It's an exciting time to be on LinkedIn. The platform has over 706 million members and 55 million companies operating in 200 countries and territories around the world. The opportunity for corporate connection has never been greater.

The professional social network is a hotspot for account-based marketing. A LinkedIn survey of 800 B2B marketers around the globe revealed 56% currently use account-based marketing, and more than 80% planned to increase their ABM budget in the next year.

It's no wonder LinkedIn is a priority channel for ABM marketing teams. Combining effective ABM strategies with LinkedIn’s sophisticated targeting capabilities, the platform can offer your business a distinct competitive edge. ABM is all about understanding your audience and identifying the highest-value accounts for your business. LinkedIn has both the audience and the tools you need to generate solid leads and sales with your ideal customers.

If you’re looking to maximise your digital ad budget, or are active on LinkedIn but struggling to make the most of this space, here’s a primer on what you need to know about finding your approach and succeeding with account-based marketing ABM on LinkedIn.

Campaign Manager vs Sales Navigator

To get started with account-based marketing on LinkedIn, check out the options available through Campaign Manager. LinkedIn's standard ad management tools allow you to find the companies and individuals you want to reach and start making connections. Company targeting, contact targeting, and retargeting can all help you engage in quality ABM. 

Beyond Campaign Manager, LinkedIn also offers Sales Navigator - its social selling platform with increased capabilities for lead generation, targeting, and enrichment. This premium sales management tool comes with a monthly subscription but unlocks a host of features to help you discover and cultivate ideal prospects for your business.

As the best LinkedIn version for sales professionals, Sales Navigator offers advanced company search, customised lead recommendations, lead scoring, CRM integration, smart presentations, and more. Professional, team, and enterprise accounts on Sales Navigator provide tailored solutions for better account-based marketing. 

With all those tools at your disposal, it's important to review your current approach and acknowledge your strengths, weaknesses, and key goals. Whether it's simplified engagement through automated marketing or targeted campaign planning, lay it all out on the table. With a clear understanding of where you want to go, you can use ABM strategies on LinkedIn to establish meaningful relationships that ultimately boost your business.

Targeting High-Value Accounts

Instead of broad campaigns that reach numerous unqualified prospects, ABM hones your focus and targets your resources to build relationships with the people who matter the most.

LinkedIn’s audience targeting allows you to narrow your focus and speak to exactly the right people. To have the greatest success, you need to take full advantage of these targeting functions. 

You can target your campaigns to reach people in specific companies, job titles or functions so you can reach key decision makers and buying committee members. Use LinkedIn to research your target companies and find the people who will be most influential in the buying process. If you're using Sales Navigator, the Buying Circle feature will help you understand who your key contacts should be. It will also update you on any personnel changes so you can keep your targeting up to date.

LinkedIn also allows you to customise your lists. Not only can you research new prospects, you can also import existing contacts. This allows you to import a list of targets from your marketing automation platform, find them on LinkedIn and serve them with paid ads. 

Building Relationships

It’s simple. When you effectively engage and build relationships with people, your business benefits. The nature of the B2B sales cycle means you need to be focused on the long-term. In addition, prospects that don't convert immediately will help to spread the word within their network, both internally and externally.

Your ticket to ABM success lies in targeting, retargeting and engaging your prospects while nurturing them at every step throughout the customer journey. 

The beauty of sponsored messages is that they can deliver your message to exactly the right people. By using paid advertising to deliver tailored and valuable content, you can draw in your target buyers and get them engaged in your core messages and services.

Combine account targeting with quality content that speaks directly with your audience. After doing the work to create your list using locations, job titles, job functions, job seniority and interests, you already have a good idea of what your audience is looking for.

When setting content strategies for ABM, get creative. Think about what would stand out for highly targeted marketing campaigns but also the needs of your individual targets.

Consider the stage of the customer journey your buyer is in, their needs and the jobs they have to do. What are the responsibilities of their role and how does this skew their information needs? What can you offer to make their job easier? What unique solutions can you deliver?

Generating Leads Through Ad Formats 

When it comes to which ad formats will work for your company on LinkedIn, you won't know if you don't try. This is an opportunity to let your creativity shine to gain the right amount of attention from the right people.

LinkedIn lets you choose from single image ads, carousel image ads, video ads, and message ads. The platform also offers simple yet sophisticated lead generation ad formats. Once you’ve gained your prospect’s attention with engaging content, LinkedIn’s lead generation forms make it easy to turn contacts into leads with a compelling call to action. The goal is to have people opt-in with their contact details to receive additional information from you and initiate contact.

Depending on the content and your key message, try a few different ads and see which one your target list responds best to. It's important to find the best ad type for your business, and A/B testing can help to determine what type of ad is most effective for your ABM campaigns. By comparing two ad versions, you can keep track of which ad performs better and generates more engagement.

Even after a few weeks, you will notice patterns on which ads are getting your message across. Remember that quality, eye-catching content and responsive CTAs will make a big difference.

Lead Scoring and Outreach

Another aspect of a top-performing LinkedIn ABM program is lead scoring. The LinkedIn Sales Navigator platform gives you options for assessing account readiness. You can see when target contacts are engaging with your marketing efforts, including key milestones on the customer journey. This helps you to understand which members of the buying committee are warmer than others and who still need more information. 

You can receive alerts that help you prioritise accounts based on market intelligence and identify when to reach out.

Once they are ready for personal outreach to move them towards conversion, InMail offers a professional communication option to foster valuable conversations with the prospective clients you really want to sell to or work with. Sponsored InMail messages show up directly in the recipient's inbox along with standard messages, so it feels less spammy and more genuine. InMail also gives you the chance to produce highly customised copy and communicate directly with the target contact in the ultimate stages of the sale.

Understanding The Analytics 

Account based marketing is a strategy requiring a deep understanding of your targets and the impact of your marketing efforts. Analytics are a real eye-opener for any business, especially when you're busy taking your digital marketing to a whole new level. 

LinkedIn Sales Navigator makes it easy to see what’s working with your ABM strategy on the platform and what’s not. Your sales and marketing teams can review everything from click-through rates to LinkedIn hashtags with in-depth analytics. Once you identify key benchmarks and whether you're meeting them, you can decide what you want to do with your ABM strategy in both the short and long term.

However, to boost your performance, we recommend integrating the data from your activity on LinkedIn with a marketing automation platform. This enables you to have a full 360º view of your interactions with target accounts across all channels, not just on one social platform.

Book a demo with 1827 Marketing today to learn more about making the most of account-based B2B marketing opportunities on LinkedIn using content marketing and automation.