How to use LinkedIn to connect with influencers in the energy industry

While not as flashy as other social channels, for decision-makers in the energy industry, LinkedIn has a well-developed and sophisticated audience. According to Chris Olson, CEO of The Media Trust on CMS Wire:

LinkedIn tends to be sober in tenor and tailored to the professional needs of users.

Which is why you’ll find an array of companies and emerging energy leaders actively networking with an educated and engaged audience.

With more than 600 million members, LinkedIn breaks it down into:

46 million decision makers
61 million senior-level influencers

Clean energy advocates build on existing stakeholder connections to establish their brands as industry leaders. In return, they successfully generate leads and nurture contacts throughout the long sales cycle.

Measure your ROI on LinkedIn.

In a recent study of more than 5,000 businesses, HubSpot found that traffic from LinkedIn generated:

Highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate at 2.74%— nearly three times higher than both Twitter and Facebook.

However, measuring ROI on LinkedIn continues to be a significant pain point for emerging energy companies. 816 New York’s LinkedIn expert Amanda Bunch asks:

What do those metrics really mean to your business? How does a like increase sales or a follow guarantee a new lead? The simple answer is that it does not. You want to use social media like any other marketing tool, to better your marketing and sales goals.

Bunch recommends that business owners should set up key performance indicators (KPI) before launching a campaign.

Along with KPIs, a successful LinkedIn marketing strategy uses Google Analytics to track conversions while leveraging competitor data to create benchmarks.

Simply put, if you don’t create content to measure, then you won’t know what works and what doesn’t. More importantly, you lose out on the millions of decision-makers in the energy industry using LinkedIn for networking and problem-solving.

Develop effective lead generation methods.

If you’ve been frustrated by results on other social channels, then you’ll appreciate what makes LinkedIn unique: You can create targeted searches by industry and profession.

Not only do members go there to conduct business and network, but they also use the search functions to research the emerging energy and cleantech sectors.

LinkedIn’s high-level business members are part of the reason that marketing experts like Neil Patel report that:

LinkedIn is responsible for more than 80% of a business’s social media leads.

So how do you access the millions of decision-makers on LinkedIn? The first step is to subscribe to LinkedIn’s Premium Business membership. This allows you to:

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Increase your connected network,
Send targeted InMail messages, and
Gather valuable insights.

Doing so ensures that you find the right people to engage with regularly, as consistency is vital to success.

But it’s also crucial to have a stable system in place to nurture and follow up with your leads.

Organize your LinkedIn Strategy.

To satisfy your thirst for a substantial ROI, you’ll need to develop a content and marketing strategy that fully utilizes LinkedIn Premium and your CMS.

Position your emerging energy company at the forefront of technology by sharing relevant and useful content on both your business page and personal profile. LinkedIn’s Content Insights Quarterly reports that:

Leadership and management continue to be the top two topics driving engagement on the platform.

LinkedIn provides additional outlets for engagement, brand awareness, and lead generation.

Take advantage of sponsored content to get more eyes on your business.
Use text ads to generate interest in your company and industry.
Participate in LinkedIn groups to build your reputation.

By providing prime social real estate, LinkedIn produces a direct line to decision-makers in the energy industry. For those in data-heavy industries, like the cleantech sector, ignoring LinkedIn keeps your company disconnected from the world it aims to change.

Interested in having your LinkedIn strategy boosted? We have a team of industry and social media experts on-hand to help you grow your network and connect with the right professionals. Contact us to learn more!