In this webinar, we discuss best practices for content marketing using LinkedIn Sponsored Updates, which enables you to publish relevant content straight to the LinkedIn feed and reach a targeted audience of professionals beyond your LinkedIn Company Page followers. We cover everything you need to know to start a successful Sponsored Updates campaign, such as:
• How to determine your campaign goals
• Creating great content and insights to share with your target audience
• Best practices for turning your content into compelling Sponsored Updates
• Testing and learning to optimize your campaign
We're also joined by Cassandra Clark from LinkedIn, who will share best practices from running multiple LinkedIn Sponsored Updates campaigns. Don't miss out on this opportunity to learn valuable best practices that can make a positive impact on your Sponsored Updates ROI.
Unlocking Passive Income: The Power of Affiliate Marketing
Live Webinar: The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to Sponsored Updates
1.
2. Phil Han
LinkedIn,
Associate Product
Marketing Manager,
Sponsored Updates
Cassandra Clark
LinkedIn,
Marketing Manager,
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Sophisticated Guide to Sponsored Updates
3. Agenda
• What are Sponsored Updates?
• Creating great content to engage the LinkedIn audience
• Turning your content into compelling Sponsored Updates
• Test, learn and optimize
• Success Story: Learn from LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
• Conclusion
5. Sponsored Updates are…
• Native advertising in the world’s only
professional news feed
• Reach members with rich content
on any device
• Drive leads, build brand, increase
engagement with your content
6. Sponsored Updates are…
• Native advertising in the world’s only
professional news feed
• Reach members with rich content
on any device
• Drive leads, build brand, increase
engagement with your content
Three things that set
Sponsored Updates apart
Accurate profile-based targeting
Professional mindset that creates
a favorable content marketing
environment for brands
Premium audience
8. Content Matters:
It creates conversation that leads
to customer relationships
10
74%
90%
Number of pieces of content
buyers engage with to research
their purchase.
-Source: Google, Zero Moment of Truth Study
Of B2B buyers choose a vendor
that’s first to help them with
useful content.
-Source: Inside Sales
Amount of purchase process that
buyers complete before making
contact with vendor.
-Source: Forrester
9. Keys to Great Thought-Leading Content
The Bloom Group’s eight criteria for thought-leading content:
• Relevance
• Novelty
• Depth
• Validity
• Practicality
• Rigor
• Clarity
• Coherence
10. Track Metrics that Matter
For brand awareness or
content engagement
• Engagement with your content
• Site traffic and time per visit
• Brand life or purchase intent
• Executive-level follow-up
• Quality of audience you’re engaging
For Lead Generation:
• Volume of qualified leads
• Cost per Lead (CPL)
• Marketing-influenced or
marketing-sourced bookings
• Lead velocity
12. On LinkedIn, Speak to the Professional Mindset
-Source: The Mindset Divide: Revealing the Emotional Differences
Between Personal and Professional Networks
13. A 6-Step Strategy for Creating Content for LinkedIn’s Most Engaged Members
While themes
of great content
vary by audience,
industry, and
marketer
objectives, there are
some guidelines you
can follow to appeal
to the professional
mindset.
On LinkedIn, Speak to the Professional Mindset
14. DO’s and DON’Ts for Crafting Compelling LinkedIn Content
DO: DON’T:
• Think like a journalist
• Be helpful by providing answers to your
audience’s most pressing questions and
challenges
• Find your authentic voice that’s authoritative but
friendly and trustworthy.
• Connect content to a commercial insight or
benefit
• Enrich and amplify your content by enlisting
influencers, trusted industry experts, or your
executives to contribute
• Deliver a sales pitch
• Be overly broad in your content themes. You
want to be recognized as an expert in only one
or two areas.
• Create content that people can’t easily
consume on phones/tablets
• Go it alone!
15. Turn Your Ideas into “Big Rock” Content
Big Rock Content…
• Delivers value to your audience
• Includes eBooks, webinars, research reports,
instructive guides, and other “meaty” content assets
• Serves as evergreen content you can re-purpose
• Can be released about once per quarter
16. Use Tools that Make it Easier to Create or Source Great Content
Content doesn’t have to be difficult. Scale your content efforts with
LinkedIn’s Certified Content Partners.
