5 Principles of Marketing in a Virtual World with Linkedin Head of Channel Marketing, Kaitlin Bellay

Alright, well, I will get started and continue to let people in as they're joining. Welcome to SAS to Scale. I'm Lindsay Leggett. I'm part of the SAS team. It's great to see you all here. Thanks for being part of today's roundtable sessions. I have a few quick housekeeping items— Kaitlyn, if you don't mind moving to the next slide— to cover off on, and then I'm going to pass it to our presenter for the day. So as a reminder, these are interactive sessions. So we really ask you to come and join the conversation. Today's session is going to be about 40 minutes of Caitlin presenting. And then we're going to take the next section of the last 10 minutes or so to have Caitlin answer any and all of the questions that you guys submit. The way to kind of stay engaged and join the conversation, submit questions, is a few different ways. Chat is a great option, so drop in a question, let us know where you're coming from throughout the session, and Caitlin will address those towards the end of the session. There's also the option to unmute yourself and ask Caitlin directly via audio. And last but not least, you can also use the raise your hand reaction at the end, and Caitlin will call upon you. These sessions are being recorded, so they will be available post-event. And before I pass it over to our speaker and on the topic for today, I did want to remind you all that we have networking available this week. So you have the opportunity to do one-on-one networking with others in this session, as well as all the other sessions that we have hosted today and tomorrow. What I'll do is I will drop in a, um, link and a reminder in chat during the session today for you to head over and sign up for our one-on-one networking that runs till the end of the week. So without further ado, it's a pleasure to introduce Caitlin Belay, Channel Marketing Lead at LinkedIn, and she will be discussing Return to Growth with Your Marketing. Caitlin, thank you so much for joining us today, and I'll pass it over to you.

