Welcome to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast, the go-to resource for business leaders looking to unlock growth and maximize revenue. In this episode, titled "LinkedIn Expert Advice: Driving B2B Growth with High-Impact Content," host Kerry Curran sits down with LinkedIn expert Purna Virji to explore the transformative power of LinkedIn as a B2B marketing platform.

Purna shares insider tips and proven strategies for building trust, standing out in a crowded marketplace, and driving meaningful business results through thought leadership and high-impact content. From leveraging LinkedIn’s latest tools like thought leader ads and sponsored newsletters to creating authentic, engaging video content, this episode is packed with actionable insights for B2B marketers.

If you’re looking to elevate your brand, shorten sales cycles, and create content that truly resonates, don’t miss this episode. Tune in to learn how to drive B2B growth with expert advice straight from one of LinkedIn’s top content strategists!

Podcast transcript

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.048)

So welcome, Purna, very excited to have you here today. Please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background and area of expertise.

Purna Virji (00:13.289)

Well, Kerry, thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted to be here. So I'm Purna Virji. I am a long time marketer and I currently work at LinkedIn where I am the principal content solutions consultant for LinkedIn marketing solutions, which really means I know it's the most confusing title ever. So I have the really cool job of being right in the weeds and learning all about the best ways that businesses can grow and build their businesses through the power of … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:32.088)

you

Purna Virji (00:41.225)

… content on LinkedIn and I get to go out and talk to our amazing members all over the world and to share this advice with them.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:49.664)

Excellent. Well, we're very lucky to have you here today to share advice with our audience. So tell me like, what are the trends you're seeing at LinkedIn? I know it's a huge channel for a lot of us B2B marketers. So what are the trends that you're seeing today?

Purna Virji (01:08.543)

Well, of course I may be a little bit biased, but to me, there's no finer B2B platform than LinkedIn. Look, the proof is in the growth. We just recently crossed like 1 billion members worldwide, which is just incredible. We have been here, we just celebrated our 20th birthday. Like this is just long lasting and incredible. But the platform, you know, is ...

Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:13.176)

It's incredible. Yeah.

Purna Virji (01:36.223)

… What has not changed is the fact that it's so trustworthy that people come there to learn. I think time after time we're rated so highly in terms of trust. We see that our members come to LinkedIn as a way to invest their time. They come to learn both professionally and personally and how and the trends that they're seeing. One is of course video, but really, really interesting is if people are coming to LinkedIn as a way to invest their time and learn naturally then that thought leadership, especially people.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:52.216)

You.

Purna Virji (02:04.863)

People-based thought leadership is what has been really catching on fire. It's been sort of growing and growing over the last two years, and especially in the last few months, it has just skyrocketed.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:16.258)

That's great. So yeah, I'm seeing that myself as well. There's just been more and more senior level executives coming out with their own personal brand voice or representing the company, but really demonstrating, as you said, the thought leadership and kind of the value, adding value to their audience and customers, but also demonstrating the value of their company. So what are some of the important reasons for executives that you're seeing or just any, any business leaders that why should they be on LinkedIn?

Purna Virji (02:53.503)

Well, if you're a business leader, you're definitely going to want the data. So I have some stats for you. We love stats. LinkedIn and Edelman just released a couple of months ago, they linked in like the thought leadership study. So here's one reality, right? We know sales cycles are getting longer and longer, the economy, the way things are. And the other cool thing is with the advent of AI and the barriers to creating content have gone down, right?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:58.0)

Love stats and data.

Purna Virji (03:22.071)

More and more people are creating content. So not only is it taking longer to close a deal, but there's just so much more competition. So how do you stand out? Well, we know that people follow people before they follow brands. Like that's just normal. But if we go back to the numbers I promised, there were three that really jumped out at me from the study. The first one is that 73 % of respondents in the study say that an organization's thought leadership content is …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:29.496)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Purna Virji (03:49.403)

.. a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies. That's huge. So if you want to stand out, love to ask people this question, where I'm saying that, how many companies that sell CRM systems exist just in the US alone?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:09.686)

Yeah. mean, I probably could list five, but tell me how many are there?

