In modern marketing, getting your message to the right audience is key. But if you want to reach business professionals, reaching them when they’re ready to do business is critical.
Reaching your target audience when they’re in a ready-to-do-business mindset is particularly crucial on social media. Sure, your buyers enjoy watching a skateboarder roll down a hill while lip-synching to Fleetwood Mac and drinking Ocean Spray Cran-Raspberry juice. LinkedIn is different, though, and it’s different by design. It’s a place where professionals nurture relationships and grow their careers. If your business message is sandwiched between the skateboarder and your best friend’s vacation photos, it’ll feel out of place.
Pugs: Adorable! But not great for B2B marketing.
Our new brand campaign, which debuts in the U.S. and U.K. today, uses the “meme-able” visual language of the Internet to demonstrate that LinkedIn is the way to reach your key audience when they’re ready to do business. On LinkedIn, videos of pugs in bunny costumes look out of place because your target audience is thinking business thoughts, not "pugs in costumes" thoughts.
That’s why our new motto for marketers on LinkedIn is this: “Do business where business is done.” In other words, meet your audience where they’re in a professional mindset, ready to do business. And when you do, share content with professional value.
Here are a few types of content that will connect with an audience ready to do business.
Thought Leadership Content
Readers on LinkedIn are looking for authoritative voices with strong ideas and opinions about the current state of their industries. You can make your brand one of those voices by channeling your organization’s experience into thoughtful, useful content.
There are three types of thought leadership content that we’ve found really resonate with audiences on LinkedIn:
- Industry: News, trends, observations about where the industry is now and what’s next
- Product: Insights on how people are using your solution, ways to use it more effectively, answering burning questions about it
- Organizational: Your business’ values, purpose and brand point of view
LinkedIn is the ideal platform for promoting thought leadership not just from a corporate perspective, but from an individual perspective as well. Your executives can use their LinkedIn profiles to promote their own thought leadership, which humanizes and elevates the brand.
You can add even more credibility by including influencer content in your thought leadership strategy. Seek out the people your audience trusts for thought leadership, cultivate relationships and co-create content with added value for everyone involved.
Career-Boosting Advice
One of the main reasons people visit LinkedIn is to get insights that will help them advance in their professional lives. That may mean planning their next career play, rounding out skills for a promotion, or just looking to be more effective in the role they’re in.
Your solution helps your audience do their job better, of course, but it’s important to think outside of the boundaries of your product offering. How can your brand use its knowledge and experience to help your customers succeed?
Imagine a buying committee in which everyone has benefitted on a personal level from your brand’s content. One used tips from your recent blog post to impress their boss. One is up for a promotion thanks to your webinar on more effective presentations. A third used your executive playbook to solve a crisis on their customer service team.
It’s easy to see how useful, helpful, professional content can lead directly to better business outcomes.
Conversation Starters
Many social media sites are more about passive consumption than engagement. I’m not knocking the idea of spending a half hour idly flicking through an image feed — the “screen time” app on my phone would call me out if I did — but audiences on LinkedIn are in a more active mindset. Content that engages and sparks a conversation will be more successful on LinkedIn than elsewhere.
Think of how your content can start a conversation about trends in your industry, leadership styles, problems facing the broader business community, and more. Don’t be afraid to ask thought-provoking questions. It’s even okay to court a little controversy, in a business context (think “Is this really the best way to do X in our industry?” not “Is Baby Yoda really a supervillain?”).
And, it should go without saying: once you start a conversation, don’t go without saying. Check back for comments on your posts and offer thoughtful responses that keep the discussion going.
Do Business Where Business Is Done
When your audience visits LinkedIn, they’re here for helpful content and thought-provoking professional conversations — it’s the ideal place for B2B marketers to connect with them. On LinkedIn, you know you’re in a professional environment where you can reach an engaged community that is ready to do business.
Create an ad to start reaching the right people in a professional mindset.
