LinkedIn is a core part of your demand gen strategy.
Why?
In B2B, it’s the number one platform for educating your audience and adding value to your industry.
A lot of companies don’t use it wisely, though. Their LinkedIn feeds are used for promoting content, rather than providing value.
No doubt you've seen it for yourself online. Companies who just drop links to blogs and podcasts, without trying to generate any engagement from their followers.
The harsh reality is this doesn’t work. Especially in a competitive space like LinkedIn.
It’s something Cognism’s marketing team has learnt the hard way.
But now, one of Cognism’s SEO and Content Executives, Binal Raval, has experimented, researched, and brainstormed on how to create a value-led approach.
And in this article, you’ll learn how and why it’s paid off. Binal spoke on Demandism Live, walking through exactly how she built a LinkedIn strategy focused on value.
She covered:
- What the goal of your LinkedIn channel should be.
- What Cognism’s LinkedIn looked like before the value-led approach.
- The types of posts that can be experimented with to create value.
And much more.
Scroll 👇 or use the menu to find out all the secrets!
The goal of a company LinkedIn page
Binal kicked off by discussing the importance of understanding your aim of the LinkedIn page:
“When you’re rethinking your approach, zoom out and go back to basics. Ask yourself, what is it I’m trying to achieve with LinkedIn?”
And the answer?
“Your LinkedIn page should purely be value-led, and not contain self-promotional content. We ourselves found this out the hard way - we weren’t seeing the results we wanted in terms of engagement and follower growth.”
Binal added:
“LinkedIn is an organic channel designed to educate your audience - that’s how you build awareness. Think of it as part of your content distribution strategy, in your overall approach to demand generation.”
So, what should a valuable LinkedIn post look like?
She said:
“The posts should include actionable takeaways, or something new and interesting for your audience to consider. And they should also help your audience to recognise and solve common pain points.”
We get it - this requires a considerable shift in mindset. And it can take some time getting used to.
But Binal has a pretty useful mantra she practises every time she shares a post on Cognism’s LinkedIn:
“I ask myself: ‘If I was scrolling through my feed, is my post valuable enough that I’m going to consume the content of it - in feed, at that moment?’”
What not to do and why
Once you’ve understood your goal, what happens next?
Well, Binal said it’s important to take a look at why your existing LinkedIn marketing strategy might not be working. Because from there you can brainstorm and understand what you’ll need to change.
She gave an example of what one of Cognism’s LinkedIn posts looked like, before the value-led approach:
“This was one of our cold calling live write-ups. Now, if I’m scrolling through this post for the first time, I’m not likely to be interrupted mid-scrolling through my feed. Because it’s just a link with a small amount of supporting text.”
These types of posts are problematic, because your audience will end up asking themselves: ‘What’s in it for me? I have no idea what this post is about.’
Binal said:
“What I should’ve done is taken a deep dive into one of the seven cold calling tips from the post. Because if you imagine an SDR scrolling through, if they landed on that type of post, they’ll immediately get one cold calling tip they can use.”
The bottom line?
Make it easy for your followers - every LinkedIn post must contain valuable info that they can take away and use without leaving the platform.
Value-led posts (by example)
That’s the theory behind what works (and doesn’t work!) on LinkedIn.
But what about the practice? What types of posts are the most successful?
This is Binal’s list, plus her tips for optimising posts that already work 👇
Text-only posts
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again.
Blog content does WONDERS for your broader content strategy and media engine.
But that’s only IF it’s distributed in a valuable way.
Enter: the magic of your LinkedIn page!
Binal explains why:
“Your blog content provides the basis for some great text-only posts, because you can zoom into specific topics.”
Here’s an example:
Binal said:
“This was taken from a blog post. And if I’m an SDR, I’ll stop, read, and relate to it. I’ll know that this is one of the challenges currently facing my role or industry.”
The key takeaway here?
Your LinkedIn channel can help you level up and share your blog content in a meaningful way.
But text posts don’t just have to be used to distribute blog content. You can create ‘storytelling posts’ as Binal explains:
“I love experimenting with these. You can share something new with your audience, based on a past experience. And hopefully, they’ll engage in return, even write a few insightful comments.”
Text and video posts
These types of posts have a lot of potential on LinkedIn 🚀
But again, the approach matters here.
Binal explained what she meant by this, giving an example of how she shares new episodes of the Revenue Champions podcast 👇
“In this post, there’s some discussion around the topic; we tag the speakers and invite the reader to listen to the full episode by saying there’s a link in the comments. This is much more effective, because there’s a key insight or takeaway in the post itself.”
The videos you use also matter. In general, it’s best to go with shorter video clips than longer ones.
“Personally, when I’m on Linkedin, I don’t have time to watch 50-minute to one-hour-long videos. What I’ve learned works best are video snippets, and each one is centered around a specific topic. These work better, because your audience can consume the episode in bitesize chunks. And then they can take away something super-actionable and valuable, really quickly.”
Carousel posts
Firstly, what’s a carousel post?
Well, it’s a way to display information, making it visually appealing.
It involves having text on a series of square-format slides that your audience can flick through. Canva is the popular tool of choice to create them.
Here’s what Binal had to say on these posts:
“I knew these were gold dust for engagement, even before the value-led approach was implemented. But when I was brainstorming this new direction, I wanted to understand how I could optimise them even further. For example, in the past we’d just use carousels for hiring posts or to promote the newsletter.”