18. Pick the Right Tool for the Job
• Sponsor directly from your
LinkedIn Company Page
• Try LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager
• Work with a LinkedIn Certified
Ads Partner
• LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Managed Advertising Account
Campaign automation, bulk editing, A/B
testing, day-parting, posting content
across social channels, and more!
19. Get Visual
Include a thumbnail image in your updates
• Upload rich media like infographics
• Use crisp images, bright colors
• Have SlideShare presentations, videos
*Get up to 2x engagement rate by adding
images to your updates
20. Think Like a Journalist
• Write brief, compelling headlines.
• Use numbered lists, surprising
statistics and figures, or stake a
strong position on an issue.
• Share posts or words of wisdom
from your executives or notable
thought leaders within your company
• Call out your audience in your post
and headline
• What’s in it for the audience if they
click on your content?
21. Target Your Content to the Right Customers
3 tips for effective targeting on LinkedIn:
• Don’t hypertarget: stick to two or three
targeting criteria.
• Start with a broad target and refine over time.
• Ask yourself if the audience is a good fit for
the content you’re publishing.
• Experiment with Audience Expansion
22. Build a Sturdy Campaign Foundation
• Launch posts in waves and
keep the top-performing post
from each wave running
into the next week
• If you’re driving leads or
content downloads, start with
CPC (cost-per-click) bidding
• If you’re aiming for brand
Awareness: CPM
23. Make Your Pages Mobile Ready
• Explain why the content is valuable-
include more on your page than just
a lead form
• Keep lead forms short to increase
conversion rates
• Make sure to take advantage of
responsive design
*Remember, 75% of Sponsored Updates
engagement comes from mobile
25. • Add click trackers to your landing pages
• Use analytics on your Company Page
or linkedin.com/ads to measure
performance by post or audience
• Shift Budget away from low-performing
content or audiences and toward
content or audiences that are
performing better
• Try Direct Sponsored Content to
test at scale
“Always Be Optimizing”
26. Set a budget and bid that makes
sense for your business.
If your goal is lead gen, then
your bid should also reflect the
value of a lead to your business.
Need more help optimizing your
demand gen plan? Check out
our eBook for additional
resources.
Adjust Budgets, Bids so They Make Sense for Your Business
27. How we use Sponsored Updates
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
36. Time to Put These Ideas to Work!
• Visit marketing.linkedin.com to
get started
• If you’re the admin of your LinkedIn
Company Page, you can also sponsor
an update at linkedin.com/ads
• Ready to scale your content marketing
on LinkedIn? Work with a LinkedIn
Certified Marketing Partner today
https://lnkd.in/bTg2XPj
Next, I want to quickly touch on budget allocation for campaigns. Sponsored Updates can be used for a variety of marketing initiatives ranging from top funnel, brand awareness goals to bottom funnel conversion goals.
Here at LinkedIn we use Sponsored Updates predominately for lead generation. It’s how I am measured on Sponsored Updates success and my monthly Sponsored Updates budget is allocated based on the number of leads we drive.
However, if we only ran 100% lead generation campaigns, we wouldn’t be setting ourselves up for success. It’s important to have campaigns that drive brand awareness, to move people into the marketing funnel. So what we found has worked well for us in hitting our goals while striking the right balance, is a 70/30 split where 70% of our budget goes to our top lead generation performers. These are usually our big rock ebooks and webinars. This ensures that we are driving the lead gen numbers we need to hit, while still giving us flexibility to drive other marketing initiatives, like our brand awareness campaigns. This allocation will vary depending on what your company’s marketing goals are. It may look more like 80% brand and 20% lead gen. But it is important to set yourself up for marketing funnel success!
We also recommend that you start each campaign with a large budget so you are able to reach a large enough audience in that first week to evaluate performance. And then adjust your allocation up or down after a week based on what you’re looking for. This could depend on other campaigns you may be running, performance or overall goals.
And with that, I’ll toss things back to you Phil.