How To Really Build Your LinkedIn Content Strategy For B2B Companies The Right Way
The predominant theme of our discourse centers on the pervasive saturation within contemporary social media landscapes, specifically LinkedIn, and the subsequent necessity for a contrarian approach to content marketing. We elucidate how adherence to traditional best practices—such as frequent posting and algorithmic appeasement—has rendered many voices indistinguishable in a cacophony of similar outputs, leading to a disheartening lack of tangible returns on investment. Consequently, we advocate for a paradigm shift towards innovative strategies that prioritize differentiation and value generation. By examining the nuances of contrarian marketing, we aim to empower our listeners with actionable insights that transcend the conventional and guide them towards meaningful engagement and lead generation. Thus, we embark on a thorough exploration of practical methodologies designed to disrupt the status quo and foster a renewed sense of visibility and relevance in an increasingly competitive digital sphere.
This episode is based on the latest blog on the Woopsocial site about how to stand out on LinkedIn.
The dialogue addresses the pervasive challenges faced by professionals attempting to navigate the tumultuous waters of LinkedIn engagement. The speakers convey a shared sense of frustration regarding the ineffectiveness of conventional content strategies, which have become so saturated that they often fail to elicit meaningful interaction or lead generation. They pose critical questions regarding the tangible return on investment (ROI) associated with repetitive posting practices, ultimately leading to the conclusion that such efforts frequently amount to little more than shouting into a void. This common sentiment of saturation fatigue serves as a backdrop for the exploration of alternative strategies that prioritize authenticity and differentiation.
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To counteract the malaise of saturation, the speakers advocate for a contrarian approach to marketing, urging content creators to intentionally diverge from established norms. By conducting a thorough audit of existing content within their niche, they encourage professionals to identify patterns and, more importantly, the gaps that remain unaddressed. This introspective analysis lays the groundwork for the development of innovative content strategies that not only stand out amidst the noise but also resonate with the target audience. The speakers emphasize the importance of borrowing successful ideas from other industries, adapting them to fit the unique needs of their own market, and leveraging these insights to craft engaging, high-value content that drives genuine interest and facilitates connection.
The conversation culminates in a comprehensive framework for implementing these strategies, emphasizing the significance of iterative testing and feedback. By focusing on qualitative engagement metrics rather than superficial likes, marketers can gain valuable insights into what content truly resonates with their audience. This approach fosters a more meaningful dialogue between professionals and their potential clients, ultimately transforming the way B2B marketers approach content creation. The imperative takeaway is clear: to thrive in an increasingly homogeneous digital landscape, one must dare to innovate and disrupt the status quo, embracing a fresh perspective that prioritizes authenticity and value.
Takeaways:
- The pervasive LinkedIn grind leads to minimal engagement and often no tangible business results.
- To combat saturation fatigue, one must deliberately diverge from conventional content strategies.
- Effective lead generation now requires a contrarian approach that distinguishes oneself from the crowd.
- Auditing industry content to identify overlooked formats is crucial for finding unique engagement opportunities.
- Leveraging insights from other niches can provide innovative solutions to common marketing challenges.
- A successful strategy necessitates a practical, step-by-step system that emphasizes quality over quantity.
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- LinkedIn (https://linkedin.com)
- Ahref's Content Explorer (https://ahrefs.com/content-explorer)
- Crunchbase (https://crunchbase.com)
- Canva (https://canva.com)
- Loom (https://loom.com)
- Grammarly (https://grammarly.com)
- Capcut (https://capcut.com)
LinkedIn marketing strategies, B2B lead generation, contrarian marketing, content differentiation, social media engagement, value-first content, LinkedIn post frequency, algorithm visibility, audience engagement tactics, innovative content formats, saturation fatigue, actionable marketing strategies, content audit for LinkedIn, overcoming LinkedIn noise, creative B2B content ideas, effective LinkedIn posts, lead generation techniques, networking through social media, high engagement content, breaking content patterns
Transcript
You know that feeling that.
