87% of marketers say their account based marketing campaigns outperform other marketing initiatives. LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms to connect with key decision-makers in companies you want to close as clients. It's going to play a role in any B2B Account-Based Marketing strategy.
5 Ways to Implement LinkedIn ABM Targeting
1. Build Personal Brand and Increase Organic Reach
One of the best ways to engage with key accounts is to have decision-makers as part of your existing network. If you already have an established relationship with them, they'll be more likely to trust you and buy from you. Professionals across all industries and verticals can take advantage of the platform to build a personal brand, and in turn, build awareness of their solution. There's no secret sauce or secret hack to using LinkedIn to grow your personal and company brand. Be authentic. Provide value to your audience. Don't show up just to sell.
You don't even need to stick to a rigid publishing schedule (although it wouldn't hurt). The best type of content to post will depend on your audience. However, LinkedIn users are 20x more likely to share videos than text only posts, so consider creating your content in the format your audience wants to consume it in.
2. Build a Targeted Prospect List with Sales Navigator
The cornerstone of any ABM strategy is an up-to-date, accurate target account list. In each target account, you'll need to identify key decision-makers and prospects that you want to engage with. If you and your team have a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription (we'd argue that it's vital if you're using LinkedIn to identify prospects), there is a powerful way to build a highly targeted, relevant prospect list. Sales Navigator provides real-time alerts that let you know whenever prospects engage with you or your brand's content.
Using these real-time alerts, you can score leads and see how engaged different decision-makers are in your target accounts, and then take action.
3. Reach Decision-Makers with InMail
InMail isn't a revolutionary concept. Saying that, if you use it correctly, you'll be able to see benefits that translate to your whole ABM campaign.
Firstly, you can use InMail in collaboration with real-time alerts. When a prospect engages with your content, you can reach out directly over InMail and connect with them. They'll recognise you, and it's the perfect time to start a conversation. Remember, make your message personal. Don't use to stock LinkedIn connection message. If you received a connection or InMail opening with "Hi, I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn" would you accept it? Probably not. Make your InMails contextual, friendly, and personalised, and you'll see great results.
4. Create Buy-In with Custom Ads
Another reason why LinkedIn is ideal for B2B ABM campaigns is that it's got advertising capabilities are tailored for B2B companies. You can target your ads by demographic and firmographic criteria, or even by individual company name using LinkedIn ABM.
This is key to a successful ABM LinkedIn campaign, as 87% of B2B buyers say they're more likely to consider a vendor if they engage with them using content specifically relevant to their job. In the days or weeks leading up to a call with decision-makers, run contextually relevant ads on LinkedIn, so your brand is top of mind for your prospects. You might want to use the ads to drive opt-ins for webinars, or to recent content you've published to build your prospects' trust in your brand even further.
As you would expect, LinkedIn ads have rich analytics and reporting you so can track how well your ad campaigns are performing, and whether they're getting the engagement, you expected.
5. Get Opt-Ins for Your Email Campaigns
After you've identified prospects on LinkedIn, you'll want to move your conversations to email. However, if recipients don't opt-in to receive emails from you, you may be in breach of the GDPR or similar laws. You can use your LinkedIn InMail conversations to get an opt-in from prospects. For example, offer to send them an email with a useful content asset, or proposal. When they agree and provide you with their email address, you can send them emails and be confident that you're fully GDPR compliant. You could also get email opt-ins by running ads promoting your gated content, such as a webinar or whitepaper that requires an email to attend or access.
