Buyer interest on LinkedIn refers to the level of engagement that potential buyers have with your company’s LinkedIn page and content. As a social media platform focused on professional networking and lead generation, LinkedIn provides a number of tools to help assess buyer interest and identify promising sales prospects.
Why is buyer interest important on LinkedIn?
There are several key reasons why buyer interest on LinkedIn matters for businesses looking to generate leads and close deals:
- LinkedIn has over 722 million members, many of whom are decision-makers and influencers at companies. Capturing their interest helps create a sales pipeline.
- The platform allows for targeted lead generation using accurate job titles, company details, and professional interests.
- LinkedIn’s algorithm shows your content to more interested prospects when it receives engagement. Buyer interest signals relevance.
- Features like lead generation forms and sponsored content campaigns aim to convert interest into tangible leads.
- Interactions on LinkedIn indicate prospects that are more sales-ready and willing to engage further.
In short, LinkedIn provides metrics and data around buyer interest that can be used to identify and prioritize promising prospects in the sales funnel. Ignoring these signals means missing out on sales opportunities.
How can you measure buyer interest on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn provides marketers and sales teams with several metrics and tools to quantify and track buyer interest levels. Some of the main ways to measure buyer interest include:
- Page views – The number of times your LinkedIn page has been viewed over a period of time.
- Post reactions – Likes, comments, and shares on your page’s posts indicate interest.
- Content engagement – Views, likes, comments, clicks, shares, and overall reach of your uploaded content.
- Lead generation – Leads generated from forms, sign-ups, contact requests, etc.
- Content recommendations – How often your content is getting recommended by others.
- Audience demographics – Follower growth, as well as job role and seniority data for your followers.
Analyzing these metrics over time can reveal rising or declining interest levels from your target audience. You can also break down data further by content type, industry, job role, and other filters.
What are the key LinkedIn metrics to measure buyer interest?
While LinkedIn offers a diverse range of analytics, there are a few core metrics that provide the clearest picture of buyer interest:
Metric | Definition |
---|---|
Page views | Number of times your company page was viewed |
Post engagement rate | Likes, comments, shares, and clicks on your posts |
Content views | Number of times content like articles were viewed |
Lead generation | Leads captured through forms, contact requests, etc. |
Audience growth | Rate of increase in your company page’s followers |
These metrics provide a well-rounded assessment of awareness, content resonance, lead conversion, and overall audience interest. They should be tracked regularly and analyzed to identify shifts or trends.
How can you increase buyer interest on LinkedIn?
Here are some proven ways businesses can spark more buyer interest on LinkedIn:
- Profile optimization – Complete your profile 100%, showcase leadership, and highlight offerings.
- Company page content – Add images, products, careers pages, and showcase culture.
- Employee advocacy – Encourage employees to share content and engage with prospects.
- Targeted ads – Run Sponsored Content and Message Ads to your ideal audiences.
- Quality content – Publish regular posts, articles, videos, and presentations.
- Build relationships – Engage with prospects by liking, commenting, and sharing.
- Groups participation – Join relevant industry and interest groups.
- Thought leadership – Position executives as industry experts.
- Lead generation – Offer gated assets and resources in exchange for contact details.
The more value you can provide to your target buyers through useful content and engagement, the more LinkedIn will amplify your reach and visibility to interested members.
What types of content generate buyer interest on LinkedIn?
Certain forms of content tend to perform better in capturing buyer attention on LinkedIn. Some top-performing content formats include:
- Industry news – Commentary on trends, analysis of developments, and insights from experts.
- Educational posts – “How-to” articles, guides, checklists, and tips.
- Research data – Statistics, surveys, reports, and informative studies.
- Product updates – New feature announcements, product trailers, and demo videos.
- Expert interviews – Q&As with industry practitioners and subject matter experts.
- Behind-the-scenes – Company photos, employee spotlights, and workplace culture content.
- Events promotion – Conference, webinar, and trade show previews.
These forms of content inform, educate, entertain, and inspire professionals. Aligning content to your buyer’s interests and pain points will lead to higher engagement.
What are some examples of high buyer interest on LinkedIn?
Here are some real-world examples of LinkedIn company pages generating substantial buyer interest:
- HubSpot receives over 1 million page views a month thanks to regular blog content and videos.
- IBM has over 5 million followers and sees high engagement on its thought leadership articles.
- Hootsuite’s educational and inspirational updates result in an 8% post engagement rate on average.
- Slack’s lively culture and behind-the-scenes images attract over 930,000 followers.
- Growthhackers.com gets thousands of views, likes, and shares on its constant industry news and analysis.
These companies provide followers with a steady stream of enjoyable and useful content tied to their offerings. Their high interest metrics open doors for lead generation and sales.
Hootsuite LinkedIn engagement
What tools can you use to increase buyer interest on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn provides integrated tools to help companies optimize their presence and promote their content more effectively. Some of the top tools include:
- LinkedIn analytics – Provides data and insights on your page and content performance.
- LinkedIn Elevate – Helps schedule and share employee posts for greater reach.
- LinkedIn ads – Options like Sponsored Content allow targeted promotion of posts.
- LinkedIn groups – Join and engage with relevant groups to connect with prospects.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Unlocks contact insights and advanced search filters.
- LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms – Easy creation of gated content offers.
Using these built-in tools strategically will amplify interest signals and help convert prospects into leads.
What steps can you take to turn LinkedIn interest into leads?
Once you’ve sparked buyer interest, focus on converting it into tangible marketing leads for your sales team to pursue. Tactics to turn interest into leads include:
- Adding Lead Gen Forms to high-interest content like guides and templates.
- Retargeting engaged prospects with ads and offers using LinkedIn’s tools.
- Encouraging post reactions and clicks into your website or contact pages.
- Running webinars, contests, and events for lead capture.
- Responding quickly to content comments and turning conversations into connections.
- Using LinkedIn Elevate to schedule employee outreach and engagement.
- Connecting interested prospects to sales reps for demos and consultation calls.
Nurturing and qualifying all the leads generated will reveal those most ready to buy from your sales team.
Conclusion
Monitoring and increasing buyer interest is crucial for B2B companies using LinkedIn for lead generation. By tracking engagement metrics, publishing captivating content, and leveraging LinkedIn’s tools, companies can gain more prospects. Pay attention to the analytics and signals that indicate interest levels, and double down on what converts interest into sales opportunities. With a thoughtful and strategic approach, LinkedIn can yield highly promising leads.