Linkedin is now 100 million members in India. And it has a lot to offer to the agencies and brands. Looking at a full-funnel strategy approach? Thinking to leverage 1P data? Know about LAN targeting is - Linkedin Audience Network and much more from my conversation with Santosh Krishnamoorthy. This episode will help you relook at thought leadership and transform your platform first approach.
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[00:00:07] Hello and welcome to my Digital Diary.
[00:00:10] In this episode, I'll speak to an industry friend, Santosh Krishnamurthy, about LinkedIn
[00:00:15] Marketing Solutions.
[00:00:17] Santosh has worked for 20 years in various media organizations like ESPN, NDTV, BBC and more.
[00:00:26] Santosh has with LinkedIn since past 5 years leading the agency business for LinkedIn Marketing
[00:00:31] Solutions.
[00:00:33] In the past, I have worked closely with his agency development and marketer education
[00:00:37] team.
[00:00:38] Santosh, welcome to the Digital Diary.
[00:00:41] I am so happy speaking to you about how is LinkedIn, your wonderful team transforming
[00:00:47] agencies to marketing solutions.
[00:00:49] Thank you so much, first of all, for calling me and we know it's a pleasure, Santosh.
[00:00:54] And we've been trying to do this for a while and I'm very happy that it is happening
[00:00:57] right now.
[00:00:58] We are part of the agency development and education team, the marketer education team.
[00:01:03] We're part of the global team.
[00:01:05] We are small in numbers and actually creating impact on the whole agency ecosystem.
[00:01:10] So when I say an agency ecosystem, we are actually talking about the whole holding
[00:01:14] companies which are the six large holding companies and there is a whole list of huge
[00:01:20] independent agencies.
[00:01:22] These agencies are in different shape size.
[00:01:25] These agencies are B2B specific.
[00:01:28] Some agencies are just talking to the tech clients.
[00:01:30] Some agencies are very much into social or video or influencers.
[00:01:34] So we are talking to everybody.
[00:01:35] We are a team of four people in India.
[00:01:37] We are going and speaking to these agencies based on their needs and requirement what
[00:01:42] they have.
[00:01:43] Like I told you earlier as well that we're very focused about 18 to 20 months back
[00:01:47] on media agencies.
[00:01:48] Yes, that's how it connected I think.
[00:01:51] Yeah.
[00:01:52] I'm sure now there is more than just media agencies, right?
[00:01:56] You're talking to everybody and I'm very curious to know about this because it's
[00:02:00] very beneficial to all agencies not just media agencies.
[00:02:04] Yes.
[00:02:05] So I feel that you know gone are the, I mean like olden days when I started my career
[00:02:11] I think there was one agency.
[00:02:12] That's it.
[00:02:13] So there was a creative guy also sitting on the same floor.
[00:02:15] There is a media guys also sitting.
[00:02:16] There is a then it became different than media also different differentiated
[00:02:21] between an offline and an online agency then social agency.
[00:02:24] So there are a lot of bifurcation has happened but today I think it is very
[00:02:27] important for us to go and speak to every pillar of the admin, every
[00:02:32] stakeholder or every pillar of the advertising.
[00:02:34] Yes.
[00:02:35] When we talk about a PR agency so why PR agency is very important for LinkedIn?
[00:02:40] We will all see PR agency does only organic work but it's very
[00:02:44] important for me because these PR agencies are actually working for their
[00:02:47] customers and the leadership.
[00:02:51] It's very important for us to our customer whether it's an agency as a
[00:02:54] customer or client, the brands their leadership should be on the platform
[00:03:00] because this is the one platform they can talk to all stakeholders.
[00:03:04] When I say all stakeholders is like there are employees, there are
[00:03:07] future employees, there are clients, the clients you want to win,
[00:03:12] the policy holders, you want to talk to the government, you talk to
[00:03:15] a various lot of people and at the same time we've seen COVID actually
[00:03:19] changed the way people have started looking at companies.
[00:03:23] Yes.
[00:03:23] We have seen some great examples across our platform during COVID where
[00:03:27] the leaders have come out and shown their the human side of the
[00:03:30] business, the human side of the company and it is very important.
[00:03:34] And in today's world I think with information and misinformation
[00:03:37] flowing so much it is very important for an agency leader to be on a
[00:03:41] platform and I am a little biased to say be on the LinkedIn and talk
[00:03:45] to your stakeholders.