Speaker A:That perpetual grind on LinkedIn?
Speaker B:Oh, for sure.
Speaker A:You're trying so hard to follow all the best practices.
Speaker A:Posting three times a day, you know, always around lunchtime, avoiding links like they're the plague.
Speaker B:All right, feeding the algorithm beast.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:And for what?
Speaker A:What's the actual ROI on that?
Speaker A:You get a handful of likes, maybe a couple of vague comments, and absolutely zero B2B list leads that.
Speaker A:That actually matter.
Speaker A:It feels like you're just shouting into a void.
Speaker B:It's not just a feeling, though.
Speaker B:It's a systemic breakdown.
Speaker B:That whole playbook, the one every guru was pushing five years ago, it's just completely saturated now.
Speaker B:If you're following the herd, you're.
Speaker B:You're basically invisible.
Speaker A:So our mission for this deep dive is to find a way out of that.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:We want to pull out a really straightforward, actionable strategy from the sources that, frankly, ignores all that noise.
Speaker B:It's about generating real leads by deliberately doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing.
Speaker B:Finding that true differentiation.
Speaker A:When you really look at it, the core problem is it's shockingly simple, isn't it?
Speaker B:Yeah, it's saturation fatigue.
Speaker B:I mean, everyone is using the exact same templates.
Speaker B:Those short inspirational text posts with the dreaded hook.
Speaker A:Oh, comment below if you agree.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Or what's your take on this?
Speaker B:When every single post looks and sounds the same, it all just blends into the background.
Speaker B:And when everyone follows the same script, the results just.
Speaker B:They diminish.
Speaker B:You end up grinding harder for less and less return.
Speaker A:Okay, so let's unpack that.
Speaker A:If following the rules gets you buried in the noise, what's the fundamental shift?
Speaker A:What do we need to do differently in our thinking?
Speaker B:The central idea is, well, it's simple, but it's powerful.
Speaker B:Good.
Speaker B:Go where your niche isn't.
Speaker A:Go where your niche isn't.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:That's the essence of what you could call contrarian marketing.
Speaker B:You have to observe the dominant trends, what we're calling the grain, and then you intentionally zig when the entire industry zags.
Speaker A:So you're not just being different for the sake of being different?
Speaker B:Not at all.
Speaker B:You are deliberately ignoring the established norms to carve out a fresh path where, frankly, attention is cheap again.
Speaker A:Can you give me a quick example of that?
Speaker A:I mean, if my feed is just flooded with one specific thing, how do I find that that zig?
Speaker B:Okay, so let's imagine a B2B marketing firm.
Speaker B:If their feed is, say, 90% quick text posts about AI tips, which it probably is.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:The Zag is to experiment with video.
Speaker B:And not like highly produced video, just a casual 90 second loom recording breaking down a really complex idea.
Speaker B:Or what if video is already dominating?
Speaker B:Then you pivot.
Speaker B:You pivot to these detailed carousel style documents that unpack a whole white paper in a swipeable format.
Speaker A:I like that.
Speaker A:And what about the comment below for the link gimmick?
Speaker B:You kill it.
Speaker B:You pivot to value first content.
Speaker B:You give the deep insights away right up front with a direct ungated link.
Speaker B:No games.
Speaker A:I really appreciate that focus on value first.
Speaker A:But doesn't being a contrarian feel a little limited?
Speaker A:I mean, you can only challenge so many things before that becomes the new normal.
Speaker B:That's a great point.
Speaker B:And that's why the second half of this is so critical.
Speaker B:You have to supercharge the strategy by borrowing proven ideas from other niches and adapting them.
Speaker A:So looking completely outside my own industry.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:You need to look outside of say, B2B Consulting.
Speaker B:Look at what high growth sauce founders are doing.
Speaker B:Or graphic design agencies.
Speaker B:They're solving the same attention problem, just differently.
Speaker B:You take a format that works over there, you tweak it and you apply it to your style and your audience.
