Using LinkedIn for Brand Marketing
Andrew Kaplan
Sr. Product Marketing Manager
LinkedIn
@andrewjkaplan
Michael McEuen
Director of Demand Generation
AdStage
@lonohead

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• Got a question? Submit it in
the Q&A box.
• Tweet along with
#LinkedInBrandMktg
• Follow us for more:
@LinkedInMktg
How to Engage with Us

Let’s talk about
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• What’s the buyer’s journey really like?
• Rethinking brand marketing with LinkedIn
• Success story: AdStage
• Q&A

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Today’s buyer’s journey
The only thing predictable about it is its unpredictability

It’s a challenging world
90%
Before customers
reach out directly*
Sources: *Forrester, “Buyer Behavior Helps B2B Marketers Guide the Buyer’s Journey,” October 2012; **Zero Moment of Truth Study, Google

It’s a challenging world
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Pieces of content
are consumed before
a purchasing decision
is made**
Sources: *Forrester, “Buyer Behavior Helps B2B Marketers Guide the Buyer’s Journey,” October 2012; **Zero Moment of Truth Study, Google

Display advertising
Social media marketing
Content marketing
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Today’s approach
Email marketing
SEO
Paid search

We can still do better.

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Missed opportunities
4. 95% of website visitors don’t fill
out a form
3. 61% of B2B marketers aren’t
using mobile marketing
1. For B2B decision-makers, online
communities are one of the most
popular sources of content in the
purchase decision
2. Forty-four percent of B2B buyers
researched company products on
a smartphone or tablet in 2014
5. 80% aren’t opening emails
6. Half of business decisions are
made outside of the office
7. 17 people typically involved in an
enterprise tech purchase
1. eMarketer 2. Acquity Group LLC 3. SiriusDecisions 4. eMarketer 5. MarketingProfs 6. B2B Marketing

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Imagine if the funnel worked like it should
Reach only the right people
Deliver highly relevant
and helpful content
Tailor your message based on
where they are in the decision process

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Drive more effective marketing
Increase awareness
Build brand
Shape perception

Increase awareness
Build brand
Shape perception
Increase awareness
Build brand
Shape perception
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Drive more effective marketing
Improve lead quality
Increase conversion
Drive pipeline and revenue

Onsite Display
Network Display
Sponsored Updates
Sponsored InMail,
Text Ads
Lead Accelerator
Full-funnel analytics
& reporting
products that impact
every stage of your
funnel and get results
The only full-funnel professional platform

How can we rethink
brand marketing?

Rethinking brand marketing with LinkedIn
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3. Reach prospects
wherever they spend time
2. Target precise audiences
with relevant content
1. Reach professionals in
the right context

Reach professionals in the right context
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• Prospects are doing more research
online and are in control of where
they interact with your brand
• To shape the outcome of the
purchase decision, get their attention
where they’re spending time in a
professional context

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LinkedIn Onsite Display
Reach a professional audience in a premium context
• Target LinkedIn members with
accuracy based on the professional
member profile
• Reach your audience in the high-
quality context of the LinkedIn
desktop experience
• Deploy a variety of formats from IAB
standard ads to highly engaging
native formats

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“LinkedIn has helped create an environment where
we can not only invite people to join, but engage them
once they arrive. We can have dialogues with
potential customers in a way that encourages
organic growth of the community.”
Bryna Corcoran
Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategist, HP
Results
300,000+ new followers: 112% increase in CXO followers
Significant increase in unaided brand awareness
Followers 2.5x more likely to recommend HP solutions
Download the full case study here: https://lnkd.in/d6XnEtQ

74%
90%
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
Target the right audiences with relevant content

Target the right audiences with relevant content
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• Prospects are at different stages of
their purchase decision
• The content you provide must be
both educational and relevant to
what their needs are
• Build on your branding efforts with
effective nurturing

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What makes LinkedIn targeting unique?
LinkedIn has 400M+ registered members, and
gains a new member every 2 seconds.
A member’s LinkedIn profile contains relevant
professional data points.
All LinkedIn profile data is 1st party data, or “self-
declared” data.
Accuracy is fueled by our value exchange:
connecting members with economic opportunity.
Reach & Scale Real-time, Accurate Data

Daniel
Seattle, WA USA
Boston University
COMPANY
NAME
INDUSTRYSIZE
SCHOOL
LOCATION
JOB
TITLE
SENIORITY
FUNCTION
FIELD OF STUDY
DEGREE
GRADUATION AGE
SKILLS
GROUPS
IP
Communication
Bachelor of Science
2011, 25-34
Simply Measured, 51-200,
Internet
Senior Marketing Manager,
Marketing, Senior IC
CMA, LEWIS, Social Tools
SEO, Social Media, Digital
Marketing, Blogging