And now? What’s changed?
Well:
“The carousels give us an opportunity to zoom into a particular topic. For example, a set of tips or a step-by-step process. And again, this content can come from your blog.”
“Then, in the actual text of the LinkedIn post I expand on the topic more generally. For example, I may include quotes from our colleagues.”
With carousels, your audience is encouraged to flick through the slides; these are very engaging for a reader, because each slide acts as a hook for the next. And the bitesize nature of the content makes it easy for the reader to digest the content, without leaving their LinkedIn feed.
Here’s an example of how a value-led carousel might look ⏬
Polls
Who doesn’t love a LinkedIn poll?
They’re one of the best ways to get an interesting conversation going because they pose questions to your audience - questions that could be contentious or even controversial.
But Binal mentioned there’s so much potential with them that goes beyond the basics:
“We’ve experimented with follow-up posts sharing the results of the poll. And these have been great because it’s another opportunity to provide even more value for our audience.”
She added:
“I think often when we’re posting to LinkedIn, it can sometimes feel like a ‘set and forget’ exercise. But polls are often a chance to change that.” 👇
It’s also worth noting that following up with the results helps your audience to not feel left out. Because then they have a chance to voice their opinion or vote, even if they missed the poll the first time around.
Where to source valuable content
Here’s the thing:
You’ll never run out of content for LinkedIn.
Binal explained:
“Your content team has spent hours outputting amazing blog articles, podcasts, newsletters etc. Use it to your advantage.”
Here are some of her go-to sources for valuable content:
- Talking to sales and marketing teams.
- Listening to customer calls.
- Blogs, newsletters, SEO pages.
- A subject matter expert - Ryan Reisert fulfils this role at Cognism.
- Other industry leaders on LinkedIn.
And this isn’t even an exhaustive list of options. The possibilities truly are endless.
Exceptions to the rule
What about when a company event comes up? Something that other members of your team have worked on - a webinar, say, or an appearance at an industry expo. How do they fit into a value-led LinkedIn strategy?
There’s no reason you can’t share that it’s happening on LinkedIn. But again, you’ve got to earn the right to do this. The way you share it is important - it has to be value-driven.
That’s how you can convince your audience it’s worth signing up to.
Binal expanded on this a bit more:
“If I post something like: ‘We’ve got an upcoming cold calling live that you can volunteer on. Here’s the date, here’s the time, be there.’ This isn’t effective - because if I’m scrolling through my feed, I won’t necessarily know what happens on this event.”
Instead, this is what you should do:
“Have a text and video post, where the video is a snippet from the previous live event you’ve done. And then in the comments, say something like: ‘This was taken from one of our cold calling lives, and here’s the link if you’d like to sign up for the next one.’ Because putting the link in the comments means it isn’t super forceful or promotional.”
Outside of this, press releases or important company updates are the only other promotional material that you should post.
Binal said:
“These are great for engagement, because they give your audience an insight into your company journey or milestones. They’ll almost feel like they’re on the journey with you.”
And it’s worth remembering the following:
“You have to be strict with yourself - remember that you’re managing the page so you don’t have to feel the pressure to take requests for posting from other team members, just because they want to get coverage on a live event.”
In a lot of cases, promoting events via your colleagues’ personal accounts, rather than the company one, can be more effective.
The results
It’s clear this strategy takes a lot of work.
But does it really pay off?
Well, for Binal this approach has worked incredibly well - and it’s happened fast. This is the growth we’ve seen ever since Binal switched up the LinkedIn strategy in Q1 2022:
Binal said:
“The success has been very quick. In mid-February time we changed things - this is when Alice came to me and said we need to change our strategy. And then the month after, we were quickly seeing the impact of the effort that we put in.”
Other tips and tricks
Binal finished up by talking about some last-minute tips that can help you refine a value-led approach.
In other words, things that you might not immediately think of, but are important. Such as:
- The best times to post are Monday to Friday, at 1pm and 5pm.
- Agorapulse is a good platform to use; it allows you to schedule and track the progress of LinkedIn posts.
- It’s worth replying to comments with more than just ‘good point’. For example, ask follow-up questions to build a sense of community on your feed.
- If you’re stuck for inspiration, Binal recommends looking at competitors and other companies who do well on LinkedIn. For example, during her research phase, the posts from Chris Walker and Refine Labs’ LinkedIn inspired her approach towards text-video posts.
- Don’t have a rigid content plan - the more flexible it is the more fun you can have with your LinkedIn posting.
- And finally, if you’re managing a LinkedIn page for the first time, Binal said it’s important to upskill. She recommended Devin Reed’s LinkedIn course as a good starting point.
Scaling a company LinkedIn page: key takeaways
Let’s recap the key points to remember when building and developing your value-led approach for LinkedIn:
- Remember the goal of your LinkedIn channel. It’s not for promotional material - it should contain valuable content only. The only other exception should be press releases or company news.
- Experiment with different post types, and optimise on the posts that you know already work well. In other words, maximise the use of your quick wins.
- Source valuable content from blog articles, customer calls, your sales and marketing teams, and even from LinkedIn itself.
- Check out the latest 2023 LinkedIn statistics to get more insights on how to scale your LinkedIn company page.
Last but not least - if you want to learn more from Binal and Cognism’s marketing leaders, then watch the video below. You’ll see their full discussion about a demand gen content strategy.
