Tag Archive for: B2B marketing

LinkedIn’s increasing focus on video content appears to be paying off, providing better engagement and new opportunities for marketers on the platform to reach their audience. 

Since expanding its options for video content, LinkedIn has claimed that videos get five times the engagement of text posts. While a new analysis from AdWeek expert Caroline Giegerich doesn’t quite back up those claims, it does show that videos reach more users – especially if they are short (under 5 minutes) and posted in the morning. 

The Findings

In her 90-day analysis of LinkedIn content, Giegerich found that:

  • Videos consistently get further reach than written posts
  • The lowest-performing video included in the analysis still received nearly triple the impressions of top-performing text posts
  • Videos included in the study averaged around 250,000 views

The top-performing videos were:

  • Under 5 minutes
  • Filmed and uploaded directly to the camera with little-to-no editing
  • Posted in the morning between 9-11 AM EST

Here’s what Giegerich had to say about her videos and posting schedule:

“In terms of the content itself, I keep my videos under 5 minutes and speak directly to the camera about technology in terms everyone can understand to make it accessible.

I also post in the morning between 9 – 11 AM EST. If Gossip Girl covered tech, she’d be me. Over time, I added fun sound effects and captions with Capcut.”

Text Posts Still Have Value

While videos typically reached more users, Giegerich says that they were most effective for “top of funnel” marketing, while text posts were more effective for reaching users further down the sales funnel. 

There are a few reasons this may be. One reason, Giegerich notes, is that text posts were largely shown directly to her network of connections, while videos were more likely to be shown to users outside that network.

As Giegerich says:

“One format is more targeted to my network and the other is being heavily fanned by the LinkedIn algorithm to an audience outside of my immediate network.”

The Takeaway

While video continues to be one of the most powerful content formats to reach users today, Giegerich’s analysis emphasizes that videos aren’t the best option for everything. Both formats provide benefits for most effectively reaching people at different points of the sales journey. If used strategically, both can be useful for initiating potential customers to your business and gradually advancing them towards making a purchase. 

LinkedIn is making Collaborative Articles more visible across its platform, including within search, feeds, and notifications. 

In an announcement today, the company said it plans to show more Collaborative Articles when users are looking for information about specific problems or topics. 

In addition to making Collaborative Articles more visible in these spaces, LinkedIn says it will also start showing your contributions to people outside your network and might even notify members “who would benefit” from your knowledge when you make a contribution. 

Other New Changes Coming To Collaborative Articles

LinkedIn announced several other big new changes coming to Collaborative Articles”

  • New “Top Contributors” section: If members found you to be one of the most noteworthy contributors in an article, you will now be featured at the top of the article.
  • Better browsing for readers: A better browsing experience for readers leads to more people seeing your contributions. The new design allows members to easily explore multiple contributions, and new cross-article hyperlinking allows members to easily jump from one article to the next. 
  • Better articles: LinkedIn says it is working closely with our editorial team to continuously improve the quality of the AI-powered article text and titles — you’ll start to see a lot more depth in the articles recommended to you.
  • Improved Top Community Voice badging: If you’re one of the most noteworthy contributors in a skill, your badge for that skill now shows up not only on your profile but also next to your contributions in the article. Badges will only remain active for members who continue to meet our selective criteria and provide noteworthy contributions within a specific skill.

For more, read the full announcement from LinkedIn here.

LinkedIn revealed a slew of new features designed exclusively for businesses this week, including content creation, new ways to engage with other companies, and easier ways to have live discussions with others.

Let’s look at all the new features in a bit more detail:

Improved Post Scheduling

Though LinkedIn has offered the ability for regular users to schedule posts ahead of time since late 2022, the feature has not been available to business pages until now. 

Now, business pages can create and schedule posts up to three months ahead of time. Not only does this make it ensure you’ll be delivering steady content to your users, it gives you the chance to prepare a content calendar ahead of time to be more considerate of what type of content you are posting and when. 

While the feature is currently only available to desktop users, LinkedIn says it will be coming to mobile apps soon.

First-Party Audio Events

LinkedIn is rolling out a new, built-in way to hold live audio events on the platform. This means you’ll be able to host audio-based discussions with your followers and other experts in the field without needing to use third-party external apps. 

While hosts will have control over the discussion and who gets to speak, users will be able to engage with the conversation using emojis or requesting to speak in the chat.

Automated Job Postings

LinkedIn has created a way for small businesses with under 1,000 employees to automatically create and share job postings.

Once activated, the feature generates and shares an open role job posting as a pre-scheduled post which can be edited after it is posted.

However, the announcement says that the feature will not be available for what are vaguely described as “basic jobs.”

Follow Other Pages From Your Page

LinkedIn Pages can now start following other Pages, allowing you to have B2B conversations without necessarily going through a personal LinkedIn account. Additionally, this makes it easier to find conversations relevant to your field happening across the platform.

All of these new features aim to expand the functionality of business Pages and make it easier to engage with your audience. By using these, you’ll be able to find new connections, foster better relationships with leads, and be able to become an authority in your field faster.

A new comprehensive report from TopRank Marketing indicates that B2B influencer marketing is more effective than many would have expected.

The 60-page report includes survey data, case studies, and information collected through extensive analytics analysis. 

