LinkedIn Content Strategy for PR Consultants and Agency Advisers | Netwarm
LinkedIn playbook · Case study
LinkedIn content strategy for PR consultants: how a UK agency board adviser reached 129 founders, CEOs and MDs in one month
We read every reaction on 13 posts from a UK PR consultant and board adviser to agency CEOs. 362 people, 129 founders, CEOs and MDs. Here is what brings buyers, what brings peers, and the 5 posts we'd publish next.
Max Sawyer · Netwarm··11 min read
The creator in this case studyA UK PR and marketing consultant and board adviser to agency CEOs
Followers34,992
Posts~3 a week
SellsBoard and non-executive advice for PR and marketing agency CEOs (growth, pricing, M&A, exit readiness), and PR and marketing counsel for brands and founders
PeriodOct 1 – Oct 27
Ideal client: founders, CEOs and MDs of PR, marketing and comms agencies who want to grow, sell or get ready to sell, and brand leaders who need senior counsel.The challenge: Much of what appears on the adviser's profile is written by other people: podcast hosts, award organisers, agencies tagging the adviser in their news. The posts the adviser writes are fewer, about 3 a week. Which of them reach the agency bosses who'd hire a board adviser?
These numbers are from 1 November. Your audience has already moved.
New agency founders and CEOs turn Hot every week and others go quiet. Run your free scan to see today’s version, with the names.
More than 1 in 3 readers is a buyer.129 founders, CEOs and MDs reacted to 13 posts in October: 35.6% of everyone who reacted.
Award posts reach 4.5x more of them.Award and recognition posts brought 29.3 founders, CEOs and MDs per post. The PR market reviews brought 6.5, despite the highest share.
16 keep coming back.16 founders, CEOs and MDs reacted to 3 posts or more. One of them reacted to 9 of the 13.
01
Who actually reads you, and what the LinkedIn algorithm changed
The adviser posts about the UK PR market and agency M&A, agency growth, awards nights and the people behind the wins. 13 posts written by the adviser between 1 and 27 October. Posts by others that tag the adviser were left out.
The LinkedIn algorithm shows a post to the people who reacted to the last ones, then to people like them. In PR, the feed is full of peers: consultants, freelancers, journalists. Reach can't tell them apart from the agency bosses who buy. Who reacted can. We looked at every person who reacted and sorted them by role.
13posts in October
362people reacted
129founders, CEOs and MDs
16came back 3+ times
Audience by roleThe 362 people who reacted, by roleFree
Buyers are the largest group: 129 people, more than 1 in 3. Most of them run PR, marketing, comms and creative agencies, exactly the businesses the adviser advises.
Peers are a smaller group than in most PR feeds: 63 consultants, freelancers, coaches and journalists. They spread the posts and rarely hire a board adviser. Some buyers are friends from the industry: the awards posts bring them out.
SeniorityAll people who reactedFree
Founder, owner, C-level42.5%
Director, VP22.1%
Manager3.9%
Independent5.2%
Other26.2%
IndustriesAgency founders and CEOs onlyNetwarm
PR, marketing, comms and creative agencies58.1%
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Core audience16 agency founders and CEOs engaged 3+ times · 2 engaged 5+ timesNetwarm
16 founders, CEOs and MDs keep coming back. One of them reacted to 9 of the 13 posts.See your regulars
Engager company sizeEveryone who reacted, by company sizeNetwarm
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See which company sizes your agency founders and CEOs work at.See company sizes
02
What to post on LinkedIn to reach agency founders and CEOs
Most consultants judge a post by its reactions. An adviser who sells should judge it by who reacted.
We tagged each of the 13 posts by topic, then measured the share of founders, CEOs and MDs among the people who reacted, and how many each post reached.
Your topicsWhat your 13 posts were aboutFree
13posts
PR market and M&A4
Awards and recognition3
Shout-outs to agencies3
Agency growth and leadership2
Networking offer1
Topics that attract agency founders and CEOsShare of each topic’s reactions from agency founders and CEOsNetwarm
PR market and M&A42.6%
Awards and recognition40.7%
Networking offer38.2%
Agency growth and leadership36.3%
Shout-outs to agencies33.9%
One topic reaches 4.5x more founders per post than another. See which.See which topics
Every topic brings 34 to 43% buyers, so the share is level. Reach is not: award and recognition posts reached 29.3 founders, CEOs and MDs per post, the PR market reviews 6.5. That is 4.5x.