Excellent. Thank you so much for having me. I am excited to be at SaaStr Scale today with all of you. I am broadcasting to you today from sunny Alameda, California. So if any If any of you are in Northern California, here's a holler to you. I'd love to see where you are coming in from the chat. Excited to be talking to you about return to growth with your marketing. So I've got some great content lined up for you today, but just a brief introduction about myself. How does a channel marketer end up presenting at SaaStr? Well, that's a great story. My background actually is mostly in startup marketing. So the first 10 years of my career, I was doing marketing for SaaS companies. With fewer than $1 million in revenue, 2 of which have been acquired, one DaySaint by Twitter and 2 Datafox at Oracle. And there I was glad to be head of marketing where I did things like category creation, creating the demand funnel, helping with pricing and optimization. So excited to bring in some of my expertise there, as well as some of the insights I'll be sharing from LinkedIn. At LinkedIn, I'm responsible for marketing our community of marketing partners. So these are the folks that build solutions and services to our LinkedIn marketing solutions. Those are our ads and our pages. And so I have the benefit of working with many startups, um, as they grow and innovate on LinkedIn solutions. So I am so excited to be speaking to you on this topic today. So what are we going to be talking about? And here I'm going to attempt to touch on all of these things and potentially in this order as we go through the content. So talking about a little bit about what we're seeing, um, what's going on at LinkedIn, how that relates to advertising during the pandemic. Obviously in my role with LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, I have a hot seat right in the middle of those things. Um, a few key components about why digital is important and some ideas about strategies and tactics that you can be using to return to growth. And we'll talk about what that means because there are really kind of 3 scenarios that we're seeing with our customers today. Today that may apply to you, might provide you some nuggets for your marketing going forward. So I hope you found yourselves in the right session because I'm excited to bring you the content today. And like our moderator said, I will be taking questions at the end. We've got a kind of a full story of content here, but if you have anything that screams my attention, feel free to throw that in the chat. Otherwise, we'll get to that at the end of the session. So thanks so much for your engagement and participation. Okay, so what are some of the big-level themes that we'll touch on in today's conversation? One is the global economic uncertainty, and of course we're talking about COVID but we're also talking about a few other things like Black Lives Matter, as well as this year was a year of elections, and what that means is that there's obviously uncertainty throughout this year and then leading into next year. What does next year look like? What does What are things that are top of mind for marketers? So we're definitely going to touch on some of those, obviously, and do a walk back of some of the things that happened and what we saw. So maybe we can take some learnings from what we saw and apply them to the coming year. Some of the workplace trends, what we're really seeing at LinkedIn is not just remote work. That's pretty big, but this new professional is rising, one where both your work and your personal life are really blending together. Obviously that's happening because we are working from our homes. That is my partner up on the left. On the wall behind you, and I'm just happy to be broadcasting from my dining room today. That's where we're all at. And then finally, the increase in engagement. People need communities to survive, and those communities have gone online. One of the greatest things I've seen is just the way that communities have come together, whether I'm reaching out to someone internationally via LinkedIn or platforms like Nextdoor. I have this great story of how I got my uncle on Nextdoor to help remove some items from a relative's house, he was just amazed to see how the community came together and just dispersed all of those items. So digitally is the way that people are engaging today, and we can really take that to our advantage here at a startup organization that I know that you guys are representing. So let's bring it a little closer to home for me. So working at LinkedIn, I do have access to some really cool insights and stats that we like to share, um, and really this is coming in the form of Hiring. People are hiring for remote decision or employees right now. People are searching for remote jobs. Applications are going up for specifically remote functions. And then finally, skilling is happening. I think you all know about the acquisition of Lynda, which is now LinkedIn Learning. The skills associated with remote work are going way up. So what this tells us is that you as startups, I know that you're always scrappy for resources and materials. This could really be an upside for your businesses going remote because you have access to talent and you have access to the skills that will help your talent pool do well in the workforce. So really exciting, really promising. And we think this dynamic is going to continue for a significant amount of time, if not permanently, to some degree. So excited to see what these changes have in store for us. One of the things that I'd also like to touch on is just how people are feeling about the pandemic overall. I mean, I touched upon, upon some greater things that are happening like the election and whatnot, but really COVID's been a driving force for all of these overlaying factors, right? And what we're seeing on the platform though, even though the, the outcomes of COVID are still coming to fruition, people are tired. Of talking about COVID And actually, you can see in terms of percentage of overall conversation on the platform all the way to August, that's now below 20%, right? So while we're still in the throes of dealing with recovery, the conversation is not specific to COVID anymore. It's moved on. And so what, what is being said? Well, really, conversations are going back to some of those previous hashtags that were there before around hiring, around business topics, around software purchase decisions, around topical industry insights. These are the kinds of things that we were seeing prior to COVID, and they're coming back in full strength as we're heading into the new year. So that's something to keep in mind as you guys are thinking about how you're communicating as businesses overall, but also really exciting to see people are ready to kind of move into 2021. I know I am like right at the top of that list. So what are people saying right now? And so here's some really great examples from brands who are doing a really good job of pivoting from COVID-related messaging to uplifting and inspirational. I think a lot of people are feeling really burnt out. I see some nods on the screen right here, and I couldn't agree more. The things that I am liking