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With the right kind of inspiration, quality content flows naturally. On LinkedIn, that matters more than ever, because creating and sharing engaging posts helps you expand and strengthen your network connections.
Right now, LinkedIn’s average engagement rate is hovering around 2% for the most part, but there are plenty of ways to increase that number. Adding images or videos can help increase overall impressions, so it’s important to add a variety of formats when strategizing your content calendar.
Regardless of the format, the best way to ensure engagement is to find the right sources of inspiration that you can quickly refer to when you need help crafting your next post.
Related: How to Get Thousands of Views on Your LinkedIn Content
1. Consistent Trends in Customer Feedback
If you start noticing recurring trends in your customer reviews, be sure to take note and have a system that automatically categorizes the trends.
Eighty-six percent of customers say they’ll pay more for a better customer experience, so even if your product isn’t a fit, taking the time to make the experience enjoyable increases the overall value of your business. Their feedback, whether positive or negative, also gives you valuable insights on how to improve or what is already working well.
The feedback trends you see and hear are likely a problem other companies are having as well. Share what you see with your peers, how you responded, and you’ll likely hear from others who have ideas on this as well. These types of conversations are valuable for everyone involved and will likely drive engagement because they provide real problems and solutions.
2. Common Customer Questions
Before receiving feedback after a sale, we often receive requests from potential customers who want to know more before making a decision.
This is a good sign that they are asking for more details about your business, but it also means that your listed information is somewhat lacking because they failed to anticipate and answer their question. Naturally, you need to respond quickly to the potential customer, but also take note of exactly what they want to know and why it matters to them.
Create a LinkedIn post around these common questions, how conversations typically go, and how your business has changed in response. This information is quickly actionable and your audience will likely be eager to engage with it.
Every business must adapt to meet new market demands, and opening conversations about common customer questions helps everyone understand the current landscape more clearly.
Related: 10 questions to ask when collecting customer data
3. Friction points in the sales process
Getting over the hump of the sales process is a big moment for any business, but it’s unrealistic to expect every prospect to convert. What companies can do is see at what stage customers are abandoning ship, and then take action to fix it. More … than 55% of sales fail due to budget issues, with other factors such as timing and fit also coming into play.
Whether at the beginning or the end of the sales funnel process, identifying where the sale failed is the first step to fixing it. If you can improve by a few percentage points in this one small area, your business will benefit greatly, especially for scalability purposes as you grow.
It may seem odd to share your company’s struggles in the sales process, but others will appreciate the openness and honesty of frank discussion.
4. What customers say they would like to see
While it’s important to track metrics and feedback from past sales, it’s equally important for business leaders to keep an eye on the horizon. If customers keep mentioning a hole in your current inventory or services offered, make a note of it.
Confirmation of sales and subscriptions can be configured to include short surveys. This is where you can quickly gather data and insights from your audience. Opinion polls completed via SMS receive a surprisingly high response rate of approximately 40%but email also works.
Whether it’s a new color or a product set, when your audience talks about what they want, you need to listen. These gaps in today’s market are a gold mine for LinkedIn posts. These are attractive conversations for business contacts who are always trying to anticipate tomorrow’s needs and start preparing today.
Related: Staying Ahead: How the Customer Experience is Evolving
5. Ideas gain traction with industry leaders
When you see an intriguing idea posted in one place, it’s easy to dismiss it as a novelty, but if the same basic idea seems to be cropping up everywhere, it’s time to take notice and take action.
Industry thought leaders with large audiences hold a powerful position on social media and LinkedIn. fifty-eight percent of users read an hour or more of their posts per week. In the age of short attention spans, that’s an incredible amount of attention and priority that people give to these messages.
The ideas you see bouncing around thought leaders in your industry were probably not created by them, but are their take on the big ideas of the time. You can do the same with your own posts to great effect. Briefly summarize the problem, give your opinion, and then open the discussion.
Inspiration can take many forms. Keeping your sources varied and fresh helps ensure that your posts are engaging and interesting to your audience.
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