Purna Virji (04:12.927)

Yeah. Well, the last time I looked, it was over 1200. And so, as you could name five, I could probably name five and probably there's the same five because those are the names that are really known. So if I'm an incumbent and I want to sort of go and compete, like what are you going to do? Like, never develop another CRM system? No. Well, you just have to find smarter ways to compete. And that's what thought leadership can really help.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:23.0)

Yep.

Purna Virji (04:39.295)

In fact, 75 % of the respondents said that a piece of thought leadership has led them to research a product or service that they previously weren't considering. So that's a way to stand out, build trust. And then 70 % say that they are more likely to think more positively about organizations that consistently produce valuable thought leadership content. So your people really matter. Of course, it's your executives, your employees, your subject matter experts.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:06.22)

Mm-hmm.

Purna Virji (05:09.097)

What is unique to you, right? There could be five companies doing something very similar in terms of an offering, but they don't have your people. And if you can put your people out there and show who they are, their brilliance, what they think, why they create, what they create, that's gonna differentiate you.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:27.768)

Yeah, I love all of these recommendations and the stats. mean, those are big numbers, 73%, 75%. And you your point of the sales cycle is getting longer. They're longer, they're more crowded. And it really is a sea of sameness when it comes to a lot of these tech solutions, whether it's CRM or email automation or, you know, all of the tech. Now everything has AI tied to it as well and so, you know, I think a lot about that, your point you made of helping them stand out, helping them demonstrate. True point. I love that. Like when a company is showing that they are a thought leader, they've done their original research or have opinions as to why, what the solution should be in the marketplace. Like that demonstrates value to the target audience. 

And, you know, I was mentioning another study that Sixth Sense just did. 81 % of buyers already know who they, sorry, brand that they had in mind before they even start reaching out to companies typically is the one that wins. So it's like, you know, more and more, it's like, it's not about the lead lists and getting a cold call. It's about getting yourself, your brand into that consideration set on that shortlist … 

Purna Virji (06:41.745)

Wow. Yeah.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (06:54.134)

… be favored before they start going to RFP or reaching out. We always said the best scenario is that they don't even go to RFP because they've fallen in love with you, but we know that's not always the case. So it's easier said than done to get executives to want to or team members to build out content. So what are you seeing as far as some of the objections that you hear? Resistance.

Purna Virji (07:23.295)

I don't know. And listen, it's such a human normal objection. I had it too before I started posting it really regularly. It's more like, well, I have a busy executive. Like where is the time? And you're right. Where is that? But then it's like, okay, well, if I find the time, what do I even talk about? Like, I don't even know where to start. Or then the third one is that, okay, if I start talking about something, does that mean I need to build a whole separate content strategy?

Or then like, what's the best delivery mechanism? Is it just all organic? Should it be paid? And so I will always sit down and like, I would love to bust these myths, Kerry, if you're open to it. So let's start with time, right? Because that is, we all feel like there is no time. We'll get asked, how do you find the time to do this? I get asked and I post like once or maybe twice a week on LinkedIn, right? I'm not an everyday poster, but I'll still get asked like, how do you find time?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:01.549)

Yeah.

Purna Virji (08:18.909)

Like you just, make the time and it's a joy and it doesn't take as much time as you think. We tend to think of thought leadership as this, you know, we're creating this gigantic keynote presentation or we're creating this highly produced video or this big event. It's none of that. In fact, the coolest thing is, there's so many different formats that you could choose. So whether you're doing a, you know, you're sharing a news article, but you're adding a little bit of your perspective or here's what jumped out to you.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:31.906)

Yeah.

Purna Virji (08:45.897)

That takes a matter of minutes. You could share an image or a couple of images and a little bit around it. Video is one of the hottest trends at all on LinkedIn right now. I'm telling you, if my regular text post, image post will get a few thousand impressions or several thousand impressions, but if I post a video, now I'm going to get 100,000 plus impressions and reach. 