Speaker B:That little bit of novelty is what sparks curiosity and stops the scroll.
Speaker A:Okay, we've got the mindset down now.
Speaker A:This is where it gets really interesting for me.
Speaker A:We need a practical step by step system.
Speaker A:It sounds like before we can even create anything, we have to analyze.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:You can't just blindly post something weird and hope it works.
Speaker B:Step one is a foundation audit.
Speaker B:Your niche.
Speaker B:To define the grain, you need a clear objective map of what conventional content actually looks like in your market.
Speaker A:So what does that look like in practice?
Speaker A:An actionable audit plan.
Speaker B:You start by identifying, let's say, the top 20 visible creators or companies in your space.
Speaker B:And as you look at their profiles, you're hunting for predictable patterns.
Speaker B:But more importantly, you're hunting for the blind spots.
Speaker A:And what am I logging?
Speaker B:Specifically log the dominant formats.
Speaker B:Is everyone doing short text updates?
Speaker B:Are they all UV technical topics?
Speaker B:You know the top five productivity hacks that pop up every Monday, right?
Speaker B:Note the stale angles too, those generic motivational quotes that don't really offer any unique insight.
Speaker B:You're.
Speaker B:Your whole goal is to find the formats or ideas that no one seems to touch.
Speaker B:Probably because they take a bit more effort or they just feel too unconventional.
Speaker A:That feels much less overwhelming.
Speaker A:You're not trying to compete everywhere.
Speaker A:You're just looking for those gaps.
Speaker A:Are there any tools you'd recommend for this to Speed it up because nobody wants to spend a week just logging data.
Speaker B:For sure, you have to avoid analysis paralysis.
Speaker B:Don't spend more than like two or three hours on this to find trending content fast.
Speaker B:Eric's Content Explorer is great.
Speaker B:You can put in keywords, filter for LinkedIn and immediately see what the herd is doing successfully.
Speaker B:And for logging what you find, honestly, just use notion, create a simple little matrix.
Speaker B:Or if you're more visual, Miro is amazing for creating a mind map that shows you exactly where the content gaps are.
Speaker B:Quality over quantity here.
Speaker A:So once we know what not to do, step two is to look outwards, to borrow and adapt ideas from other niches.
Speaker A:We we mentioned saws and design.
Speaker A:What kind of specific mechanics are we hunting for?
Speaker B:You're looking for high engagement formats that make abstract ideas feel, well, human and immediate.
Speaker B:So look for things like deep teardown analyses where a founder breaks down why a competitor's launch failed.
Speaker B:Or find skits that humanize a brand.
Speaker B:Or even just value pack giveaways like free templates offered with no email gate.
Speaker A:Okay, let's walk through that adaptation process again because I think this is where people get stuck.
Speaker A:If I'm a, I don't know, a B2B cybersecurity consultant and I see a designer using a carousel to teach a Photoshop trick.
Speaker A:How do I steal that?
Speaker B:You steal the format, not the content.
Speaker B:The designer's carousel works because it breaks a complex thing into easy swipeable steps.
Speaker B:So as the cybersecurity consultant, you adapt it.
Speaker B:You create a step by step security incident case study carousel.
Speaker B:Slide 1 the breach.
Speaker B:Slides 2 through 8, the seven stages of how you fixed it.
Speaker B:Slide 9, the lessons learned.
Speaker B:Slide 10 your one key takeaway.
Speaker B:You've kept the B2B relevance, but you've adopted a much higher engagement B2C mechanic.
Speaker A:So the template is basically this works in other niche because of benefit and I can adapt it for my audience by specific tweak.
Speaker B:That's it exactly.
Speaker B:Now I move to execution.
Speaker B:Step 3 Choose a format that breaks patterns.
Speaker B:This is where you pick one.
Speaker B:Just one underrepresented format that also plays to your strengths.
Speaker A:How important is production quality?
Speaker A:If my niche is all text, am I going to scare people off with a casual video?
