Bridging the Gap between Sales and Marketing through LinkedIn

Bridging the Gap between Sales and Marketing through LinkedIn

The disconnect between Sales and Marketing can be a major obstacle for making an impact – and conversions. However, there’s a powerful, and pretty universal social media platform that can help bridge this gap, and one that both teams are familiar with – LinkedIn.  

Leveraging the potential of LinkedIn’s algorithm and targeting capabilities can significantly enhance the collaboration between Sales and Marketing. Here’s how the LinkedIn algorithm works, and here’s how it can be harnessed to bridge the gap between teams… 

Part 1: How the Algorithm Works 

LinkedIn’s algorithm is designed to maximise engagement and dwell time; the time users spend reading a post, which is crucial for your marketing strategy. The platform prioritises long-form posts because they encourage users to stay engaged for longer. The challenge is to find the sweet spot between what a company wants to communicate and what the algorithm favours. 

Moreover, the time frame within which posts are shared is vital. Within the first 45 minutes, employee interactions are crucial as they determine how many people will then go on to see the post. Employee reshares of company content have a 2.1x higher click-through rate than the original company post, which clearly illustrates the importance of employee engagement. 

Active LinkedIn pages get over seven times the impressions compared to inactive ones. The algorithm prioritises human interaction and individual profiles over company pages. So, by fostering an open environment where employees share and engage with content, you’ll be more likely to reach your target audience. 

When sharing content, it’s important to focus on the leadership team and company directors’ profiles. Tools like Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Premium, and Planable enable you to take control over your social media management. When mixed with creating company-wide triggers to notify staff when to share a post, you can create an effective marketing strategy within the company.  

Another key consideration is the power of company hashtags. Your team can follow your company’s hashtag, which allows you to track and celebrate engagement, reshares, impressions, and other important metrics. Engaging with content as a team can not only improve morale but also reduce recruitment fees in the process. 

It doesn’t take much to be in the top 1% of active LinkedIn users – posting just twice a week can get you there. You can even schedule posts in advance to stay active without investing too much of your time. 

When interacting with LinkedIn, it’s not about just skimming and liking; true engagement is what boosts your presence and ranking within the LinkedIn algorithm. Encourage your team to interact with posts meaningfully. A series of quick likes or shares can negatively impact post reach and even result in LinkedIn ranking your profile as spam. 

LinkedIn is developing a new tool that allows you to create new posts based on the reviews of your previous posts and their success rates to help streamline your content creation process – an exciting new feature to look out for! 

Part 2: Different Ways to Target People 

LinkedIn offers unparalleled targeting capabilities. Socially engaged companies are 58% more likely to attract sales leads, which underscores the importance of this platform for businesses. 

You can target people based on job function, seniority, years of experience, skills, education, company growth rate, and company category. This level of granular targeting ensures you’re reaching the right individuals. However, remember that not all companies have a presence on LinkedIn, and you need to be vigilant in checking they don’t get confused with profiles of companies with similar names. 

LinkedIn can be an effective platform for retargeting and creating lookalike audiences. Marketing and Sales teams should communicate to determine and refine the right targets. Every two weeks, there should be a reasonable influx of new prospects coming into the sales pipeline. 

LinkedIn Campaign Manager allows you to target lookalike audiences when there’s a good success rate with similar prospects or industries. The platform can be hyper-targeted, leading to higher impact and return compared to other platforms. 

By refining your search terms, you can ensure your content is reaching the right people. Don’t just throw content out there and hope it sticks. Boosted content is an effective way to reach users organically, but you can also use advertising to guide users to your website or landing page. 

Remember that LinkedIn is known for its relatively high cost-per-click. However, with the right strategy, you can bring down the cost.

At Drew + Rose, clients experience a 65% reduction in CPC on average after three weeks live on LinkedIn. 

If you take measures to constantly tweak your content, even with fixed messages and branding, you will increase reach and engagement and be able to monitor what is most effective. Don’t be discouraged by the perception that click-through rates must be low – Drew + Rose consistently achieve a click-through rate above 1.1%. 

Part 3: Different Types of Advertising Stages 

Once you’ve identified strong audiences on LinkedIn, you can then focus on expanding your reach. As part of Microsoft, LinkedIn allows you to target various Microsoft platforms, including Bing, Search Network, Edge, Outlook, and Ecosia. Bing search ads provide a great opportunity to target LinkedIn audiences created in the LinkedIn Campaign Manager. 

Microsoft’s tools are valuable for B2B businesses, and widely used by large corporations, as they ensure that your message reaches the right people. Additionally, LinkedIn’s lead gen forms keep users on the platform and can be automatically filled with information like company name and size, making it easier for users to share their details. 

Boosted content and advertising serve different purposes. Boosted content aims to grow followers, engagement, and brand awareness, while advertising is crafted to entice people to visit a third-party post with a clear call to action. 

If you’re looking to bring down the cost of clicks from LinkedIn, it’s essential to harmonise all elements of your campaign, including targeting, creative, and resonance. By doing so, you’ll enable higher engagement and, ultimately, lower costs. 

Part 4: Automating Your Inbound Messaging 

To automate messaging on LinkedIn, you can explore tools like Sales Flow and Meet Alfred. Meet Alfred is a system that automates messaging across your campaigns. It takes the list of prospects from Sales Navigator and automatically sends messages based on your intended content. 

This handy tool can also provide insights on sentiment, allowing you to gauge the response to your messages. It’s a powerful tool for reconnection campaigns, saving time for both your Marketing and Sales teams. 

Whilst incorporating these tools might mean another inbox to manage, they are invaluable for bridging the gap between Sales and Marketing and equipping your team with the tools to keep up with technological developments and stay ahead of the competition. 

*Pro tip* 

One of the major roadblocks employees face on LinkedIn is a lack of confidence in what to post or comment. To overcome this, marketing and sales teams can work together to create a safety net. By sharing a list of five comment options that employees can use as a starting point for them to edit to fit their style, you’ll equip them with the tools and confidence to engage in company output – tapping into a valuable resource that you have on hand! 

Final thoughts… 

LinkedIn is a powerful platform that can foster collaboration between Sales and Marketing, and, when used effectively, can significantly benefit your business. By understanding the intricacies of the algorithm, leveraging its targeting capabilities, refining your content strategy, and automating messaging, you can bridge the gap and achieve impressive (and monitorable) results in brand-led performance marketing.