Using LinkedIn video ads to connect with industry contacts
While all artists understand the value of social media marketing campaigns, many often overlook LinkedIn. Often seen as a more corporate platform, LinkedIn is regularly underestimated as a vehicle for marketing content by musicians. The platform is a great option for artists looking to build on their industry contacts and reach out to individuals who could offer brand new collaborative opportunities, from managers to PRs to journalists. Often, a producer’s marketing focus is primarily on their fans, and with LinkedIn not offering fan interaction, the platform is left neglected. As well as this, many in the music industry lack an understanding of how to effectively push content on the platform. But what is the best method for artists to expand their reach on LinkedIn?
Determine your audience
One of the best ways to expand your horizons using LinkedIn is to promote yourself using a video advertising campaign. As with all social media advertising, your first step is to determine who to target. The best way to do this is to research on the platform and select a few key people who represent the kind of individual you’d like to view your video. This may be an A&R for a high-profile label or a festival organiser that may look to book you in the future. Once you have determined your core audience, look for interests that they share on the platform. Interests are a great focus for targeting your content, as LinkedIn allows you to advertise to individuals based on their interests. In order to effectively advertise based on their interests, you must get into the heads of those you’d like to target. Think about what they’d like to see on their timeline and what may entice them to engage with your video.
Create your content
Once you have determined your audience, the next step is to create a short video showcasing your talent. This may be a clip from a recent music video, live footage of a performance or even a clip of a recent release alongside suitable video footage. LinkedIn allows video ads to be between 3 seconds and 30 minutes, giving ample opportunity for showcasing your brand. All footage must be in landscape orientation rather than portrait and must be in MP4 format between 75KB and 200MB in size. With such broad guidelines, there are few limits when it comes to uploading video content on LinkedIn, providing a great opportunity for you to showcase your brand.
Grab your audience’s attention
As with all online advertising, it is imperative to grab your audience’s attention within the first 10 seconds. The majority of people have an incredibly short attention span and will likely scroll past your video if they do not feel that it will interest them. Without providing an exciting start to the video, you are sure to lose a lot of valuable views. It is vital to make sure that the start of your video encourages viewers to keep watching. You can do this by including a brief summary of what is to follow later on in the video or cut to an exciting piece of live footage early on. It is imperative that you convince your audience to keep watching. If you’re unsure whether you’ve done enough, test the video on people you know and ask them whether they would continue watching after the intro.
Test multiple variations
It is worthwhile to create multiple variations of your advert in order to test which one performs the most effectively. You may want to show your videos to friends and ask for their input on which advert is the most effective in keeping their interest. With video, there is no set formula to guarantee success, which is what makes trial and error such an integral aspect of the process. By trying out your adverts and gauging the response from those around you, you will be better able to guarantee that your chosen advert will provide the best results possible.
Look back at the analytics
After the campaign has run, it is vital to look back at the analytics and see how well it performed. Even a poorly-performing campaign has benefits to offer, as it will help you improve your content in the future. With advertising, learning from your mistakes is an integral aspect of the process, so it is important not to be disheartened if you don’t get the results you hoped for. Learning from your mistakes and improving your content as a result is one of the most integral aspects of effectively using social media to distribute your campaigns. Nobody achieves the perfect results with their first post, try and try again, soon you will find that you are achieving the engagement you desire.
Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn provides the perfect opportunity to connect with beneficial industry contacts. The important thing to remember is that your strategy for LinkedIn will not be the same as for other social media platforms where fans are your target audience. A video that works well on LinkedIn is not likely to work well on other platforms and vice versa. This does not necessarily mean that you need to start from scratch when distributing your content across platforms, you must simply make changes to allow your content to resonate with the correct audience. Even a subtle change in the tone of voice used can make your content suitable to a different target audience. Never underestimate the value of a well-orchestrated LinkedIn video advert, it may connect you with vital contacts in the industry.
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