The secret to a great LinkedIn post (Exit Five Newsletter)

Hello and welcome to the Exit Five Weekly Newsletter — read by 42,000 B2B marketing professionals around the world. Exit Five is a membership site designed to help you build a successful career in B2B marketing. Join 5,700 other members at exitfive.com.

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TOGETHER WITH AIROPS

🔎 Learn How to Use Reddit for Marketing

What happens when your ICP skips Google… and goes straight to Reddit?

I am sure you’ve seen all the questions lately about Reddit for B2B. Reddit has quietly joined G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius as a key channel shaping buyer decisions because of how LLMs get information online.

Reddit threads are showing up in ChatGPT and AI Overviews for bottom-funnel keywords. Which means your next customer might be reading about your product before they ever hit your site.

If you want to get smarter about Reddit and SEO, here’s a free resource for you:

Join Ross Simmonds and the AirOps team on Tuesday, October 28 at 2PM ET for a tactical session on:

• How Reddit is becoming a bottom-funnel trust channel
• What types of posts and engagement actually influence AI search
• How to spot and participate in high-intent threads before your competitors
• A live demo on using AI workflows to surface the right conversations

Save your spot for the webinar here

Bonus for Exit Five readers:

AirOps is giving 10 companies access to their Visibility → Actions Dashboard, a tool that turns Reddit insights into clear next steps to boost brand visibility. Apply here and mention Exit Five.

✍️ How To Write Great Hooks for LinkedIn (+ Other Best Practices)

Editor’s Note: Dave here. My team asked me to write about LinkedIn in our newsletter this week, and I didn’t want to do it. BECAUSE I think there’s so much nuance. I’ve been writing on LinkedIn for 8 years now? Almost daily? And the algo is  a funny beast, and you can’t always just go viral and there’s … just so much nuance. BUT, screw it. I’m up for the challenge. So take everything I say below with a grain of salt, but here is some help for writing on LinkedIn if you want it from me (I have almost 190k followers on LinkedIn now, no big deal ;)

If you can write for social media, you can write anywhere. Because it means you can hook someone quickly and get attention - and that is the game with writing. Can I get you to stop and read it? Whether I am emailing my kids teacher or sending out a webinar invite. Did I get you to read it? That is what I care about most.

I’ve been posting on LinkedIn for years. Not occasionally. Not just when I feel inspired. It’s just part of my day to day. Right now I have an Apple Note that has more backlog ideas than I could possibly publish.

And here's what I'll tell you: writing for LinkedIn isn't magic. It's a recipe.

So how do you create content that will get someone to stop scrolling and actually read your post?

Or at least improve the LinkedIn content you’re writing today (or make your founder look like they actually know what they are doing)?

This newsletter breaks down what’s worked for me and other members of the Exit Five Community too. Hope you like it.

📝 Grab them in the first 5-7 words

Let's start with the most important part: the first line. Your hook is everything. If you don't grab someone immediately, they're gone.

Here's what actually works:

Contrarian Statements

These challenge what everyone assumes is true. They work because they make people stop and think "wait, what?"

Examples:

• "Measurement kills marketing"
• "Personal branding isn't about being personal"
• "The hustle culture has it wrong."

You're not being contrarian for the sake of it. You're making people question their assumptions.

Bold Declarations

These are confident, definitive statements.

• "Your CMO should be the best storyteller at your company. Full stop."
• "Google is crushing OpenAI."
• "My biggest fear isn't failure."

No setup. No context. Just a clear, strong statement that demands attention.

Simple But Profound Truths

These distill something complex into a single, relatable insight.

• "The hidden cost of traditional employment: Your time."
• "Build the company you want to work for."
• "I'm just trying to show myself that it's possible."

They work because they feel true the moment you read them.

🪝 Patterns I’ve Noticed From The Best Hooks

Here's what all great hooks have in common:

Brevity is everything. Almost all hooks are under 10 words. Often just 4-6 words. Single line, maximum impact. If you're writing a paragraph to set up your point, you've already lost.

Get right to the point. The best hooks start with a declarative statement. No setup. No throat-clearing. No "I've been thinking about this lately" or "Here's something interesting I learned." Just say the thing.

Be specific, not vague. Don't write "Marketing is changing" when you could write "CMOs are getting fired faster than ever." Concrete claims beat vague generalities every time.

The best hooks make a single, powerful point that creates immediate intellectual or emotional engagement.

They don't try to explain, they provoke.

👥 Best Practices That Have Actually Helped Grow My Audience On LinkedIn

Okay, you've got your hook. Now what?

Post once per day. Consistency beats everything. You're building a habit for yourself and your audience.

Post between 6-9 AM. That's when engagement is highest. Yes, it matters.

Use LinkedIn's native scheduler if you need to, but posting directly is best. Scheduling is fine when life gets busy, and the tradeoff in reach is worth it. But if you can post in real-time, do it.

No hashtags. Just don't. They don't help and they make your post look dated.

Tag one person max, and only if you must. Tagging limits reach. If you need to tag someone, try doing it in the comments instead.

No links unless you really need to promote something. LinkedIn's algorithm doesn't like when you send people away from the platform. If you must include a link, put it in the first comment.

