Are you a business owner looking at ways to increase the visibility of your brand and generate fresh leads? If so, LinkedIn could be the best channel to improve your business-to-business (B2B) marketing efforts, and in this article, we will look at a number of tools that can help you get your desired results.
Our list of the 7 best LinkedIn tools is an ideal repository for future reference, with each tool having its own specialized capabilities and benefits.
Why is LinkedIn a Powerful Marketing Tool?
LinkedIn can be an excellent marketing tool, but like any online platform, it entirely depends on the user and the amount of planning and strategy that is put into it. A lazy strategy will probably get poor results, whereas a detailed marketing strategy that considers every aspect can get the most out of this fantastic platform.
LinkedIn has millions of users and is a great place for networking. This means that your target audience is almost guaranteed to be using the platform - it is up to you to reach them. Of course, LinkedIn can be used as a direct sales tool, but it can sometimes be more beneficial to build relationships with individuals in your industry and potential customers.
One way of grabbing people’s attention is by establishing your business as a thought leader in the industry, developing trust, and building your brand. Take the time to engage with other people’s content and share your knowledge and experience - letting people know your LinkedIn page is a valuable resource.
Successful marketing takes time and effort, but the rewards can be significant.
Who Can Benefit from LinkedIn Marketing?
There are many users who can benefit from LinkedIn marketing in order to achieve a range of results. Individuals and organizations that can benefit from LinkedIn marketing include:
- Businesses offering B2B services and products
- Businesses looking to increase the visibility of their brand
- Businesses looking to hire top candidates
- Businesses and organizations looking to establish themselves as a thought leader
- Recruiters looking to pair businesses with potential candidates
Helpful Marketing Products within the LinkedIn Platform
From analytics to generating leads, there are several LinkedIn marketing tools that are available within the platform itself, some free, others available for purchase via a subscription service. In this section, we will look at the most powerful marketing tool on LinkedIn, Sales Navigator.
What is LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a powerful lead targeting tool that can help users locate the right people within a company, help to keep track of personnel changes within a company, and reach out and engage with potential prospects. In the right hands, this tool can be one of the most effective forms of sales software on the web.
This is a premium option within LinkedIn, with the cheapest package (Core) costing $79.99 a month, while the most expensive package can vary depending on the number of users and overall requirements.
The tool can perform a range of functions that include recommending leads, providing sales updates in real-time, integrating with external customer relationship management (CRM) systems, Microsoft Outlook integration, direct messaging, and more.
If you think this software could help to boost your LinkedIn marketing campaigns, then you can request a free trial or a free demo of the software.
7 LinkedIn Tools to hit your Marketing Goals
Let’s look at 7 of the most effective tools for a successful LinkedIn marketing campaign. We will look at tools that assist with tasks such as lead generation, post automation, audience targeting, and more.
Social Pilot
Social Pilot is the full package to take care of all your LinkedIn content needs, assisting with the scheduling of posts, social media collaboration, identifying new and engaging content, and helping to build campaigns that incorporate visual media.
Besides helping to create amazing LinkedIn posts and content, Social Pilot also generates analytics that can be downloaded as a PDF. The analytics provided are extremely detailed, recording audience insights and metrics, top-performing posts, and identifying influencers for your brand.
As well as LinkedIn, it can be used for a host of other social media platforms such as Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram.
Pros
- Advanced content creation functionality
- Comprehensive analytics
- Can work across a range of social media platforms
Cons
- Is purely content-based and does not assist with audience targeting or lead generation
Aeroleads
This is one of our favorite LinkedIn lead contact tools, providing email IDs and phone numbers of prospects to give your sales team the edge over competitors. Processes can be fully automated with customizable messages based on the type of lead that is being targeted - a real time saver that can get results. Aeroleads is also compatible with all the top CRM options.
Pros
- All information provided is relevant and constantly updated
- Compatible with a range of CRMs
- Data can be exported as a .csv file
- Available as a Google Chrome extension
Cons
- The user interface needs modernization
- Credit-based system that charges even if a lead does not convert
- Some minimal lagging issues
Iconosquare
Iconosquare made its name as a marketing tool for Instagram but has recently been updated to include LinkedIn analytics, creating very detailed reports that provide great insight into the effectiveness of your LinkedIn page. This is one of the preferred LinkedIn tools for over 10,000 businesses, including household names such as IKEA.
Pros
- Provides detailed analytics
- Trusted by leading organizations
Cons
- Purely an analytical tool and would need to be combined with other LinkedIn marketing tools to create a more complete suite of software.
Crystal
Crystal differs from the aforementioned LinkedIn tools and is a personality assessment platform. Crystal can help businesses categorize the personalities of customers, employees, and business owners to help understand different demographics and improve audience targeting.
Understanding your audience is paramount to a successful marketing campaign, and this tool is great for creating user profiles. In addition, Crystal can also assess the professional strengths of individuals within the business.
Pros
- Largest personality assessment tool on the market
- Helps to improve communication to better reach specific demographics
Cons
- Some question marks over the accuracy of some of the information provided
Dux-Soup
Another great lead generation tool that can fully automate the process of building a prospects list. Dux-Soup allows you to view the profiles of prospects, find email addresses, track the activity of prospects, and send direct messages that can be personalized for each individual.
There is also a handy note feature to help organize your activity.
Pros
- Prospect lists can be downloaded and added to CRM software
- High-speed profile sorting to find relevant prospects
Cons
- Slightly clunky user interface
- Some bugs still need to be ironed out
- One of the more expensive tools on our list
LeadFeeder
LeadFeeder is an extremely popular LinkedIn marketing tool that allows users to view which companies and users within a company have visited their website, while also providing a list of interests of the individual. This helps to target leads that have shown they are actively interested in your services, improving the conversion rate of your sales team.
Pros
- Can be linked to analytical tools, CRM software, and other reporting software
- Shows LinkedIn connections between you and the lead
Cons
- A bit of a learning curve when setting up filters
- The results could be a little more comprehensive considering the overall cost of the software
Zopto
Zopto is a clever little tool that can improve the visibility of your LinkedIn profile and assist with audience targeting. Zopto has a range of filtering options and allows users to view LinkedIn profiles that can be used to generate prospect lists or expand their professional network.
The best part about Zopto is the automation functionality, helping to build numerous campaigns that target different audiences, increasing the return on investment of your marketing activity. The software is also complete with A/B testing to determine what works and what doesn’t.
Pros
- Advanced automation functionality to build specific campaigns
- An impressive number of filtering options
- A/B testing
Cons
- This tool also falls into the more expensive bracket on our list
LinkedIn is an extraordinary asset when it comes to marketing, and many of these tools can help make your experience easier and more successful. We hope some of the tools we have listed are exactly what you are looking for and can help you achieve your LinkedIn marketing goals.