[00:03:46] So in that regard our comms agencies become very important for us.
[00:03:51] Creative agencies are important because that's where the idea starts.
[00:03:54] That's where the whole platform first thought comes and how we can
[00:03:59] influence that because I'm sure I'm like I can be very candid here
[00:04:04] and say that not all campaigns will have a relevant audience on LinkedIn
[00:04:09] but there are certain campaigns where LinkedIn will have the most
[00:04:12] important stakeholder.
[00:04:14] The first priority as a platform.
[00:04:16] Yes.
[00:04:17] Right.
[00:04:17] And that is where we want to go and talk to.
[00:04:21] So like I said, but in about a year and a half back we pivoted and now
[00:04:25] we are talking to the whole ecosystem.
[00:04:27] Where have we reached in the last 18 months?
[00:04:29] We have done some amazing work.
[00:04:30] So I'm like we are now very widely presented cans of the
[00:04:35] Festival of Creativity and LinkedIn is actually supporting the B2B
[00:04:38] creativity.
[00:04:39] Lovely.
[00:04:40] So this is something which is the kind of a first step and it's a very
[00:04:44] strong step and I can see that there are a lot of people who are
[00:04:46] coming in and actually creative agencies are working with us.
[00:04:50] We are helping them think content, think LinkedIn and hence the brand story.
[00:04:55] Wonderful.
[00:04:56] So I was very curious to know about the full funnel strategy that
[00:05:01] marketing solutions team has to offer for agencies.
[00:05:04] I think not for the agencies alone but for the whole ecosystem,
[00:05:09] for the brands also for themselves.
[00:05:11] I'll give you a very classic example.
[00:05:14] It comes sometimes they come very overwhelming.
[00:05:15] I want to reach out to vice president and above audience in Delhi,
[00:05:20] Bombay, Bangalore with the company size of 1000 people.
[00:05:24] I do this filters on LinkedIn and I see that there is an X number
[00:05:28] of people there and I get very excited and I just want to do
[00:05:30] only the lead generation campaign.
[00:05:32] So we can see the universe or numbers.
[00:05:35] Yeah, great.
[00:05:35] Which is on the campaign manager and then you get to
[00:05:37] the world and say, Oh wow, I want to reach out to these people
[00:05:40] and I want their leads.
[00:05:41] That's it.
[00:05:41] So I'm just doing a lead generation campaign, but you and I both know
[00:05:44] it doesn't work this way.
[00:05:46] There needs to be a full funnel.
[00:05:48] So LinkedIn has products and services or products right now on our
[00:05:52] platform like a sponsored content, which now can be used for full funnel.
[00:05:58] Right.
[00:05:59] It can be used as a video content for your top of the funnel
[00:06:03] for building awareness.
[00:06:04] The same ad unit can be used to download a white paper for consideration
[00:06:10] and at the same time it can you can attach a lead generation.
[00:06:14] Yeah, the same way I think we work with our brands to
[00:06:18] unlike it's the same story across that we need to build that
[00:06:22] confidence on our customers to show them the more awareness
[00:06:27] and the more they're aware, the more they consider the more
[00:06:29] they consider they will give you leave.
[00:06:31] So today I think especially for financial services clients,
[00:06:35] for like a tech clients lead becomes very, very important.
[00:06:40] But at the same time we've established that data that the brand
[00:06:44] to demand story is more important.
[00:06:46] You need to be on the full funnel side and we're seeing some good results.
[00:06:53] So we have a full funnel strategy approach here.
[00:06:57] So there are different levers to optimize the campaign.
[00:07:01] Yes.
[00:07:01] So moving on now I want to take a deep dive on targeting.
[00:07:05] Yeah, like I said you want to reach out to Vice President in Delhi
[00:07:08] Bombay Bangalore highest bank thousand thousand people you can do that.
[00:07:12] So LinkedIn has more than 25 targeting.
[00:07:16] I mean like you can use you can do the targeting by the industry.
[00:07:23] You can do targeting by company.
[00:07:25] You can do targeting by their educational qualification.
[00:07:29] You can do targeting by the college they went to.
[00:07:32] You can do so there are various ways of targeting.
