A growing roster of brands has begun to experiment with influencer marketing on LinkedIn, which is a small but fast-growing option for companies looking to reach a professional audience.
One such brand is workspace and project management tool Notion, whose team began incorporating LinkedIn into their influencer marketing strategy nearly three years ago as part of a push into B2B marketing. In January, Notion made an impact on LinkedIn with ‘Notion Faces’, a multi-platform influencer marketing campaign that spread awareness and incorporated light-hearted work-related humour – even featuring an appearance from Snoop Dogg in the brand’s first celebrity partnership.
We spoke to Notion about their marketing efforts on LinkedIn and how to bring fun into B2B marketing; how other brands can take their first steps on the platform; and how Notion’s engagement with its wider fan community has influenced its marketing.
As a productivity platform, the new year is traditionally a big time for Notion: the team will often launch a major marketing campaign in January. “People are [often] looking for new tools or have new goals that they’re trying to hit,” said Danielle Ito, Influencer Marketing Lead at Notion..
“I think social media is also a little bit more quiet at that time of the year, so [a marketing campaign] can really break through the noise.”
Launching their new Notion Faces feature in January – a tool that lets users create a custom portrait similar to the hand-drawn avatars sported by Notion’s staff team – the team set out to “make a splash” on LinkedIn with 60 creators going live at the same time. More than 50 creators also went live across YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, with influencers based across Asia, Europe and North America, covering a wide array of timezones.
Ito explained that Notion briefed each creator but also gave them leeway to decide how to post about the tool. “Everyone took it a little differently – some of the more professional creators were giving sales tips on how to land new clients in the new year; some were turning their Notion Face into a meme. There was a large range of content – which I think helped us hit so many different areas of the internet on LinkedIn.”
Famously, one of the influencers Notion worked with for the campaign was musician and entertainment industry mogul Snoop Dogg, who wrote, “Shoutout to Notion for the clean new profile pic … [T]hey got me right with all the different customisations and features fit for tha Dogg.”
“I think [that] also really helped add to the buzz – I had so many people say, ‘Did Snoop Dogg get on LinkedIn to post about this?’” Ito laughed. “No, he had an existing account!”
The campaign successfully dominated LinkedIn feeds and created what Ito referred to as a “FOMO effect” that made more and more users want to join in, resulting in UGC and free additional exposure for Notion Faces. Ito reflected, “It was very fun – something that was just a little silly and not something that most people would post about on LinkedIn naturally.”
As LinkedIn has grown as a social network, it has shaken off the rigid associations with work updates and job listings (although these are still a staple part of LinkedIn content), and this also gives businesses on LinkedIn more room to be creative and light-hearted with their marketing. Nevertheless, many B2B marketers struggle to imagine how they can present their business in an interesting way.
“I always tell other B2B marketers – ‘Try not to be so serious about it,’” said Ito. “At the end of the day, I don’t think a lot of decision makers at any company are flocking to LinkedIn for product recommendations. I think it’s more of the conversation around the products that really brings the value.
“…I think a lot of B2B marketers feel like they have to be giving ‘these certain product features’ or ‘you will save X amount of time if you use my product’ … But there’s so much other value around your product.
“What are your stories? [Draw from your] experience on how you’re actually using a product and lead with that first. … At the end of the day, on social media, [people] are looking to connect with other people.”
At the end of the day, I don’t think a lot of decision makers … are flocking to LinkedIn for product recommendations. I think it’s more of the conversation around the products that really brings the value.
Another piece of advice Ito has for businesses taking their first steps on LinkedIn is to understand what conversations are taking place around your product or brand and cater to what people are searching for. “Do some social listening,” she recommended.
“See how people are interacting with you on social – what are they commenting? What are they asking for? Ask people who work on your CX team or your customer success team what people are asking for – so that you can provide content around these areas of need.
“People will go online first to look for help instead of reaching out to someone. So, I think it’s really important to listen to how people are already talking about your brand and use that to help guide what the content should look like.”
