#16 LinkedIn 2023 - A CEO's Greatest Asset
LinkedIn is central to B2B Tech’s marketing and sales strategies. But the way most companies leverage the platform no longer works.
Marketing teams are overly-focused on developing blogs, whitepapers and case studies. They then pay LinkedIn thousands of $$ to push these assets into the newsfeeds of their desired audience, without any ROI to show for it.
Sales teams send messages to executives with the exact same copy as the 9 emails they’ve already sent the prospect and all they hear are crickets.
It probably worked a few years ago, but I’d stop this practice moving forward. A) it’s expensive and B) it doesn’t really work because it falls into the bucket of “white noise.”
Executives have become conditioned to tune everything out that looks even remotely salesy.
The best way to use LinkedIn is by architecting a strategy for the CEO to post thought leadership consistently. It’s free and LinkedIn’s new algorithm will reward those posts immensely if done right.
The CEO has the biggest and most robust network, is already the face of the organization, and thus will more easily be recognized as a “thought leader” in the space given who they are and what they’ve accomplished already.
Biggest network → biggest reach → higher likelihood of building a target audience → greater ability to turn that audience into sales pipeline.
LinkedIn’s Old Business Model
Between 2010-2022 LinkedIn’s business exploded by selling subscriptions for their Sales Navigator and Recruitment solutions. They built that business into several billion-dollars of ARR.
These platforms helped Sellers and Recruiters more effectively reach prospects and build their respective pipelines.
In 2022, that growth came to a halt and like every other big tech company, they leaned out the workforce focused on the subscription business.
LinkedIn’s Growth Moving Forward
Over the next few years LinkedIn’s business strategy will turn the company into a Facebook or Twitter.
In 2023, they charge more for newsfeed ad space, and have adjusted their algorithm to over-reward thought leaders who post consistent, engaging and targeted content within the niche they specialize in.
This incentivizes more people to post, and because people are feed relevant content, will result in more consumption and newsfeed scrolling.
How will this change buying habits?
As executives and prospects began tuning out the “sales noise” in their inbox, they’ve started looking to their networks (credible sources) for new solutions to their business challenges.
The first place they look is LinkedIn. A place that houses their existing professional network and a forum of credible sources they trust to provide recommendations.
For example, if I’m a CRO I am far more likely to make a decision on an AI copywriting tool recommended by a person who posts free, valuable content that has already helped push my business forward vs. taking discovery calls from 1 of 6 SDRs that have sent me an automated email.
To take full advantage of LinkedIn’s new algorithm and effectively build an audience, it is helpful to know the platform no longer rewards engaging personal posts (you can’t build an audience with fiery political takes), or posts that lead the reader away from the newsfeed.
When I post this article on LinkedIn they will suppress it’s reach because I’m asking people to go to Substack. Conversely, if I were to reformat this into an engaging LinkedIn post, the algorithm would reward it by promoting it’s reach.
i.e. if you want more brand engagement, use LinkedIn to build a targeted audience for your CEO. The long-tail effects will be sales pipeline.