And sometimes people are saying, well, only like 800 people saw my post. I'm like, well, if, or, you know, members will reach with my post. And I'm like, well, if you reached 800 unique people in a room where you were public speaking, like that's a pretty darn big deal. So think about that too. So in any case, there's tons of different formats, but what makes it easy is if you just block off time in your calendar, like a hobby. So even if you do like 30 minutes on a Monday, 30 minutes on a Friday, or for me, I'll do something …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:37.592)

You. 

Purna Virji (09:44.255)

… one or two Sundays a month where I'll just create for like the week or maybe two weeks worth of content. And then if it's something fresh or up to date, then I'll just add it in. But at least I have something that can be regular. Scheduling is awesome. You can edit schedule posts as well. So I'll do that with, you know, mess around with different formats. Your video doesn't even have to be highly produced. Our COO will ...

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:55.288)

Mm-hmm.

Purna Virji (10:11.475)

… picture himself, will record videos of himself just walking to work and just sharing some of his advice. And they're so engaging. They do so well. I'll record videos just sitting right here in my home office at my desk. And I'll just share advice with people. It's the value of the content. We don't need that big professional high-fi, you know, even just the lo-fi. works well. Like the keys and the advice that you're giving. So do that. Find the time. And then … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:33.302)

Yep.

Purna Virji (10:40.787)

… we go to what I talk about, everyone gets stuck on that. always say that, okay, so actually I'm gonna ask you this question, like, Keri, I'm gonna put you on the spot. What do you find people come to you most often to get your professional advice on?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:58.39)

Yeah. To how to, how to get more revenue faster or really just how to get more leads. Right.

Purna Virji (11:05.119)

Perfect. See, that was so quick, right? So people know that I'm going to go to Kerry for this because Kerry's got all the best advice. She's got the experience. So it's almost like the golden triangle. Remember, good to great to the golden triangle. But let's think of it in terms of what is it that your business or your sort of public, your work persona should be focused on.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:07.416)

Mm-hmm. 

Purna Virji (11:28.435)

Then what is stuff that you have a lot of experience in? And then what is something that you really enjoy talking about or are passionate about talking about? And so if you find the overlap between the three, like that golden triangle, that is your secret sauce. And it can be three or four pillars. You don't just have to be like, I'm only going to talk about revenue that you, I built a podcast, you bought your business. Like you've had a very varied career or, know, you may have beliefs about your leadership style that you might want to share, right? 

Pick two to three. core pillars and then build on that. And I, the reason I say that it's not just what you have expertise in, but what you're passionate about talking about. Cause then you'll never run out of ideas for me. I love marketing so much. I could talk about it all day long. And I know you're so similar. Like if I, if it was like Kerry, let's talk revenue. You'd be like, here's something I tried. Here's this thing that word. Here's this cool thing I read about, right? You, this is something you could wake up in the middle of the night and talk. So you won't run out of ideas. So really that's where you should start. And it's okay to have different niches. You can slot people in. So anyway, I've rambled a lot.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:33.12)

No, but it's so, that's so valuable. And I love your point. And it brings it back to what you're saying earlier about the perception of authenticity and you know, it's all about relationship building and building that connection with your target audience so that they trust and believe in you. If you're in an executive position at this company, you should already have opinions and thoughts or, you know, ideas of why you believe in your company and why you believe in your product or your solution. 

And so to your point, it's, well, maybe if it's not so easy to just share your POV on things related to your company, then maybe there's, you're not at the right company. No, but it's, it's your point. It's like thinking about what you are already talking about and doing every day and just taking the time to write. Write something fast. I definitely love that. I love all of your recommendations and ideas, especially the triangle pillar. And then LinkedIn has some new features too for promoting that thought leadership as well to new audiences talk more about that.

Purna Virji (13:47.903)

That's right. So something that is unique to LinkedIn and has been seeing so much success is thought leader ads. So you can literally promote from a company the thought leadership that your people, whether they're your executives, your employees, or even your customers, we also have influence. You can even do it for third party. And the best part is you don't have to learn anything new. It's all within the same campaign manager. So if revenue boosts the podcast page … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:06.687)

Mm-hmm.

