How Today’s Startups Accelerate Growth With LinkedIn

2021 has been a transcendent year for startups, with global venture funding surpassing all-time records. As a result of the shifting technological needs introduced by COVID-19, investments have poured into companies that are re-imagining work, life and work-life balance. The stats are staggering:

As the world’s largest and most trusted professional network, LinkedIn has a unique perspective on the strategies and tactics B2B startup marketers are employing to drive demand and win category share. We studied 269 startups within our customer base to understand how they are addressing three emergent challenges:?

1. Validating product market fit
2. Meeting investor expectations for earlier revenue
3. Capture share in crowded markets

We distilled our key learnings into a?visual report?that examines the actions B2B startup marketers take on LinkedIn and the results they’re achieving. Read on for a sneak peek into our findings from the full report.

#1: Startups leverage LinkedIn audience insights to validate product market fit.

As startups raise their Seed round, many have achieved a level of product market fit that points them on a path forward. However, it quickly becomes important to test product market fit across a larger audience.?

Due to the pause of live events, startups have begun to take their market-feedback efforts online and look to platforms like LinkedIn to hone their ideal customer profile (ICP).

Startups who understand their ICP can more effectively engage high-quality prospects. Many startups on LinkedIn rely on tools such as the?Insight Tag?and?Website Demographics?to uncover insights about their customers, helping them better understand their target market. In fact, 92% of Series A startups use the Insight Tag, and 80% use Website Demographics, indicating that startups seek ways to validate their ICP and product market fit early on.?

Once startups have a strong understanding of their ICP, they can amplify their reach using LinkedIn ads. Our research shows that as early as Series A, startups who run LinkedIn ads see 13x more unique reach than organic posts alone. Take for example, Series B startup?Knotch. By relying on LinkedIn’s targeting attributes to define job titles and company sizes, Knotch was able to drive over 1,100 content downloads and attract interest from high-quality leads.?

#2:?Startups rely on LinkedIn’s best-in-class lead generation capabilities to meet early revenue expectations.

In the past few years, startups have faced increased pressure from investors who expect revenue at earlier stages of growth. The pandemic has added additional pressure for companies to replace in-person demand generation efforts with digital tactics.

Due to this increased pressure, it’s no surprise that the majority of early-stage startups prioritize lead generation above all other objectives. When tapping into LinkedIn’s +750M database of professionals, startups can confidently drive leads with high conversion potential.

“The biggest thing I would say with LinkedIn is that frequency of quality is the highest,” says Rohun Vora from?MainStreet’s Growth Marketing team, after seeing their ARR scale by 400% through LinkedIn lead generation.

#3: Startups capitalize on LinkedIn’s engaged community to capture share in crowded markets.

The influx of funding has made high-demand categories even more crowded.?Capturing market share no longer means winning against legacy companies, but differentiating against other recently-funded disruptors as well.??

There’s opportunity to build brand recognition with an engaged audience; decision-makers on LinkedIn are actively seeking thought leadership. Startups who tap into their industry expertise and use LinkedIn ads to drive brand awareness can build trust early on and capture greater market share in the long run.?

As startups grow from Seed to Series A, we observed a 185% increase in brand campaigns. By the time they reach Series B, the majority use thought leadership content to build brand credibility.

“We want people to find our content and come to our site. The bigger the funnel we build up of people who know us, the more likely they are to reach out when they are ready or give us their information when they are in the market.” says Claudia Ring, Head of Growth for?Deepgram?(Series B).?