DoWhatWorks

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

As CMO at DoWhatWorks, I set out to build a LinkedIn strategy that could break past our owned distribution and generate massive external reach. I hypothesized that if we created content with a built-in incentive for other brands to share it, celebrating their innovative work rather than just promoting ourselves, it would create a self-reinforcing distribution loop that drove business. I launched a series called "[Company] is the only company I have seen do this," spotlighting unique and rarely-used website elements from B2B brands. Every post was built around one question: "Why would someone share this?" One of the earliest posts, featuring Clay, surpassed 500,000 views and converted Clay into a customer. As the series gained traction, two unexpected mechanisms turned it into a true flywheel: brands began paying to promote the posts as thought leader ads (since they got exceptional CPMs on content that had already gone organically viral about their company), and I started receiving a steady stream of recommendations from the community, people sharing standout websites each week with me via DMs, and this fuled more viral hits (like the post I did on Super's prefilled AI prompt strategy, that got 300,000+ views) The results compounded quickly: the series has generated 6.6 million total views YTD across 22 viral posts, and was voluntarily paid-promoted by half a dozen external companies eager to capitalize on the organic buzz around their brand. Most importantly, the content reached thousands of top B2B marketing executives, several of whom opted into our newsletter or reached out directly for demos. Following the most viral posts (Clay, Warmly, and Super), enterprise demo requests jumped from a baseline of 1-2 per week to 8-10 per week within 48 hours of a post going viral (which I define as crossing 100k+ impressions). This flywheel directly closed $140,000 in business and built $2.1 million in pipeline, while cementing a strong brand association between me, DoWhatWorks, and cutting-edge website best practices in the minds of B2B marketing leaders.