Product Updates LinkedIn Messaging for Higher Education Marketers

New User Experience and Marketing Capabilities on LinkedIn Messaging

As a higher education marketer, you know how hard it is to create and distribute engaging content that reaches the right people. You’ve spent hours crafting blog posts, whitepapers, and resources on your program offerings and campus life resources. Now comes the hard part: where can you show off your hard work?

LinkedIn is one of the most popular platforms used by professionals. It’s also an excellent place for businesses to reach out to potential students. But with all of this opportunity comes competition—and LinkedIn is no exception!

With the recent LinkedIn sponsored messaging updates, it is now possible for marketers like you to reach potential students with a message that speaks directly to them. This new feature will allow you more flexibility in sending messages to prospective students—and ensure those messages aren’t lost in the noise of sponsored content.

Focused Inbox Organizes Messages In a More Engaging Way

Users will soon be able to filter their inbox to look at Focused vs. Other messages more quickly. This new organization allows more relevant messages to appear in the “Focused” tab while allowing users to easily reach their remaining messages in the “Other” tab. The caveat is that all Conversation Ads will appear under the Focused tab, and higher education marketers must make sure that their messages stand out and “cut through the clutter.”

Ideally, Conversation Ads will be able to stand out by doing one of the following:

1. Send message ads from reliable, “real” senders
2. Make sure the ad copy is not a gimmick. Focus ad messaging on relevant, intriguing messages to engage potential students.
3. Include a strong message headline and content that provides a solid incentive to encourage the user to open it
4. Include a tangible offer, whether it’s a tuition incentive, stats about careers/salaries, or a question that piques their interest
5. Give more good content the student will want to continue engaging with

Remember that LinkedIn provides unique targeting capabilities to reach potential students based on their job titles, location, and skills listed on their profiles. These targeting options will help you create meaningful and personalized messaging.

Goodbye LinkedIn Messaging InMail and Legacy Ads

LinkedIn messaging updates will have some noticeable effects for users. Soon, members will no longer see the prefix “Inmail” in their inboxes. The Conversation Ads mentioned above are taking over the Legacy Message ads. Any ad accounts still running Legacy message ads will see an impact, as these are sunsetting in Q2 next year.

For those still running message ads, you will want to start developing new Conversation Ads now to take advantage of better performance and continuous delivery in the new year.

The Collaboration Between LinkedIn Messaging Ad Types

Imagine if you could engage with prospective students by leveraging their interest in specific degree programs rather than just hoping they’ll respond to general messages about the school. And what if you could do it directly from the Newsfeed, with one-click messaging?

LinkedIn is always looking for ways to help advertisers and members connect. Their inclusion of Click-to-Message Ads is just another step in helping them do so.

Click-to-Message Ads are a new format that combines Sponsored Content and Conversation Ads, but the biggest difference is the action that happens immediately after clicking the CTA. When users see Sponsored Content in their newsfeed, they can click on a call-to-action that opens messaging instead of taking the user directly to the landing page. Click-to-Message Ads are expected to result in more engagement than Conversation Ads alone, while the standard Sponsored Content ads have historically driven the most conversions. Combining the two ad types will give advertisers the best of both worlds.

By leveraging these two ad types, advertisers can now take advantage of Sponsored Content’s ability to reach specific audiences while also using Conversation Ads’ ability to engage them once they’ve been reached. This means that marketers won’t have to choose between engaging prospects or having an impact on them—they can do both!

Resources to Help you Design and Deploy the Right Digital Marketing Strategy

That duality of purpose is what makes LinkedIn’s latest announcements so exciting. While the focus today is clearly on user experience, it’s equally clear that LinkedIn has a solid grasp on how advertisers want to connect with engaged users. It will be interesting to see how schools leverage the new Sponsored Messaging Ad features in the coming months. If LinkedIn is already part of your marketing strategy, working with your EDDY digital marketing team is the best way to prepare for these upcoming changes to develop strong creative reaching the right audiences