The past decade has seen the most dramatic technological transformation known to mankind. The world is digital now, and everybody is an integral part of the internet. With the accessibility of smartphones, the business world has transformed completely.
Mobile technology has led to increased adoption of internet and social media technology, which in turn has promoted digital marketing. Influencer marketing is the most recent addition to social media marketing tactics; using the influence of popular social media personalities to boost sales is the best marketing idea of the past decade.
Popularly, influencer marketing is used in B2C marketing campaigns. However, recently, marketers have recognized its potential for B2B brands as well. In this article, I will discuss the benefits and opportunities of influencer marketing in the B2B industry as well as 10 proven tactics that can give you high returns.
The Rise of B2B
With technological transformation, information is abundantly available to decision-makers of B2B marketing. On the other hand, the same technology is creating product awareness and building brand images online around the world.
Today, consumers expect brands to interact with them. A B2B relationship should be no different in this regard. It’s crucial to know what your consumer thinks in terms of their preferences, their likings/disliking, and much more. But the question is how to engage with people on the other side? And the answer is – authentically.
Rather than generic content, think about customizing your content for individuals, telling them stories, and engaging with them. Authentic and personalized content not only strikes a chord with B2C consumers but B2B consumers as well.
Influencer Marketing in B2B Industry
In 2020, most brands are focused on digital marketing. Over the past decade, most companies have integrated influencers in their marketing campaigns. Influencer marketing means reaching out to popular social media personalities to get their help in promoting your products and services.
Influencer marketing has now become a “thing,” it is alive and running as a part of the marketing strategy of most brands. It helps brands create their image, develop a strong relationship with the target audience, and maintain transparency.
However, influencer marketing for businesses is different than B2C marketing. Companies do not look for testimonials of famous people, they look for research-based, reliable evidence why they should look for your product or service. In such cases, customer testimonials and case studies work the best.
Why You Should Rely On It?
Now that you know what influencer marketing is, the big question is, should you be leveraging it for your business? The fact is that marketing can drive even the most hardened business up the wall.
From branding to building brand awareness, there are tons of things you have to cater to, and it can sometimes become a challenge. But you don’t have to tackle everything on your own. This is where Influencer marketing comes in.
1. Influencers have Real Power
If you wonder how influencer marketing is a great tactic to drive sales, this statistic will help you understand. According to statistics, 33% of millennials trust blog reviews before making a purchase, and only 1% of them trust advertisements. Moreover, about 40% of people claimed that they have purchased a product after seeing it being used by an influencer – be it on YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram.
2. Influencers are Social
According to a report by Oberlo, more than 90% of the Millennials and 77% of Gen X uses social media. Influencers have a strong social following and can help your business grow overnight just by introducing it to the targeted customers or sharing it on their social media pages.
10 Ways B2B Companies Can Benefit From Influencer Marketing
1. Set Campaign’s Objectives
Before you go on and brainstorm campaign ideas, you need to outline your main objectives for B2B Influencer marketing. Why do you want to deploy influencer marketing? Do you want to launch a new product, or do you want to increase sales? Whatever your goal, keep these aspects in your mind when deciding objectives:
· Target Audience
The first step is to identify your target audience based on their age, gender, income range, location, and much more. This will help you to prevent wasting your resources on the wrong audience.
· Role of Influencer
The role of the influencer is also something not only you should be clear on but should be on the same page with the influencer. For example, if you are looking for a boost in the sales of coaxial cable products, how do you want the influencer to contribute to it?
2. Look for Who Influences your Customer
Before you start reaching out to influencers blindly, you need to understand the businesses you need to target and with what products and services. Find influencers who have an impact on the companies you are targeting.
Do your research in multiple ways and see what your ideal influencer promotes and the kind of content their followers engage with more. Why is this important? Because you would be wasting your money on the wrong influencers without getting anything in return from them.
· Manual Search
Now the challenge is to find the right influencer. One of the ways to go about it is by searching manually. For this, you will need to browse through social media sites and look for influencers. You will send them a message, negotiate back and forth, and build partnerships. This might help you, but imagine doing it repeatedly. This is where tools come in.
· Use Tools
Several tools can help you handle influencer marketing easily. These may include Unfluence, Pitchbox, Followerwonk, and other Affiliate Marketing Programs.
3. Take it Beyond Social Media
Although social media is popular for B2C businesses, since 2017, B2B brands jumped on the bandwagon as well. When you talk about B2B and social media, the discussion is incomplete without the mention of LinkedIn.
According to statistics, more than 90% of the marketers said they prefer using LinkedIn because most of their leads come from them.
· Focus on More than Just Social Media
However, for influencer marketing, you need to think beyond social media. Yes, social media is used as a key measure of influence, but it is by no means the only way to check market viability. If you look it up, some of the most powerful influencers around the around are not active at all on social media. Take Seth Godin as an example, he’s a massive influencer on LinkedIn, but his social media presence is close to non-existent.
· Embrace Video
Videos are the latest craze on the internet, and if you are not tapping on that channel, you are already behind others and missing out on a lot. Brands are now switching from traditional videos to influencer videos that talk about their products in their video. It could be in the form of campaign teasers, unboxing videos, or exclusive reviews.
4. Be Aware of Conflicts
It’s crucial to be hyper-aware of the fact that not all B2B influencers are full time like B2C influencers; they mostly have a job and are influential because of that position. The influencer could be a sole proprietor or tied to a company. Consequently, if a proposed influencer cannot participate in a campaign or cannot participate in a way that the brand would deem ideal, it’s more likely to have consequences.
This is also why 60 days is a minimum lead time to approach influencers and figure out the scope of work, what’s possible, and what may cause conflicts.
