4.70 billion people use social media around the world. This figure is rising and is likely to reach over 5 billion by 2027. But in such a crowded landscape, a strong approach is needed for B2B marketers to reach the right audience with the right message at the right time. Fortunately, LinkedIn’s recent upgrades for reaching and connecting with audiences make this process a little easier.

At Lexicon, we specialize in B2B marketing and using LinkedIn for executive branding. As a result, we manage dozens of accounts for busy CEOs in Thailand. Below, we’ll provide you with three ways for you to identify your ideal target audience and to start connecting and converting today.

Filter, filter, filter

Think of LinkedIn as a big networking event. Every person you connect with is a potential client. However, you can tip the scales to your advantage by pro-actively connecting with your ideal target demographics. Click here to get started.

Now that you’ve clicked, you’ll see a smorgasbord of filtering options. Use these to identify your ideal target audience. For example, all CFOs in the pharmaceutical sector in Thailand; or HR managers working for the Central Group in Bangkok.

We recommend you connect to these ideal contacts indiscriminately. These are your target clients and you can help them, so don’t be bashful. Just be sure not to spam them once they accept your connection.

Advertising Tools & Using “and” or “or”

Above we looked at the free and organic approach through your personal account. However, LinkedIn’s business pages also include many advertising options.

According to LinkedIn’s findings from recent surveys and talks with professionals who use the network, demand is growing for more diversified marketing parameters. These include factors such as work function, hobbies, seniority, and titles.

As a solution, the platform now provides marketers with increased flexibility and convenience for locating the people they need based on these characteristics. For example, if you want to reach software engineers with a senior title or above, you can create a single campaign that targets them by job title or skills, while also being precise about their years of experience and seniority level. You may further filter your target audience by excluding organizations based on their name or size.

Reaching crucial contacts

When prospecting or targeting on LinkedIn, a typical issue involves knowing who you want to contact but not having enough precise information to follow through, such as their email address.

To solve this, LinkedIn spent many months testing additional features for matched audiences such as first and last name, job titles, business name, and mobile device ID. What were the outcomes? Marketers that tested these fields experienced a 30% increase in the number of matches.

The significant benefits to notice here are that any of these areas can help you increase the number of experts in your audience, or when utilized together, improve the precision of your matches. In other words, you may utilize the platform update to micro-target and develop specialist groups while still broadening your reach.

Conclusions

Today’s advertisers all have the same concern: how can they be sure their ad funds are being spent wisely in order to connect with the correct audience and modify their campaigns accordingly?

To accommodate these priorities, LinkedIn revised its forecasting panel within its Campaign Manager. The system now lets you better identify the facts that are most critical to know before launching a campaign, such as reach, type, and expenditure. Recognizing that the panel as a cookie-cutter solution may not work for every firm, the platform has added the option to personalize it for certain criteria ranging from top sectors to years of experience to company size.

With so many tools at your disposal in the social media world, efficient marketing sometimes feels like a never-ending riddle. From balancing creative needs, to managing economic constraints, the line between success and failure is always shifting. LinkedIn’s new tools let B2B marketers focus on the single most important factor in ensuring long-term success: their audience.

With all this in mind, it’s important to remember that identifying your audience is only half the battle. You still need to engage these targets with compelling content and encourage them to take action with a clear call to action. If you need some help, we know a good social media agency with their own podcast studio and animation studio in Bangkok.

About the Author

Marisa Kallie Tongue is a brand strategist for Lexicon: an award-winning  digital storytelling agency in Thailand, specializing in telling B2B stories for brands on LinkedIn.