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LinkedIn is the top B2B marketing platform where professionals can share thought leadership content, company updates, and promotional articles. While you can use videos, short posts, and photos to send your messages, long-form articles are among the best performing types of content on LinkedIn.This guide will walk you through how to create articles that rank well and encourage reader engagement.
LinkedIn is compatible with several types of content, including:
Articles are the longest and most versatile option. They also get more views than shorter content you share through your post. That’s why many marketers use articles in their LinkedIn content marketing strategies.
Your LinkedIn articles are an opportunity to connect with other business professionals. If you create quality content that educates your audience, you can establish yourself as a trustworthy leader in your industry. When your audience trusts you, they are more likely to purchase your products and services.Consider some of these types of article topics when creating content on LinkedIn:
Thought leadership articles are content that positions you as an expert in your field. For example, if you were a marketer for a sustainable clothing brand, you could post thought leadership content on how to live more sustainably. This content positions you as an authority on sustainable business practices.Over half of business leaders spend more than an hour a week reading thought leadership content. You can provide valuable insights by adding quality content on relevant topics to your industry.
Image from Edelman
Brand storytelling isn’t just one of many content marketing strategies. It’s at the core of modern marketing. Storytelling is more than just selling products and services. You’re selling a lifestyle or dream.For example, Nike didn’t become one of the largest shoe companies by simply selling sneakers. Instead, they marketed an attitude of perseverance that came with the brand. As a result, their company became a master storyteller. Each piece of content they publish focuses on a new athlete or customer who overcame barriers to succeed at their dream.Your LinkedIn articles are a platform to tell your story. Share with your followers about who you are at your core, what you believe in, how your business impacts the world, and how your products change lives.Brand storytelling can look like a case study or testimonials. It can also be a moving video showing someone’s story or an inside look at the people within your company.
Decision-makers will read around ten articles before choosing what products or services to purchase. In addition, 73% of business professionals trust content on LinkedIn for information.If you want to sell your products, don’t wait till decision-makers come to you for information. By that point, they might have already chosen a competitor. Instead, you can build a proactive marketing strategy by posting consideration content.Consideration content is meant to reach consumers during the research phase of the buyer’s journey. These decision-makers are actively searching for answers online for known problems. You can offer a solution in the form of your company by resolving their challenges through your articles.For example, researching common pain points for business executives might reveal that working with a remote team in 2022 is adding new challenges they didn’t face before. If your company deals in tech services, you can write a LinkedIn article on how specific tech platforms improve team collaboration in remote settings. That article solves a pain point and introduces your products without sounding like a sales pitch.
Conversions on LinkedIn are actions you want your audience to take after engaging with your content. Since LinkedIn isn’t an ecommerce platform, your primary goal will be for them to fill out a form, not purchase a product. LinkedIn’s lead generation forms make this action simple to embed in your content.By filling out forms, your readers are providing their contact information. You can take that contact information and use it for lead nurturing.However, people won’t just hand over their name and email for free. Instead, they will often give it in exchange for something of value such as a download, event tickets, or a free trial.Your article can capture your reader’s attention and build up to that final action. If done correctly, your article builds trust with your audience so that by the time they get to the form, they feel safe giving you their contact details.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explore other insights into social media and content marketing on LinkedIn:
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If you want your post to appear on the top of people’s feeds, you’ll want to post when most of your audience is online. If you post at a low traffic time, your article will be buried under other content by the time your readers log into their LinkedIn accounts.Remember that most of your readers are business professionals and engage with LinkedIn as part of their jobs. Therefore, the best times to reach your readers are in the middle of the week during business hours.For example, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays saw the most engagement. In addition, 9 AM through 12 PM were peak times for content engagement.The worst day to post content on LinkedIn is Sunday, as there is very little engagement on that channel over the weekend.
Image from Influencer Marketing Hub
Follow these steps to create and publish high-performing articles on LinkedIn:
At the top of your LinkedIn page, you will see a bar with posting options. This bar will give you options for adding photos, videos, events, polls, or other types of posts to your page. However, you will want to select the article option.When you select that you want to create an article, your window will change as the site opens up the article creator tool.
The most essential part of your article is your headline. Your LinkedIn article headlines are what will grab your reader’s attention and draw them to your article. Articles with titles between 40 and 49 characters had the most views.In addition, “How to” articles and list articles were the most popular formats. On the other hand, question headlines saw fewer views than other article headlines.
LinkedIn articles are long-form content that allows up to around 125,000 characters, or about 3,000 words. This is around the length of many blog posts. You can add your text to the body of your article in your editor tool.While you don’t need to fill all that space with content, you should strive to write longer LinkedIn articles as content between 1,500 and 2,000 words receive the most shares.However, when writing longer articles, don’t fill the space with fluff just to reach a word count goal. A short yet well-written article will perform much better than a long-form article that doesn’t provide any new insights or relevant information.When you write longer content, also be sure to leave plenty of white space. Your readers don’t want to wade through blocks of text, especially if they are doing so on their smartphones. Instead, keep your paragraphs short and break up your content with sub-headings and images.
LinkedIn’s editor is compatible with images and videos. Therefore, you can add pictures and videos to make your post more engaging. Statistics show that articles with photos receive twice the number of views as those that don’t. Additionally, articles with videos receive the most views.One of the most impactful images to add to your content is the header image. This will be the first picture your readers will see. It should act like a visual headline that draws people into the content.
Articles on LinkedIn can rank in both LinkedIn’s searches and search engine results. If you’re mainly focused on your LinkedIn rankings, then research the most popular hashtags in your industry. These are key terms and phrases that professionals follow on the platform. When businesses use those hashtags in their content, that content appears on the newsfeed of everyone who follows the hashtag.If you also want to rank outside of LinkedIn, perform keyword research to identify common search terms. You can optimize your article just like you would optimize a blog post by adding links, strategically placed keywords, and quality content.
When you’re done creating and formatting your article, you’re ready to publish it. After publishing it, you can choose to share it on other social media platforms for more reach. You can also sponsor the article as a paid promotion to help it appear at the top of more people’s content feed on LinkedIn.
After you publish your article, take time to regularly check the engagement with your article. The number of likes, shares, and comments compared to overall impressions will give you an idea of how well your article is performing. As people comment, you may want to respond to encourage further engagement with your content.If most people who see your article also like it, you know it was successful. However, if you have hundreds of views but very few likes, you might want to explore how to improve the article to increase your engagement rate.
Give your LinkedIn content strategy a boost with quality and well-researched articles. This content marketing strategy can increase your engagement and generate new leads.Contact us to learn more about how we can help you create high-performing LinkedIn publishing articles.
As an Associate Strategy Director I am responsible for leading the development and execution of organic and paid social media and content strategies for our clients at Kubbco.
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