Public perception of the founder or CEO’s image is intertwined with that of the company itself. That’s why building a strong personal brand is critical for startup entrepreneurs seeking success in the SaaS industry. Your founder branding can help you establish your expertise, connect with potential customers and investors, and differentiate yourself from your competitors. Building a strong personal brand is especially crucial for startups still seeking product-market fit, as it helps establish credibility and attract early adopters. It needs to be a core component of your SaaS marketing strategy.
LinkedIn is one of the most powerful tools available to build your personal brand. HubSpot research found that LinkedIn is nearly 3X more effective at lead generation than Facebook or Twitter. In this article, the expert marketing team at Bay Leaf Digital will offer some tips and tricks that will build your personal brand on LinkedIn and help your company reach its goals.
“Your brand matters. That is how LinkedIn operates.”
– Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn Founder
Optimize Founder Branding Through Your LinkedIn Profile
Your LinkedIn profile is your online resume and should be optimized to showcase your personal brand as part of your SaaS marketing plan. Turn it into your best brand ambassador.
- Define the objective of your efforts as you would with any other marketing project. Building your brand should be part of a larger strategy. Create specific goals like “Increase brand awareness for the company,” or “Generate X new leads for the sales team,” and keep them in mind as you choose images and craft copy.
- Think about your audience. Who are you aiming to reach? Is it potential investors? Executives with purchasing power at companies your ABM strategy is targeting? New recruits for your team? Make sure that your messaging speaks to them.
- Have a headshot taken and use it as your profile picture. That super-cute vacation picture might be right for Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, but it’s wrong for LinkedIn, where a more professional tone is standard.
- Write the most exciting description you can. This is not the time to be modest. Quantify your accomplishments. Let readers know just how much your efforts have led to success along your professional path.
- Use keywords and hashtags in your profile copy. Users don’t just read content on LinkedIn. They search for people and companies that can meet their business needs. Make sure that you’re easy to find.
- Highlight past experience that bolsters your claim of expertise when you list your previous positions.
Improving your LinkedIn profile will go a long way toward differentiating yourself from others in your industry, establishing your expertise and credibility, and communicating your unique value proposition to potential clients, investors, and collaborators. You never know whose attention you might attract or what opportunities you might create.
Create and Share High-Quality Content
Creating high-quality content is key to establish your founder branding as a thought leader on LinkedIn. Share your thoughts and insights on the SaaS industry, offer tips and advice, add your point of view to trending topics. or tell readers about your own experiences. Post about successes and include testimonials. Write short, interesting, timely original posts. Share articles and posts from others that you feel are important and engaging. Consider publishing a newsletter on a dependable schedule that your followers can anticipate with excitement. Be sure to encourage your followers to share and engage with your content to increase your reach.
- Keep it on brand. Make sure your content is well-researched, well-written, and relevant to your target audience.
- Make it readable. Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings to break up your text.
- Offer content that engages. Leverage catchy headlines and include visuals.
- Everyone loves a good story. Storytelling is a powerful way to engage your audience and make your content more memorable. Use anecdotes or real-life examples to illustrate your points and make your content more relatable.
- Review your content strategy regularly. Keep it aligned with your goals and your audience.
Your perspective is unique, and that makes it valuable. Be authentic and true to yourself. Be honest about your experiences and opinions. Don’t be afraid to reveal your vulnerabilities or hard lessons you’ve learned along the way. If you don’t feel confident about your writing ability, enroll in an online course to develop your skills, use one of the many AI tools available to you, or consider hiring a professional to help.
Engage with Your Target Audience for the Best SaaS Marketing
Engaging with your audience will increase your reach, build relationships, and boost the reputation of your founder branding.
- Respond to comments on your posts.
- Join conversations in relevant LinkedIn groups. Stay cordial and respectful to be perceived as professional, even if you have strong feelings or disagree.
- Follow other thought leaders in the SaaS industry and engage with their content. Share their posts and add your own insights and commentary. Use the opportunity to invite potential targets to collaborate on content such as a written piece, video, or podcast.
- Identify potential customers and investors based on keywords, job titles, and other criteria using LinkedIn’s advanced search feature, then send personalized messages.
- Focus on relationship building – not on sales – in every interaction.
Taking these steps will establish you as an active and valuable member of your industry’s community. By sharing your thoughts, ideas, and expertise on other’s feeds and in groups while maintaining a respectful and insightful tone, you can connect with other thought leaders and increase your visibility, slowly but steadily building your founder branding on LinkedIn.
Measure Your Success
You should measure the success of your efforts to build your personal brand, as you would with any other SaaS marketing plan. Here are concrete steps that you should take:
- Set goals. Make sure the goals you set are specific, measurable, and realistic. Create a timeframe for meeting them successfully.
- Track metrics. Use LinkedIn’s analytics tools to gather the performance of your content, including the number of views, likes, comments, and shares. Identify what’s working and what’s not, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
- Monitor engagement. Engage with your audience by responding to comments and messages in a timely manner, then track your engagement rate to know that your content is resonating.
- Evaluate your network. Periodically pause to examine the quality of your connections on LinkedIn. Are you connecting with people in your industry who can help you achieve your goals? Are you building relationships with thought leaders and influencers in your field? If not, it’s time to re-strategize.
- Assess brand awareness. Track the number of profile views and followers you’re gaining over time.
Quantifying your success on LinkedIn will ensure that you’re building a strong personal brand that resonates with your target audience. It will also give you the information you need to adjust and adapt when necessary.
Building your founder branding on LinkedIn takes time and effort. Be patient and consistent, and the payoff will come. Do you need help with your SaaS marketing? The experts at Bay Leaf Digital are ready to lend a hand.