[00:07:36] Great.
[00:07:37] And at the same time what happens is that we always say that
[00:07:41] do not go more than three or four targeting because
[00:07:44] then you're actually narrowing down your audiences and then the universe
[00:07:47] becomes small and becomes far more difficult.
[00:07:50] So you keep it larger for the when you're doing a full funnel campaign
[00:07:54] for the brand awareness and that's how you bring it down.
[00:07:57] At the same time what happens is that we have these targeting available
[00:08:02] for all form of advertising.
[00:08:04] I mean like whether you want to do a messaging ad
[00:08:08] which we call this conversation ad right now or you want to do a sponsored content
[00:08:12] or your objective is just an awareness.
[00:08:15] So these these targetings are available.
[00:08:17] Apart from that there are there is I'm sure you've done a B2B campaign with
[00:08:22] Asnika so you know the other form which is very widely used in the B2B format
[00:08:27] form of advertising is ABM at ABM targeting.
[00:08:30] So it's very simple.
[00:08:31] It's a count based marketing.
[00:08:32] You come you bring your list you upload your list and you say I want to reach out to this
[00:08:38] the list of these companies there also we get overwhelming say okay we want to just
[00:08:41] reach out to only 10 companies that doesn't I mean like that will again narrowing down
[00:08:45] your targeting.
[00:08:46] So we always say that you should have at least 1000 companies
[00:08:49] if you're bringing your email addresses you should have at least 10,000 email addresses for
[00:08:53] you to target.
[00:08:55] Apart from that this is available on campaign manager tool for anybody whose hands are on the
[00:09:01] keyboard.
[00:09:02] If you reach out to the LinkedIn sales team they can actually do a targeting of say
[00:09:08] you want to okay I'm a real estate company and I want to say that
[00:09:11] I want to reach out to the people who are hiring more so that they will buy bigger space.
[00:09:16] You can reach out to the LinkedIn sales team which can give you a targeting of fastest growing
[00:09:20] companies in England.
[00:09:22] Wow this is Neo.
[00:09:23] Yes you can say that okay I want H&I's you are selling a brand like a Tanishk or Tiffany
[00:09:32] I'm like any high value consideration and or BMW and you say that I want to reach out
[00:09:36] to H&I's only so there is a there is a there is a these group targeting for that
[00:09:40] you need to reach out to LinkedIn and LinkedIn gives you those those targeting ads.
[00:09:44] So that's why we always encourage that if you have an intent for a longer duration
[00:09:52] campaign and you're looking at you're looking at LinkedIn please reach out to our sales team
[00:09:56] because they can help you to build those campaigns for you monitor that campaign and
[00:10:01] the one topic what you just touched upon specifically which you spoke about optimization
[00:10:06] because it's very very important that we understand because we have an expert sitting
[00:10:11] with us at the at the accounts team and and these people are equipped to optimize your
[00:10:17] campaign and deliver the better results on the same investments.
[00:10:20] And I've seen the support it's great support from your account management team
[00:10:26] and I personally experienced this so where there were times when we did have questions
[00:10:31] around optimization and your team was always there to help so I can vouch for this.