to engage with right now, even just speaking to my own personal consumption habits, are around Inspiring thought leadership, self-improvement, all of those things that not just help me as a professional, but also help me as an individual. And like I said, there's this really consolidation happening between the professional, right? And the personal. And we're really seeing that convergence happening on LinkedIn in real time. And it's just been a really exciting shift to see those conversations. So what does this mean for marketing? Well, I'll tell you. There are a couple of key things that marketing can really be doing right now, regardless of where your business is at, to really position yourselves to come out with more growth opportunity. One is that you are communicating trust, right? Folks want— your consumers, your buyers want to trust the messages that they are receiving from you, and branding is a great opportunity to do that. You do it, whether you're working through your values, your culture, the way you treat your employees, all of those things kind of fall under that trust mechanism. So how is your brand coming to light in those ways right now? In fact, I think I've heard the term about trust being at a critical moment right now. And I think that's especially true, especially in social platforms like LinkedIn, like Facebook, where really news wants to be regulated. There's an intense need for very trusted sources of information. And so we'll We'll get into that a little bit later. Also, brands have a responsibility. Even if folks aren't buying right now or actively engaged with your products, brand directly impacts loyalty that those customers have over time. And so I know some of you on the line must represent SaaS products with longer sales cycles. And this is particularly important to you because maybe your buyer is not ready today, but things are shifting fairly dramatically. And they may be ready to buy tomorrow or when they shift into their new role, because how long do people stay in roles in tech sometimes maybe 2 years maximum, maybe by the time they shift to their next role, they'll be glad to work with you and bring their loyalty to your business again. Marketing can also help you look at new opportunities. And this I love to drill into because digital advertising is particularly good at this. While it takes time for sales to roll in insights from pipeline, like I have this one anecdotal story from this customer conversation, advertising will tell you in real time the nuggets that your audience is responding to. And regardless of where your business is at, especially if you're coming like and really need to up those level of opportunities, if you take the time to dig into your advertising data, you just might find a few more opportunities that are available to you. And then finally, marketing plays a critical role in business innovation and partnerships, right? We've seen business M&A is happening all over the board right now just because there are so many changes in the dynamics of the market overall, we're seeing that marketing is a key role in some of those partnerships and M&A and acquisitions. So that's something for you to keep top of mind as we think about those things. I've personally seen organizations acquired or partnerships happen just based on brand alone because brands are well aligned. And so that's a really great way that marketing can open up that door. For you as businesses. So lots of great opportunity that marketing actually plays towards the growth of your business when business is usual. So it's not really business as usual right now. Even if you are seeing recovery, even if you are doing well, um, the fact is that things are shifting. And so we did a recent survey of about 500 members on our platform with marketing titles in the US, and we wanted to find out what was going on for them. Right now. And a strong majority of those marketers are saying their priorities are shifting. And that really kind of comes in two formats. One, it has to do with some of the P&L, or what's happening for the company as a whole, like what they're able to fund. And so maybe some of those big vision-level projects or aspiring test projects that are no longer happening, you may find that that's not the most important thing for your business right now, and that is causing shift in priorities. Additionally, some of our marketing channels, right, are no longer available to us in the way that they were. And so there's really two tiers of those shifting priorities, right? Secondly, it's navigating budget. Marketing is like a faucet. It's the easiest to turn on. It's the easiest to turn off when it comes to expenditure. And that's just a both wonderful and powerful tool. And I think many of us are kind of navigating one, where they should be spending right now. Based on what's available to them and based on what the company you're— that you represent can achieve in this year. So those are some of the things that are most top of mind. And then the final piece that I'll call out is this idea of shifting towards virtual events. If your organizations haven't been invested in virtual events, that kind of feels like a large bucket, but there are actually quite a lot of opportunities that fit into this virtual bucket area. First and foremost, I feel like I need to call out LinkedIn Live. I've really enjoyed the product. We've just added lead gen forums. It's a really great way to drive demand and engagement when you can't have those in-person interactions. But I'm also a huge fan of podcasts, of webinars, of other rich media virtual assets that can really drive that engagement that's replacing some of those in-person opportunities that you no longer have anymore. And so feel free to read through the rest of that research here. But one of the things that I would really like to call out as we shift about priorities. And one thing that I'll continue to emphasize in this presentation is that strong brands have a— are proven to beat the market even during recessions. So the data that you're looking at right here is basically top 50 brands as evaluated by the market research group that we used. And it benchmarks them across the top players in the NASDAQ and S&P. And what you'll see in that golden line there is that top brands always beat the market. And so what you're doing in branding could be potentially one of the most powerful things that you can be doing for your business right now as it relates to long-term growth. That's super exciting, right? And so that kind of helps you kind of encapsulate maybe what some of those priorities might be for you, knowing that brand is such a valuable component. And what do I mean when I say brands, right? Brands do— there's a lot of opportunity within branding, but there's some key roles that it plays. One, brands communicate information to the public. What's happening with your business? How are you reacting to outside things within the market or within news? Those are the kinds of things that consumers want, nay, expect from brands. And that's been a shift over the last 10 years, I would say. It really is critical. We did some research with Edelman recently on the state of trust, and it really is coming