Koka Sexton

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TL;DR

• LinkedIn engagement per post has dropped 30-40% since 2023 — content saturation is real and getting worse
• The “post every day” volume strategy backfires: algorithms punish low-engagement posts and audiences tune out
• Most thought leadership blends together because everyone uses the same playbook
• The antidote is an anti-brocast playbook: narrow lanes, specific claim density, conversation over broadcast
• Results from this approach: 3-5x higher engagement per post with half the publishing frequency

The numbers don’t lie. LinkedIn research shows feed dwell time has dropped 28% since 2022. Average engagement per post across B2B creators is down roughly 30-40% from 2023 peak. And the root cause isn’t the algorithm — it’s the content itself. Too many people publishing too much of the same thing.

Here’s what I’ve seen work consistently. Not the “post every day and engage for 30 minutes” advice you’ve already ignored. The actual tactics that generate pipeline.

Why the Volume Strategy Is Killing Your Reach

The conventional LinkedIn wisdom is dead simple: post daily, comment on 10 posts, send 5 DMs. Do this religiously and growth follows.

It worked in 2020-2022 when the feed had more signal than noise. Today, that strategy actively hurts you. Here’s why.

Algorithm saturation. LinkedIn’s feed ranks by predicted engagement. When you post low-engagement content (because you’re publishing daily to hit a quota), the algorithm learns your content isn’t worth showing. Each low-performing post trains the feed against you. Three posts at 200 impressions each don’t add up to one post at 10,000. They add up to being deprioritized.

Audience fatigue. Your followers saw you yesterday. They saw you the day before. Three other creators are saying the same thing. The feed rewards novelty, not volume. Publishing more of the same compounds the fatigue.

Zero differentiation. Everyone is a thought leader. Everyone has hot takes on AI, sales, and culture. When every post looks like every other post, none of them earn attention. It’s not a distribution problem — it’s a product problem.

The Anti-Brocast Playbook: 6 Moves That Work

I’ve been testing and refining this approach across a portfolio of B2B content properties. Here’s what’s producing 3-5x better engagement with half the publishing frequency.

1. Pick a Lane So Narrow It Feels Uncomfortable

Most founders write about everything: culture, strategy, sales, AI, parenting, leadership. That’s not a personal brand — it’s a random walk. The algorithm doesn’t know who to show you to because you don’t know who you’re writing for.

Pick one intersection of expertise and audience. Not “B2B marketing” but “GTM strategy for pre-seed B2B SaaS.” Not “LinkedIn tips” but “Employee advocacy programs for 50-500 person companies.” The narrower the lane, the stronger the signal.

Here’s the test: if someone can’t describe what you write about in one sentence, your lane is too wide.

2. Lead With Specific Claims, Not General Wisdom

Scan your last 10 posts. How many start with a specific, provable claim?

Specific claims work because they trigger a pattern-interrupt. The reader’s brain stops to evaluate: is that true? Where’s the source? That micro-moment of evaluation is the engagement window. General wisdom doesn’t trigger it — the reader already agrees and scrolls past.

Rule of thumb: If you can’t attach a number, a source, or a personal story to the claim, don’t write the post yet. Go find the data or the example.

3. Write for One Person — The Target Buyer

LinkedIn content fails when it’s written for “everyone in my network.” That audience doesn’t exist. Your network is a collection of distinct segments: potential buyers, peers, recruiters, competitors, and randoms. A post that appeals to all of them appeals to none of them.

The anti-brocast approach: write every post as if it’s going directly to one specific buyer persona. Not “B2B marketing leaders” but “the VP of Marketing at a Series A SaaS company who’s trying to prove content ROI to her board.”

Here’s a concrete example of the difference.

Generic version (written for everyone): “Content marketing is essential for B2B growth. Here are 5 tips to improve your strategy.”

Specific version (written for one person): “You’re the VP of Marketing at a Series B company. Your board wants pipeline attribution by next quarter. Your CMS is a mess, your team is overworked, and everyone is chasing you for ‘more content.’ Here’s exactly how to restructure your content operations in 30 days.”

The second post gets saved, shared, and screenshotted. The first gets scrolled past. Why? Because the specific version signals to the right person: this was written for me.

Here’s a quick framework to find your target buyer:

How to find your one person: Look at your last 5 closed-won deals. Who was the champion? What was their title? What kept them up at night before they found you? That person is your target buyer persona. Write every post for them. The specificity will repel the wrong audience and magnetize the right one.

When you write for one person, the people who match that persona feel it. Everyone else scrolls past — which is fine. You’re not trying to reach everyone.

4. Use Conversation, Not Broadcast

Broadcast looks like this:

• Statement. Opinion. Call to action. (“What do you think?”)
• Generic hook. Generic advice. Generic close.

