The content that works for B2B audiences on LinkedIn... and what most brands get wrong
- Dave Endsor
- 2 days ago
- 8 min read
If you're a B2B social media or marketing manager regularly finding yourself asking "what should we post?" then you'll probably fill your content calendar with a few weeks worth of off-the-cuff ideas, but not much strategic direction.
And this isn't a criticism, because I've been in that situation too.
Instead, once you flip your thinking to focus on your audience, you can build a really solid social media strategy – full of genuinely relevant and useful content.
This starts with team insight and customer research.
In the case of B2B companies, you can only get that team insight when you talk to those people who regularly speak to customers... think: account managers, sales, customer success, customer service, and so on.
And there are tonnes of questions you can ask. Here are a few to get you started:
Quick reminder of the 95/5 rule
Alongside that audience insight, another crucial thing to remember in any B2B marketing activity is the 95/5 rule:
Only 5% of B2B buyers are in-market to buy right now. That means 95% of the buyers that you reach are out-of-market and won’t buy for months or even years. And, contrary to popular belief, you cannot persuade the buyer to go in-market because they already have what you’re selling and won’t need a newer version any time soon.
Source: Marketing Week and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science
In short, it means that no matter how hard you might try to convince someone to buy, they will only do so when they need to. And that might end up being from one of your competitors.
Here's that quote displayed in a handy graphic:
So, if the overwhelming number of people aren't in a buying mode, your content shouldn't be constantly in selling mode. Instead, you can use your content to do three things that will make sure you're the business they think of when they are ready:
Build awareness.
Create trust.
Demonstrate credibility.
This is where LinkedIn comes in.
Using that framework here's the content that can work for you, regardless of your B2B sector.
(Remember many of these ideas will also overlap in that framework. And that's only ever a good thing!)
People content that builds awareness and makes you memorable
Often what sets apart B2B companies from their nearest rivals is its people. Those who provide the service that sells and supports the product.
Yet, as much we might roll our eyes at the clichéd idea that people are a businesses greatest asset, there is some truth in it.
And while many people take it too far on their personal profiles, sharing selfies which have nothing to do with the copy in the post, B2B brands should not be afraid to use their people in content.
A really effective starting point is to showcase people at industry events. Not only are you only making them more recognisable to prospective customers, you're signalling your relationship to a particular theme or industry. And the opportunity for prospects to meet you at that event if they want to.
It can also be as simple as welcoming new people to the business (after they've passed any probation period of course!) or 'meet the team' posts that shine a spotlight on specific employees every few months.
The below was one about me when I was in-house. (I would like to stress it wasn't my idea!).
As you can see, it was a bit of a sneak peak into my working life, and some (not too) personal interests.
Where this content can be particularly effective for B2B brands in niche sectors is when knowledge and experience has a huge impact on the business. By showcasing a particular member of your team, who has industry-recognised expertise, it means you as a company now do too.
You're also demonstrating you can back up what you do with the technical, product or industry knowledge that really matters to customers.
Other people content ideas include:
Staff recognition and major work anniversaries – humanises the brand, signals you're a good place to work and a company that retains talent.
Culture and training initiatives – upskilling and internal development, as well as wellbeing support.
CSR and community activity – demonstrates your values.
Finally, people content also supports recruitment, making you more of an attractive company to higher quality candidates – whose knowledge could in-turn benefit your customers in the future.
Content that builds trust and relatability through audience understanding
One of the more difficult conversations I have with B2B clients is understanding if their product or service is actually unique when compared to the competition.
If it isn't, that's ok.
I then propose the idea that instead they should demonstrate the ways they know their audience better than anyone else – most especially, their competition. If your audience is able to look at your content, then think, feel (and maybe even say) "that's me!", then what you're doing is working.
But finding that type of content comes from research.
This means it's vital for you to understand the context, tension and shared moments that impact customer decisions to buy from you, someone else, or not at all. These should ideally be the ongoing frustrations, challenges or decisions that connects what they do and need with how you could help them.
