4 ways to drive results with LinkedIn content marketing

iFor B2B marketers, LinkedIn is considered the most effective of the major social media platforms, and not just for recruiting (read our Social Media Pocket Guide for additional insight). 94% of B2B companies surveyed by the Content Marketing Institute use LinkedIn to distribute content, more than any other major social platform.¹

Although the network’s user growth has been growing steadily to half a billion users over the past five years², the number of articles and social media shares has recently seen more explosive growth.³

If you have a B2B content marketing strategy, and you’re ready to make LinkedIn content marketing your priority here are four ways to get started:

Make content marketing a priority or focus your efforts elsewhere.⁴
Content Marketing Institute

Before launching a LinkedIn content marketing campaign, as with any digital campaign, LinkedIn recommends that you first identify who you want to reach, and what you want them to do once you’ve reached them. To identify the “who,” ask yourself questions about your audience like what are the common attributes of the ideal customer, what are their job titles and interests, and what problem are they looking to solve. To identify the “what,” decide if you’re looking for engagement and responses or click-throughs and conversions.⁵

LinkedIn can help you achieve “very precise reach” with your LinkedIn content marketing campaign.⁶ There are three ways to reach your target audience through paid ads:

• Target members using profile-based demographic information
• Re-target visitors from your website
• Upload lists of contacts or companies for your account-based marketing efforts

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for amplifying your campaign. LinkedIn recommends A/B testing no more than two targeting demographics in addition to location. Once your campaign is up and running, demographic reporting provides a detailed breakdown of who has clicked your ads, enabling you to see how your content is performing with different subsets of your audience.⁸

Content that misses the mark usually does so first by failing to know its audience, and second by failing to connect meaningfully with that audience.⁹ - Content Marketing Institute

To create a more responsive, compelling, and satisfying experience for your customers and prospects, you need stop relying on “random” one-off posts to broadcast your message. In the 2017 State of Social Engagement study, Lithium (now Khoros) discovered that less than one-third of brands are using storytelling effectively. In addition to presenting story arcs and themes to make consumers care about your brand, keep these guidelines in mind when developing your LinkedIn content marketing campaign:

• Successful posts follow 5 P’s, they are: personal, practical, professional, portray a path for change, and point toward peak experiences ¹⁰
• Long-form content (over 1,000 words) ranks higher, is engaged with and shared more often ¹¹
• How-to posts dominate headlines for the most shared content ¹²
• Consumers would rather watch video about a product than read about it ¹³

This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you want your content shared you have to share it. According to LinkedIn, “The most effective content has authors who are passionate about amplifying it.¹⁴ For content to reach its full potential, either pay to distribute it or encourage your own employees to share it.¹⁵ Better yet, do both.

An analysis of the impact of employee sharing found that just one employee sharing 3x per day can add up to 23 million in additional reach and 60,000 additional engagement occasions with your content per year.

Implement these four ways to drive results in your LinkedIn content marketing strategy today. Lithium Social Media Management (now Khoros Care and Marketing) can help you manage social campaigns and responses with precision and efficiency.

For more information on how to best use LinkedIn for your marketing needs, read our Social Media Pocket Guide.

¹ B2B Content Marketing Report - 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America
² Fortune - LinkedIn Claims Half a Billion Users
³ Content Marketing Institute - LinkedIn Publishing Trends Every Marketer Must Know
⁴ Content Marketing Institute - Content Marketing Takes a Turn for the Better: New 2017 Research
⁵ LinkedIn Sophisticated Sessions - Know Your Audience
⁶ MarketingLand - How To Get Started With LinkedIn Paid Ads
⁷ LinkedIn - Unleashing LinkedIn's Targeting Capabilities
⁸ LinkedIn - Unleashing LinkedIn's Targeting Capabilities
⁹ Content Marketing Institute - LinkedIn Leader Shares How to Build a High-Performance Content Marketing Team
¹⁰ Content Marketing Institute - LinkedIn Publishing Trends Every Marketer Must Know
¹¹ LinkedIn - The most effective content marketing slows down – and goes long
¹² Content Marketing Institute - LinkedIn Publishing Trends Every Marketer Must Know
¹³ Animoto - The 2015 Video Marketing Cheat Sheet [Infographic]
¹⁴ LinkedIn - The most effective content marketing slows down – and goes long
¹⁵ LinkedIn - The most effective content marketing slows down – and goes long
¹⁶ LinkedIn - The most effective content marketing slows down – and goes long
¹⁷ LinkedIn - The impact of employee content sharing: it’s big!