loud and clear that consumers expect brands to have something to say right now, right? And to be giving them the helpful information they need to do their jobs, if it is in fact a brand that helps you with business solutions. They also expect companies and brands to tell you how they can be helpful. They need you, or brands— consumers expect brands to put their best foot forward in explaining that and making it crystal clear so that there is no guesswork. And that's how positive relationships are made, so that you can stay true, close on an emotional standpoint, and as well as like acquire that loyalty that you really need. And that's really the foundation of a really strong brand, right? Those are the roles and responsibilities outside of you know, wonderful fonts and graphics and imagery and all of that. This is the responsibility that the brand has for you. So brand or demand? Okay. So I am a demand gen marketer at heart. So looking at some of these data and statistics, I obviously had to look at them pretty critically, but LinkedIn has done some research that shows that brands do the best or businesses create the best growth for themselves during business as usual, when they're allocating about 60% of their resources towards brand and 40% towards demand marketing. The concept there being is that brand builds up and scales over time, whereas demand is just linear in that it stays equal to whatever resources you put in or the resources you get out and that short-term pipeline, right? So working with those two, both brand and demand together, you're going to see the maximum results, right? The maximum result. So let's talk about some of the concerns that we're hearing from marketers. And I wrote this slide saying concerns, but actually I'm gonna rephrase it a little bit. Let me tell you about the silver lining of being a startup right now in this environment. Right? First and foremost, marketers are concerned about reduced budgets. And there is not a single startup marketer I know that has all the budget they need. Right? So nature of the fact that you are a startup or work for a startup or advise a startup, you know that frivolous spend has never been an option or route for you. And so I think that you are well-prepared, or I'm going to make the assumption that you are well-prepared to maybe deal with some of these resource budget cuts and trade-offs. That you'll need to make, right? How do you prioritize those? Another challenge that we're seeing is using relevant positioning and messaging. I think there's been a lot of conversation around whether you're doing brand or demand, what is the appropriate messaging right now that won't harm your business in the long run, right? And that feels appropriate and empathetic to the situation. I mean, people are going through so much right now. So hard to encapsulate, right? And so brands are being very cautious. Again, I'm going to pitch this as a silver lining to startups because unlike much larger brands who deal in maybe larger media budgets than some startups do, you have the ability to work faster, right? And in real time on that messaging, and you have a very quick feedback loop. And then finally, that's actually accelerated by the last silver lining, which I'll say is the shift towards digital. Right. And, um, I'm going to throw LinkedIn or not LinkedIn, but Salesforce under the bus. This is a great example in San Francisco. They just built a beautiful Salesforce Tower. I see it every day as I look out my Alameda window and I think how wonderful, and not all startups obviously have the ability to create a permanent walking billboard in the downtown San Francisco area, but what all brands do is have the ability to go to digital. Digital is the great equalizer in all of these things. If you're capitalizing on the right audience and the right share of voice, you have the way to— ability to show up in the same way that Salesforce does online, even if you can't build a Salesforce tower. All right, so this is something that's super exciting and a great equalizer given all these challenges. Of course, I would hesitate to call them always silver linings because I think some of you, depending on where you are in your return to growth narrative, these may actually be some really critical challenges that you're facing. And so on the flip side, we'll talk about how you might deal with those in the coming slides here. So how does business recovery work? I'm going to drop a Baskin-Robbins flavor quote. There are many different flavors of recovery that are going on right now. Right. And for us, I've really simplified them into 3 categories. We'll call them the chocolate, the vanilla, and the strawberry of recovery modes that we're seeing. The other piece is that these are not standalone. Your business may have been in one and have shifted to another based on some decisions that you made quickly throughout the year, or you may see one part of your business in one mode and another part, part of your business in another mode. So let me go through these just in more clear detail, right? You've got business disrupted. And the way that I would highlight this category of business right now is that their P&L is severely impacted, right? Burn rate is something that I hope all of you know what's happening in your current startups, right? How much money that you're spending, how long you have to go with the cash in the bank, right? These are the kinds of things that are really important to startups. And if you fall into that category, we're gonna have some recommendations for there, but these are some of the symptoms that you might see in addition to P&L. Finally, there's business in unusual, and I think a lot of businesses actually fell into this bucket right around the May, April timeframe, right? Unsure about some long-term investments, so needing to change tack, but then have shifted over into a business evolve mode. One of those really good examples I found of that is Airbnb, right? What they did short-term is they did some major risk mitigation, and it's never great to see layoffs in the news, but really what they've done is made some product innovations and customer service innovations, both on their renter and, um, host side that allowed them to be more comfortable so that they could move into a business evolved mode. It's pretty wonderful to see a business go from you know, major redline concerns to increasing the price of their IPO shares. I think I saw that announcement today. So that's super exciting too, right? And so these are the kind of the three flavors that we would work into. And there's kind of different responses that you want to take with your marketing within each. All right. And so what does this look like overall? So what we're seeing right now are things that are most helpful to businesses overall if you fall into the disrupted or evolved category. Is that folks that are investing more in your top of funnel, um, are doing really well. And that's helped with your recovery over the last couple of months. And that's something that we think will continue to be a trend, um, overall, thanks to those investments in, um, brand right now. The other thing that we're seeing on, from an engagement standpoint