Posts that brought the most agency founders and CEOsShare of agency founders and CEOs in each post’s reactions1 of 5 open
#1Leaders of the Year: couldn't be happier for the crew37.4%
#2Apparently I'm an innovator and visionary now52.6%
#3Can I help you get noticed? Collaborative Posts38.2%
#4Stop looking out the window. Look in the mirror.37.1%
#5It's the PRWeek UK Awards tonight35%
For comparison, the two-line shout-out on another agency's campaign reached 2 founders out of 10 reactions, 20%, the lowest share.
6 rules for LinkedIn engagement from agency founders and CEOs
These rules come from what worked on the adviser's own profile, and from the best-performing posts by PR leaders and agency growth advisers on LinkedIn over the last 3 months.
1
Open with the sentence someone said to you. A real line from a shareholder, a client or a buyer, in their words, beats a summary of the lesson. Agency bosses have heard the same line, or need to.On this profile: the shareholder quote reached 26 founders, CEOs and MDs from 70 reactions, as many as the four market reviews combined.
Keep thank-you posts short and a little self-deprecating. Three lines and a joke about living up to it. People who run agencies know what an award costs, and they react to the person, not the press release.On this profile: the innovator and visionary post had the highest buyer share of the month, 52.6%.
Put your opinion in the first line of the market review. The monthly reviews open on the source (“The PRmoment October review is out!”) and bury the view in paragraph three. Lead with the view: “The premium is shifting from size to scarcity.” Put the deal list in the comments.On this profile: the 4 market reviews had the highest buyer share (42.6%) but reached only 6.5 founders, CEOs and MDs per post, the fewest.
Show the numbers behind one agency decision. Pricing, margin, a pause on a retainer: one worked example with real figures lets an agency CEO check it against their own P&L.Across the niche: Nicholas Kirchner's price rise worked through in five lines drew 583 likes and 98 comments.
Tell the client story every agency owner has lived. The CEO who wants coverage in five days. The pitch you should have walked away from. A story from the board table shows the advice without selling it.Across the niche: Parry Headrick's story about firing a client after 5 days got 4.6x the likes of his post on a CMO's warning sign told as a numbered list (1,161 vs 250).
Make an open offer to your network. The adviser's career is introductions. A post that offers something (exposure, an intro, a seat) gets people to raise a hand in public.On this profile: the Collaborative Posts offer reached 26 founders, CEOs and MDs, and one reader answered with a post of their own.
When agency founders read: the best time to post on LinkedIn for PR consultants
We compared the share of founders, CEOs and MDs by the day each post was published. No 2-hour slot had enough posts to compare hours.
Share of agency founders and CEOs by posting dayAmong the people who reacted to each postFree
39.6%
Mon
38.4%
Tue
35.0%
Wed
36.9%
Thu
41.9%
Fri
Friday brought the highest share (41.9%) and the most buyers in total: 67 across 4 posts. Monday came second at 39.6%. Wednesday had one post, so read it with care.
Posting about 3 times a week works. Give Friday to the posts that sell the thinking (the opinion, the client story), and keep the market review for Monday or Tuesday, when agency bosses plan their week. Weekend posts were not tested.
05
5 posts ready to publish to target agency founders and CEOs
Each post follows the rules above, in the adviser's voice. Swap in your own details before posting: the real story is what makes it land.
1Ready to postPersonal story
The client who said we were busy, not goodRule 1: open with the sentence someone said to you. Modelled on the “Look in the mirror” post.
