Article's Content
Article's Content
If there’s one complaint I hear more than any other about the LinkedIn strategy of SaaS brands, it’s this:
“We share links on our page 2-3x a week but get no engagement.”
And what little engagement they do receive often comes from their employees, which is 30% of all company page engagement by some estimates.
It’s unfortunate, but not surprising in the least; One that’s become a pervasive issue for many SaaS brands, particularly those in “boring” industries. Now let’s think about why this might be the case.
First off, just look at the framing: “we share links on our page 2-3x a week.” Marketers implicitly place value on the frequency of link sharing, not the value the linked content provides users.
There’s also no mention whatsoever of the post that you’re sharing. People don’t just click on links for the hell of it, and you need to hook them in first with compelling content. Links without context do not turn into content ROI.
What you need to do is diversify your content portfolio on LinkedIn to include content that serves one of the following functions:
Educate. Entertain. Engage. Empower.
The 4 E’s provide a perfect starting point for any social media strategy, and LinkedIn is no exception. Mix, match, and experiment with these different content types to establish your brand as a valuable content source.
Alright, now let’s dive in and get more familiar with each of these content types.
Educational Content
What better place to educate an audience of potential customers than on a professional networking platform?
LinkedIn is chock-full of ideal ICPs posting about their success, failures, needs, and the occasional dog photo. This makes it the perfect place to share educational content that fills a knowledge gap for your customers. Educational LinkedIn content includes everything from:
- Trends and macro-level data about your niche industry
- “How to” content for complicated or challenging tasks
- Thought leadership on team management and professional development
- Role-specific advice to improve the performance of your ICP
- Feedback from customers and potential users about their experience
Revenue intelligence platform Gong is one of the best at working educational content into their LinkedIn strategy. The information they have access to is very valuable for businesses, so they turn their most compelling data points into digestible, visually-appealing posts like this one on phrases to avoid in follow-up emails:
In just 7 quick slides, the Gong marketing team provides their massive user base with actionable insights that can immediately improve their success rate when responding to clients and business partners via email.
Educational posts don’t always need links, images, or videos. The Gong team provides enough information in their text-based posts to make them valuable to their audience. The post below captures user attention with the “WORST C-SUITE MISTAKES” lede and dives straight into some qualitative insights from a customer:
Their education-centric LinkedIn strategy, plus the occasional sprinkling of content from the other 3 E’s, is a major reason why the SaaS brand has over 167,000 followers on the platform.
Educational LinkedIn content is incredibly powerful and a must-add to your strategy.
Teach your ICP to fish (with your tool), and you’ll both get fed.
Entertaining Content
Remember, we’re not selling to algorithms (at least not yet). The content you create needs to resonate with a human being. People with emotions and desires and, most likely, stress. What better way to make a strong impression on your audience than by giving them a break from the grind by making them smile, laugh, or wonder?
Of course, this is easier said than done. Like music, movies, and other media, the definition of “entertaining” for LinkedIn content varies from person to person and industry to industry — including those that fit your ICP.
That’s actually great news for you and your team.
Instead of being formulaic with content, you get to flex those artistic muscles and pop culture knowledge. Memes, X reshares (formerly known as Twitter reshares), faux “Broetry,” personal experiences with success and failure are all highly entertaining content formats. But that’s not an exhaustive list.
You can entertain your audience with anything you’re willing to put out there, provided its:
- Appropriate for a professional networking platform
- Aligned with the goals of the company or individual brand in question
- Likely to capture the audience’s attention and provide a positive emotional experience
When you put all the above together, the first thing that comes to mind probably isn’t creating a “LinkedIn Rap,” but there’s nothing more entertaining than seeing someone in your professional network spittin’ bars.
Even within this very niche content type, there are different ways of entertaining an audience.
For example, Accord’s founder Ross Rich created a customer appreciation rap for their YouTube Channel and reposted it across LinkedIn. It’s light-hearted, informative, and definitely entertaining:
[Accord’s Ross Rich does a customer appreciation rap]
For the more serious Hip Hop heads out there, this rap from Obaid Durrani, Lead Marketer at Loxo, provides an amazing example of how marketers can weave their passion into their work to create incredibly entertaining content:
In a couple of minutes, Obaid brought in just under 400 likes, 300 comments, and 22 reposts, engagement numbers that brands generally need to pay for.
Engaging Content
We all have moments where work brings us down. I do, you do, and your customers do.
Engaging content provides LinkedIn audiences with a topic or proposition that inspires and activates them. It inspires people to take part in a dialog that, at its best, uplifts everyone involved.