Among all this information is the finding that 86% of B2B businesses report being successful in using influencer marketing to reach their goals. Specifically, the survey found that:

  • 86% of businesses say influencer marketing is moderately or very successful
  • 72% say it helped improve their brand reputation
  • 70% say it improved brand awareness
  • 56% say it drove new leads
  • 33% say it generated revenue for their company

B2B Influencers Aren’t Your Usual Influencers

These findings might surprise many business owners who are imagining a TikTok star promoting manufacturing equipment or professional services.

As the survey makes clear, though, the most effective B2B influencers are often not the figures with the biggest follower or subscriber counts.

“Audience size matters less than audience relevance. The sheer number of followers isn’t as important to marketers as relevance, credibility and expertise. Those with a large audience can help with the reach of a campaign, but it’s vital to include more influential people with smaller audiences.”

Instead, the most effective partnerships with influencers are those who are seen as industry experts or professionals with personal experience in your industry. According to the survey results, B2B companies partner with influencers who are:

  • Industry experts and analysts (77%)
  • Internal executives (56%)
  • Niche experts (48%)
  • Customers (46%)
  • Professional influencers (45%)
  • Employees (42%)
  • Prospects (12%)

The importance of only partnering with influencers who are relevant to your field or audience is also reflected in the answers to what qualities are most important for B2B influencer marketing:

  • Relevance of audience (98%)
  • Audience sees them as trustworthy (87%)
  • Subject matter expertise (78%)
  • Values align with the brand (69%)
  • Influencer publishes on at least one platform (65%)
  • Ability to create content (54%)
  • Size of audience (49%)
  • Professional credentials (42%)
  • Advocate for our brand (33%)

What Types of Influencer Marketing Are Most Effective

As for what types of content brands are making with influencers, the results clearly favored webinars, though other content like social media or blog posts were also popular with brands:

  • Webinars (81%)
  • Social media (74%)
  • Blog posts (71%)
  • Recorded video (67%)
  • Interviews (62%)
  • Podcasts (52%)
  • Live video (48%)
  • Case studies (38%)
  • Industry (33%)
  • Interactive content (31%)
  • Third-party analyst (29%)
  • Social audio (22%)
  • Infographics (17%)

For more, you can get the full 60-page report for free here.

New analysis from market research firm FocusVision shows that the average B2B buyer consumes 13 pieces of content before making a purchase or signing a contract.

That finding and more comes from a large survey of executives at companies with at least 500 employees and $50 million in annual revenue. Additionally the participating companies had purchased a marketing technology solution within the past year.

What Content Do B2B Buyers Consume?

Of the 13 pieces of content that B2B purchasers explore, the majority (8) tend to be marketing pieces delivered directly from the company, while the other five consisted of third-party content.

The content also takes a wide range of shapes, including video, blog posts, reviews, customer testimonials, and market analysis.

The B2B Purchasing Journey Through Content

FocusVision’s report suggests it takes an average of two to six weeks and three or four internal decision makers for B2B buyers to make the big decision. Much of this time is spent researching by connecting with content that might inform their purchase.

When asked how they found content, the majority said they found it directly on a vendor’s website or through search and social media.

The complete responses were:

  • Directly through vendor website — 70%
  • Internet search — 67%
  • Social media  — 53%
  • Sent to me via email — 41%
  • Word of mouth — 33%

The study also identified four unique buying stages with specific types of content present during each phase:

  1. Understanding the problem
  2. Looking at vendors
  3. Short-listing
  4. Final decision

The most useful types of content according to B2B buyers were

  • Product specifications and functionality — 67%
  • Product comparisons — 65%
  • Product success stories — 60%
  • Content specifically showing value to internal stakeholders — 54%
  • Product tutorials — 49%
  • Troubleshooting and problem solving — 48%

Notably, the study found some variance in how companies with higher revenues used content to inform their decisions. Those with revenues above $250 million tended to rely more on third-party content and market analysis, rather than first-party content.

What This Means For You

If you provide products or services to other businesses, the findings make it clear that content is essential for marketing your brand to other professionals. Without it, influential buyers may not hear about your product or have enough details to make an informed decision.

Many think that B2B marketing requires a completely different approach than marketing from a business directly to consumers. There is the belief that they B2B audiences don’t use social media or Google the same way that other audiences do and that you have to use a more “old-school” approach.

However, a new survey from Clutch shows that B2B audiences are just as, if not more likely, to use search engines and social media to find business information as other demographics.

The survey of 384 consumers of online business content found that 87% frequently find business content using search engines, 85% use social media to find business content, and 75% encounter content most frequently on company websites.

The findings show that it is more important than ever for B2B-focused companies to modernize their marketing techniques and connect with clients through popular platforms like Google and Facebook.

As part of ensuring they are working with only the most reliable businesses, B2B customers extensively research the companies and products they need online as part of their purchasing process.

They also widely use the internet to keep up-to-date with the latest trends and news in their industry, providing ample opportunities for businesses to advertise and market themselves in their niche.

According to the survey, nearly half of B2B audiences primarily read business content online to stay aware of the latest happenings in their industry. The second most common reason was to inform their purchasing decisions.

The big takeaway here is that B2B marketing shouldn’t be stuck in the past. Purchasers are incorporating modern sources of business content and doing an increasing amount of their business purchasing online. Unless, you’re making your brand a part of those online conversations and research, you’re missing a chance to bring in customers looking for the products and services you offer.