LinkedIn is a powerful tool. Chances are, you’ve seen plenty of successful entrepreneurs with hundreds of comments and likes on every post they put up.
Many startups wonder, “how do they do that?” and “can I get that much engagement?”
Social engagement is important. It can be an influential content and outbound strategy. As a B2B business, chances are your buyers spend some time on LinkedIn.
At the same time, as a startup founder, you cannot afford to spend all day on LinkedIn. You need to be focused on making sales. So, here’s to make the most of B2B for your marketing and sales strategy.
Know you Buyer on LinkedIn
There are lots of strategies and tools out there that can help you generate more views of your posts. Often, you’ll be advised to post as regularly as possible to build traction. But the truth is, you need quality over quantity.
As a startup, your solution is innovative and interesting. It’s unlikely that you’ll struggle to peak interest in your business. In fact, with the wrong B2B LinkedIn Strategy, you might find yourself overwhelmed with interest from the wrong people.
It may sound counterintuitive, but you don’t need a huge LinkedIn following. What’s really important is having the right connections. The people that you are connected to should be your target buyers, or suit your personas.
Therefore, the first step in startup marketing is to define who you are selling to and what problem you solve. Once you have that, you need to add connections that reflect your buyer persona. This also means deleting those that don’t meet the criteria of your target buyer.
This may include disconnecting from university or college friends. However, it’s important to remember that this ensures that your content reaches the right people, wherever possible.
There is a lot of speculation about how exactly the LinkedIn algorithm works. However, generally, if your post is performing well then it is shown to your 1st connections. Once they have engaged, or not, then it will be shown to 2nd or 3rd degree connections. These will be connections that are similar to those that engaged in your 1st connections.
Remember, you have optimized your group of 1st connections to resonate with your buyers’ persona. Therefore, your posts will appear in front of more people like those initial connections. This is ideal for expanding your audience and post reach, for conversions.
People Follow People - Not Companies
You do need to have a business LinkedIn page, as this is where you can host your business adverts. However, outside of adverts, your business page is likely to receive less interaction.
Ultimately, people want to keep updated, and engage with, people. Your connections are connected with you on the platform because they know you, or like what you do.
Therefore, you need to be the face of your company on LinkedIn. Approach people and make representations as yourself, not your brand.
If you don’t feel that this is appropriate, then ensure that someone else on your team is willing to make the approach.
Above the Scroll Content Needs to be Great
LinkedIn is full of content, and people trying to be heard. Your content needs to stand out from the noise, in order to create conversions and meaningful engagement.
Here are a few tips for engaging posts:
- Pain points: Focus on the issues that are most important in your market. Consider what problems your buyers are facing every day. This will resonate with them as they search for solutions.
- Avoid sales: Your LinkedIn posts aren’t sales pitches. Try to avoid focusing on “Look at us at this trade show” or “Look at this award that we won”. Provide value to your buyers’ browsing experience, and offer content or other useful information.
It is also important to bear in mind the structure of a LinkedIn post. Generally, posts over a certain length will have a “see more” button, with an introduction above that.
A prime B2B LinkedIn Strategy is to focus on hooking your audience, with the content above “see more”. Try to engage with a question, or point out a major pain point.
You want to encourage as many people as possible to click on the “see more”. The question should really drive engagement, and prompt further discussion. Engagement and dwell time really drives the algorithm to spread your reach further.
Guide to B2B SaaS Marketing
Utilize an Outbound Strategy with LinkedIn, Emails and Phone Calls
It is important to have relevant connections. However, do bear in mind that you can be penalized for trying to add too many connections. This can even result in your account being locked. The primary reason for this is that social algorithms identify your account as a “bot” or spam account.
However, this is a blessing in disguise. Adding lots of people, without aim, and requesting a meeting is unlikely to bear fruit. You need a far more targeted B2B LinkedIn Strategy.
The best outbound strategies lead with content. Reach out to your target buyers with personalised emails or messaging sharing a piece of content. Your content should address their concerns or issues within their market. Ideally, this will be one that you can solve.
At this point, you can interact with their content. Like some posts and engage with them. Then, you can request a connection and send a follow-up message. Build a familiarity, before expecting a purchase ASAP.
This process is referred to as a sequence of contacts. This approach has proven to be more effective, than cold-messaging out of the blue.
LinkedIn is certainly a critical tool for startups. It provides the potential to build real connections, and generate sales. However, it is just as important to consider your B2B LinkedIn strategy. Without a considered strategy, your LinkedIn might begin to work against you. Identify your goals, and provide value, as with any other outbound strategy.
You might use LinkedIn to generate leads, or just to build relationships with VCs. Whatever your goal, build a real strategy for success.
At Nituno, we provide content for your LinkedIn posts, and can help you to build meaningful connections to generate sales. Get in touch with us today for help identifying your buyer, and reaching out to them using social tools.