Speaker B:The lower the barrier, the better for testing if text is dominant, a simple 90 second video from your phone or loom just breaking down a myth that will immediately stand out.
Speaker B:If everyone else is doing polished videos, maybe you switch to those in depth LinkedIn documents.
Speaker B:The quality of the insight always, always Trumps production, quality and tools for that.
Speaker B:Keep it simple.
Speaker B:Canva for carousels, loom for screen captures Grammarly to make sure the copy is clean.
Speaker B:The focus is on the novelty of the format and the quality of the insight.
Speaker B:Nothing else.
Speaker A:And how do we measure if this is actually working?
Speaker A:We've already agreed that chasing likes is a dead end.
Speaker B:It is.
Speaker B:Likes are a vanity metric.
Speaker B:You have to monitor the qualitative signals that show buyer interest.
Speaker B:We look for spikes in profile visits.
Speaker B:That means someone wants to know who you are.
Speaker B:We look for content saves, a huge signal that they found it valuable, and most importantly, we track inbound DMs asking specific questions.
Speaker B:Those three visits saves DMs are direct lead indicators.
Speaker A:Okay, step four is amplification.
Speaker A:You can't just post this into the void and trust the algorithm, especially if it's unconventional.
Speaker B:You have to leverage your existing network.
Speaker B:We call this the first 10 rule and it's all about how the algorithm sees early momentum.
Speaker B:You get a small trusted group, maybe five to 20 colleagues or friends who agree to engage early within the first 10 minutes of the post going live.
Speaker B:You need them to drop thoughtful comments and likes right away.
Speaker B:That initial surge signals to the algorithm that the content is relevant and that can dramatically increase its reach to high value prospects.
Speaker B:You don't even know yet.
Speaker A:That's a great non paid distribution tactic.
Speaker A:What about using LinkedIn's own features for this?
Speaker B:LinkedIn events are so underutilized for this and I don't mean for huge conferences.
Speaker B:Use them to announce the release of a high value report or a new template.
Speaker B:You pre prep a landing page on your site and then you ask your network to invite their connections to the event.
Speaker B:It focuses everyone's energy on driving signups, which is a real lead capture mechanism.
Speaker B:So let's transition now to some of the most powerful and specific tactics.
Speaker B:The unexpected angles that have a proven track record for cutting through all that B2B noise.
Speaker A:Let's do it.
Speaker A:Angle 1 the reverse advice post this is about challenging a core belief, right?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:It's the ultimate scroll stopper because people are just hardwired to react to conflict.
Speaker B:If everyone in your space is preaching cold calling, your post is why cold calling is killing your pipeline immediately.
Speaker B:Positions you as an independent critical thinker.
Speaker A:And for execution, depth matters.
Speaker B:So aim for 300 to 500 words.
Speaker B:And this is critical for readability.
Speaker B:Run it through the Hemingway app.
Speaker B:You want to target a score under a grade 8 reading level.
Speaker B:Complex ideas need simple language to land.
Speaker A:In a fast scrolling feed that's great practical advice.
Speaker A:Angle 2 the free asset Post Giving stuff away with no email opt in.
Speaker A:That feels wrong.
Speaker A:From a lead gen perspective, it feels wrong.
Speaker B:And that's precisely why it works.
Speaker B:It positions you as generous and as the undeniable expert.
Speaker B:You give away a high value framework or a script with a direct link.
Speaker B:No gate.
Speaker B:You can just use Google Docs and export a PDF.
Speaker B:The logic here is simple.
Speaker B:The people who use it and are grateful will often self qualify and reach out to you for help implementing it.
Speaker B:They become warm inbound leads.
Speaker A:Okay, angle three sounds powerful for networking the industry Teardown post this one takes some guts.
Speaker B:You analyze a company or a trend, highlighting their wins, their misses and the lessons for the market.
Speaker B:But the tactical twist is you tag the leadership team or relevant execs at the company you're analyzing.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:It provides instant visibility.
Speaker B:Often it forces a reply or a repost from someone high up, and that just amplifies your reach into the C suite.