is regardless of which bucket that you might fall into, disrupted, unusual, or evolved, the engagement with your business, at least on LinkedIn, is recou— is recovered to pre- COVID levels, if not exceeded them, depending on how your business is doing right now. So that's a great signal in terms of health and recovery. So let's just dig into a little bit more about the recommendations for business disrupted, and we'll go into each one of those. So I'm clocking in with maybe 6 or 7 more minutes to this presentation. So if you have a question for me or want to dig into anything, now would be the time to start populating that chat, and I can't wait to see what you come up with. Maybe spur some ideas. I'm happy to talk about LinkedIn products if that's the direction you want to go. If you want to talk about what I'm seeing on the market, happy to go there. If some of you guys are content creators and want to know about— or not content creators, but category creators— and want to talk about maybe what some of these implications are for category creation, another topic that I love, roll into that. So those are just some of the thought starters as we roll into some of these categories here. So business disrupted. I think some of these industries and regions, obviously they're all a little bit different, but at a high level, these are some industries that we're seeing really impacted, right? And like I mentioned before, the real symptom here is like lasting cuts in P&L and maybe some of your product offerings. Unfortunately, you know, that is the nature of the market for some folks today. It does not mean that you are without options on the marketing front. In fact, if you do, if you're, obviously able to stay up on your P&L, there's some ideas that we have for you for long-term impact. And the key takeaway here is mitigate the short-term demand risks to assure business continuity. And what that means is that if you're able to continue a conversation with your followers on LinkedIn, with your earned audiences that you already have, to be communicating up upfront to be sharing helpful information and really utilize those organic channels. So that's going to be the first piece there. Um, and make sure that business continuity is your number one priority when it comes to brand. Here are some really great examples of hotels and airlines that have done a really good job of staying above some of those business continuity issues. You've got Marriott here sharing some information. That's helpful about travel to specific destination. I personally have been scouting out Hawaii thinking like maybe in like my dream that I might make it to Hawaii right now. United has been another really great example of someone who I know will help me out with my COVID test if I want to go to Hawaii. And I feel really confident with some of those kind of information pieces. And as a result, their brand, even though I don't think I qualify as a frequent flyer anymore, given to my lack of travel this year. A great example of what brands are doing. Then next is business unusual. So these are brands, like I mentioned before, who are really mitigating a few risks. And this might look like maybe you had a big bet for the year that is no longer a priority that you've needed to back off on. Sometimes that can be product-based or, you know, business strategy. Sometimes it has to do with your whole marketing strategy. But see, some of these are the industries that we're seeing most impacted in that space, right? And this is where you're going to really see that brand-to-demand conversation come into play just a little bit more, whereas the previous group was more on organic, right? You're going to be wanting to shift to brand objectives with your marketing so that when you're able to fully get through that risk mitigation, that you've maintained your share of voice within market. right, and that you're able to start your demand tactics again in a way that won't ruin relationship with your buyers. And then finally, I want to talk to you— well, here are actually a few examples that I didn't quite get to. Both Deloitte and Ernst Young have really done a great job. They saw some risk mitigation, they had a few quiet layoffs, but really they will and are on track to come back more resilient than ever. Thanks to some of the work that they're doing in the thought leadership space and getting out there and building their brand on specific topical things that are not necessarily information about how the business is doing, but taking it one step further and really creating a point of view in the market. And then finally, business evolved. I hope all of you fall into this category. It is my wish for you. Um, this is a really exciting place to be. Especially after the year that we've had. So this is where really that brand-to-demand ratio comes into play, right? So this should be 60% brand, 40% demand, looking at normal business flow in terms of helping sales with lead flow, but also building out the story so that as the market shifts again, which it will, because that's That's all what the market does is that you will have earned the share of voice and built your brand up at a time where you can help use that gain to then pivot you into further growth. Right. And so now is the time to double down on those items. So if you feel like you haven't doubled down enough, maybe now is the time to do it. If you are lucky enough to be in this position. And like I said, sometimes businesses have moved from one to the other. Maybe they started in evolve and have moved back to risk. Maybe you started in disrupted and now are at risk. So these are not necessarily black and white, but some guiding principles for some of the decisions that you can be making in order to continue getting back to growth. And then here are some of these examples of who could be doing really well right now or what we're seeing on the LinkedIn side, right? And really, when we think about this category, we anticipate that growth to continue to go well over the next 6 to 12 months. So really take advantage of that timeframe as you're doing your planning into fiscal '21. Here's some examples of businesses that are doing well. Maybe some of you are on the line who are dialing in from those organizations. Congratulations to Slack on their recent acquisition. Broadcom's doing really well. RingCentral is doing really well in terms of not just talking about thought leadership, but bringing that down into what that means from a solution-oriented oriented messaging and position that helps people better consider their solutions right now. So I guess the drumbeat that I would really like to leave you all with before we roll into a bit of a Q&A or conversation, rather, I'd love to see your faces as you come up and ask questions. So feel free to address questions directly to me, or if you're more comfortable in chat, that's okay too. No matter which recovery scenario your organization is in, marketing is going to be an integral part of that growth strategy. And that's where maybe I would love to pick up in our Q&A. So I will pause there and thank you for, you know, going through my story with me. I'm happy to dig into any of the insights here as well.

