Case study · Engineering consultancy
Visible to two hundred buyers for the year it takes them to decide
An engineering consultancy won work through relationships, and its sales cycle ran to a year or more. This is how we used LinkedIn to keep its experts in front of a defined list of target accounts, and measured success in conversations with those accounts.
Project overview
Social for a long sales cycle.
- Industry
- Engineering consultancy
- Client
- Confidential
- Solution
- LinkedIn programme
- Platform
- LinkedIn + CRM
- Timeline
- 6–12 months
- Team
- 4 people
- Audience
- A named list of target accounts
- Voices
- Partners and senior engineers
- Measurement
- Engagement and meetings by account
Expected business outcomes
What the client set out to achieve
Follower counts were ignored. The target list was the only audience that counted.
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60–80%
Of target accounts reached each quarter
Posts from experts and sponsored content reach decision-makers at named accounts.
Target range; measured with LinkedIn's company targeting reports
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2–3×
More inbound conversations from target accounts
Buyers contact an expert they have been reading for months.
Target range over a year; logged in the CRM
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8–12
Experts posting regularly
A small group of senior people carries the programme.
Target; at least two posts a month each
Business challenges
Where the client started
The firm's reputation lived in its people, and its LinkedIn page was a notice board.
Company page
Award announcements and recruitment posts.
Experts
Senior engineers with strong views and no time to write.
Sales
Business development depended on a few partners' contacts.
Targets
A list of accounts existed, in a spreadsheet nobody used.
Measurement
Marketing reported followers and likes.
Proposed solution
What the LinkedIn programme covered
Put the experts in front of the accounts, consistently, for long enough.
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Account list
Target accounts and roles loaded into LinkedIn and the CRM.
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Expert posts
Short interviews turned into posts in each expert's own voice.
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Employee advocacy
A simple weekly routine for staff to share and comment.
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Project stories
Visual explanations of technical work, approved by clients.
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Sponsored content
The best posts promoted to the target accounts only.
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Account reporting
Reach, engagement and meetings reported per account.
Project requirements
What the client asked us for
The request was more visibility. The useful version of that was narrow: be known by the people at a few hundred organisations who commission this kind of work.
Experts were asked for thirty minutes a month, not for writing. That was the only version of the programme they could keep up.
What the project had to deliver
- 01Reach into named target accounts
- 02Experts visible, not just the logo
- 03A routine staff can sustain
- 04Reporting by account
Key challenges & considerations
What made it harder, and what we did
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Client confidentiality on most projects
What we did
Project stories were written about the method rather than the client, and cleared before publishing.
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Experts reluctant to post
What we did
Experts were interviewed for thirty minutes a month and approved posts written in their own voice.
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A sales cycle too long for quick proof
What we did
Early measures were reach and engagement among named accounts, reported quarterly while the pipeline matured.
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A small marketing team
What we did
Templates and a fixed weekly rhythm kept the workload within the team's capacity.
What we watched for
- Measure accounts, not followers
- Interview experts instead of asking them to write
- Promote only what already works
- Give it a full sales cycle
Development process
Define the list, then show up every week
Consistency mattered more than any single post.
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Account list
Targets and roles agreed with the partners.
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Voices
Experts chosen and interviewed.
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Content rhythm
Posts scheduled weekly across experts and the company page.
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Advocacy
Staff routine introduced, team by team.
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Sponsored content
Best posts promoted to target accounts.
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Quarterly review
Account engagement reviewed with business development.
Technology stack
LinkedIn, joined to the account list
Light tooling, and one list shared by marketing and sales.
Social
- LinkedIn company page
- Expert profiles
- LinkedIn Campaign Manager
Content
- Interview notes
- Post templates
- Design templates
Data
- Target account list
- CRM
- Matched audiences
Measurement
- Company engagement reports
- Meeting tracking
- Looker Studio
Quality assurance & deployment
Checked before it went live, measured after
Marketing work is only as good as its measurement. Tracking was verified before anything launched, technical changes were tested on staging, and every result was reconciled with the client's own sales or booking data.
- Conversion tracking tested end to end before launch
- Technical changes checked on staging with a full crawl
- Redirects, links and structured data validated
- Copy and claims reviewed by the client's experts
- Reported figures reconciled with the client's own system
Deployment
- 01Sponsored contentBest posts promoted to target accounts.
- 02Quarterly reviewAccount engagement reviewed with business development.
- 03Staged releasesChanges went live in small batches, each one watched in the first days.
- 04Reporting and handoverA monthly review against the agreed targets, and documentation the client's team can work from.
Final deliverables
Known before the tender arrives
Decision-makers at the target accounts now see the firm's experts regularly, and business development starts conversations with people who already know who they are.
The experts have a routine that takes half an hour a month, and marketing reports on accounts, not followers.
- A shared target account list
- Experts posting in their own voice
- A sustainable staff routine
- Engagement reported by account
Handed over to the client
- 01Audit and roadmapFindings ranked by their effect
- 02Implemented changesIn the client's own site, accounts and tools
- 03Tracking and dashboardResults in the client's own figures
- 04Content and campaign assetsTemplates, pages and creative
- 05Documentation and trainingSo the client's team can carry on
Success metrics
How success is measured
| Measure | Outcome | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Of target accounts reached each quarter | 60–80% | Target range; measured with LinkedIn's company targeting reports |
| More inbound conversations from target accounts | 2–3× | Target range over a year; logged in the CRM |
| Experts posting regularly | 8–12 | Target; at least two posts a month each |
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