You create stories that make them WANT to leave a comment. You share posts that inspire people to engage with you and the community.
Some of the most engaging content you can include as part of your LinkedIn strategy include:
- Trending topics within the industry — from strategies to tools to companies
- Thought starters that provoke a response from your audience
- Genuine questions about the experience, tactics, and tools used by others
- Any hot takes about trending and industry-related topics
This recent post from buyer psychology expert Katelyn Bourgion is a perfect example of a thought starter post that provokes her network with 7 psychology-based tips for being more persuasive with teammates and customers:
This is an example of LinkedIn content that blurs the lines between educational and engaging content.
First, it educates Katelyn’s audience on psychological phenomena like framing, the bandwagon effect, and the status quo bias. But if you scroll through the comments, they are full of people listing their favorite tips, suggestions for other effects to include, and questions building on the original post.
This depth of participation is the hallmark of engaging content.
Empowering Content
People love seeing other people win.
Sure, there’s the occasional hater in the comment section, but support is typically overwhelming. LinkedIn is full of success, redemption, and underdog stories, not to mention the kudos people give others for promotions and other milestones. This is empowering content.
Celebrating the people in your industry who deserve their flowers is an easy way to build great brand affinity and trust. Some of the largest company and group profiles on LinkedIn spread empowering content as a regular part of their social strategy.
There are plenty of quick and simple posts that will inspire your network and get them to interact with your LinkedIn content. For example:
- Top 10 lists of inspirational, underrated, or underappreciated people
- Celebrating individuals who have made an impact on their network and community
- Stories of individuals who have overcome professional and personal challenges to succeed
The Female Lead immediately comes to mind as a brand that kills it on LinkedIn. The education charity’s page has a whopping 3.5 million followers and posts some of the most empowering content on the social platform.
Whether it’s a profile on women thriving in male-dominated industries or a post encouraging followers to shout out women who’ve made a difference in their lives, The Female Lead’s LinkedIn content makes them a true outlier on the platform.
For example, their post on International Women’s Day 2022 was a simple reminder for followers to tag and describe a woman who inspires them:
The simple post generated staggering levels of engagement — 163K likes, 7,1K comments, and over 15K reposts!
If you ever find yourself doubting the efficacy of incorporating empowering content into your LinkedIn strategy, just take another look at The Female Lead.
Finding the Right Mix
So far, we’ve looked at brands applying the 4 E’s in relative isolation. But the reality is, you’ll benefit most from finding a healthy balance between them all.
Of course, this doesn’t mean a 1:1:1:1 ratio of educational, entertaining, engaging, and empowering content. It means experimenting with these different content types to find a balance that makes sense for your brand and business goals.
If you’re looking to generate high-quality MQLs in a highly technical industry like cloud security, leaning more on education and engagement might be your best bet. Establishing your media brand? Prioritizing entertaining content is key.
The LinkedIn strategy of The Marketing Millennials podcast is a great example of the latter.
The page has built up a base of nearly 500K followers by regularly posting content that fits into each of the 4 E’s. But, they see great results from their entertaining and engaging content.
Whether it’s reposting something funny:
Or simple, empowering reminders:
The Marketing Millennials account is a great example of a brand that’s found the perfect content ratio for its LinkedIn strategy.
All of these types of content can be a part of your content marketing portfolio on LinkedIn as well. Don’t make the mistake of ONLY sharing links to your blog. Mix it up. Incorporate visuals. Incorporate videos. Incorporate carousels. And have some fun.
LinkedIn Strategy Inspiration from the Best Minds in SaaS Marketing
Applying the 4 E’s of educate, entertain, engage, and empower in your LinkedIn strategy is necessary if your brand is stuck in the “link-sharing” mentality. If the results aren’t there and your content is propped up by employee engagement, it’s time to invest in finding the right content mix.
I know it’s a daunting task at first. The 4 E’s are a great starting point for strategy development, but there are endless ways to apply them. It’s a blessing and curse.
Don’t worry; we’ve got your back.
Ross, a LinkedIn expert in his own right, always keeps an eye on the brands and influencers across SaaS marketing who consistently crush it on the platform.
Lucky for you, he’s curated a massive swipe file full of high-ROI LinkedIn content that we’re releasing exclusively to Insider and Inner Circle members soon.
So, when you’re ready to take a deep dive into the successful application of the 4 E’s, we’ve got the cheat code here waiting for you.
This is how you win.
