and hire talent, and grow and nurture your network. Depending on which package appeals to your business goals, they range from $59.99 to $119.99 per month. The first month is free, and the membership can be canceled at any time. Consider these affordable options if you want to invest more in your LinkedIn business page to accomplish specific goals related to sales and marketing or hiring.
Assessing Your Own Page to Make Improvements Across Platforms
If you have a LinkedIn business page and aren’t familiar with the contents, take a minute to see what’s out there. First, Google search your MSP’s name and take note of what comes up after your website. Most often, it’s a social media page, even if it isn’t LinkedIn. The questions below can be applied to any and all of your social media platforms. While the focus in this post is LinkedIn, all of your profiles impact your digital reputation.
Next, open your LinkedIn business page and answer the following questions as unbiasedly as possible. Of course, there are excuses and explanations for whatever you see – good or bad – but try to view the page as if you have no knowledge about the company.
- What’s the immediate feeling you get about the organization?
- Does it look like a thriving business? Or one that’s barely holding on?
A common challenge for businesses with tight marketing budgets is that no one is updating social media regularly. A stale page without any recent activity can make prospects wonder if the doors are still open. Thankfully, LinkedIn updates are not too labor-intensive, and you can make a big impact with just one post a week.
In fact, companies that post just once a week on LinkedIn see a 2x higher engagement rate. Posts can include anything from your latest blog, upcoming events, and company updates, to your MSP’s take on recent channel news, a survey, or recognition of one of the many silly holidays celebrated on social media. Keep in mind that LinkedIn posts with images get 2x higher engagement and larger images perform even better with a 38% higher click-through rate. LinkedIn recommends that images be 1200 x 627 pixels for blog post links and sharing links in updates.
- Is the copy in the company profile accurate? Does it match the website?
- How about the logo, website address, and contact information? Are those correct?
- Do the links send users to their intended destination?
All of these components provide a path for prospects to take the next step, learn more about your MSP, and possibly reach out with, or for, an opportunity. Tell your company’s story, highlight the services provided, identify key demographics, and include calls-to-action that keep users clicking to learn more. LinkedIn business pages contain sections for ‘about me,’ product descriptions, recent job openings, events, and videos. Take advantage of every chance to tell users something unique about your MSP.
Establish who you are, what you do, and why it’s valuable for clients. Companies with a complete, active LinkedIn page see 5x more page views and get 7x more impressions per follower, plus 11x more clicks per follower. All those views and clicks enhance brand awareness and could lead to your next new client.
How Axcient Is Helping MSPs on Social Media
Axcient is a 100% MSP-only solutions provider dedicated to helping MSPs overcome common challenges like sales and marketing. That’s why we created the Axcient Marketing Portal (AMP) and give our MSP partners unlimited access to a variety of sales and marketing resources. As part of the brandable assets, customizable email campaigns, detailed marketing analytics, and marketing development funds (MDFs) available to Axcient partners, we also supply done-for-you social media posts.
Partners can update, brand, and customize posts for use on various platforms to create streamlined social media marketing campaigns. The AMP is available to Axcient partners through their x360 Portal. In addition, live AMP demos are ongoing to teach partners how to implement analytic tools, apply for MDFs, and start customizing campaigns. REGISTER HERE!
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