LinkedIn Content Marketing: The Path to Credibility
Whether you’re a freelancer or somewhere in between, content reigns supreme. However, it’s quality over quantity that counts. Therefore, curating LinkedIn posts worth sharing is essential, as the platform has over 1 billion members in over 200 countries.
Let’s explore LinkedIn as a content marketing giant — the world’s largest professional networking site. You can dramatically boost your online presence with these innovative approaches and successful cases. Get ready for some inspiration!
What is LinkedIn Content Marketing?
LinkedIn content marketing encompasses developing and sharing valuable, relevant content to a targeted professional audience. The end goal? Building credibility, forming connections, and driving business outcomes galore.
You're not just pushing promotions or pitching your latest offer ad nauseam here. That's a surefire way to get muted or unfollowed into oblivion. Instead, focus on educating, informing, and entertaining.
Trust me, people are craving unique insights and fresh perspectives on LinkedIn. Giving freely here, without overtly selling, paradoxically makes you more top-of-mind when they're ready to hire or buy.
Why Content Marketing Matters on LinkedIn
You've heard the buzz about content marketing's impact. Still, some solid stats may surprise you:
- Companies that prioritise blogging efforts are 13X more likely to enjoy positive ROI (HubSpot)
- 70%+ of online users want to learn about products via content rather than traditional advertising (HubSpot)
- LinkedIn users are 20X more likely to re-share a video post on the platform vs. other content formats (Microsoft)
Simply uploading some updates now and then won't cut it, though. It would be best to have a cohesive LinkedIn content marketing strategy to connect and convert. More on that coming up!
Content is the modern calling card.
In decades past, a striking print brochure or slick commercial conveyed expertise. In today's digital age, content plastered across platforms like LinkedIn is your modern calling card. It's how people assess your credibility.
A solid content marketing plan transforms your image from a self-proclaimed “guru” into a proven authority figure. People crave authenticity, not shameless self-promotion.
Potent advice and success stories make you both more human and more hireable. Win-win.
Build social proof and influence.
Have you ever stumbled across someone's LinkedIn profile only to be utterly wowed by their content portfolio? Suddenly, that individual becomes exponentially more impressive and influential in your mind.
Whether it's a pulse of fiery hot takes or a treasure trove of in-depth guides, you can't help but think: “Wow, this person knows their stuff!”
LinkedIn content marketing bolsters your reputation as an insightful thought leader in your industry. You amass swaths of social proof as likes, comments, and shares accumulate.
That online gravitas then ripples into more professional opportunities, partnerships, leads, and sales for your business.
Creating a LinkedIn Content Strategy
Being scatterbrained with your content efforts is a recipe for lacklustre results. It would help if you had a documented plan for cohesive execution.
Follow these steps to craft a stellar LinkedIn content marketing strategy:
- Define Content Goals & Metrics: What exactly are you hoping to achieve? More connections, leads, clients, and brand awareness? Outline 3-5 measurable objectives like boosting your follower count by 50%, landing five guest speaking gigs, or closing ten new client deals.
- Get Laser-Focused on Audience: Who precisely is your target audience on LinkedIn? Define their roles, industries, pain points, interests, etc. The more niched-down you get here, the more resonant your content will be.
- Map a Content Runway: Look back at your core metrics and plan what content pillars, themes, and types you'll focus on for the coming 6-12 months. This cadence could involve “Thought Leadership Thursday” articles, bi-weekly how-to videos, and lengthy monthly guides.
- Brainstorm Content Concepts: With your audience insights and content pillars, brainstorm compelling topics and angles. Use keyword tools to validate demand and incorporate relevant terms.
- Tap Into Proven Resources/Tools: Don't recreate the wheel—leverage many handy content marketing resources, tech tools, and reference sites. Rely on those whenever possible.
- Establish Shared Calendar & Workflows: One misstep is having multiple people winging content development without coordination. Hash out processes, responsibilities, tech stacks, and centralise with a shared calendar.
- Activate Your Distribution Plan: Content is worthless if no one consumes it. Iron out cross-promotion channels, hashtags, engagement tactics, and LinkedIn ad buys before launch.
- Audit, Refine, and Optimise: On an ongoing basis, audit content performance and audience signal on LinkedIn. Then, adapt your strategy accordingly for maximum traction and business impact.