LinkedIn Sponsored Updates allow you to publish
relevant content in the world’s only professional feed
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Get started at
linkedin.com/adsRaise brand awareness
Drive Quality Leads
Build Customer
Relationships

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Optimize and measure with robust campaign tools
Test and refine campaigns with LinkedIn’s
new-and-improved, self-service platform
• Simplicity: One view of all your accounts
• Visibility: Real-time visual reports, audience
insights by account, social actions
measurement
• Control: Test ads at scale, easily adjust
campaign start/end dates, save drafts

B2B marketers call LinkedIn their most effective
and widely-used content platform

• Relevance
• Novelty
• Depth
• Validity
• Practicality
• Rigor
• Clarity
• Coherence
Source: The Bloom Group
How to post great thought-leading content

On LinkedIn, speak to the professional mindset

-Source: The Mindset Divide: Revealing the Emotional Differences
Between Personal and Professional Networks
On LinkedIn, speak to the professional mindset

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.
Your 6-step plan for engaging LinkedIn members
with great 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!
DO’s and DON’Ts for creating compelling content

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Increased followers from 7 to 1,622 in just 40 days
Engagement 2x LinkedIn benchmarks
Clickthrough rates 2x LinkedIn benchmarks
Download full case study here: http://bit.ly/1ShFGFK
Results
Holiday Inn Express raised brand awareness
and dramatically grew its follower count by
sponsoring branded video content targeted to
sales and consulting professionals.
“LinkedIn Sponsored Updates helped us talk about our brand in a
fun and engaging way.”
- Seth Freeman, Director of Marketing, Holiday Inn Express®
brand, Americas, IHG

Reach prospects wherever they spend time
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• Be where your prospects are
• Engage them with content that is
useful and relevant, and when they
are most receptive to your message

LinkedIn Sponsored InMail delivers relevant,
personalized messages to the LinkedIn inbox
Sponsored InMail gets the attention of
high-value audiences with personalized
content, 100% deliverability
• Messages sent to the LinkedIn inbox
only when members are on LinkedIn
• Mobile-optimized design with
persistent call-to-action button
• Target your ideal professional
audience

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LinkedIn Text Ads drive targeted traffic to your site
using scalable, self-service tools
Text Ads help you scale your messaging to
the right audience and drive performance
• Target your audience using accurate
data in the professional profile
• Optimize by bidding on CPC or CPM
basis, testing creative variants
• Run messages across key placements
like the homepage, profile, inbox, etc.
Get started at linkedin.com/ads

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54% open rate for Sponsored InMails.
Up to 0.90% engagement on Sponsored Updates.
Reached over 600,000 unique members in a sought-after
professional segment of finance professionals
Positive brand engagement and ongoing conversation with
audience started via comments, shares, new followers
Results
Ansarada engaged over 600,000 unique
professionals in M&A occupations using
Sponsored inMail and Sponsored Updates
Download full case study here: https://lnkd.in/dtBJ5pW

AdStage Overview
The AdStage Platform is a self-serve cross-
network platform that allows online advertisers
to create, optimize, and report on campaigns
across search, social and mobile ad networks
like LinkedIn, Google AdWords, Bing,
Facebook, and Twitter Ads.

1. Hard to reach director level prospects at
digital agencies and B2B organizations.
2. Disjointed alignment of sales prospecting
and marketing communication.
3. Increasing the impact from events.
Challenges

Sponsored Updates campaign to introduce our brand to Director-level
members by promoting engaging content
Solution: Sponsored Updates

Nurture select top prospect accounts with webinars and ebooks
Solution: Sponsored Updates

Extend the conversation from events using rich media
Solution: Sponsored Updates

• Reached Directors at agencies and in-house B2B teams.
• 292,505 impressions, at 0.321% engagement rate, for 939 total
engagements.
• Ran account based marketing campaigns, aligned with sales.
• 10,889 impressions, at a 0.43% click through rate. Aided in
the booking of 4 demos (Sales Qualified Leads).
• Extended the conversation life of event presentations through
content marketing.
• Drove 244 total views of the Slideshare presentation.
Results

1. Create content that addresses your audience’s common business
challenges or questions.
2. Target your audience based on a professional persona, but don’t
hyper-target: Your audience should be 300,000 members at minimum
3. Always include a visual in your post: upload a compelling large-
format image, sponsor it, and add your URL to drive traffic to your site
4. Experiment with different content types: blog posts, ebooks,
infographics, Slideshare presentations, videos
5. Test and learn: Sponsor 3-5 posts at once. Each week, shift budget into
the top-performer(s).
Find more tips and resources at marketing.linkedin.com/blog
5 takeaways for Sponsored Updates success

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