Does B2B Influencer Marketing Work? How Businesses Can Leverage Industry Experts
5.00/5Brands generate $4.12 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing. But what about B2B influencer marketing? Does it generate the same revenue? Does it really work?
💵According to Forbes, 94% of B2B marketers say it’s a successful strategy. It’s been proven to generate over 520% ROI, or $5.20 for every dollar spent.
In other words, not only does it work for B2B companies, it outperforms B2C campaigns.
Let’s take a closer look at the different steps to implementing a successful B2B influencer marketing program.
What is B2B Influencer Marketing?
🤝B2B Influencer Marketing is a marketing strategy in which companies partner with thought leaders, experts and influential figures (also known as influencers) to promote their products, services and brand.
The deep knowledge and credibility of these influencers allows B2B companies to engage and influence decision makers.
Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Influencer Marketing
There are four key differences between B2C and B2B influencer marketing:
- 👥Target audience: B2B aims to engage and influence professionals and decision makers, while B2C focuses on individual consumers.
- 🗣️Influencers: B2B influencers tend to be industry experts, while B2C influencers are celebrities, entertainers, or anyone with a certain number of social media followers.
- 🎯Focus: B2B aims to build relationships and brand credibility, while B2C brands look to drive immediate conversions.
- 📝Content: B2B companies tend to share more informative and educational content (white papers, reports, research, etc.), while B2C is more focused on entertaining their audience.
Understanding these differences is key to creating a successful B2B influencer marketing program.
Benefits of B2B Influencer Marketing
B2B influencer marketing programs have proven to be an effective tool. But what does it actually mean for companies?
- By leveraging the authority, knowledge and trust of relevant industry figures, brands can see an increase in brand awareness and credibility.
- Partnering with the right influencers allows your business to market to the right audience: decision-makers who are most likely to be interested in your brand, products or services.
- By creating engaging and consistent content, influencers can help drive more people to your website, giving you more opportunities to generate more leads and more sales.
Building an Effective B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy
There are three basic steps that will help you create and implement a successful B2B influencer marketing campaign. Let’s take a closer look at what they are.
Establish Goals and Objectives for your Influencer Marketing Campaign
A marketing project without goals is like driving a car without a clear direction. You may enjoy it, but you will never get there. Your B2B influencer marketing campaign is the same. To make it work, you need to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and the most effective ways to do it.
- 🔎Build brand awareness.
- 🗣️Generate reviews.
- 👥Get more leads into your pipeline.
- 🤓Establish thought leadership.
- 🤝Build credibility.
- 🗨️Cultivate a loyal and engaged community.
- ➕Etc.
To set your goals, we strongly recommend you use the SMART approach. Make sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound.
Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
As well as setting your goals, you need to identify the specific KPIs you will use to track the progress of your B2B influencer marketing campaign. Make sure you have appropriate analytics systems in place.
Here are some of the most common KPIs used in B2B influencer marketing:
- 🗣️Reach and impressions: two of the most common social media marketing data points that should be applied to your influencer marketing campaign.
- 💵Earned Media Value: allows you to understand the advertising value of an influencer’s earned coverage. To estimate this, you need to use the formula: Total impressions X Cost Per Mille (CPM the cost per 1,000 impressions) = EMV
- 👆Engagement: Likes, comments and shares received on each influencer post about your brand.
- 🎯Conversions: CPM (cost per mille) and CTR (click through rate) allow you to better understand what your target audience does after being exposed to your brand. Clicks, visits, conversions.
- 💓Brand sentiment: how your current customers and prospects feel about your brand.
Each influencer marketing goal is aligned with a set of KPIs, make sure you choose the right ones so you have a solid understanding of your progress and can make informed decisions.
Select the Right B2B Influencers for Your Brand
To achieve these goals, you need to think carefully about which B2B influencers you want to work with.
- They don’t need to have thousands or millions of followers to be influential. They need to be trusted by their community.
- They need to align with your long-term goals.
- They need to be experts on the topic.
- They need to have a high engagement rate with their followers.
- They need to be authentic.
⚠️Sometimes working with a micro-influencer(a content creator with 10,000 to 100,000 followers) is the best idea. They have a high level of engagement and are trusted by their community.
Read on to understand how to find and work with the right influencers.
How To Find B2B Influencers
Finding the right B2B influencer can be a challenge. Especially because they tend to be professionals or experts in niche industries who want to share their expertise and knowledge. They act and behave differently to B2C influencers who share their lifestyle and promote brands and products.
To find the best B2B influencers for your business, we recommend you follow one of these routes:
- Use a B2B influencer marketing platform such as Ivee, Flooncer, Favikon.
- Work with an influencer marketing agency.
- Attend industry events to identify and connect with potential influencers.
- Follow and monitor industry publications to find experts who are actively creating content and influencing discussions.
- Monitor social networks such as LinkedIn, YouTube or X to find relevant thought leaders with high engagement levels.
Conclusion
B2B influencer marketing works when done right. Get ahead of your competition by working with the best influencer marketing agencies and investing in an influencer marketing programme.