LinkedIn content marketing demands upfront preparation and systems for efficient scaling like any solid digital marketing pursuit. Fail to strategise, and you're simply winging it.
Compelling Types of LinkedIn Content
So, what exactly should you post and share on LinkedIn to stoke audience interest? An array of content types and media formats work exceptionally well.
Here are some of the top-performing options to consider incorporating into your content rotation:
Long-Form Articles/Guides: In-depth tutorials, case studies, original research, and gated high-value guides are highly shareable on LinkedIn. Distil your insights into written form; people will binge on your brain candies.
Video Content: People are hooked on videos these days. Short-form clips under 60 seconds alongside more meaty video breakdowns/interviews always perform well. Just be sure to upload natively versus sharing YouTube links whenever possible.
Visual Content (Infographics, Charts, Decks): Our brains are wired to consume visuals more readily than blocks of text. Graphics like infographics, data visualisations, and slide decks are impactful and share-worthy. Sprinkle strategic visuals wherever you can.
Text-Based Updates/Hot Takes: Simple text-based status updates remain an engaging LinkedIn staple. Share bite-sized musings, mini-rants, contrarian viewpoints, behind-the-scenes glimpses, or witty commentary to kickstart conversations.
Live Video, AMAs, Webinars: Real-time engagement opportunities are pure gold on LinkedIn. Host live streams, topical Q&A sessions, webinars, “ask me anything” sessions, or panel discussions with field experts.
Industry News/Curated Content: You don't have to create 100% original material to provide value. Thoughtfully curate and offer hot takes on the latest news, trends, tools, or studies from around the web related to your niche.
Carousel Posts: LinkedIn's carousel-style posts allow uploading up to 10 images or PDFs simultaneously. Use this slick format to capture attention with a visually engaging micro-story or tutorial-style content piece.
Polls and Surveys: People crave interactive content that demands their voice. Polls or survey posts are an easy way to crowdsource opinions while generating comments and new connections. They're stunningly simple but effective!
The Keys to “Shareability” on LinkedIn
I'll let you in on a little secret to LinkedIn content marketing success: shareability. In other words, knowing how share-worthy and viral your posts tend to be is essential.
The more comments, likes, and shares you amass, the broader reach and impact your content will enjoy. This type of engagement signals to LinkedIn's algorithm that your updates are exciting and worth surfacing to more feeds.
So, how do you earn that coveted shareable status? Here are a few best practices to embrace:
- Benefit Over Promotion: The second people sense you're just blatantly pitching, they'll tune out. Focus updates on genuine advice, value, and takeaways they can apply.
- Keep it Snappy & Visual: We have short attention spans. Punchy bite-sized posts with eye-catching images or videos perform best. Feed content gets skimmed not thoroughly read.
- Ask, Provoke, Interact: Posts that ask thought-provoking questions share contrarian opinions, or seek audience participation prompt more comments and virality.
- Piggyback on Trending Topics/Hashtags: Strategically inserting your take on trending news or hashtagging hot topics lends relevance and more algorithmic preference.
Examples of Outstanding LinkedIn Content
The theory is one thing, but let's draw inspiration from some outstanding real-world examples of effective LinkedIn content marketing.
Andrés Tomovic's Viral Post Series
Andrés Tomović skyrocketed his following to over 250K on the back of ultra-relatable slice-of-life posts. He struck a chord with professionals globally through hilarious comics and short stories illustrating workplace culture struggles. Simple yet brilliant content that kept people laughing and sharing.
Rand Fishkin's SEO Bootcamp
As the co-founder of SparkToro and an acclaimed marketing keynote speaker, Rand Fishkin epically leveraged his LinkedIn presence. He created a free, digestible SEO bootcamp course over 24 days featuring videos, slides, and resources that hooked people for the entire run.
Blair Enns on Value Pricing
Blair Enns is praised as the pioneer of “value-based pricing” for creative professionals. He regularly posts timeless wisdom and real-world examples illuminating his philosophy around pricing services on value versus hourly rates. An evergreen content engine!
Ann Handley's Daily Wake-Up Call
Beloved MarketingProfs head Ann Handley emerged as a content dynamo during lockdown days, sharing short motivational mantras each morning. A bubbly hello, inspirational quote or prompt set the tone for subscribers' days—engaging tens of thousands of grateful followers.