Speaker B:You can use a tool like Crunchbase for quick research on the company before you start.
Speaker A:And angle 4 this one seems fun but tricky.
Speaker A:Mini skits or storytelling?
Speaker A:How do we do that without looking silly?
Speaker B:The line is thin for sure, but the key is to illustrate a business concept with some humor or drama.
Speaker B:You're not just creating entertainment, you're making an abstract problem feel tangible.
Speaker B:For example, a 30 second skit parodying a terrible client pitch.
Speaker A:Okay, I can see that.
Speaker B:You can just record it on your phone.
Speaker B:Use a free app like Capcut for some quick text, and just make sure there's a clear business insight at the end.
Speaker B:When everyone else is being robotic, a little humor makes you incredibly memorable.
Speaker A:And this all comes together with step five.
Speaker A:Iterate until you find the angle that produces leads.
Speaker A:How do you stay focused and not just chase shiny objects?
Speaker B:You avoid that by focusing entirely on those practical lead indicators we talked about.
Speaker B:Profile visits, DMs, prospects, mentioning your content on sales calls.
Speaker B:You need that feedback loop once you find an angle.
Speaker B:Let's say the industry teardown consistently gets you DMs from executive.
Speaker B:You double down on that format and.
Speaker A:That'S when you bring in consistency.
Speaker B:Only then only after you've proven it works, should you layer in consistency.
Speaker B:Use a simple scheduler.
Speaker B:Aim for maybe two to four posts per week, and make sure every single post uses that winning disruptive angle.
Speaker A:That brings a lot of discipline to it.
Speaker A:So let's just officially debunk some of the old LinkedIn myths we've all heard.
Speaker B:First up, posting frequency Once You've found a winning angle.
Speaker B:Yeah, two to four high quality posts a week is the sweet spot.
Speaker B:But before that, frequency is totally irrelevant.
Speaker B:Don't waste your energy churning out five bad posts a week.
Speaker B:Focus everything on testing quality formats and.
Speaker A:The big one, the sacred cow avoiding links and posts.
Speaker B:That myth is so overstated.
Speaker B:You should absolutely not dodge links if they add genuine value.
Speaker B:If you're doing a free asset post, the link has to be there.
Speaker B:The algorithm prioritizes value.
Speaker B:If the content is engaging and the link is valuable, the boost from your first 10 roll will almost always overcome any minor penalty.
Speaker B:Relevance trumps fear.
Speaker A:And finally, do you need a professional video team to break the pattern with video?
Speaker B:Absolutely not.
Speaker B:And if you think you do, you're kind of missing the point.
Speaker B:That professional sheen can make B2B content feel sterile and corporate.
Speaker B:A simple casual clip from your phone, just a one or two minute talking head will stand out because it feels authentic.
Speaker B:Low barrier testing is the entire engine of this strategy.
Speaker A:This is amazing.
Speaker A:We've gone from total frustration to a full actionable blueprint audit, borrow, pick an angle, test it, amplify it, and the source material even gives those three starting templates, the pattern breaking post, the borrowed format post, and the value first post.
Speaker B:That's the core shift, really.
Speaker B:Stop posting out of obligation, just ticking boxes on a content calendar, and start moving toward deliberate disruption.
Speaker B:You're flipping the script on sameness, and that is what actually generates B2B leads today.
Speaker A:So you have the playbook.
Speaker A:Now you can go audit your market, find the gaps, borrow an idea, and launch your first pattern breaking post tomorrow.
Speaker A:This works because you're not trying to blend into the digital forest.
Speaker A:You're trying to be the one standout tree that everyone stops to look at.
Speaker A:So here's the final thought.
Speaker A:If all the old rules are collapsing under their own weight, what is the single most sacred cow in your industry?
Speaker A:That one piece of advice everyone accepts without question.
Speaker A:That you could challenge tomorrow to guarantee you get attention.
Speaker A:That's your experiment for the week.
Speaker A:We'll see you on the next deep dive.
