The B2B marketing landscape has experienced significant upheaval and growth over the past five years.
In 2024, while mainstays like personalization and content marketing remain vital, generative AI and real-time analytics are rapidly evolving.
Whether it's lead generation, engagement, or retention, LinkedIn remains one of the best (and only) social media platforms that guarantee B2B marketing success.
In the past year, starting from July 2023, I’ve seen my following grow organically from 0 to 11k.
Article Shortcuts:
- Strategic Content Creation That Engages and Converts
- Using LinkedIn's Unique Features to Boost Engagement
- Building Meaningful Connections Through Effective Marketing
- Navigating LinkedIn Advertising for Maximum Impact
- Anticipating LinkedIn's Role in Future of B2B Marketing
This growth came from maintaining a consistent posting schedule of 2-3 times a week, actively engaging in comment sections, researching relevant topics, and experimenting with various content formats until I found what resonated with my audience (more on that later).
Without LinkedIn's extensive reach and features, these stats would have been nearly impossible.
The Transformation of LinkedIn for B2B Marketing
From its original objective to serve as a peer-to-peer communication platform and later a job posting and application portal, LinkedIn has mushroomed into a channel that B2B entrepreneurs and marketers can use to
- find and nurture leads,
- develop connections and build relationships, and
- create and capitalize on business opportunities.
LinkedIn’s management has taken steady steps to support these functions. As recently since the start of this year, they've introduced features like:
- Messaging to and from Company Pages
- Collaborative articles, including Sponsored Collaborative Articles
- AI support when creating and analyzing posts
And since many of these features are built on top of emerging and shifting trends, no one is an expert just yet, including big businesses and agencies. It’s as level a playing field that smaller businesses can expect.
So the time has never been more ripe for small and mid-sized businesses to secure their footing and become masters in the LinkedIn B2B marketing domain.
Here are a few ways to hone in on the perfect leads and bag them before anyone else.
Strategic Content Creation That Engages and Converts
Generic content is the equivalent of asking for directions and being answered with a vague hand gesture.
Your audience isn't going to be impressed by whataboutery; it’s specific, relevant content that’ll speak to them. Segment your audience by
- Industry
- Job title
- Seniority
- Location, etc.
LinkedIn’s algorithm pushes content based on past user behavior and relevance. Posts targeting specific firmographics and demographics, such as CMOs of SMEs, are likelier to appear in their feeds.
Make sure your LinkedIn post caption fits the interest of your target audience to get their attention faster.
Monitor performance data to uncover segment-specific patterns. For instance, my LinkedIn posts about cold email marketing strategies performed best when presented in the carousel format.
Personal backstories also resonate well with B2B audiences. Posts like these humanize your brand and build emotional connections that turn leads from skeptics to paying customers to brand loyalists and finally, brand evangelists.
Disruptive industry developments and algorithm updates from Google or other platforms are also great talking points.
Always seek to provide value in your content. For example, when posting a carousel, leave a link to a detailed blog post in the comments. Or share an infographic and explain how readers can use your free tool related to it.
Include a CTA in each post. Encourage readers to subscribe to your newsletter to stay updated or inform them about an upcoming series on the topic.
Using LinkedIn's Unique Features to Boost Engagement
Evergreen content remains essential, but interactive content drives conversations and provides insights beyond comments and shares. LinkedIn offers multiple ways to open two-way streams of communication with your target audience.
The LinkedIn Live feature lets you answer questions and address comments in real time. Go to Events and select the LinkedIn Live option.
Scheduling your Live in advance ensures better attendance. You can also seek audience input on desired topics.
Host external events on your website, a third-party platform, or at a physical location. Promote these with a custom banner and by tagging speakers.
The Live Audio Event feature allows listeners to “call in” and speak with the hosts.
Collaborations can boost event popularity. Inviting a professional from a complementary niche or an expert in your audience's area of interest increases ROI. You can send up to 1,000 invites per week, so schedule events in advance based on your invite goals.
The easiest way to spark conversation is through Polls. To create one, click ‘Start a post’ at the top of your feed, then select the ‘poll’ option after clicking on the ‘+’ sign.