The throughline with these examples? They could be more salesy. It's approachable, relatable content tapping into specific challenges, aspirations, or emotional resonance. What a breath of fresh air and an authentic way to bond with your audience!
Essential Content Marketing Metrics to Track
Let's circle back to meaty numbers and metrics for a moment. After all, one pillar of intelligent content marketing is applying an analytical, data-driven approach for continual refinement.
Which metrics should content marketers on LinkedIn keep at the top of their minds?
Post Views: This fairly basic count tells you how many eyeballs landed on each content you publish. It is essential for gauging attention against your target audience.
Post Engagement Rate: Your engagement rate is more crucial than views across reactions, comments, shares, etc. That signifies your content's ability to trigger action vs. passive consumption.
Follower Growth Rate: An uptick in new followers serves as a leading indicator that you're creating content people find share-worthy and want to subscribe to more of.
New Profile Views: How many new faces check out your full LinkedIn bio and background after consuming your updates? That traffic implies genuine interest and potential for conversions down the funnel.
New Quality Leads Captured: Content should attract relevant new sales leads to your business. As potential opportunities, you can track this through LinkedIn lead gen forms or newsletter subscriptions.
Direct Revenue Influenced: The ultimate barometer is revenue directly attributable to your LinkedIn content marketing efforts. This closed-loop impact demonstrates bottom-line value.
Using LinkedIn's built-in analytics alongside other marketing tech is crucial to capturing a 360-view of content performance. Data sheds light on what's firing on all cylinders versus what needs adjustments.
Fueling Your LinkedIn Content Engine
The biggest question is: How do you fill the ever-hungry content machine daily, week after week?
Even if you defined a cohesive, high-level content plan, the execution eventually trips people up. It's one thing to churn out a clever viral post here and there, but publishing with consistency is monumentally harder.
Rather than burning yourself out trying to create a constant deluge, bake these savvy strategies into your LinkedIn content marketing approach:
Turn Real Interactions into Content: Mine your everyday customer conversations, prospect emails, sales calls, or employee questions as a grist for fresh LinkedIn content. When you solve a problem or explain a nuanced insight, record it and repurpose it!
Crowdsource Questions from Your Audience: Poll your audience on their most burning questions or pain points. Then, answer them with a comprehensive article, webinar, or LinkedIn Live session to build engagement loops.
Recycle Old Content into New Formats: Can you extract part of an ebook into a carousel post? Clip clips from an old webinar to make snackable LinkedIn videos. Don't just create new content from scratch—atomise and reassemble past efforts.
Deputise Subject-Matter Experts: As a business leader, you can't go it alone as a solo content creator. Identify and empower in-house experts as contributors to divide the content burden. Give them guidelines, and they'll love the exposure. If they do not answer your direct messages, you can use an email locator to extract their corporate email and write them directly.
Incentivise and Leverage Employee Advocacy: Incentivize your workforce to help amplify and discuss your LinkedIn content. A small perk or points system motivating employee advocacy extends the reach exponentially.
Access Resources/Training from Thought Leaders: There's no shortage of fantastic content marketers who've produced kits, courses, and training events to shortcut your success. Don't reinvent the wheel—tap proven resources like those!
Integrating LinkedIn into Your Overall Marketing
While LinkedIn commands a respected reputation, it's just one channel within your broader marketing mix. To extract maximum ROI from your efforts, it's critical to sync your LinkedIn content marketing cohesively.
Weave LinkedIn promotion into your:
- Email Marketing Workflows: Email remains the beating heart of direct-response marketing. Automate drip campaigns by sharing snippets of your latest and most incredible LinkedIn content. Drive subscribers back to the whole piece there.
- Social Media Amplification: A highly engaged professional following is gold. Cross-promote your pillar LinkedIn content seamlessly across Twitter, Facebook, and other active social channels you're on.
- Brand Building Ads: Paid advertising should complement and boost your organic presence on LinkedIn. Allocate budget to amplify viral and top-performing organic content via boosted posts or Sponsored Content.
- Live/Hybrid Events: Translate on-platform webinars or video interviews into fuel for in-person events like user meetups, conferences, and virtual summits. Everything should intermingle cross-channel.
- SEO, PPC, and Web Content: Each remarkable LinkedIn content asset should have a well-optimized web counterpart. Use them like tentpoles for your search engine optimisation and lead funnelling efforts.
