Content themes and creative best practices that are translating to high engagement on LinkedIn

1. Top Sponsored Content
A gallery of creative executions and
best practices from North America
April – June 2017

2. Methodology

3. How we find the top performers
featured here
Methodology
• Impressions – only posts serving
more than 25,000 impressions
were reviewed
• Target audience – posts targeted
to audiences throughout North
America were eligible
• Vertical – The sponsoring
advertiser must be categorized into
a vertical according to LinkedIn
company page data
• Engagement rate- posts earning a
higher-than-benchmark
engagement rate were considered

4. Top updates are taking a
few forms…

5. 1. Demonstrate in-depth
subject matter expertise

6. Give more value to get more valuable actions
• Demonstrate your deep
topical, expertise. You need
to give value to your
audience to get them to take
more valuable actions.
• MathWorks created in-depth
training materials on
Machine Learning to take
someone from novice to
advanced on the topic.

7. Provide useful tools and resources
• LinkedIn members are
aiming to become more
productive and successful.
Provide them with the tools
and resources to do so.
• Bizible recognizes that
building a marketing plan is
not easy, but looks to help
its prospects by providing a
more turnkey way to go
about creating one.

8. Give your audience control of their content experience
• Interactive tools are a great
way to deliver rich, audience-
centric content experiences
AND showcase how innovative
your brand is.
• Looker has created a
proprietary tool to allow their
audiences to compare business
intelligence platforms across a
series of categories.

9. 2. Add context to industry
news and trends

10. Voice a contrarian POV
• Is there a topic in your industry
that there is a consensus
opinion on that you disagree
with?
• Representing the minority point
of view can be a great way to
attract engagement and
demonstrate your subject
matter expertise.
• Compuware takes a stance that
the mainframe isn’t going away

11. Don’t just voice an opinion, prove it
• Anyone can voice an opinion,
but the value to your audience
is showing them why you truly
believe it is right.
• Barracuda thinks the term
“MSP” is useless – but doing a
Google keyword analysis they
actually showed why.

12. Provide the “so-what” analysis for an industry/topic
• Help keep your audience up to
speed on the latest industry
news. And when news does
break, provide them with
analysis to understand the
impact it will have on them and
their business.
• Cardinal Health provided
everything physicians needed
to know about a recent
Medicare act and what
changes they should be getting

13. 3. Remember that
professionals are people
too

14. Use humor to show unconventional thinking
• While members are operating
on LinkedIn with a professional,
aspirational mindset, it doesn’t
mean that there isn’t a place for
entertainment and humor
• Workday makes light of
relatable, but humorous, office
scenarios to showcase how
there has to be a better way to
run your business.

15. Use humor to spark engagement
• Using humor doesn’t have to
mean that what you are
communicating is not
important.
• The Neo-Sage forum uses this
cartoon illustration to
emphasize their point that time
is a finite resource – you can’t
create more of it so it’s about
maximizing the time you do
have.

16. Use humor to differentiate your content
• When talking about your
offerings, it’s easy to just show
a product shot. But to
breakthrough in the newsfeed,
look to infuse some humor and
entertainment.
• WebEx uses imagery to
contrast the ways we used to
communicate at the office
versus what the possibilities
are today.

17. 4. Put business challenges
in context

18. Use surveys to help your audience assess their own
business
• Help your prospects put their
business challenges in context.
• Conducting a survey is an
impartial way to help them
realize what they need to
address.
• McKinsey uses this method to
illuminate what industries are
more digitally savvy.

19. Use rankings to illustrate your view on a topic/industry
• Use rankings as a way to show
“who’s doing it well” from your
perspective.
• Landor’s Global Agile Brand
Study assesses which brands
exhibit their concept of the
“agility paradox” the best.

20. Update your rankings on a consistent basis
• Publishing one rankings report
is good – but aim to become a
consistent go-to resource.
• Updating rankings on a
consistent basis is a great way
to showcase your authority on
a subject.
• Beroe produces an annual
report ranking the world’s best
procurement organizations.

21. 5. Explain why your content
matters and what it will help
them achieve

22. Highlight a statistic that they aren’t aware of
• Rather than a general overview
of what your content will be
about, use the intro copy as an
opportunity to demonstrate why
it is critical to hear what you
have to say.
• Concur drives engagement with
their cost-cutting tips by
revealing upfront that
companies waste a great deal
of money simply processing
employee expenses.

23. Show them how they will ultimately benefit
• Help them understand the
potential benefit that they’ll gain
from your content.
• To underscore the importance
of weeding out toxic
employees, Cornerstone on
Demand shows the negative
impact that they have on
retaining quality employees.

24. Key Takeaways

25. 3 Key Tips
Invest in rich, value-add
content - ensure your
audiences understand
why it’s important and
what they can gain from
it
Provide value to
get valuable
actions
Don’t just state the news
and trends – help
members understand
what the implications
are, and how they are
doing in the larger
context of their industry
Help put it in
context for them
Look to mix in some
humor to breakthrough
within the newsfeed –
just because it’s
business-related doesn’t
mean it can’t be
entertaining
Use creativity
to differentiate
yourself