Episode 19: Maximizing LinkedIn with Ideal Customer Profile & Social Selling | Steffen Hedebrandt

In this episode of Interesting B2B Marketers, Steve sat down with Steffen Hedebrandt, Chief Marketing Officer & Co-Founder of Dreamdata. He shares his experience on how defining an ideal customer profile (ICP) and leveraging social selling on LinkedIn can help companies increase their momentum and growth.

Steffen also shared his experience with his first full-time job in marketing, which involved working with a partner who had created an online marketplace for vintage music instruments. They had 10,000 vintage music instruments listed on their website, and the goal was to get physical shops to upload their products to the website. Steffen's favorite marketing tactic at the time was search engine optimization, as they needed to get their guitars and other vintage instruments to appear at the top of Google search results to attract demand to their website. They managed to grow their organic traffic significantly, but were not able to monetize it effectively, and the company ultimately failed. Steffen learned the importance of connecting marketing tactics to revenue to avoid going bankrupt.

Key takeaways:

1. Defining an ICP can help companies focus their resources and ensure that all efforts are moving in the same direction. In marketing, for instance, targeting only the ideal customer profile can help attract the right customers and ensure that the sales team is assigned to accounts that fit that profile.
2. Defining an ICP is not an overnight process and can take up to six months, especially in larger companies. However, it is crucial for companies to communicate specifically to their target audience to ensure that their message is tailored to their needs and interests.
3. When companies exhaust the most obvious channels to reach their target market, they need to find new resources to get in front of the right people. Leveraging social selling on LinkedIn is one of the most scalable and impactful ways to raise awareness about a solution amongst the ideal customers.
4. Social selling on LinkedIn involves posting relevant content that resonates with the target audience, engaging with their comments, and building relationships with them. By making social selling a team effort and setting a target of getting 300,000 views on their posts in a quarter, the B2B marketing expert was able to exceed his goal and get over 500,000 views, generating more leads and increasing the company's momentum and growth.

Connect with Steffen and Steve on LinkedIn.