One of the benefits from launching LinkedIn Ads via LinkedIn Campaign Manager is the possibility of segmenting your audience precisely. The platform allows you to target high-level executives only, companies by size and industry, company names, age, interests and traits, among others. Detailed segmentation is key for successful campaigns, where the Cost Per Lead (CPL) can be significantly reduced if all your ads are delivered only to the right niche.
Targeting the right audience does need a little bit of research. For instance, your SaaS company might want to know what kind of groups and pages on LinkedIn are being followed by your potential customers. That data allows you to target prospects that constantly browse through those pages and groups, helping you narrow down your targeting even more.
Not all LinkedIn SaaS leads come from paid advertising. In fact, organic posts play a fundamental role as part of a robust lead generation strategy. For starters, turning your company page into a lead-capturing hub is a great first step. Tailor your page description carefully and clearly state your value proposition. Make sure all of your coworkers are listed as part of the company under the “People” section. LinkedIn's users focus their attention on the “human” side of the business.
Including a Call To Action (CTA) in all of your posts and updates is a great way to turn visitors into leads. Encouraging your followers to learn more about a particular topic through your website might be an efficient strategy to accelerate awareness and conversion processes.
If your business model comprises a catalogue of services, Showcase Pages (or affiliated pages) on LinkedIn are a great alternative. The platform allows you to create these sub-pages owned by your company page, where you can segment your audience. Your followers can then get information that is relevant to their product of interest. Showcase Pages also allow you to gain extra real estate on LinkedIn.
Here is an example of 2 company pages, one with, and one without Showcase Pages (notice the affiliated pages on the right-hand side):
SAP COMPANY PAGE ON LINKEDIN
TOYOTA COMPANY PAGE ON LINKEDIN
As we can clearly see from the screenshots, SAP is getting some extra visibility by creating separate communities of developers and a technology branch. On the other hand, Toyota is giving away part of their space to LinkedIn and what is worse, to the Ford Motor Company as well.
Constant posting is one of the best ways to gain visibility on LinkedIn. It allows you to position yourself as an opinion leader and attract new leads into your strategy. In addition, posting regularly is a good long-term bet. For instance, paid advertising will work as long as you have a budget to spend on a monthly basis. On the other hand, your LinkedIn posts will always stay there as part of your content marketing strategy, helping you nurture your SaaS B2B leads without needing to spend.
Creating and distributing posts within a SaaS network requires some effort. When it comes to distribution dynamics, checking what your competitors and your target audience are doing is fundamental. You are not necessarily trying to copy, but to observe the hashtags and topics frequently used by SaaS opinion leaders and decision makers. Maximizing your exposure through hashtags is the way to go if you are looking for more traffic and followers organically.
Your company employees are your most important asset on LinkedIn. This social network is all about connecting and finding professionals: real people. Regardless of the fact that you are a startup or a big SaaS company, you might want your employees (real professionals) to share your posts with their own comments and opinions.
This process (employee sharing) should not be fake or spurious. Your employees need to feel encouraged and motivated in order to share. Publishing content that invites them to engage can boost your visibility across their LinkedIn network and at the same time position them as active thought leaders. Employee-shared content receives 8x more engagement than posts published by a particular brand on LinkedIn. Therefore, you probably want your team to start spreading the word.
Selling software solutions is never easy. If you start with a cluster of posts showcasing your product and inviting customers to buy, your results are not going to be as fruitful as they could. Why? Because LinkedIn users are not a purchasing mindset (as they might be on Amazon or even Facebook). People use LinkedIn for networking or educational purposes. Things such as the “LinkedIn SaaS Store” do not exist (yet).
Leads on LinkedIn require a more interesting content strategy approach, where inbound marketing comes to play. Videos, eBooks, posts with statistics and live sessions are the most popular and effective way to reach your LinkedIn audience. When we talk about SaaS strategy for LinkedIn (either paid or organic), the creation of a sales funnel powered by meaningful content is key.
Starting your LinkedIn marketing strategy from scratch can be challenging. However, you are not alone in the process. Finding resources online from LinkedIn experts and partners is always a good call. Partnering with experts and agencies can be the solution that gets all those B2B SaaS leads that you are expecting to find on LinkedIn.