Caitlin, we do have a few in the Q&A. Would you like me to just read off a few for you?

Actually, that would be helpful.

That'd be great. Absolutely. Um, it's great that these companies you illustrated have brand already. How do you suggest a startup to use LinkedIn to create that brand awareness and brand demand?

So one of the, one of the nice things about Campaign Manager, if that's the tool that you're using for your advertising solutions, there are many partners that we actually work with. So perhaps you're working with one of them to create your ads as well. But one of the things we look at is starting with your objectives, right? And so there actually are objective settings even before you set up the campaign, and brand awareness is one of them. So you'll want to hone in on those advertising solutions that fall into that objective category. Things that fall into that route, sponsored content video ads are incredibly helpful, as well as our new Stories product. If you're not in that beta, I would highly recommend you give it a try. One of the things that's exciting about beta or new ad formats is that maybe the adoption rate isn't quite there, and so you can benefit from being an early adopter. The other piece there is that if you're ready to move them down a little further funnel, you can retarget your sponsored content with some message ads. And that can be a nice one-two punch in terms of delivering all the way down the funnel. The other piece that helps in terms of conversion rates, so if you're not just worried about engagement, but want to bring those folks down the funnel, is using multi-products. So say using sponsored content along with text ads. We've seen a nice, and I don't have the stats in front of me, but across regions, actually a nice increase in lift when you're using multiple ads formats at once. But again, you definitely want to focus on awareness-centric campaigns that will help you put your pricing and bidding structure in place to get the best results there for maximum viewability. The other piece that I would recommend too is for those who aren't clear on or could use more help on what kinds of content is helpful to share at that level, we actually have a content section suggestions product or feature rather through your LinkedIn page where you can see what types of in, uh, what professionals are engaging with which types of content. So for example, you're selling to IT security professionals. This is just an example. You can go in there and say, I want to know what IT security professionals in this region with this company size are engaging with LinkedIn. And you can see an output of the top content, right? So in terms of share voice, you can quickly embed yourself into that content, which is a really great way to get started. The last product that I recommend is Website Demographics. And sometimes you need to learn a little bit about who's already coming to your website. It's a pixel that you simply put on your page. For example, if you're using HubSpot, they have a one-click install.

Reminder everyone to please mute yourself.

Um, but the insight tag is really great from the insights back on your page admin site. You can actually see the types of professionals who are going to your site, and which is more detailed than what you'll say get from a Google Analytics that will show you some of the demographics they have. As a B2B organization, if you're a SaaS organization, you'll get that extra level of detail that will help you to refine your website marketing your digital ads, and that's a really great place to start in terms of who's most interested in your products and services.

Excellent. I will go to the next question in the chat box, but please again unmute and, um, ask directly if you'd like.

Mike.

Okay, so here we are. Um, what is the best strategic and tactical ways to share content on LinkedIn for B2B, B2C, and B2B2C. As you are building the brand, how often do you post? What is the best practice?