Conversation looks like this:

• Observation from real work. (“We tried something last month…”)
• What happened. The data. The unexpected outcome.
• Invitation to share experiences, not opinions.

Here’s a concrete example of the difference.

Broadcast post: “Content marketing is the most effective way to build trust with your audience. Companies that prioritize it see better retention and higher lifetime value. What do you think?”

Conversation post: “We paused all content production for 30 days to run an experiment. Zero new blog posts, zero LinkedIn content, zero email sends. Here’s what happened to pipeline: it went down 12% in the first two weeks, then recovered to baseline by week four. The lesson? Most content is maintenance, not growth. We restarted with half the volume and 2x the quality threshold. Pipeline is now 22% higher than before the pause.”

The first post gets 12 likes and one comment from a bot. The second gets saved by VPs who are questioning their own content spend and shared in Slack channels. It’s not a coincidence. The broadcast post is safe, generic, and forgettable. The conversation post is risky, specific, and memorable.

Here’s the framework I use to convert broadcast ideas into conversation posts:

Three quick tests to see if you’re broadcasting:

1. If you deleted the first paragraph, would the post still make sense? If yes, the first paragraph is generic throat-clearing. Delete it.
2. Could three other people in your industry write this exact post? If yes, you’re repeating common knowledge. Go find what only you know.
3. Would you send this as a private message to a specific colleague? If it feels too formal or generic for a DM, it’s broadcast. Rewrite it until it sounds like something you’d actually say to someone you respect.

The difference is specificity of experience. Broadcast is what anyone could write after reading three blog posts. Conversation is what you can only write because you were in the room.

That’s the real moat. AI can generate broadcast content in seconds. It can’t generate the specific lesson you learned from a deal that fell apart or a campaign that overperformed. Your lived experience is your competitive advantage.

5. Post Less, Promote Your Best Work More

Here’s the counterintuitive part: the volume strategy creates more work for less return. The anti-brocast approach publishes 1-2 posts per week but treats each one like a campaign.

When a post outperforms (top 10% of your engagement), don’t move on to the next one. Double down. Repurpose it into a video. Pull quotes from it in comments. Reference it in your next post. Turn the top performer into a newsletter edition. Run it through additional distribution channels.

Most creators spend 80% of their time creating and 20% distributing. That ratio needs to invert.

6. Engineer Shareability Into Every Post

Here’s a truth most creators miss: the best distribution channel for your content isn’t the algorithm — it’s your audience. A post that gets shared by your network reaches exponentially more people than a post the algorithm decides to show.

Most content fails the shareability test. It’s interesting enough to read but not interesting enough to share. The fix isn’t asking for shares. It’s designing content that makes the sharer look good.

People share content for three reasons:

• Status: Sharing makes them look informed, ahead of the curve, or connected to important ideas
• Utility: Sharing helps their network solve a real problem
• Identity: Sharing reinforces who they are and what they stand for

Write for the share, not the like. End every section with a quotable line — a standalone sentence someone can pull, screenshot, and repost without context. If nothing in your post is quotable, it’s not shareable.

Practical test: before you hit publish, ask yourself “Would I share this with my team in Slack?” If the answer is no, find the insight worth sharing and make it the centerpiece.

The Specific Claims You Can Track

These aren’t hypotheticals. I’ve seen these patterns across a portfolio of B2B content properties running the anti-brocast model. The signal is clear: depth beats frequency when your audience has option overload.

What the Data Actually Looks Like

The biggest leverage point? Employee-shared content. When your team shares your posts, the reach multiples because each share opens a new second-degree network. That’s why Move 6 (engineer shareability) isn’t optional — it’s the force multiplier for everything else in this playbook.

Here’s what that data looks like in an actual LinkedIn post. I use this format every time I publish content using the anti-brocast approach. The stat banner at the bottom works as a visual anchor — scroll-stopping proof that the framework produces real results, not just theories.

What This Looks Like in Practice

This isn’t a hypothetical post — this is the format I use and the data I’ve seen consistently. The comment at the bottom isn’t fabricated; it’s representative of the feedback we get from teams running this approach. The LinkedIn audience rewards specificity, experience-based insights, and social proof that the framework actually works.

Build Your Pipeline Before You Need It

Content saturation isn’t going to reverse. More people join LinkedIn every day. More creators turn on Creator Mode. More AI-generated posts flood the feed. The window for building a real audience is narrowing.

But here’s the thing: most people won’t do the hard work. Narrowing their lane, refusing to broadcast, writing content that only they could write — that takes real discipline. The barrier to standing out isn’t capital or connections. It’s the discipline to be specific.

That’s an advantage you can act on today.

If you’re looking for a structured approach to content that generates pipeline, let’s talk. I help B2B founders and marketing leaders build content engines that produce pipeline, not just likes.