Hook
“You're not expensive. You're just not clear.”A client said that to me years ago, after a pitch we'd nearly lost.We had the best team in the room. The best ideas. The longest credentials deck.And they still couldn't tell their board why us.I think about that line every month now, when I look at who's winning pitches.Pipelines are full. Briefs are out there. The problem is conversion.The agencies that win have one thing in common. They can answer one question in a sentence: why them?Not “integrated”. Not “creative and strategic”. Something a buyer can repeat in a meeting you're not in.It's the same when an agency comes to sell. Buyers don't pay for what they can build themselves. They pay for what's scarce.So here's the test I give agency CEOs:Ask three clients why they hired you. Write down their words, not yours.If the three answers don't match, that's your next job.What would your clients say?
Visual · Text onlyNo image. The quote in the first line carries the post.Check before postingUse a real line a client, a shareholder or a buyer said to you, in their words. Keep the client anonymous.
The premium has moved from size to scarcityRule 3: the opinion in the first line, the deal list in the comments. Modelled on Farzana Baduel's Sunday Times post.
Hook
Buyers have stopped paying for size.That's the clearest thing I've seen in agency M&A this autumn.The deals getting done are about capability. Specialist expertise. Technology. Geography. Something that is slow or hard to build yourself.The premium is shifting from size to scarcity.You can see it in the briefs too. Clients want GEO, AI visibility, creators and reputation. But they've got much better at spotting AI theatre. Rebadged services aren't cutting it.So if you run an agency, two questions worth asking this month:→ What do we do that a buyer couldn't build in a year?
→ Would a client say the same thing without being prompted?If the answer is “we're bigger than we were”, that's revenue. It isn't value.The full list of last month's pitch wins and deals is in the comments.What's the scarcest thing your agency has?
Visual · Single imageOne line on a plain background: “Size → Scarcity”. Deal list goes in the first comment.Check before postingCheck the deals you cite against your latest PRmoment or PRWeek review before posting.
Raising your rates is a leadership decisionRule 4: the numbers behind one agency decision. Modelled on Nicholas Kirchner's price rise post.
Hook
£20k a month. 10 retainers. £200k a month in fees.Put your rates up 15% and most agency CEOs think half the clients walk.Here's what I usually see happen instead.→ 1 or 2 clients leave. Often the ones eating the most time.
→ 8 stay at £23k. That's £184k a month.
→ The team gets back 20% of its week.
→ The next two clients you win come in at £23k, not £20k.Within a couple of quarters, you're ahead on fees, ahead on margin and the team isn't running on fumes.So why don't more agencies do it?Because raising rates isn't a finance decision. It's a leadership one. It means telling a client you're worth more, and believing it.Winning more revenue at the old rate can actually make an agency worse. More people, same margin, less value.Growth isn't something to chase. It has to be planned with care.When did your agency last put its rates up?
Visual · Single imageA simple before/after table: 10 clients at £20k vs 8 clients at £23k, fees and team time side by side.Check before postingThe figures are an illustration: adjust them to a real case you've seen, and say it's illustrative if you keep them.
The pitch I told an agency to walk away fromRule 5: the client story every agency owner has lived. Modelled on Parry Headrick's “I fired a new PR client today”.
Hook
I told an agency CEO to pull out of a pitch they were about to win.The brief was big. The fee was bigger. The team had worked every weekend for a month.Then, in the chemistry meeting, the client's CEO said:“We'd expect the Financial Times in the first month.”No news. No launch. No spokesperson ready.The agency CEO looked at me. I knew what they were thinking. We need this one.But I've seen how this film ends. Month one, no FT. Month two, a tense call. Month three, a new agency.And the team that worked every weekend gets the blame.They pulled out. It hurt for a week.Six weeks later, they won a smaller brief with a client who understood how earned media works. They still have it.The best agencies aren't the ones that win every pitch.They're the ones that know which pitches to lose.Have you ever won a pitch you should have lost?
Visual · Text onlyNo image. The quote is the turning point.Check before postingUse a real pitch story from your advisory work, with the agency and the client kept anonymous. Change details if needed.
10 questions a buyer will ask about your agencyLead magnet: the checklist format, offered to agency founders by name. Modelled on Nick Avaria's operations guide post.
Hook
Would your agency survive a buyer's first meeting?Most founders start getting ready to sell a year too late.They find out what buyers care about in the first meeting. By then it's too late to fix.Here are some of the questions I hear buyers ask, again and again:→ How much of your revenue comes from your top 3 clients?