So first and foremost, I would say if you are using other social channels, we have a number of partners we work with like Hootsuite, Social Sprout, that will allow you to consolidate your social posting in one place. And sometimes that can be a really powerful tool as you're a startup getting into it. I also support our marketing partners, so I feel like I'd love, love to highlight them there. But tactically, strategically, here are a couple things that we find helpful, which is because there is this new rise of the professional that I talked about, which is really blended on LinkedIn to not just we're professional, not just professional topics anymore. We're really seeing personal topics on the platform, still in a professional, trusted kind of tone, um, the terms of like purchase decisions or advice on something else that may be family related, which is really great to see that whole professional show up on LinkedIn. It makes it a richer experience. That means that you're also able to connect in that way. And there are two ways that we really focus. One is to You really want your page posts to be the core of what you're presenting on LinkedIn. Um, and there's some helpful guides. If you go to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions resource page on particular pages and what kind of content is helpful for you, um, they recommend different types of content like recognizing employees, talking about innovation, featuring leaders within the business. So they have a bunch of ideas or thought starters in terms of what to post from a tactical standpoint. And they gave some great examples between B2B, B2C, and B2B2C. So you'll, you'll find all the goodies in there. But what I can say is I would at least recommend posting once a week just to keep that engagement going. The way that the feed algorithm works, so that your followers will organically get that piece, right? So upping the number of followers you have is really important. The other way that you can up those followers is by participating in popular hashtags on the platform. You also have access to those. You can use some of the ones you saw in the presentation today or with content suggestions. That'll be another great place to start.

Excellent. We've got another question here. For disrupted businesses, what are your suggested risk mitigation solutions for corporate solutions, which involves consultancy and POC as part of the sales process?

Right. So really, where— if you're in that category with business disrupted, I would really focus on your organic strategies overall, right? So that should be the place where you start. There are a lot of tools and features. LinkedIn Live is one of them. LinkedIn Events. Creating content is really wonderful. Using content suggestions to find out what is most popular, I think, is really helpful. The other piece is that if you really are in risk mitigation and understanding that your budgets are low, I would take a look at the content you already have. One of the top concerns that we've heard from marketers is that some of their content from pre-COVID isn't necessarily relevant anymore. And we find that to be more than a concern than it is a problem in reality. We found that many people just by changing a word out can make their conversations more empathetic than they were prior. But also business is different. And so maybe there's another way that you can bring up that same content again, but in a different point of view, right? Or reason for bringing it up. So really utilizing some of the assets from your old strategy. And then when you look at— I love looking at our Sales Navigator and our marketing solutions pages themselves. Sometimes it's as simple as sharing a thought or a poll. And that's really easy too, in order to gain engagement and just continue to find a relationship with your followers.

Alexander actually had a follow-up question. Would you get penalized as a marketer for posting daily on LinkedIn or several times a day? Bit tactical, but thought I'd throw that out there.

I don't know that I've actually seen data around that, so I actually will I would have to look that up. What I would say is that when there is an abundance of content or it's not the right content based on what they expected to sign up for, what they wouldn't expect from your brand, you know, as long as it's helpful, I don't see any drawback to posting multiple times a day. Our social media lead at LinkedIn only does post once a day though, just to be able to make time to look at the performance of past posts, and they find if they're posting too much that they don't actually take the time to look at the results of those posts so that they can then optimize later. So really, it actually becomes an optimization problem versus like a too much content to your followers standpoint. Great.

Thanks for that answer. Any other last-minute questions that Caitlin can address, if you'd like to drop them in or speak up, or we'll wrap up this session. We've just got another one coming through. What keywords help in increasing click-through on posts?

Keywords? We do have hashtags that when you use them in the post, they will allow that to populate in conversations there, especially when people are looking through. So highly recommend hashtags. I would also recommend actually some of our newer ad formats. Video is incredibly popular. Are incredibly popular, right? And if you're, you know, and also doing a healthy mix of all the above, right? You don't want to just be posting one type of content. You really want to mix and match as you go along. But I would highly recommend rich media in terms of increasing engagement overall. There's some really great technology these days for helping you produce content from your phone. We also have some exciting work that we're doing with Canva. So it's easy to put your video content into Canva, export it out, and get it into LinkedIn in a really simple manner. So if you want to do a little bit more editing, that's, you know, a little bit more with text and the background and all of that, Canva and a number of our other partners are a great source of some added content support.

Well, thank you very much, Caitlin, for taking these questions. Thank you for those that submitted as well as joined us in today's session. Um, again, I sent a quick reminder, we have wonderful one-to-one networking opportunities for the rest of the week, as well as a handful of other roundtable sessions this afternoon that hopefully some of you are joining us for, as well as a full day tomorrow. So thank you again, Caitlin, for hosting today's session, and thank you all for joining SastrScale today. Have a great afternoon.

Thank you. Take care.