LinkedIn has published a new report, in collaboration with Coalition Greenwich, which looks at how institutional investors are using LinkedIn to research and connect with potential partners – which, while fairly niche, does also include some more general insights that could be of relevance to all LinkedIn marketers.

LinkedIn has published four regional variations of the report, each of which comes in at around 35 pages, and includes a range of notes and insights on key market shifts which impact how institutional investors are looking to use social platforms to complement their process.

And for LinkedIn specifically, there are some clear value markers of note.

First off, the report highlights LinkedIn’s unique audience of senior managers.

That’s a lucrative market segment, which already presents a range of potential opportunities for outreach.

The report also looks at how brands can connect with this audience, and what types of material they want to consume in-stream.

As per LinkedIn:

“For marketers aiming to achieve cut-through, vanilla content isn’t going to work. Instead, what this audience wants is highly tailored insights, delivered on a platform that makes it easy to see what is important. Half of respondents (48%) now say customized content is key, up from 33% in 2018. For marketers, that means researching audience needs and developing campaigns that perfectly address their priorities and challenges.”

Customized, personalized content, where possible, can drive significant value, which comes down to audience segmentation, and understanding the unique value of your offerings to each subset.

The report also includes some interesting notes on LinkedIn ad formats – and in particular, the rise of Document Ads.

This is further supported by independent research, which shows that PDF document attachments get the most engagement on LinkedIn, which could be a valuable consideration for all marketers to keep in mind.

There’s also an overview of what institutional investors believe each social platform is best for, when researching a company.

That likely holds true for most other researchers as well, which may point to new opportunities for your outreach focus.

Again, the report is fairly niche, and the insights won’t have broad appeal, in a more generic social marketing context. But there are some interesting notes, which could help to shape your LinkedIn approach.

It’s data worth considering either way – you can download LinkedIn’s full institutional investor guide here.