Notion’s influencer programme, in fact, grew organically from content that avid users were already posting to social media – showing off their ‘Notion aesthetics’.
“We were going viral on TikTok – and the team at the time realised, ‘Oh, we should try working with some of these people in a paid capacity to talk about Notion,’” said Ito. “…So, I do think because we had that baseline awareness, we just kind of leaned into that – and that’s really been at the root of our programme, because we know what people like to consume in terms of Notion.”
Notion offers formal support to its enthusiasts in the form of communities like Notion Ambassadors, who are volunteers organising resources and events at the local level; Champions, who use Notion within enterprises; and its Campus Leader programme, which encourages the use of Notion at universities. Many of these Notion fans will make user-generated content to spread their love for the platform, and although Notion’s community outreach is separate to its influencer marketing programme, Ito shared that they do overlap in a complimentary way.
“We’re very fortunate that we have … a lot of evangelists all over the globe who love Notion. I source a lot of the influencers that I work with through these people who are already talking about us – I find that there are even more creators that I didn’t even know use Notion that I just meet through conversation.”
Conversations with Notion’s community members and creators have also helped shape Notion’s marketing by offering an insight into what users find challenging and what they need.
“We want to make sure we’re giving [people] value and resources … actually teaching them how to set [Notion] up,” said Ito. “…That’s been great feedback that I’ve gotten from talking to creators or just Notion users in general: they see all this amazing influencer, creator content, and it’s beautiful, it’s aesthetic – but when they see Notion, it’s a blank page when they start, and they get scared; and they quit the app.
“So, part of my programme is the back-to-basics stuff on how to actually build within Notion … so that you don’t get stuck with that intimidation at the very beginning.”
Broadly speaking, influencer marketing is a top-of-funnel awareness channel for Notion, although Ito noted that “over time, it does move down the funnel as well”. Key metrics for success with influencer content include impressions, reach, and engagement with the posts themselves as well as tracking how much web traffic results from each one.
“How many truly-engaged people are interacting with the content? I think that’s a great indicator,” said Ito. Many of Notion’s campaigns specifically promote templates that can be downloaded for use with Notion, and in those instances, template downloads are an important success metric.
Sometimes the signals of success don’t need to be tied to a particular campaign. When Notion goes live with a larger creator, Ito said, “I’m a strong believer in looking at how all ships are rising at the same time … I’ll always connect with our team to look at how organic search is increasing; if we got a boost in total mentions on social media as well. Looking at everything holistically is very important.”
Another goal is more difficult to quantify, but key to broadening Notion’s appeal: “My whole goal is to get as many use cases about Notion out there as possible [with influencer marketing],” said Ito.
“A lot of productivity enthusiasts already know about Notion … I want to make sure we’re putting those fun, unique use cases out there, because you might not have a need for Notion right now, but later on, you will.
“Right now, I’m planning a bachelorette party in Notion … I work with creators who are remodelling their homes, and that’s another life experience [where] people are looking for tools to manage these projects.”
Some of these use cases challenge conventional ideas of how a project management tool might be used: Ito revealed that she works with creators who use Notion to plan Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, and is excited about the idea of connecting with other passionate hobbyist communities, such as chess players.
“I really want to tap into the chess market – because people love chess, and the community is so strong and so large. So, how can you track your chess moves in Notion, for example?” she said.
Notion’s team are continuing their focus on connecting with professional audiences, to which LinkedIn is key: Ito shared that Notion’s LinkedIn budget has increased year-over-year since their first tests of the platform almost three years ago.
She sees parallels between the present state of LinkedIn and the early, explosive growth of TikTok in 2020. “The ease of reaching new audiences is quite achievable on LinkedIn right now,” Ito observed. “There’s new creators, and new audiences, that are popping up every single day.”
Dive deeper into this topic with our micro-learning module on Measuring Influencer Marketing Campaigns (available to Econsultancy subscribers).