Even though it’s a professional network, Linkedin is still social media. Personal posts tend to outperform every other kind when it comes to engagement.

“The way I like to think about it… is that every piece of content has its own total addressable market. And you have to think about, well, who am I trying to reach with this thing?”
– Daniel Roth, LinkedIn’s Editor in Chief.
(Source: Entrepreneur)

Why You Need a Different Approach to Growing on LinkedIn

The other week, I was speaking with a prospective client, who wanted my help to improve his SaaS company’s LinkedIn engagement. 

More specifically, he wanted help with promoting thought leadership content to increase lead quality and overall brand awareness. He already had a strategy in place, which included some very clever and effective scroll-stopping tactics. Even more impressive, engagement for his posts was surprisingly high.

But something seemed… off. After a few probing questions my prospective client revealed that his engagement numbers weren’t “real”. The engagement was coming from traffic that had been redirected from external sources (not organically through Linkedin).

Even worse, most of the people commenting and reacting to his post didn’t even match his ICP. They came from unrelated industries and so of course they weren’t converting at any stage of the funnel.

As an alternative, I walked him through my LinkedIn strategy with some examples of posts that he could be making.

But what actually piqued his interest was the moment I pointed out that part of my strategy was posting “personal shares.” These are posts that typically show off the author, their family, or something else personal that’s unrelated to business. The prospect went from curious to intrigued, asking why we’d do this.

I told him: “It’s Linkedin, but it’s still social media. These posts tend to outperform every other kind when it comes to engagement.”

The prospect smiled and admitted that, of all his tactics, the posts that included an image of himself got the most engagement. Then, he confessed he felt embarrassed because he couldn’t top the engagement of personal shares through more strategic and industry-relevant posts.

But is that actually a problem? To me, this anecdote reveals that Linkedin is a place for genuine connection, as well as information. 

Because LinkedIn is such an essential channel for building B2B brand authority, we’ve developed a strategy that can help you leverage LinkedIn better. 

We hope that our advice can help you generate qualified leads, improve your overall inbound pipeline, and nurture strategic relationships through genuine thought leadership.

How We Generate Qualified Leads Through Linkedin

According to LinkedIn’s 2023 B2B marketing annual report, 36% of leaders in B2B are planning to invest in lead generation more than any other marketing effort. 

A focus on brand building (30% of leaders) comes in as the second most popular marketing investment.

But what does “brand building” actually look like in practice? LinkedIn’s report tells us that the main focus for executives and marketing leaders revolves around 2 key topics:

1. Storytelling and creative methods of connecting with the target audience

2. Growing brand awareness.

Additionally, LinkedIn is something of a “go-to source” for B2B marketers, as compared to YouTube (63%), Facebook (57%), Instagram (52%), Twitter (39%), and others (<17%).

We created this strategy specifically for B2B SMBs and early- to medium-stage startups.

The goal of our approach is simple: make LinkedIn a consistent inbound marketing channel for your company.

You can achieve that through a value-based approach to posting coupled with organic (and not annoying!) outreach.

Tactics and Execution - Additional Reading

This post will focus mostly on the why behind our LinkedIn strategy.

If you’d like an in-depth walkthrough of the tactics you’ll need to apply these principles in your own work, I put together the following guide for you on my LinkedIn profile: Transform Your LinkedIn Profile Into a Lead-Generating Machine With This 30-Minute Daily Strategy.

My other guide covers what these tactics are, why they work, and how to execute on them:

• 4 key post types - value bombs, story posts, queries, and personal shares

• Commenting, connecting, and sharing - engagement and connection that organically expands your network through genuine exchanges

• 2 additional post types for B2B - promotional posts and announcements

• Consistent engagement from qualified leads - comments and reactions come from relevant industry professionals and job titles that match your ideal customer profile

• Utilizing LinkedIn for content distribution - nurturing your new prospects via thought leadership posts, informational guides, comparison posts, case studies, etc.

For SMBs and resource-constrained startups in the B2B space, this strategy can mean truly bringing your brand to market. Content distribution and awareness are possible.

You truly can grow your brand presence through a combination of meticulous user research, thought leadership, and posting helpful content. And the best part? By following this strategy, you’ll establish your company’s name in the minds (and hearts) of your ideal clients.

The Philosophy Behind Our Strategy

While it may be tempting to focus solely on the number of connections or the size of your network, measurable success on LinkedIn comes from fostering meaningful interactions and then cultivating those relationships.

