As a platform, LinkedIn has become a top way for companies and individuals to connect with one another and expand each other’s network. Over time, however, its services across industries have grown and become more innovative, especially for marketers.
One of those new features is LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, which helps trend-savvy marketers make themselves known in the greater community and connect with key thought-leaders. At the end of the day, all who use it will benefit from it.
This blog post features LinkedIn Marketing Solutions’s UK Field Marketing Manager, Fiona Gallagher, and Hilal Koc, the Partner Program Manager EMEA. Through LinkedIn’s blog, “LinkedIn Marketing Solutions”, Fiona writes about her experiences while attending Advertising Week Europe with Koc.
Attracting marketers, advertising and technology experts from across the globe, this advertising conference holds more than 200 seminars and workshops which tackle today’s top marketing trends and issues. It has become the hub for marketers to share their insights and experiences with each other.
So what does one do with all of this information? Even for marketers who were unable to attend Advertising Week Europe, there is still much to be gained. Fiona Gallagher and Hilal Koc share the 6 lessons learned from Ad Week Europe and uncover how marketers, advertisers and tech experts can better use LinkedIn to apply those lessons to their marketing campaigns.
The 6 Killer PPC Lessons Learned from AdWeek Europe
1. Brand purpose is the source of competitive advantage
Making oneself as competitive as possible becomes a whole lot simpler when one’s brand has a clear, defined purpose. In a recent research presentation study called Insights 2020 by the Advertising Research Foundation, 80% of the featured brands revealed that brand purpose was the main driver of their internal and external marketing initiatives. If marketers can encompass a direct purpose or overarching goal into everything they do, their competitiveness is guaranteed to increase.
This seems almost intuitive, but what does a marketer need to do in order to give purpose to their brand? According to Gallagher and Koc, the way to do this is to listen to what your audience is saying and be as authentic as possible. What are they responding to the best and what are they not responding to? Talk to thought-leaders and other marketers and create a community on LinkedIn.
2. B2B choice more emotive than B2C ones
This lesson makes sense, but it may not seem clear to some marketers at first. With B2B interactions you are handling not just the needs of an individual, but the needs of another business. It will have outcomes that will affect the company and its employees, which means much higher stakes. To quote another thought-leader, Laura Milsted, “If you buy a pair of trainers and don’t like them, you can always take them back.
In B2B, the implications are a lot bigger - and therefore the choice is a lot more emotional”. In some ways, marketers are asked to disregard B2B as Business to Business and consider it a little more like B2P (Business to People), because it takes into account their everyday lives and personal motives/interests outside of the company.
The easiest way to do this is to make the brand as relatable as possible and make more connections to deeper motivations. This makes it more inclusive and community-based so that decisions can be made with more transparency between businesses.
3. Marketing’s use of technology needs to put the consumer first
As marketing becomes more and more digital, it can be easy to think that the more you produce, the more successful you will be. However, digital marketing doesn’t come without its own digital barriers, i.e. ad-blocking. Despite its negative connotation, objectively, it is the consumer’s reaction against marketing’s free-rein use of technology. More doesn’t always mean better for all consumers.
The biggest mistake a marketer can make in response to ad-blockers is to blame consumers for enabling them. Rather, marketers must be diligent to approach advertising in a more personalized way. This means adding more value and quality to everything that is produced. Marketers who put themselves in the shoes of the consumer can better picture how their content is perceived.
The next three lessons are tips Fiona Gallagher and Hilal Koc believe were overlooked during Advertising Week Europe, but feel they are important to discuss.
4. Brands need new creative ways to build trust with consumers
In the fast-moving industry of advertising and marketing, several marketing tactics are becoming less popular, such as broadcast and TV marketing. More and more companies are using social media and digital marketing platforms to advertise, but using them isn’t enough.
Marketers and digital advertisers are now forced to be more creative than ever to appeal more to consumers, coming up with newer and smarter strategies. Adobe, for example, has exemplified the push for creativity by introducing “30 Days of Buzzwords”. This was met with much success because it left consumers with more knowledge than before and the time-period gave them something to look forward to. Thinking outside the box and challenging each other will go a long way.
5. Marketers need to focus on measuring content rather than just making it
Even when marketers are producing meaningful content, repurposing their brand and listening to their audience, failure to manage that content will result in missed opportunities and less success. After putting in all the work to make their marketing campaigns successful, one cannot assume that the work is done.
Finding a way to measure the success of the ad campaigns and making changes accordingly is the most important final step in this process. What pieces of information are the most useful to track in order to optimize conversions and gain more traffic?
Marketers should:
- Identify the most important metrics to measure.
- Align the reporting terminology i.e. keeping everything together in one platform.
- Test and optimize. This is the way to make the most out of their content.
6. Storytelling increasingly involves creating stories themselves
Again, this also seems pretty simple to understand, but perhaps it is the reason why it may be overlooked. The marketing environment must be more open and innovative in every aspect, otherwise, the industry cannot hope to grow as well as it can. It is necessary to establish a positive framework and have it be inclusive. Consumers can then feel like they’re part of the process and their needs are being met.
All-In-All
The most important things that Gallagher and Koc want marketers to know is that when you’re creating marketing and ad campaigns, you must show that all your content is part of a greater picture. Content is strong when the brand can be recognized within it.
It must be thought out and have the consumer in mind, requiring in some ways for marketers to play both sides. In addition, it is key to not only appeal to one’s audience, but to keep them engaged and satisfied through creativity and an open environment.
To gain more insights and best practices from Fiona Gallagher and Hilal Koc, be sure to check out LinkedIn Marketing Solutions’ featured webcast and blog post here.