Purna Virji (14:16.499)

… had the page, you had your campaign manager tied to it, then any posts that you, Keri, put out or that I put out about being on the podcast, you could then go in and promote. And we always say that, look, organic, you're just going to reach the same people that you already reach. But paid plants, new seeds, organic nurtures the crops. So you need both because you can't just rely on your crops. You want to go and find more people who are similar … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:34.68)

Mm-hmm.

Purna Virji (14:46.387)

… to the ones that you already reach well. so, leader ads tend to see, they've seen incredible success so far. There's tons of case studies like Lenovo recently did something that I can share more about too. And then another format is sponsored newsletters. You can do omnichannel on LinkedIn. If you've got a newsletter that you're posting on other channels, bring it to LinkedIn. Put it on here. You can even promote it both on a company side or a personal thought leader side too … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:08.162)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Purna Virji (15:16.095)

… which tends to get so much more reach, so much more engagement, right? People tend to think of LinkedIn as like, I'll just come here and do my lead gen forms. I'll just come here and do a single image ads, but you can do so much more. can build brand of your people. can build, know, thought leadership is also not just an awareness thing. It is a full funnel, like having your customer share a case study and promoting that via thought leader ads. That's your social proof bottom funnel. You could have people, you know … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:42.348)

Mm-hmm.

Purna Virji (15:45.971)

… B2B is not just a single decision maker. There's an entire buying community. There's hidden buyers and direct buyers. So if you have a very technical product or your ICP, your ideal customer profile is very technical, then use your developers or use your technical people to post content and promote. So whether through newsletters, through thought leader ads, all of these are tending to see a lot of success … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:10.349)

Yes, right, Mm-hmm.

Purna Virji (16:11.135)

… video, video, video, like I can't stress this enough. We have got the short form videos. You've seen the new video feed that does pretty well. really like around two, two minutes, three minutes and under does pretty well. But by no means, you don't have to limit yourself to that. And you don't just have to talk about your company, right? You can talk about some different things. You can talk about industry trends. You could talk about your own experiences in the industry. Even if you are at an event, for example, right? Live events are back. 

If you've gone to an event, Talk about what you learned? What was a cool talk that you saw? What were some key takeaways? Bring other people there. Interview your customers. Share leadership advice. Share your people. It will also help with your talent branding, right? Or you're sort of, so you can help attract more people to your business. It's so powerful.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:00.954)

I love all of that. And one of the examples you mentioned earlier to me was sharing breaking news. And I thought that was a great, great piece of advice. So talk a bit about how you're seeing that work well.

Purna Virji (17:15.987)

That is another really, really interesting piece. And it's another way that you can showcase your authenticity as well as who you are. What's your take on breaking news or something big is happening? Share your perspective on it. You can actually share breaking. Right now at the time that we're filming this, like the Jaguar. It's all over my feet. Don't lean to every marketer … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:36.29)

I just saw that. Yeah.

Purna Virji (17:41.959)

… is having their take on the Jaguar rebrand, right? And everyone's coming there. But then there's so many, then some people are like, well, here's my version of a rebrand of here's what I would have done. Or here's some other people talking about why it exists. Some people are saying you should wait and see what happens with this thing. Everyone's bringing their own perspective. And to bring up another triangle, this is from Howard professor, Dr. Frances Fry. She has this thing called the trust triangle. The Howard Business Review has an article about it where she said that … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:59.842)

Yep, yep.

Purna Virji (18:12.009)

… to build trust, is ultimately the big success in business, especially B2B, right? Trust is so paramount. It comes down to three things. Like one, do I feel like I see the real you, like authenticity? The second one is like, do I feel like I can trust your logic and opinions, like logic? And then the third one is like empathy. Like, I feel like you care about me? And so if you're breaking, you're sharing breaking news, don't just be like a headline.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:25.537)

Mm-hmm.

Purna Virji (18:40.607)

Because that's not what it is. Like, share, like, here's what it is, like, here's what you can do about it. We're seeing the spike in this, in the XYZ trend. Like, have you considered doing this? Right? And bring, use it as a chance to showcase your expertise. Because remember, LinkedIn members come on LinkedIn to invest their time. They want to grow professionally, so they want to consume educational, helpful content.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:05.48)

I love all of your ideas and suggestions, Perna. I'm going to have a lot of new content types to test out. One question I have for you that I just thought of was, how about LinkedIn live events or doing live conversations or webinars live on LinkedIn? How are those performing or do you recommend them?