In an Entrepreneur article covering recent changes to LinkedIn’s algorithm, their core team members gave us some valuable insights into not only specific algorithm changes, but the philosophy and goals behind them.

“For us, the most important part of the equation is, Do we believe we’re helping our members be and feel more productive and more successful?”
– Alice Xiong, Director of Product, LinkedIn Search.

If the point of the platform is to help professionals succeed, then relationships on LinkedIn start with providing content that is helpful for improving professional skills and knowledge.

Value Creation and Knowledge Sharing 

Providing value to your LinkedIn network establishes you as a knowledgeable and helpful professional within your industry.

Sharing valuable insights, industry trends, and other relevant content positions you as a go-to resource for your network. But there’s another reason to adopt a value-focused mindset when it comes to LinkedIn: it helps you get to know your audience.

LinkedIn wants content that’s targeted at a highly specific audience.

To create content that benefits a targeted audience, you need to become an expert on their specific pain points. That’s where your content creation and research also become dependent on sustained long-term engagement with the people whom you are trying to reach.

Long-Term Engagement

When asked  how engagement through commenting affects a post’s reach within a user’s LinkedIn network, Roth answered:

“Meaningful comments.. [are not stuff like] ‘great!’... ‘so true!’”

Look, if you want your post to be seen far and wide, then meaningful comments are now par for the course. And you need to try harder than simply affirming that the original poster did a good job.

Okay then, what are “meaningful comments”?

For starters, relevant industry professionals (not just your coworkers and friends) should be the ones noticing your posts and chiming in.

“Because we have the professional profile of record… It helps us be able to make sure that we are getting the right content to the right people.”
– Daniel Roth.

This also means that your qualifications as the author of a post will come into play when determining the relevancy of your content. That leaves you with very little wiggle room if your goal is long-term engagement.

Simply put, share information and advice that you’re qualified to give, and make it clear who the relevant audience you mean to address is. Only then can you expect to become a regular member of your ideal client’s feed and establish a fruitful line of communication.

Change Your Mindset & Research Your Audience 

SMBs in B2B (especially SaaS) know that leads and qualified leads are very different things.

According to MarketSplash’s 2023 lead generation statistics, B2B tech has an average lead conversion rate of 1.7%, one of the lowest of any industry.

How do you solve this problem?

Start with a mindset shift. Know that fun selfies have their place, but traffic and engagement for the sake of popularity doesn’t mean you’re getting an ROI.

To unleash the power of LinkedIn, along with posting, you must proactively research your audience. Don’t sit back passively and hope that your published content will reveal them to you.

Once you’ve started putting out content that’s only valuable to a select audience, and you’re sending out connection requests to that same audience, and no other, then your network will organically become a qualified, targeted one.

After you’ve connected with and won the attention of this coveted network of relevant professionals and industry influencers, that’s when you can seize new opportunities in the form of organic content distribution.

Establish Thought Leadership and Brand Visibility

Thought leadership showcases a B2B company’s expertise by starting the conversation in a way that no one else has.

A unique perspective, insight, or method of solving a trending problem within an industry is one of the most efficient methods of getting on people’s radars. This means that thought leadership posts work to lay the foundation for your brand’s reputation and credibility.

By publishing valuable content in the form of thought leadership, you can effectively grow your brand and connect with your target audience at the same time.

Generate Qualified Leads

Intelligent use of the LinkedIn platform will allow you to not only find and connect with your target audience, but to become known, liked, and trusted by them. Who wouldn’t want that?

Trust  alone could potentially lead to conversations that become sales calls or referrals. However, a more proactive approach would be to strike while the proverbial iron is hot, and begin distributing content strategically to the people who you’d like to reach out to you.

I find that BOFU content and case studies, in particular, improve conversions, and  tend to make good conversation starters when promoted through posts on LinkedIn.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, LinkedIn offers B2B businesses like yours an  opportunity to connect with a specific audience, engage with them, and distribute relevant content that appeals to their interests.

By adopting a mindset for long-term success and utilizing our tactics, your business can use LinkedIn to establish thought leadership, enhance brand visibility, and start generating the kind of leads that become clients. 

Take the first step towards building your brand and achieving your marketing goals by adopting this LinkedIn strategy. 

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And if you want some help implementing a LinkedIn strategy like the one I’ve described here… send us an email.