Do you know your LinkedIn audience?
Good content marketing should be valuable to your audience. When you create a LinkedIn page, the real motivation is to build an audience and get them to learn about your product or service. Your page can be full of content, but it cannot achieve its goal of building an audience unless you have written quality content that resonates with your target reader.
LinkedIn is the social media platform many companies choose for creating and sharing business-related content. However, knowing why, what, and when to share and what features to use can be challenging. Is your goal to establish yourself as a thought leader, generate leads, engage existing customers, or build your network? Not every post you produce has to align with this goal, but knowing the purpose of your content can help you develop posts that receive engagement.
Many companies share LinkedIn content that’s self-serving instead of audience-focused, and therein lies an opportunity. Creating audience-focused content helps your prospects see you as an expert capable of helping them solve their problems.
Understanding Your LinkedIn Audience
Before we discuss how to write content that resonates with your LinkedIn audience, you first need to understand your target audience.
Here’s some data:
- LinkedIn is a global digital platform with around 810 million members
- 93% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for organic social marketing
- 80% of LinkedIn’s users are business decision-makers
- 77% of content marketers say LinkedIn produces the best organic results
- 40% of B2B marketers say LinkedIn drives high-quality leads most effectively
As you can see, every business is leveraging this platform, and you better keep up with the pace.
Standing Out Amongst the Noise
LinkedIn is noisy, just like any other social media platform. Many people seek attention, but that doesn’t mean you can’t stand out. So, how do you begin to evaluate whether your content is hitting the mark with your readers? It’s simple; create content with your audience in mind. In short, your target audience should match up with your target customer.
Think about who needs your product and who is likely to buy it. Get information from your current page and sales statistics to understand who is already listening to you, their pain points, viewpoints, and expectations. After identifying your reader base, you can curate content tailored to them.
What Makes People Engage with Your LinkedIn Content?
Creating engaging content involves considering the type of content users want to engage with the most. Remember, people have different preferences. According to a LinkedIn study, here are some top reasons users engage with content on this platform:
- 62% – It’s educational or informative
- 61% – It’s relevant to me
- 48% – To stay on top of the latest trends
- 40% – It’s inspiring
- 38% – It helps with skill development
Actionable Tips for Creating Content that Resonates with Your LinkedIn Audience
You’ll gain more credibility on LinkedIn if you have a more concise and conversational writing style. You’ll reach and engage with more people as readers are more likely to comprehend and retain your ideas.
Want to impress your audience? Just keep it simple. Here are tips for creating engaging LinkedIn content:
Add Human Touches
Please don’t sound robotic in your content. Remember, your target readers are blood humans who love emotional connections. Instead, try the following tips:
- Tell stories: Are you tired of sharing advice and ideas on LinkedIn without gaining any traction? Start telling more stories. People don’t want to be talked “at” but, instead, talked “with.” Telling engaging stories evokes readers’ emotions and helps them connect with you.
- Be empathetic: Show your readers that you understand their challenges and try to provide solutions. This will earn their trust, and they’ll keep returning to your content.
Focus on Substance and Form
What you write on LinkedIn and how you do it matter. Create easy-to-read content. Don’t fill your content with technical terminologies. When writing a text-only post, remember the first two to three lines are most important as they grab the reader’s attention and make them want to engage with the rest of the post. Other tips include:
- Use short sentences and brief paragraphs
- Use bullet points to help with comprehension
- Add spaces between paragraphs
- Break up sentences with emojis or other symbols
- Use up to five hashtags
- Encourage comments by adding questions or other prompts in the content
Be Genuine, not Salesy
While social media marketing is all about promotion and taking a hard sell angle, you can still promote yourself and your brand without being too salesy. Sharing helpful content with an authentic voice will sell better than a hollow pitch. Focus on helping your audience by consistently delivering high-value content that solves their relevant problems. By doing this, your audience will trust you enough to continue using your service or buying your product.
Make Use of Video Content
Videos are the most engaging form of content. According to statistics, over 80% of Americans view online videos every month, 46% of users act after viewing a video Ad, and 95% of users watch an explainer video to learn more about a product or service.
Most people would rather watch a video than scroll through a page to read text content. Video allows your audience to get an audio-visual experience that helps them understand and retain information for a long time. Below are some of the videos you can use for your LinkedIn content marketing strategy:
- Brand videos: Introduce yourself, your brand, and your team members to the customers. Your audience will love to understand your brand story and see the faces behind it.
- Testimonials: Many customers tend to believe the experiences of other people. Therefore, video feedback from satisfied customers will encourage more people to consume your content and purchase from you.
- Educational videos: Consider sharing helpful videos on your LinkedIn page, like short tutorials about your products or services.
Keep Up with the Current Trends
Ask yourself, what is the trending topic on LinkedIn? If you can create content centering around it, go ahead and capitalize on it. People want to keep up with what’s happening daily. But, be keen to apply the trend to your niche to ensure the content makes sense for your audience.
Use Data and Analytics
You may be trying your best to post content on LinkedIn, but how do you know if your content is or isn’t working? Use data and LinkedIn analytics to discover the content your audience is interested in. LinkedIn shows detailed analytics for your business page that you can use to know who is viewing your content and how you can convert them into followers.
Also, follow up on the comments people post.
- Do they click “like” on the content?
- Are their comments supportive?
- Does the post start a conversation?
Gathering all this information will help you understand what to focus on to create content that performs well.
Content Creation Services Help Brands Create Engaging Content for Different Audiences
Creating content that resonates with your LinkedIn audience is no simple task, but it can significantly impact your marketing attempts. Taking the time to understand your target audience, identify your relationship with them and deliver relatable quality content is an investment in your business and brand.
Now is the best time to leverage social media content marketing efforts. Companies can lean on content creation services like nDash to get help with creating content that resonates with different audiences. Contact our sales team or engage with our freelance community.
About the author
This post is by nDash community member Lilian Muliti, a digital marketing consultant and content writer for B2B and B2C companies. Learn more about her, her experience, and how her expertise can help you reach your content creation goals by visiting her profile.
