By Richard Broughton, Brand and Marketing Director, The MTM Agency
If someone asked you to explain LinkedIn, how would you reply? For many, I think the first response would be lamenting the platform's popularity with recruitment consultants or the endless stream of ill-considered sales pitches demonstrating a disturbing lack of study. Personally, my biggest bugbear is people treating the business-focused platform like a narcissistic therapy session in the hope that strangers reaffirm their worth with hollow platitudes. But I am old and curmudgeonly, and I digress!
LinkedIn offers so much more than these - albeit irritating - distractions. With a business focus and over 900 million users globally, the platform provides brands across the energy and renewables sectors the opportunity to enhance salience, drive growth, and build strategic partnerships. But only if the strategy is right.
In this article, we’ll explore how to strategically use LinkedIn to grow relationships and stay ahead in a competitive landscape.
Why LinkedIn matters for the energy sector
LinkedIn offers a unique space for decision-makers within the energy and renewables sectors to engage with peers, potential partners, and clients. According to a 2024 HubSpot report, LinkedIn generates 80% of B2B leads from social media, proving it’s not just a place for professional chit-chat but an actual growth driver.
Trust and relationship building are critical in every industry but perhaps particularly important in this sector. The buying process is often challenging, with an array of internal and external stakeholders and complex interdependencies. LinkedIn's organic and paid opportunities let you effectively engage audiences at every level and at every stage of the process, from awareness through consideration to senior decision-making.
Building a powerful LinkedIn strategy for B2B marketing in the energy industry
In an sector as competitive and truly global as energy and renewables, it’s not enough to just have a presence on LinkedIn, posting key announcements occasionally. You need a well-considered, ongoing strategy to ensure you build awareness and resonance, and that you are recognised for your achievements. Here’s some advise on how to do it:
1. Optimise your profile to reflect expertise and innovation
Your LinkedIn profile is a bit like a your company's resumé; conveying your proposition, experience, and credentials. Your profile must project trust, authority, and credibility, so ensure that your company page is well-developed and clearly communicates your mission, vision, and values. More importantly, emphasise your expertise and innovative approach to energy solutions through your ongoing content strategy.
Use the different post and advert types to share your achievements, from case studies and partnerships to certifications and industry accolades. Leverage a mix of media, but don't forget about video in all its forms. From webinars to case studies to technical and educational content, you want to show that you’re at the leading edge of your marketplace.
2. Leverage thought leadership content to build trust
In the B2B world, trust and credibility are currency. Decision-makers seek partners who can demonstrate an understanding of relevant challenges, trends, and regulations, as well as pose unique opinions and perspectives on the topic of the moment. Regularly publishing thought leadership content on LinkedIn is an excellent way to build that trust and position the brand effectively.
According to LinkedIn, companies that regularly post thought leadership content see 5x more engagement than those that don’t. Define a content strategy that supports the articulation of your proposition; share insights on regulatory changes, emerging technologies, or the latest environmental policies to position your business in line with your goals.
Real-world case studies are always compelling. They can be difficult to provide but they are one of the best ways to provide the proof points your audience is looking for. Sharing how your company helped implement renewable solutions or managed complex transition projects positions your brand as a trusted partner that can deliver in an evolving landscape.
3. Target the right audience with LinkedIn’s advanced tools
LinkedIn is a powerful advertising platform, and its targeting capabilities allow you to target the right people – whether you're looking to engage decision-makers or build awareness. According to LinkedIn, advertisers using its targeting capabilities achieve 33% higher conversion rates than those using traditional methods.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator can be particularly effective for energy companies. It offers the ability to perform targeted lead searches, with filters like industry, job title, seniority, and even company growth trajectory. With it, you can pinpoint key stakeholders and target them with the messaging that is going to resonate best. Companies using Sales Navigator report closing deals up to 45% faster than without it so it's worth exploring for most.
4. Use employee advocacy to amplify your brand’s reach
Building a reputation isn’t solely the responsibility of the marketing department. Management and all employees have an important role to play. Develop a strategy to encourage your employees to share comments on industry topics or company news, write their own thought leadership pieces, or share their personal insights into industry developments. And reward those who actively participate. Done well, and it supports your positioning, broadens your reach and humanises your brand.
5. Engage with your audience to foster relationships
LinkedIn shouldn’t be a one-way street. Simply posting will only get you so far, so ask your teams to engage with your audience by responding to posts and articles, starting discussions, and joining relevant Groups. The sector is filled with niche groups where professionals discuss everything from sustainable fuel development to wind farm blade technology, so find your niche and get involved.
You can engage with these groups by asking your teams to answer questions posed by others and pose their own. Share knowledge and participate in discussions to build awareness and relationships with key industry players, as well as their sphere of influence. In a sector as relationship driven as this, this type of engagement can enhance your commercial efforts.
6. Use LinkedIn to supercharge your ABM campaigns
Account-based marketing (ABM) is particularly powerful in the energy and renewables sector, where deals often involve multiple decision-makers and longer-than-average sales cycles. LinkedIn can be an invaluable platform for ABM because it lets you get hyper-targeted, delivering relevant, personalised outreach to key accounts at scale.
LinkedIn’s ABM capabilities allow you to build tailored campaigns that focus on specific companies or job roles. By combining LinkedIn’s 'Matched Audiences' feature with your CRM data, you can serve pertinent, customised content directly to the people who matter most.
For example, if you are targeting those involved in sustainability initiatives, you can use LinkedIn’s targeting to reach procurement officers, sustainability executives, and engineers through one campaign and reach policymakers with distinct messaging in another. Once you’ve identified your key stakeholders, personalised sponsored content or InMail campaigns are great tools for delivering tailored messages that address the specific pain points and industry challenges your prospects are facing.
According to LinkedIn, brands using its platform for ABM can see a 42% increase in engagement rate compared to traditional marketing techniques. LinkedIn ABM campaigns are also proven to build stronger relationships with key accounts, so personalise your messaging if you want to drive more valuable interactions
Long-term success: Leveraging data for informed decisions
Finally, think of data like your best friend; the one that always brought the receipts and knew all the gossip. LinkedIn’s analytics tools provide insights into how your content is performing, who engaging and what’s landing best with your target audience. This data is invaluable for continuous optimisation of your LinkedIn strategy, helping to ensure that you’re continuously driving engagement upward.
For example, LinkedIn Analytics allows you to track the performance of specific posts, see demographic data on your followers, and measure the effectiveness of your sponsored campaigns. Energy companies should use this data to make informed decisions about where to focus their efforts and how to optimise their content for maximum impact.
Applying this principle to your LinkedIn strategy will help you drive long-term success by continually optimising your engagement with key decision-makers.
Final thought…
LinkedIn offers companies several opportunities to drive growth, build lasting relationships, and position themselves as leaders in a sector that is rapidly evolving, but it works best when its driven by a considered strategy that brings the whole business on board, from marketing to sales to teams on the shop floor. By following best practices around your profile, content sharing, internal advocacy, using advanced paid tools, your can transform your LinkedIn presence into a genuine engine for growth.
LinkedIn is not just a networking and recruitment tool. Use it well and it can be a strategic asset, able to drive real growth. When every part of the energy sector is moving at pace, with new challenges and opportunities arriving as regularly as the tide, you need to maintain awareness, lead the conversation, and forge partnership that will support your ongoing success.