I’ve been playing around with some new functionality on LinkedIn and decided to test out their polling feature by running one of my own. I’m always keen to ‘nerd out’ on new tools (and who doesn’t love a bit of marketing data?), so I thought I’d try it out by asking my connections their thoughts on getting new leads.
Based on my test – and knowing that clients can benefit from this new tool, too – here’s information on how to set up a poll for your LinkedIn connections (as well as a few other polling options you might want to try), some notes on what I learned from mine and a few recommendations based on the poll results.
How to set up and run a quick poll in LinkedIn
Setting up a LinkedIn poll is pretty straightforward – and you can set up a poll from either your desktop or mobile device – but LinkedIn also has a helpful FAQ page with answers about poll creation, voting and editing.
Once you’re logged into your account, you can create a poll from your LinkedIn home page, or if you’re an admin for a LinkedIn Page or a LinkedIn Group you can create a poll for those, too.
To create a poll from your home page:
- Click on Start a post, then click on Create a poll at the bottom of the pop-up box:
- A Create a poll window will pop up. Here, you can type a question and fill in answer options. Note that there’s a minimum of two options and a maximum of four options per poll. You’ll also need to choose the Poll duration from the dropdown (default is set at one week).
Once this is done, you have the option to select who you want to share your poll with. I chose to ask my own connections, but there are other options too.
When you’re ready to launch, click Post. You’ll be notified (in the app) about the first and subsequent votes. If you prefer, notifications can be turned off via the Responses to your posts, comments and polls setting.
My LinkedIn poll results
For my own poll, I asked my connections to answer the question, “What is your biggest challenge in getting quality leads for your business?” and provided three answer choices. Here were the results:
Clearly, the majority of those who responded feel that reaching their target market is the biggest challenge in getting leads, so we’ll take another look at this below.
Other polling places
By the way, LinkedIn isn’t the only place where you can take a poll or quick survey. In fact, you can take polls now in Zoom meetings, during Facebook Live events (as well as run polls on brand awareness if you’re running Facebook Ads), and in MailChimp, just to name a few. All of these platforms help provide options for learning more about your team, customers and prospects.
A few tips on reaching your target market
I learned something from my poll (and that’s the goal after all, right?): My connections were concerned about reaching their target market. So, on that note, here are a few tips and recommendations:
- Know who your target market is (and is not) – Even though in my poll, people said that identifying their target market wasn’t their biggest concern, it’s critical to know. Many businesses make the mistake of thinking that their products or services are for everyone, but this is rarely the case. You need to define your target audience(s) very carefully and specifically in terms of age, location, income, role, etc. Knowing your target market is key to creating and delivering communications and marketing campaigns that speak to them directly.
- Know their needs – What are the problems and pain points of your target group(s)? How does your product or service solve their problems? You may need to ask them directly (or, how about taking a poll?). Once you know their struggles, you’ll know where to direct your focus and communicate with them, showing that you understand them, their needs and concerns and want to help them find a solution.
- Know where they ‘hang out’ – What media do they use? Television? Radio? Newspapers? Facebook? Online search? What events do they go to? What trade associations might they belong to? Once you know where your target market is most likely to go for information (where they ‘hang out’) you can better select advertising and communication methods and use these accordingly.
Need help creating a poll, learning more about or reaching your target marketing? Contact Breathe Marketing today.