5. Build Relationships
If you are working with a B2B influencer for the first time, build bonds to create a long term relationship. The influencers are highly likely not to jump immediately at the chance of work unless they are a strong advocate of your work.
So, it’s a great approach to tap into the influencer’s mind and curate thoughts. It’s good to build relationships, and it’s a great way to break the ice with potential influencers.
6. Combine Content and Influence to Generate Leads
Content marketing is usually derived from the demand for authenticity. The consumers are now tired of the traditional advertising ways such as TV, radio, and billboards and want to talk about the new way of advertising with authenticity.
However, one important aspect to note here is the authenticity of the influencer you are partnering with. The influencer must have a balance between paid and unpaid content. Otherwise, the trust factor from the B2B clients fades away, along with your money and influence.
· Video Content
A survey found out more than 80% of businesses prefer using video content in their marketing strategy. Moreover, 74% of people said that they purchased after watching a video. These statistics are proof of why videos should be on your radar. From behind the scenes videos to webinars to Q&A, you can do it however you like.
· Long-form Content
Almost 90% of the content published online consists of less than 1000 words. But analysis shows that articles with more than 1000 words garner more attention online. What does that mean?
Take out time to craft in-depth and researched content that is good enough to win your audiences. This will not only ensure that you stand out of the pack but will also give an insight to the reader.
7. Educate Clients on Products
In the modern era, salespersons are not the first point of contact for the customers if they want to know about the products. They do their initial search online and ask your clients. In the B2B market, customers have increasingly started turning to the client to research products. Hence, it’s essential your B2B influencers know everything about your product and looks authentic.
8. Co-Create
B2B influencers won’t say what you want them to say word to word. If that’s what you are looking for, it’s better to buy some ads. Let the influencers put their spin on your products and their benefits as it is more impactful.
The best way to do this is to find the right people and educate them. Explain what you are looking to accomplish and why. And then let them come up with ideas on how to create engaging and exciting content, how to promote the brand, and how to engage with customers. Let the influencers pitch their ideas as it is better than your marketing team feeding them content. Moreover, influencer led co-creation helps the brands come up with better outcomes.
· Contests/Giveaways
Depending on your budget, make room for giving away a handful of products in contests and giveaways. You can also give the products directly to the influencers and ask them to unbox them for you through their YouTube or Instagram live video. It will not only get your product in front of the audience at minimum cost, but it will also help you shine a spotlight on your brand.
9. Build Mutually beneficial Relationships
When you are working with influencers, try to create situations that benefit both the influencer and you. You can benefit from receiving good content and a third party sharing positive things about your brand.
Your influencers can benefit either in the form of monetary compensation or through the opportunity and exposure. Once an opportunity favors both, you can foster relationships that last a long term and beyond the initial collaboration.
10. Data Visualization
The importance of data visualization in B2B needs no introduction. We deliver information in a way we see it, and as visual learners, nothing works better than a demonstration in front of them to fully grasp what is being conveyed.
Data is everywhere and in everything we see. While we are easily able to contribute to the supply of data through our various actions, it’s a challenge to collect and mine it in an accessible format. Spreadsheets may seem boring and tedious to your clients, so it’s important to display data in easy to understand graphics like charts, graphs, tables, and more.
B2B Case Studies For Your Inspiration
To demonstrate the power of B2B Influencer marketing, we have jotted down some case studies for you to read. Check them out!
1. LinkedIn
Where do I start about LinkedIn? Considered the dark horse of social media, LinkedIn has more than half a billion members, out of which 61 million are macro-influencers. LinkedIn for businesses has grown tremendously over the years and continues to grow. The platform presents an opportunity for the world and has a huge user base of B2B influencers.
With LinkedIn’s 48-page Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn, marketers can figure out how they can use the platform in its full potential as a marketing tool. It makes a strong case for LinkedIn and answers some important questions.
2. Microsoft
Miracles are possible when creativity and intelligence meet. And that’s the crux of Microsoft’s influencer marketing campaign. To motivate women to participate in STEM, they partnered with National Geographic’s photography influencers.
As a result of this campaign, not only was Microsoft able to reach more than 91 million people in a single day, it also earned about 3.5 million likes on the day as well. Need we say more about the power of influencer partnerships?
3. IBM
An innovator in their field and still ruling the industry, IBM is on top of its influencer marketing game since the beginning. They are also the pioneers in leveraging their employees as influencers as a part of their marketing campaigns.
IBM has enabled its employees to promote their products on digital platforms by providing them different content. The employees know the best about those products and influence people worldwide. While some are involved in creating them, others are usually engaged in selling the products for the organization.
4. SAP
With thousands of customers benefiting from their software solutions, SAP is a market leader in application software. Their influencers are top corporate giants and industry expert who join their events and help them increase brand awareness and social media engagement.
SAP has invited influencers to talk about topics like machine learning, IoT, data analytics, and much more. The results have been phenomenal, and their events have trended worldwide.
For example, their recent event in Germany trended for two days, and the influencers drove more than 50% of the overall social media mentions. Moreover, in their Florida event, SAP influencers reached about 100K people online via video streaming.
Final Thoughts
With consumers trying to avoid advertising through ad blockers, media fasting, and cord-cutting, it is getting more challenging to keep up with the digital landscape for the brands. In such a situation, influencer marketing is a smart move. From the year 2016 to 2019, B2B influencer marketing has grown at a steady pace, so there is no reason to believe it will not grow in the coming years.
About the Author
Shoaib provides ghostwriting and copywriting services. His educational background in the technical field and business studies helps him in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. He occasionally writes articles for Shireen Inc.
