In the competitive business-to-business (B2B) marketing world, finding and attracting clients is a crucial aspect of driving growth and success. Among all the strategies that companies incorporate to find clients for their businesses, B2B influencer marketing is the most powerful one.
By partnering with industry leaders and B2B influencers, companies can leverage their influence to reach and engage with their target audience, ultimately driving sales and increasing brand awareness.
The ultimate goal for B2B marketers is generating leads and sales. With the right strategies and tactics in place, B2B influencer marketing can elevate a company’s marketing efforts and establish it as a trusted authority within its industry.
What Is B2B Influencer Marketing?
Generally, people trust recommendations from individuals or key leaders in an industry more than other types of advertising. Therefore, influencer marketing is an effective strategy for all businesses.
B2B influencer marketing is a marketing strategy that involves collaborating with influencers in a specific industry or niche to promote a product or service to other businesses.
B2B influencers are usually experts, thought leaders, or professionals who have a large and loyal online following and can help build brand awareness and credibility, and bring leads for the B2B company. These influencers are thought to be more credible than general influencers, as their audience is typically more interested in the specific topic they are discussing.
By understanding the different types of influencers, as well as the best ways to engage them, businesses can create successful campaigns.
We recommend comparing KOL marketing and influencer marketing to determine which is more effective for your business.
What Is the Difference Between B2C and B2B Influencer Marketing?
Well, you may wonder if B2B influencer marketing is different from B2C influencer marketing. Let’s compare them to see what the differences are.
- The main difference between B2B and B2C influencer marketing is their targets. In B2B marketing, the targets are the business decision-makers, so the message should be more informational, or give a solution to their needs. Therefore, it may be less entertaining or inspirational than B2C marketing.
- The influencers who promote B2B brands should be more expert in that niche. On the other hand, the influencers for B2C brands can be normal social media influencers or celebrities.
- B2C influencers are chosen based on the number of their followers and the traffic they can bring. However, for B2B influencer marketing, the credibility and expertise of the influencers are more meaningful.
Why Should You Consider Influencer Marketing for Your B2B Business?
B2B influencer marketing is used by many brands to reach clients and form relationships. Influencer marketing can allow companies to enlist the help of individuals who have a knack for that particular niche.
Let’s explore the benefits of influencer marketing for business-to-business companies.
What Are the Benefits of B2B Influencer Marketing?
There are several reasons why you should consider B2B influencer marketing:
- It can help you reach a wider and more relevant audience, as B2B influencers have access to niche communities and networks that may be interested in your product or service.
- You don’t have to start from the ground up when building trust in your potential customers. That’s because B2B influencers are seen as credible and reliable sources of information and recommendations by their followers.
- Influencers have a large audience that they can reach easily. By showcasing the benefits and features of your product or service, they can help you generate more leads and conversions.
- B2B influencers can provide their own insights, opinions, and stories that resonate with their followers and potential customers. Consequently, they enable you to connect with niche customers you couldn’t previously access.
- The influencers’ positive relationship with their audience allows for pressure-free purchasing decisions.
- They humanize your brand by creating easily digestible, engaging, and proprietary content that centers your product.
How Does Influencer Marketing Work for B2B?
There are always some opportunities around you that can help you in the growth of your B2B business. Take advantage of the factors below to succeed in your B2B influencer marketing campaigns.
1. Power of Employee Advocacy
A marketing-driven program that is run by the marketing department of a company works in isolation and it’s incapable of creating a significant effect on brand identity.
By contrast, an employee advocacy program that is associated with an advertising-based program will allow the real nature of brand promotion through its employees since they are central to the quality and popularity of a brand in the marketplace.
2. Continuous Influencer Experiment
Many of the world’s most profitable companies have legacy influencer marketing programs used to properly supervise journalists and external analysts in PR activities. The easiest way to orient a B2B influencer marketing system is to integrate the techniques into other business needs.
3. Data-driven Content Creation
By conducting market research and analyzing competitors, you can identify your niche, trends, and gaps. Consequently, you can discover what type of content is more appealing to your potential customers. This data can help you create a better B2B influencer marketing plan and get the most out of this marketing strategy.
How to Partner Effectively with B2B Influencers?
Now that you have learned how B2B influencer marketing works, you are ready to start!
Here are the strategies you should follow to run an effective B2B influencer marketing campaign.
1. Define Your Goals
Setting measurable goals and KPIs allows you to efficiently track your B2B influencer marketing’s success and determine the effectiveness of your campaigns.
84% of B2B marketers take advantage of a particular deal of brand awareness when they choose the right B2B influencers to partner with. This is followed by 69% observing the main advantage of this partnership was generating a lead.
2. Find Influencers Who Fit Your Brand
First, you should discover on which social media platform most of your customers are active. For example, for B2B marketing, collaborating with LinkedIn influencers can usually get the perfect result, because this platform is related to business. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t work on other social media platforms, like Instagram.