Purna Virji (19:31.579)

Yeah, they're great. In fact, our LinkedIn editor team, editorial team at LinkedIn, they have an awesome series and I always tune in. The great thing is that you can engage in real time. You can track, you know, real comments and then it lives on live on the platform. So it's just in one place. It helps with discoverability. It helps with massive, massive reach. Cause let's say if you were hosting a LinkedIn live and I said, yes, I'm attending. Then people in my network would see that … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:44.151)

Yeah.

Purna Virji (20:00.357)

… i'm attending. Just it would amplify the reach so much more. You wouldn't have to rely on me to be like, Hey, I'm going to go and attend this event. just happens automatically. So it just saves everyone time. So yeah, those are amazing. I remember I did one LinkedIn live and had a couple of thousand live attendees. And then a week later it had over like 12,000 views. I'm like, heck, like this has got such a long life. That's just something that I, I recall doing. Yeah, it's like … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:14.231)

Mm-hmm, Yeah.

Purna Virji (20:29.245)

… I always say it's a one-stop shop. You can have your events on LinkedIn. Even if you're doing a live event, you can take videos of it and share. We've got connected TV in most regions of the world, which you can go to expand there. We've got our LinkedIn audience network for like programmatic and display. And then, you've got your regular bread and butter social posts. And so there's no reason to...

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:39.612)

Wow.

Purna Virji (20:54.495)

…  You know, don't just limit LinkedIn to like either a bottom funnel play or like just a top funnel play. is a, it really is a solid ecosystem. And the more that people spend time on LinkedIn, the more they see different facets of who you are as a person, who your brand is, the more they really get to know you and you build that crucial top of mind awareness. Then they're like, well, there's 1700 or 1200 companies. You can be … 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:58.701)

Yeah.

Purna Virji (21:20.893)

… In that five or maybe you'll grow their list to a top seven and get considered.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:25.622)

Yeah, definitely. This is so many valuable pieces of advice. And Prerna, I know you're a bit of an expert at content strategy, not just for LinkedIn. So tell us a bit about the book that you published, the award-winning book, and some of the, where can people find it, and some of the key takeaways in your book.

Purna Virji (21:51.195)

Well, thank you for asking, Keri. I wrote a book called High Impact Content Marketing. It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, your friendly bookseller near you. It's available everywhere globally. It's super, well. It's also just getting translated into Polish as well. So that was something cool and exciting. And what I've done is really so many of us feel so stuck, like AI is coming, what's going to happen to my job or...

There's so much competition, how do I connect? And it's like literally very specific. So it's like core strategies plus step-by-step actionable advice. So it's not just like, this is a cool strategy. And then you're like, well, how do I implement it? I will give you exactly the steps to implement it. I have sort of worksheets and frameworks and everything in the book as well. I have an instructional design background, so I like learning and development. 

And so I study how adults learn and how to change behavior. And so one of the biggest hooks or the thing that makes my book unique is how you can take that understanding of how people learn and how to drive behavior change and apply it to content marketing to really drive the results that you're looking for.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:03.224)

Excellent. Again, a wealth of knowledge and so many recommendations. So thank you, Perna. And so, and then where can people find you? Just look for you on LinkedIn as well.

Purna Virji (23:16.101)

For sure you can hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm just at Purnavierji on LinkedIn and that's the best place to find me. I'm obsessed with it. Not just because I worked there. I was there before as well. But Kerry, this was so much fun. I feel like we could chat marketing all day long.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:25.772)

Yeah. So much fun. Well, we'll definitely have to have you on again, because it's, as you said, it's been really fun to catch up and I love all of your ideas and recommendations and hopefully it'll bring more marketers success as well. So thank you so much for joining us today.

Purna Virji (23:46.889)

Thank you for having me, it was such a pleasure. Bye, thanks for listening.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:50.05)

Bye.