Track the performance of individual posts as well as your profile by clicking on the 'Insights' tab in your account and then selecting 'LinkedIn Analytics'.
It also offers audience demographic breakdowns so that you can rework your content strategy to appeal to them.
Building Meaningful Connections Through Effective Networking
Of all the means to start a conversation and build a connection on LinkedIn, commenting ‘Well said’ and ‘Agreed’ on posts isn't the most effective. For those of us with comment paralysis, here's an easy guide:
- Pick a specific part of the post you want to comment on — an actionable tip, a proposition, an anecdote — and state your views. Specific compliments and questions trump vague ones, and are easier to respond to.
- Ask them a follow-up question. You can ask for clarification or elaboration, or ways to execute their advice.
- Engage with another commenter (this one is best used sparingly), but politely. Nobody appreciates a warmonger in their comment section.
Accounts with large followings are likelier to notice a comment over a DM, but if you just can't think of anything to say, there are other ways to engage.
DM the author expressing how some of their posts have blown you away and you want to/already have subscribed to their newsletter. With prior permission, repost their content with your own message to your audience while giving them due credit.
Feature their post in your blog or email newsletter and share the link with a snippet attached. These tactics work with connections, followers, and fellow group members.
After engaging with their posts a few times, consider reaching out to them and sending them a connection request. Remind them of your previous interaction(s), and continue the conversation by sharing a related resource or asking for their opinion on a connected topic.
Navigating LinkedIn Advertising for Maximum Impact
Awareness is integral to B2B SaaS selling. In a recent study, 81% of the 500+ B2B buyers ended up buying a product already known to everyone in the buyer group since Day 1. Only 4% were willing to take a chance with a lesser-known alternative.
LinkedIn’s advertising options can shore up gaps between your current and desired market penetration. Depending on your goals, budget, and target audience, you can choose from any one or more of these:
- Sponsored Content
- Sponsored Messages
- Lead gen forms, and
- Dynamic Ads (personalized with the lead’s name, photo, and other profile details)
To get the most bang for your buck, try Account-Based Marketing. Use pre-existing info or a B2B database, to compile a list of companies and individuals to target through Ads.
Filter companies according to ICP criteria like industry, location, size, technology used, etc.
Upload the list to LinkedIn to create the audience for your Ad.
Hunter also provides you with the names and email addresses of decision-makers in each of these companies.
Use them to combine your LinkedIn campaign with cold email outreach for impactful results.
Anticipating LinkedIn's Role in Future B2B Marketing
B2B marketing trends and buzzwords don’t normally become overnight sensations, but you should keep tabs on industry leaders and competitors to shock-proof your business.
Current LinkedIn updates seem poised to provide users with even more precise audience targeting and highly customized content feeds, making it pivotal for content to cater to specific segments, if it doesn’t already.
With AI playing an increasingly important role, including writing posts, expect to see generative AI tools making their way to more functions, like data analysis and post optimization.
Brand-building and CX-enriching efforts can also benefit from the use of generative AI.
And if the launch of Metaverse and VR headsets by the two biggest tech players is anything to go by, then be it networking mixers or product demos, Virtual Reality events will be the future of brand communication on LinkedIn too. Start educating and preparing yourself and your team to stay adaptable.
We’ve also started seeing integrations between CRM software, outreach automation platforms, and data analysis tools with AI performing oversight functions. If your systems have so far worked parallelly, now would be a good time to start building a cohesive ecosystem.
Conclusion
As LinkedIn pulls out all the stops to keep users glued, including launching games (yes, you heard that right!), and a dedicated video feed, the opportunities to connect with your audience will only increase in number and scale.
So if you haven’t been prioritizing the platform for your B2B marketing efforts all this while, you need to get in the game now.
Leverage LinkedIn’s unique features and analytic capabilities to build meaningful connections with your leads and nurture them, and unlock its full potential to propel your business to new heights.
Author Bio
Antonio is an outreach manager at Hunter. For the last three years, he’s been helping SaaS companies grow their organic traffic and revenue through link building. At Hunter, Antonio is leading a link-building and outreach team to build backlinks that move the needle and connect with industry leaders. To get in touch and follow his experiments, say hi on LinkedIn.