To get the most out of your B2B marketing, you should find influencers that your customers follow. You can use social media, online communities, business news, and tools like influencer marketing platforms to find the right B2B influencer who aligns with your goals and business type.
To find the right influencer for your B2B marketing on Instagram you can use Ainfluencer. Let’s see how this platform can help your business.
Ainfluencer: The Best Influencer Marketing Platform
Finding influencers gets easier using Ainfluencer; a 100% free Do-it-Yourself marketplace that connects brands and influencers. The brands can find influencers with a few clicks using the ‘Find Influencer’ tool on this platform, which helps them to search for influencers based on categories, gender, location, language, hashtags, and the number of followers.
Furthermore, they can specify their budget, too. So, only the influencers in that range are shown to them, making it easier for them to manage their advertising budget.
Ainfluencer has other features for brands, including:
- Free influencer marketing campaign creation,
- Free influencer invitation,
- A built-in chat box that allows brands and influencers to do their negotiations,
- The use of an escrow service ensures that payment is secured and only released to the influencer once the job has been completed.
As you can see, by using Ainfluencer, finding influencers is easy, cost-effective, and quick. Join Ainfluencer now and create your first free influencer marketing campaign.
3. Develop a B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy
Once you consider partnering with one or more B2B influencers, the subsequent step is to figure out how the influencer content fits into your overall marketing strategy and how you can use other channels to reinforce influencer content, such as by cross-publishing on social media platforms. Here are some tips that can help you develop a better B2B influencers marketing strategy:
- Research your target audience, such as their demographics, preferences, pain points, and challenges. You should also understand their buyer journey and decision-making process, and how you can influence them at each stage.
- Give this information to B2B influencers you choose to create more appealing content to your target audience.
- Choose the best format for your content based on your target audience.
4. Track results
To be successful with B2B influencer marketing, it’s important to track the results. This can be done in several ways, but the most important thing is to make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment.
Tracking engagement rates and click-through rates (CTRs) is a key consideration. However, other metrics such as likes, shares, and comments can also be important to gauge. To track the success of your influencer marketing campaigns, you should learn more about social media metrics that you need to measure.
By understanding how different actions affect these performance indicators, brands can make better decisions regarding their B2B influencer marketing campaigns.
5 best examples of B2B influencer marketing campaigns
By partnering with B2B influencers, businesses can create campaigns that are relevant to the target audience. Influencers should be chosen carefully, as not all of them will mesh well with a company’s brand image.
Check out the list below to get some good ideas for your B2B influencer marketing campaigns.
1. Microsoft
One of the greatest examples of influencer marketing in B2B of all time is when Microsoft partnered with NatGeo for the “#MakeWhatsNext” campaign which was launched on International Women’s Day.
This B2B influencer marketing campaign’s goal was to motivate women in technology, science, engineering, and math to make a change in the world.
Some of the top adventure photography influencers took part in this campaign, sharing stories on women’s historical contributions to science.
2. Cisco
Another successful B2B example belongs to Cisco, who runs its B2B influencer marketing campaign called ‘Cisco Champions.’
They invited top IT experts to share their industry knowledge on podcasts, radio, and video. These champs enjoy early access products and can provide insights and opinions on social media.
3. Klaviyo
Another B2B influencer marketing example is Klaviyo, an email marketing platform that partnered with influencers for their “Less Stalking, More Talking” campaign. They worked with B2B influencers, like Eli Weiss, who have high authority in the eCommerce industry.
4. SAP
One of the best B2B company examples is SAP which organizes an annual tech convention known as ‘Sapphire’ that regularly draws more than 20,000 attendees. SAP has launched campaigns targeting around 11 influencers who helped to create creative videos about the conference. The content was disseminated on Facebook to more than 80,000 individuals who didn’t have the chance to attend the event.
5. American Express
Another B2B brand example is American Express, which created a campaign for its platinum card. The company targeted influential business elites, businessmen, executives, affluent individuals, and the like as its target market.
These influencers posted how much they liked the benefits offered by the card. The exclusive photos displaying the events they attended were a great tactic to draw in the interest of a number of other potential users.
It was a huge investment as the organization worked with more than a hundred influencers, including micro-influencers, macro-influencers, and celebrities.
Conclusion
B2B influencer marketing will continue to grow in popularity and importance in 2023. Businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve should start investing in this type of marketing now. By doing so, they will be able to reap the benefits of this growing trend.
If you are looking for the most relevant influencers in your niche, give Ainfluencer a try!
FAQs
When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, there are a number of benefits that can be achieved. By tapping into the expertise of influential professionals, businesses can improve their brand awareness, reach relationships with these clients, and create trust. Additionally, businesses can expect increased sales and revenue.
A B2B influencer is someone who has the power to drive sales and grow businesses through their networks. These individuals have a lot of credibility within their industries and are often sought after by companies to help promote their products and services.
Different platforms may have different advantages and disadvantages depending on the industry, the audience, the goals, and the content of the campaign. However, since LinkedIn is the largest and the most professional social network, most B2B businesses use this platform for influencer marketing.