Personal stories beat expert advice every time. People don't want to be lectured. They want to hear what happened to you and what you learned from it. Make it relatable.

Comment on other people's content. Think of it as building karma. Contribute in a positive and meaningful way, and things will come back to you. This isn't just good advice, it's how the algorithm works.

The posts you overthink will tank. The ones you fire off will pop. This is the unwritten rule that drives everyone crazy. Your random, off-the-cuff posts often perform better than the ones you labor over. Don't let that stop you from trying, but don't be surprised when it happens.

Seriously…a 7 second unpolished video with me hiking with my wife = most “viral” video of the year.

🧪 Test Everything (And Actually Track What Works)

Here's something important: what works for me might not work exactly the same way for you. Your audience is different. Your voice is different.

So test things. Post similar content at different times and see what gets more engagement. Try different opening lines – some with questions, some with bold statements. Switch between text-only posts, images, and carousels to see what your audience prefers.

Then track it. You don't need fancy tools. A simple spreadsheet with the date, post type, time, and engagement metrics will tell you everything you need to know.

🧑‍💻 What This Means for You

Writing great LinkedIn content isn't about being clever or funny or having the perfect aesthetic. It's about understanding what makes people stop scrolling and then doing that consistently.

Start with a hook that provokes. Keep it short. Be specific. Post regularly. Engage with others.

And here's the thing I won't sugarcoat: this takes time. You're not going to write one great hook and suddenly have 10,000 followers. But if you show up consistently, learn what works for your audience, and keep refining your approach, six months from now you'll look back and be amazed at how far you've come.

– Dave

P.S. One last thing: I love AI…but in all my experience using AI tools to write, none of them sound quite like me. The way I write. The words I choose. The punctuation I use.

Copy and pasting from ChatGPT and Claude will only get you so far. The best LinkedIn posts come from real people sharing real insights in their own voice. In fact, I’ve been trying to write even MORE lately to prove it really IS me! And I think it’s working.

What else should I have added here? Hit reply and let me know. Reading your responses is one of my favorite things to do.

📺 UPCOMING EVENTS

[OCT 30TH] The B2B Buying Experience With AI: What Changes?

AI is changing the balance of power in B2B. “Get on the phone with us and we’ll tell you pricing.” No more. “Get on the phone and we’ll show you our product.” No more. Today’s buyers now self-educate, run deep research with AI tools, and show up to sales calls already armed with more information than ever and ready to make a buying decision.

So what does that mean for the role of marketing? Should marketing own more of the funnel than ever? What is the playbook in marketing when buyers get all of their information from AI before talking to your company??

Let’s unpack this all together in this month’s Exit Five live session. Dave Gerhardt will sit down with a group of top CMOs and marketing leaders to unpack how AI is reshaping the B2B buying journey.

They’ll share how they’re adapting go-to-market strategies, redefining KPIs, and restructuring teams for a world where:

• Buyers move faster and expect smarter content
• Marketing and sales lines are blurring
• “AI-readiness” is a new part of marketing strategy

Expect an honest conversation about what’s working (and what’s breaking) as B2B teams navigate this new AI-driven landscape.

Save your spot

🏢 Open Roles

Who's hiring right now?

Steno is hiring an Art Director to define and evolve the company’s visual direction. You’ll lead a brand refresh, build scalable design systems, and create cohesive visuals that elevate Steno’s identity across every channel.

Steno is also hiring an Events Marketing Manager to own end-to-end event execution, from trade shows to client experiences. You’ll handle logistics, creative, and coordination across teams to bring high-impact events to life and drive measurable results.

Other open roles on the Exit Five job board this week:

• Exit Five is hiring a Content Marketing Manager
• Affinity is hiring an Organic Growth Specialist
• Affinity is hiring a Paid Media Manager
• Affinity is hiring a Social Media Manager
• Affinity is hiring a Sr. Product Marketing Manager
• Affinity is hiring a Director, Brand Marketing
• TLDR is hiring a Senior Growth Marketer - Paid Acquisition
• TLDR is hiring a Senior Growth Marketer - Lifecycle & Automation
• Dragon360 is hiring a Demand Gen Strategist
• Vapi is hiring a Head of Marketing
• Tatari is hiring a Senior Manager, Customer Marketing
• Paramark is hiring a Marketing Manager
• Doist is hiring a Lifecycle Marketer
• Tatari is hiring a Digital Marketing Manager
• Enumerate is hiring a Senior Product Marketing Manager
• Red Stag Fulfillment is hiring a Director of Growth Operations

See all open roles

Have an open role and want to make sure the best B2B marketing talent sees it? Just reply to this email and we'll send over more info on how you can post it on our job board + get it in front of 42k+ marketers.

✍️ NEW CONTENT FROM EXIT FIVE

Do you need to learn more about AI in Marketing?

Our head of marketing, Jess, just launched a new newsletter devoted entirely to AI. She’s sharing what she’s doing running marketing here and also talking about everything she’s learning about AI, new tools, workflows you can steal, etc.

Click here to subscribe to The Prompt and we can help you get an A in AI. 🍎

🪪 NEW INSIDE THE EXIT FIVE COMMUNITY

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