- Sales Enablement Toolbox: Empower your frontline sales reps by arming them with a library of your LinkedIn content to nurture relationships better and win over prospects.
Don't isolate your LinkedIn content marketing in a silo. Break down those channel barriers and adopt an integrated marketing communications approach for compounding success.
Conclusion: Unlock B2B Content Marketing Supremacy
LinkedIn has rapidly cemented itself as a premier digital marketing battleground in recent years—especially for B2B players.
A robust content presence on this professional network is vital to building authority, influence, and trust in your industry vertical. Content marketing is simply the modern route to credibility in 2024 and beyond.
The savviest marketers realise that LinkedIn content marketing isn't separate from the rest of your marketing engine. It should serve as the connective tissue tying together your:
- Digital Advertising
- Search/SEO Presence
- Social Media Engagement
- Email/Marketing Automation
- Sales Enablement & Funnels
- In-Person & Virtual Events
Everything flows more cohesively when supported by a steady drumbeat of compelling LinkedIn content creation.
But beyond pure tactic and strategy, let's remember what this is all about: connecting with people in meaningful, memorable ways. Delivering genuine value consistently on LinkedIn forges the types of human connections that lead to business success.
So, view LinkedIn content marketing as far more than a checklist task or box to tick. It's an incredible opportunity to showcase your brand's distinct expertise, thought leadership, and unique personality.
Now, it's time for you to develop a plan, produce outstanding content, and nurture engagement on the platform. The future is undoubtedly content-fueled, so start flexing those content marketing powers on LinkedIn today!
FAQs
How often should you post on LinkedIn?
There's no perfect one-size-fits-all answer, but posting 2 to 5 times weekly is adequate for most businesses and personal brands on LinkedIn. More important than sheer volume is consistent quality.
What's the ideal length for LinkedIn posts and content?
Shorter posts and captions under 140 characters fare best for rapid consumption and shareability. However, more in-depth thought leadership content, like articles and guides excelling at 1,000+ words, tends to gain more traction.
Which content formats perform best on LinkedIn?
While text-based posts remain popular, visuals like images and native videos outperform on LinkedIn due to increased engagement. Other top formats include PDFs, documents, polls, and carousel posts.
How do you grow your following and connections on LinkedIn?
The keys to building an engaged audience are posting share-worthy content consistently, joining and participating in active groups, commenting on posts from influencers in your niche, and making warm connection requests with personalised notes rather than bulk requests.
What makes for great LinkedIn content topics?
Successful content topics on LinkedIn address your target audience's pressing pain points, challenges, and questions in your industry or provide unique insights, contrarian perspectives, or behind-the-scenes glimpses they can't find elsewhere. Aim to educate, entertain, or inspire.
Can you succeed with just organic posts on LinkedIn?
While gaining traction organically on LinkedIn by creating exceptional content is possible, most established brands utilise a combination of organic and paid promotion. Paid advertising, like Sponsored Content, ensures your top-performing organic posts reach your target audience.
How can you repurpose content efficiently on LinkedIn?
Don't recreate the wheel constantly. Atomise and remix existing podcasts, videos, ebooks, presentations, and long-form content into bite-sized LinkedIn posts. Extract key sections or points into new formats like carousel posts or short videos optimised for feed consumption.
What's the best way to maximise engagement on LinkedIn?
Ask questions, uphold an interactive dialogue, spark debates, and encourage your audience to share stories/opinions in comments. Posts with calls-to-action and conversation starters generate much higher engagement rates than one-way broadcasts.
Should you separate your personal and business presence on LinkedIn?
For many solo business owners and entrepreneurs, blending your personal and professional brand makes sense on LinkedIn. Larger companies should have dedicated brand Pages in addition to employee advocacy from thought leaders. Consistency in voice/tone is vital either way.
What are some common LinkedIn content marketing mistakes?
Major missteps include being overly self-promotional without offering value first, commenting for the sake of commenting without reading the post, leaving corporate jargon in posts that lack personality, and judging success solely on post views rather than deeper engagement metrics.
How can you stay inspired and prolific as a content creator?
Draw creative energy from your audience by directly crowdsourcing questions and pain points. Turn fundamental customer interactions into fuel for fresh posts. Additionally, curate fascinating stats, quotes, and examples worth reacting to. Finally, content themes should be developed for easier batched creation.