→ Would your biggest client stay if you left?
→ What do you do that we couldn't build ourselves?
→ What's your margin, client by client?
→ Who runs the agency when you're on holiday?None of them are about how big you are.They're about how much of the value walks out the door with you.I've put all 10 on one page, with what a good answer looks like and the red flags buyers mark you down for.If you run an agency and want it, comment “BUYER” and I'll send it over.
Visual · Single imageThe first page of the checklist: 10 numbered questions, a green 'good answer' column and a red 'red flag' column.Check before postingPut your Netwarm Reveal link in the reply so you can see which agency founders download the checklist. Make sure the 10 questions match what buyers ask in your deals.
Free forever: unlimited scheduling through LinkedIn’s official API, with images, video and PDF carousels.
06
LinkedIn lead generation: lead magnets that work to target agency founders and CEOs
Reactions show interest. A download shows intent. The fastest way to find out which agency bosses are thinking about growth or a sale is to give them something useful and see who takes it.
For agency founders, these formats get the most requests:
Format 1The operations guideThe system behind one result (margin, retention, hiring), written for agency founders.
Format 2The checklistEvery point to check, each with its fix, for one named reader.
Format 3The data reportA study of real numbers, with early access for those who comment.
Format 4The free workshopOne hour on one habit, for owners at a stated size.
The 10 questions a buyer will ask about your agency
Our pick for you: “The 10 questions a buyer will ask about your agency”Built from the exit-readiness work the adviser already does and the monthly M&A view (“The premium is shifting from size to scarcity”): one page on what buyers pay for, and what they mark down. Offer it at the end of post 5.With a Reveal link, every person who downloads it is shown by name, with their role and how warm they are. Your first Reveal link is free.Create your free Reveal link
07
From reactions to clients
Content brings agency bosses to the profile. It doesn't say when to reach out. Most never comment, so they stay invisible, and a CEO reading every post in October may have picked another adviser by January.
On LinkedIn, the right moment to start a conversation is when someone keeps coming back. We call that Hot: 5 or more points over 90 days, where a reaction counts 1, a repost 2, a download or a reply 4.
Hot right now2 agency founders and CEOs · not contacted yetNetwarm
2 agency founders and CEOs are Hot. See who to message first.See who’s Hot
First messageAn opener for each Hot person, based on the posts they readNetwarm
Hi Sam, you've been reading my PR market reviews for a few weeks. Is next year's plan about growth or about getting ready to sell?Hi Jordan, I saw you reacted to the pricing post. Are you raising rates this year?
A first line for each of them, ready to send.See the openers
Netwarm sends nothing for you. It tells you who and when, and you write the message. It also works inside Claude and ChatGPT: ask “Who's Hot today?” and get the list.
08
FAQ
For this adviser, every topic brought a similar share of agency bosses (34 to 43%), but personal posts reached far more of them: a line someone said, a short thank-you, an open offer. Market reviews work best when the opinion comes first.
Friday brought the highest share of founders, CEOs and MDs (41.9%) and the most in total (67 across 4 posts). Monday came second at 39.6%. The gap is small: how the post opens matters more than the day.
This adviser posts about 3 times a week, and 16 founders, CEOs and MDs came back 3 times or more in one month. Fewer, sharper posts work when each one carries a view or a story.
Look at who reacts, not how many. Group reactions by role, measure the share of your ideal clients per post, and follow the people who keep coming back. A free Netwarm scan does this for you.
Yes. Netwarm only reads public reactions to your own posts. It never logs in as you, never asks for your password, and never messages anyone for you.
How we made this playbook
We read the public reactions on 13 posts written by the adviser between 1 and 27 October 2026, up to the first 100 people per post, and sorted the 362 people by role. Posts written by others that tag the adviser, and deleted posts, were left out. Comments were not counted, so engagement figures are a floor.
Niche rules come from top posts by PR leaders and agency growth advisers over the last 3 months. Role groups are approximate, and some founders run businesses outside PR; a Netwarm scan matches people to your own ideal client.