How to Market Marketing on LinkedIn

Welcome to the meta world of marketers. It’s a world where you spend your time marketing to marketers or business owners. Your content is all about marketing and each time you hit publish, you’re marketing.

Everything is marketing—and that’s where the line can start to blur. How do you market marketing?

DigitalMarketer has marketed marketing for the last 10 years. We experience what it’s like to use marketing strategies on people who use marketing strategies on other people… every single day.

If that last sentence made your head spin, that’s the reason we’re writing this article. We’ll show you how to market marketing on LinkedIn, the social network filled with business professionals who are your customer avatar.

All without coming off as the sleazy marketer that’s just after the cash in their wallet.

Here are our 5 steps to market marketing on LinkedIn.

Step 1: Choose which type of marketing you’ll be known for

Marketing is a big world. To say you’re a marketing expert is usually an exaggeration. The reality is you’re good at a few parts of marketing. That might be:

• Content marketing
• Email marketing
• Data analytics
• Paid media
• Search marketing
• Social media
• Ecommerce marketing

Most marketers are T-Shaped marketers who have expertise in paid media (for example) and understand and have (less) experience with the other types of marketing.

You know that the riches are in the niches. The more specific you are about the type of marketing you do—the better the clients that are attracted to you will be. They’ll be clients who specifically want help with content marketing, email marketing, paid media, etc., and who you can help get traffic and conversions.

AND…the better your brand will be on LinkedIn. You want people to know you as that “ecommerce marketing expert” or that “person who seems crazy good at content marketing.” 

To market marketing on LinkedIn, choose which type(s) of marketing your content will focus on so you can become well known for being an expert at those strategies.

Step 2: Brand yourself as an expert in that type of marketing 

Time to brand yourself, a marketer’s favorite part of their personal brand strategy (we’re kidding). It can feel cringy or like the hardest marketing strategy you’ve ever had to put together to brand yourself. For some reason, it’s difficult to turn the mirror to face ourselves and figure out who we are in the marketing space.

*Cue existential life crisis*

That’s why you figured out which type of marketing you’ll be known for above. With that choice, you can now figure out what content best represents your knowledge. If you’re an ecommerce marketing specialist you can talk about:

1. Tips to marketing ecommerce products
2. The future of ecommerce marketing
3. The tools you use in your ecommerce marketing strategies

Or, if you’re a paid media marketer your LinkedIn posts will cover:

1. iOS updates and how they’re impacting paid media
2. What’s new in Facebook Ads Manager
3. Ad creative trends working really well right now

Your goal is for your LinkedIn audience to see your content pop up on their feed and immediately think, “there’s that ecommerce marketer” or “this person knows everything about paid media.”

Natasha Takahashi is a great example. When you think of Natasha, the word “chatbots” automatically pops into your mind. That’s because she’s always talking about them on LinkedIn (and everywhere else):

That’s when your LinkedIn strategy turns viewers into freelance clients, agency clients, or full-time employers.

Step 3: Show proof that you know what you’re talking about

C’mon, you already know this. When you market for your clients or employer, you’re always adding social proof. Social proof is a huge part of the Customer Value Journey. You can’t get someone to become a subscriber or convert to your offer if they don’t trust you.

You can get your audience to trust you by showing proof that you know what you’re talking about. Don’t be shy…

• Show them the data
• Post about the conversion rate
• Talk about your open rates

You can even post testimonials from your happy clients or employer. Don’t let people guess how good you are at what you do. Show them.

Here’s Daniel Harmon (the reason you know exactly what the squatty potty is) talking about the crowdfunding world record his team broke:

Just like you do with your clients’ or employers’ products and services.

Step 4: Define fancy jargon (or don’t use it at all)

Let’s remember who your customer avatar is as a marketer. Usually, they’re a business owner who doesn’t know every single marketing term ever to exist. We don’t even know every term! 

You can’t expect your audience to know what you’re talking about when you mention CASL, COS, or WOM. And bad marketing makes them figure it out on their own.

Your LinkedIn posts need to be audience-friendly. Your followers will appreciate learning what these acronyms stand for and how they impact their business. Don’t try to be fancy—be clear and educational. 

The people who hire you because of your LinkedIn content will be the ones who feel like you helped them better understand where they need to take their marketing strategy next. They won’t be the ones who feel like you’re too smart for them and become intimidated to reach out to you.

Step 5: Talk about your personal philosophy

Now it’s time to go for that “Like” factor that’s just as important as the “Trust” factor. You don’t want to be any other marketer hitting publish on LinkedIn. You want to be top-of-mind when your audience needs to hire help or knows someone else that does. To be liked, you have to show your personality (we promise, it’s great!).

What makes each marketer different is their personal philosophy on marketing and the specific type of marketing they’re an expert in. For example, some marketers may think that paid ads aren’t necessary for certain businesses. Other marketers might think every business needs to be running paid ads.

That’s what differentiates you from the crowd.

At the end of the day, the person who is right is the one getting traffic and conversions. Talk about your personal philosophy as it pertains to:

• Marketing strategies
• Audience growth
• Brand awareness
• Newsletters
• Paid ad creative

And you can talk about your personal philosophy regarding: 

• Work/life balance
• Morning routines
• Getting started in a marketing career

You want your audience to relate to you in some way—just like you want your client or employee’s audience to relate to their products.

But you already knew this. 😉

The 5 Steps to Market Marketing on LinkedIn

Being a marketer is incredibly meta. Not only do you have to market, but you also have to market your marketing ability. The pro of this is using the skills that make you so good at your job to show other people…that you’re so good at your job.

To make your marketing life a little easier, just remember these 5 steps to successfully marketing your expertise on LinkedIn:

• Step 1: Choose which type of marketing you’ll be known for
• Step 2: Brand yourself as an expert in that type of marketing 
• Step 3: Show proof that you know what you’re talking about
• Step 4: Define fancy jargon (or don’t use it at all)
• Step 5: Talk about your personal philosophy

And in case you were wondering, we used the word ‘marketing’ 48 times in this article…

Well, now it’s 49.