Ideally, these are common scenarios faced by all of your target customers, or at least as many of them as possible, so your content has broad appeal.
And the best way I can demonstrate this idea is with Keith from DART.
In my former agency role as client strategy director, I met Keith. Following a successful pitch for DART, I led the the strategy research sessions where Keith, the business development director, explained a very common scenario facing his target audience (builders' merchants).
More importantly, Keith explained how he answers that common. scenario when meeting prospective customers.
Crucially, none of this had ever been properly shared on social media, even though we recognised it as a winning message. This very short LinkedIn video featured Keith – made by the talented team at my former-agency – outlined the very customer problem we discovered.
It led to a huge new business enquiry, all because it clearly explained a common moment of tension facing the audience – as well as a potential solution to it.
This content, and others like it, increased that new customer's trust and relatability with DART because it reflected something they were already thinking about – replayed back to them in an easy-to-understand but engaging piece of content.
It works because it's genuine and based on real conversations, found through research.
What's yours?
Expert thought leadership and case studies that build credibility (when the audience is nearly ready to buy)
The role of any form of credibility content is to demonstrate your expertise to people who've found you, but aren't ready to commit. This is the content that nudges them ever closer to choosing you over the competition.
While the above example from Keith is also a form of credibility content, I typically see two main examples of it in action:
Thought leadership PR coverage
Case studies
PR has always been valuable, but hugely tricky to measure. However, it's now finally getting (more) deserved time in the sun because of the impact on LLMs and AI search engines, as well as the rise of zero-click marketing. To those of us who've worked alongside PR-types, we've known for years how important effective thought leadership PR is in building authority and credibility – now, thankfully, everyone else is catching up.
The good news for B2B brands is that there are many publications that could potentially feature your content – provided you can offer that expert-level of thought leadership. And while the printed versions of many might not be thriving, there will be an online publication for your niche.
If you need proof of that, just scroll through the list of 'guest publications' that are always featured at the end of Have I Got News For You. I guarantee there will be one you recognise.
On LinkedIn, it's important you share your thought leadership coverage so it can reach more people.
When doing so, here are a few do's and don'ts:
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As for case studies, this is the proof that what you do actually works. When you're able to shout about those results, and you have permission from the customer to do so, then make sure LinkedIn is included in your content plan.
You can post these in a variety of different formats, from a single image with a quote to a PDF carousel sharing key stats (and customer feedback).
If you want to be even smarter, get the customer to do that talking for you. This is a great example of Thrive – a learning and development platform – doing just that:
Don't forget to share this kind of content around the business, particularly with the people who worked with that customer. You can also give it to your sales team to send to prospects or other useful connections.
Both of these give your content a much longer lifespan after publication.
Strategy first, content second
Each of those sections gives you the chance to make the best first, second or third impressions with potential customers. And you'll need to make that many because they're very unlikely to buy from you straightaway.
Make your brand memorable for when they are.
However, before any of this has a chance to work, you need a solid LinkedIn strategy – the strategic foundations to support your content efforts.
If you want a brief summary without reading that post, here's what you need to know:
Understand your overall business goals – what is the business trying to achieve? And where does social media fit into that plan?
Audience research – understand who they are, their pain points, frustrations, challenges and frictions. What makes their lives harder or easier? Ask your team, then ask your customers.
Review the competition – this isn't about copying their activity, but digging in to the available data to determine what's working for them, what isn't, and what you can learn from it all.
Channel audit – what's worked for you before, what hasn't. Why? What can be reused?
Define your content pillars – outline the three to six overarching themes that give structure without killing creativity.
Set your objectives – in the context of those overall business goals, and wider marketing objectives, what will good look like on social media?
Review, refine, evolve – strategic review points to understand where you are versus your strategy, what's going well and what can improve.
The brands that get all of this right on LinkedIn aren't posting more. They do however have a clearer understanding of why they're posting, who they're trying to talk to, and what they want their content to achieve.
In short, the content that works is the content that proves you understand your customer better than anyone else.