[00:10:37] So Santosh how is customer driving value you want to throw some light on the value that
[00:10:45] we're bringing to the customers. See I feel that one of the most important thing in today's world
[00:10:53] on any media platform any tech platform I feel is trust that's the one non-negotiable and the
[00:11:00] most important thing and I think LinkedIn brings that so I think the value if you ask me one
[00:11:06] big value what we what we drive on the platform is trust. We are one of the most trusted platform
[00:11:12] LinkedIn has I mean like the kind of first party data you get it on LinkedIn I don't think you'll
[00:11:19] get it anywhere else you know there's a Pushkishnamoote who is the agency development lead in India
[00:11:26] and he's based out of Gurgaon I mean like I will not lie because it's my profession so I'm
[00:11:31] just saying that you have you have the most authentic first party data when you have that most
[00:11:37] authentic first party data and at the same time the environment which is very which is a growth mindset
[00:11:44] environment I mean like everybody the kind of conversation is very respectful on the platform
[00:11:50] people are actually supporting each other people are actually encouraging each other and at the
[00:11:55] same time it is an environment where the brand should brand would like to be seen and at the
[00:11:59] same time have conversation with their prospective customers whether it's B2B or B2C I mean like
[00:12:04] yes LinkedIn is known for its B2B offerings but at the same time I would just want to
[00:12:09] put one plug that we are a hundred million members in India today. So Bob. Yeah we are
[00:12:14] a hundred million members and these people who are the B2B marketing decision makers
[00:12:20] are consumers as well they are driving cars they are buying internet they have mobile phones
[00:12:26] they drink they drink soft drinks they are watching movies so they are they are buying subscription
[00:12:33] they are they want to watch a Netflix show or a or any any show so I'm just saying that they
[00:12:38] are consumers as well. They're consumers themselves and at the same time if this consumer is available
[00:12:44] at your disposal on the platform I think what better value you can write where you know
[00:12:50] that it's a brand safe environment and with our brand safety standards we've tied up with
[00:12:55] various third party brand safety companies like a double verifier and stuff so you can
[00:13:00] you can do that. The other value what we bring is that today we have a power of targeting the
[00:13:06] LinkedIn audience the first party I'm like the authentic LinkedIn audience outside LinkedIn
[00:13:11] environment as well we call it land we call it LinkedIn audience network. Wow. So you want to
[00:13:16] reach out to a CXO on a platform outside we have land offering you can restrict that okay I
[00:13:23] don't want a sports website hypothetically I'm just giving an example I don't want
[00:13:27] say four categories of website I don't want we'll make sure that's blocked and you can
[00:13:31] actually reach out to them. So yeah I think you know what better value you can write where
[00:13:35] you have a trusted platform you know your ads are not running around the content which is
[00:13:42] disturbing and they're not bots I mean like you are reaching out to the people who are
[00:13:46] real people. Yes absolutely. Santosh how is LinkedIn marketing solutions helping agencies to transform?
[00:13:55] Let's talk about that. Like I mentioned that we are now the agency development and marketer
[00:13:59] education team while the agency development side has spoke marketer education I think
[00:14:04] something which is very important we started our certifications now I think these certifications
[00:14:09] are available in marketing labs you can just you can just type marketing labs.lindon.com and
[00:14:15] you will find those certifications we have three certifications right now. India is a as a market
[00:14:21] is the highest number of certified marketers in India right now. We are working with our agency
[00:14:27] partners very closely to help them their teams get certified because that one thing which was
[00:14:35] missing in the piece and nothing we got it and at the same time we're seeing some fantastic
[00:14:38] results because that gives the confidence to the whole ecosystem to think LinkedIn first and
[00:14:44] have LinkedIn content. So I think I encourage probably I think this is the in my every conversation
[00:14:50] I'm bringing it to the agency leaders or anybody from agency I meet or anybody from the marketing
[00:14:54] fraternity I meet so we have three certifications right now and it's doing extremely well.
[00:15:00] What are these three certifications different names? Yes we have three certifications right
[00:15:06] now and we are constantly our Tiger teams are adding more certifications so right now
[00:15:11] the three certifications which are available is fundamentals which talks about how to plan
[00:15:16] LinkedIn campaign how to execute a LinkedIn campaign. The other one is marketing strategy
[00:15:20] where what we spoke about full funnel marketing and the whole aspect of full funnel marketing
[00:15:26] and why it is important and the third one which is very important is the content and creative
[00:15:31] design. What kind of a content? What kind of a creative to be used? What how the copy
[00:15:36] should look like? What should be the frequency of these campaigns these these creatives? How many
[00:15:42] what is A.B testing you know all these things which is very creative and content and design led
[00:15:47] so these are the three marketing certificates once you finish these three certificate you become
[00:15:51] the certified marketing expert and we have the cohort where we keep meeting together
[00:15:58] doing a lot of seminars together and ideas exchange and then you get this is a
[00:16:04] probably a place where you get to meet the people from the fraternity together and exchange your ideas.
[00:16:10] Great this is something that I did not know I will definitely go and get myself certified I'm
[00:16:17] very very curious and I want to do this great so thank you so much it was wonderful I love
[00:16:23] this conversation and I learned more about the platform because when I worked with you all
[00:16:28] these things were not existing I'm very happy that the way your team is growing and the business
[00:16:35] in India is growing so I wish you well Santosh thank you so much for your time. Thanks a lot.
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