Built a Viral LinkedIn Series Into a $2.1M Pipeline GTM Flywheel

To find brands doing creative things I typically had a roster of 100 or so brands I would check regularly. I’ve tried a few Claude flows to detect site updates but they rarely are meaningful. I always select based on what’s innovative and then share with the teams once the content is viral vs vetting or hitting up the teams beforehand.

It's really case-dependent. For orgs that have a smaller number of overall leads (agencies or enterprise SaaS for example), I think you just use direct attribution. The vast majority of our leads either bring up organically that they heard about us from my LinkedIn, or if we ask, they mention my LinkedIn. For teams with larger lead flows, you either put it as an option on the form on intake or you can try and use a tool if you have the resourcing (Hockeystack, Paramark etc)

1. As a CMO, your time is extremely valuable. What, if anything, did you have to drop to be able to spend the time to execute this properly? And were you able to eventually delegate any parts to scale this? In today’s landscape, a huge amount of procedural work can be delegated to AI. Research, task flows, repurposing, asset creation, ad management and on and on. But what still matters is taste, discretion and creativity. So while I use tooling and my wider marketing team to help run the content machine, I still write my social content, I still write my newsletters, I still record my podcasts and host webinars. This is the highest leverage application of my time. 2. Did you ever replicate this on other social platforms outside of LinkedIn? If yes, what did you change to adapt? If no, why? I cut my teeth on Quora back in 2016, where I generated millions of views and almost $100k in new business (as a SaaS sales AE). I also dabbled in Twitter and Reddit. In many ways, the core tenets are similar… --> Talk about actual experiences and actual real numbers -->Have replicable lessons/takeaways --> Ask why would someone share this? But there are quite a few format changes between the platforms. 3. How did this end up comparing to your other inbound channels? LinkedIn has been king in terms of driving enterprise new business. Our newsletter, podcasts, newsletter guest features and webinars/workshops have all played a supporting role in moving people deeper through the pipeline or helping activate folks. Especially in enterprise, it typically takes 10-15 touchpoints before you get someone on a demo. 4. When things go viral, attribution can get a little murky. How did you educate your team and leadership (if you needed to) on the lift you likely saw all around on inbound pipeline? This is an interesting question. At DoWhatWorks, we work with a lot of the largest enterprise brands in the world (think teams like Microsoft, Salesforce, Cisco etc). So the raw numbers are smaller and direct attribution is very easy at that volume. When I used to work at ActiveCampaign, an SMB focused org with thousands of monthly trials, it was a bigger issue. We used Hockeystack and MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling), which showed about a $28k/m revenue impact from my personal Linkedin.

I will let you know what has worked (and what hasn’t) for me. 1) Novelty is king on Linkedin. When I started at DoWhatWorks, I had data showing what the biggest brands in the worlds, from Amazon, to Nike, to Microsoft, were testing on their homepages, pricing pages etc.. I thought that was a content goldmine. Nobody cared to stop and absorb the insights. So the first big lesson was less focus on validated best practices (which the product delivers) but for social lasering in on uncommon tactics, more experimental and new ideas, that got attention and distribution 2) Widely replicable tactics worked really well. The most impactful content was things people could go do right away (like link case studies to their logo bar), see a result, and then come back to follow more of my content with trust established. Things that were highly impactful but required more complex changes on say pricing, rarely did well. 3) Focus on other companies. The big thing, as I talk about in my Artifact, is to have content that champions someone else and gives them a reason to distribute (and even put paid budget behind it). I always waited for a post to take off first, before sharing it with the team, that way my outreach was “Hey Lovable, this post about you has over 100k impressions in just the first few hours, love what you are up to”. That gets basically 100% reply rate even from senior execs at big brands. I see a big opportunity, based on the model you have here, to learn and relate to published Artifacts, and celebrate their tactics while adding your own perspective/learnings. What didn’t work… --> Teardowns. If the content is negative, other teams won’t share it. It kills distribution and builds ill-will. Just focus on the good. --> Don't focus on product content (go category instead). I have driven millions of dollars from content that is about websites broadly. I want to be associated with websites, innovation, and best practices. When I do that, I get attention and can position DoWhatWork’s downstream (which is a competitive intelligence platform). Be very sparing with your “product” content, and as I taught my students in my Stanford class, do a lot of 3rd and 4th degree content (category-focused and business-focused respectively). --> Don’t spend a ton of time trying to convince people to post who don’t want to post. To win on LinkedIn, you need three things → a) to have opinions b) be willing to share actual data/real results from your experience and c) have consistency. If folks can’t commit (or aren’t allowed) to do any of those three, it isn’t going to work