How ModumUp Social Selling agency helped Membrace in broadening their network in Latin America via LinkedIn

Within four months, we boosted brand awareness in a new market, created a database of 1,170 target LinkedIn connections, and tripled audience engagement on a personal profile.

Additionally, we received over 120 positive responses from top executives in the ecommerce sector, each a potential client for Membrace

Membrace approached ModumUp to help them connect with major e-commerce companies in Latin America using LinkedIn.. Our task was to increase brand awareness in LATAM, build trust with potential clients, and inform the target audience about hybrid AI tools for content management.

Membrace is a service for ecommerce platforms, marketplaces, and classifieds that enhances business metrics by improving content quality. Common issues like dubious headlines, description errors, and poor-quality images during online shopping are precisely what Membrace addresses.

Before the project started, Membrace representatives had already visited several LATAM countries and regularly attended professional events. To further penetrate the market and improve networking, the company decided to utilize LinkedIn.
We focused mainly on marketplaces, large online stores, and classifieds in Latin America.

We also looked for potential partners, including large agencies involved in content moderation for marketplaces. Our objective was to find and connect with CEOs, top executives, product managers, and other key company representatives.
We identified over 200 suitable companies and more than 1,500 target position representatives on LinkedIn in the region.

To facilitate online networking, we began developing the LinkedIn account of Ilya Zhukovets, Membrace's CBDO and an expert in ecommerce. Previously, Ilya maintained a LinkedIn profile irregularly. His account mainly consisted of reposts from colleagues and influencers, with little original content.

Our goal was to showcase Ilya as an active player in the ecommerce market and demonstrate the product's value in this niche. As soon as original posts about Ilya's professional life appeared on his page, audience interest surged. In the first month we managed his profile, some posts garnered 90-136 likes and a view rate of up to 367,80%. This was largely due to Ilya's reports from professional events, which received up to 45,000 views.

Additionally, updates about new Membrace employees in Latin America proved successful. Such publications showcase the team, build trust, and make the brand more "human-like" and transparent.

Posts introducing new employees had already shown excellent results with other ModumUp clients and were successful for Ilya as well.

Ilya's account clearly demonstrated that audiences are interested in more than just dry facts; they want to see the people behind the company. For sure, an expert content on professional topics helps build a brand. But engagement is driven mainly by personal posts with lively photos.

To highlight Ilya's ecommerce expertise, we obtained a LinkedIn Top Voice badge, a significant LinkedIn credential.

One can get a badge for contributions to Collaborative Articles, where multiple professionals enrich content with their insights, and other users highlight the most valuable ideas. We explain the ModumUp’s algorithm for obtaining the Top Voice badge in this article.

Another important activity was engaging with the target audience in the comments. We used this tactic to establish direct contact with potential clients and partners.
For commenting, we subscribed to hashtags like #marketplaces, #classifieds, and #contentmoderation so that relevant posts would appear in Ilya's feed. We also monitored relevant LinkedIn influencers and their professional publications.

Additionally, we gathered information on all relevant events in LATAM, adding them to Ilya's calendar and commenting on announcements.

Why are detailed, thoughtful comments as important as posts? Firstly, they demonstrate expertise and professionalism. Secondly, comments increase the visibility of both the post you engage with and your own profile. Most importantly, comments help establish connections and gain new useful contacts.

One of the most effective LinkedIn promotion tactics is personal communication. Membrace's goal was networking: the client needed to make connections, not sales. We were adding potential clients to contacts by sending connection requests without a message. Then we were liking and commenting on their posts before sending friendly networking messages.

We didn't find the right strategy immediately. Each client and task is unique, so we test different messages and adjust them based on results and our benchmarks.

With the LATAM audience, we always started conversations in the respondents' native language—Spanish or Portuguese—adding a note: "I used a translator. If it's convenient for you, we can switch to English." This approach worked effectively in other projects where the client had no Spanish-speaking staff, and we decided to test it in this case. All responses were in English, and there were no issues.

In the first message, we clarified that we weren't pitching anything. Instead, we expressed our interest in professional communication in ecommerce and invited them to share about themselves.

The Response Rate for this message was 7,9%, not the highest possible.
We then had two options: either soften the networking approach and link it to offline interactions, since personal communication is valued in Latin America, or try more sales-oriented messages to increase conversions.

We decided to test both hypotheses.

First, we made the message slightly more sales-oriented and described the Membrace platform.

This hypothesis did not work: the message received even fewer responses—5%.
In the second approach, we began offering meetups from the first message, mentioning that Ilya often visited different countries and would be happy to meet in person at conferences, like those in Mexico City or Medellin. The result was immediate: the response rate nearly tripled from 5% to 15%. This was a good outcome, and the client decided to stick with this strategy.

For those who expressed interest, replied to the proposal, and seemed relevant to Ilya, we offered an online meeting with the message: "I have an interesting idea; let's have a call soon."
This worked. The day after launching this message chain, our client scheduled the first call with a target lead. Over two months, this message sequence yielded 15 interested responses and five leads (meetings). Membrace closed a deal with one of the leads, a major AI project in Mexico.

The conclusion? Sincerity, active offline networking, and lively photos are what work in the professional world of Latin America, where warmth shines through even the formal tone of LinkedIn.