Influencer Marketing For B2B: Proven Strategies & Techniques

Before digital marketing, B2B advertising always had its own unique style and tone that differed from B2C advertising.

Sure, the core concepts of addressing pain points and promoting unique selling points were all there, but there was a formality to the tone and certain techniques and channels were off-limits.

Today, social media is changing that and the lines between B2C and B2B are blurring.

This shift is most evident in the evolving world of influencer marketing. Originally, influencer marketing was the domain of smaller B2C products and services.

But as more of the world’s communications moved to the social media platform, so did the marketing.

Today, virtually every major consumer brand has an influencer marketing strategy. But B2B brands are now also finding success by using similar techniques and methods that were once believed to be a poor fit for B2B lead generation.

In this guide, we’ll look at what B2B influencer marketing looks like in today’s environment and how brands are using it to successfully build leads and land new customers.

What Is B2B Influencer Marketing?

B2B influencer marketing is when brands partner with trusted social media influencers related to their industry or product category. The goal is for the influencer to create customized content that helps with brand awareness, brand promotion, or direct product sales and lead generation.

B2B influencer marketing is similar to B2C marketing, but there are unique differences when it comes to finding influencers and creating engaging content that is entertaining yet still fits the brand’s style and tone.

Why B2B Influencer Marketing Works

The reason that B2B influencer marketing is becoming a more dominant choice for brands is rather simple. Social media is where the customers are, so that’s where brands need to be if they want to have their message heard.

Potential B2B customers mostly follow the same trends as general consumers. That means they’re more likely to be on social media than reading the latest trade publication.

Like most social media feeds, potential B2B customers follow a variety of personal interest influencers, entertainment influencers, and likely a few professional-related influencers or channels. It’s those professional-related influencers that provide a way for B2B brands to tap into new audiences.

Marketing works best when potential customers are actively seeking out information. By placing your messaging within influencer content related to your industry or product category, you immediately increase engagement and your message resonates.

Today, there are industry-related or professional influencers for almost any business category. It may not be as diverse as B2C options, but there are still many opportunities for B2B brands to successfully reach new audiences in ways that will have a higher ROI compared to many other paid advertising channels. 

Benefits Of B2B Influencer Marketing

With a B2B brand, it can be harder to make a connection with audiences through traditional marketing channels. Most channels simply don’t allow for the type of messaging necessary to connect the way a B2C campaign can.

But influencer marketing helps bridge that gap and can provide many benefits to help build a brand similar to B2C brands.

Higher Engagement

One of the most significant benefits that B2B brands can experience through influencer marketing is increased engagement.

Engagement is a key benefit of any influencer marketing campaign, but with B2B marketing, it’s one of the best ways to achieve a higher ROI.

Whether it’s through product tutorials conducted by influencers or live event coverage at trade shows and industry events, B2B brands can experience much higher engagement with influencer marketing.

Enterprise software developer SAP uses this strategy often for their campaigns.

SAP invites influencers to come to industry events worldwide and provide coverage as well as interactive sessions. The result is that in many cases, influencers that SAP has partnered with often receive half of the total social media mentions for the event.

Build Brand Authority

For smaller B2B brands or SaaS startups, building brand authority can be a difficult process. You’re often entering a crowded market and have to focus on how to set yourself apart. This leaves little time to build authority in the space.

Influencer marketing can supercharge your efforts to build authority. By choosing trusted influencers in your industry, you can immediately start to transfer some of their trust and loyalty to your brand.

This type of campaign can be executed using large influencers or smaller influencers with more dedicated audiences. Sometimes, smaller influencers have more trust with their audience and these micro or nano influencers work better for building brand authority.

For startups, this is a great technique for quickly positioning yourself within a crowded market while minimizing your ad spending.

Forge Lasting Partnerships

Working with influencers provides a way for B2B brands to build long-lasting partnerships that help build brand loyalty. Influencer audiences can have a deep connection with influencers and the content they create.

In the professional space, this content may even be responsible for helping an audience achieve their career goals.

Helping to sponsor the influencer creating that type of content shows your commitment to both the industry and the professionals within it.

Software brand Adobe leveraged this type of partnership for their recent influencer campaign that recruited “accidental influencers”. These were smaller influencers who had garnered authority in the areas of professional photo and video editing but weren’t considered “tech influencers”.

The result was a highly engaged audience as these accidental influencers had access to upcoming features and other tools that customers were looking forward to testing themselves.

Adobe continued to partner with these accidental influencers to build long-lasting relationships and leverage the power of influencer marketing.

How To Find B2B Influencers For Your Campaign

Just like B2C influencer marketing, finding the right influencers is critical for a campaign to be successful.

You need the right influencers who have an audience that overlaps perfectly with your customers.

One problem is that there are fewer appropriate influencers when it comes to B2B influencers. But despite the lower numbers, you can still find influencers to fit almost any campaign.

If there is a niche or industry, there are influencers in that space. Some may be micro or nano influencers, but these influencers often provide better targeting and a higher ROI than influencers with huge follower counts.

Below are some ways to find influencers for your B2B campaign.

Agencies & Marketplaces

One of the fastest ways to find influencers is through marketplaces like Collabstr or Upfluence which connect influencers with brands. These aren’t full marketing agencies and instead, only provide a way for brands and influencers to find each other and work out their own arrangements.

When using a marketplace, you still have to do your own research on each influencer before making a final decision, but these marketplaces can streamline the process of finding influencers.

You can also use these to get an idea of rates and the type of content that each influencer is comfortable with. For example, some influencers may only do product mentions, while others are open to custom content requests.

Influencer agencies on the other hand can provide you with influencers along with campaign creation, tracing results, and other services.

Agencies like HireInfluence provide full influencer marketing services and use their experience working with influencers and creating a successful campaign to help you get the best results.

Social Media Tools

Social media listening tools can help you search out influencers by hashtag and other criteria. This can help you find smaller influencers with dedicated audiences that you may not be familiar with.

You can also conduct your own searches via hashtags to find influencers on the platform of your choice.

Most influencers will have a way to contact them on their About page or bio. You can also directly message them if you want to discuss a partnership. Influencers are generally open to discussing partnerships so there’s nothing wrong with reaching out directly.

Industry Networking

Another fast way to find influencers is to ask your network of industry connections who they follow on social media. This can give you an idea of who is popular and how trusted the influencer is in your field.

Find Success With B2B Influencer Marketing

As we’ve shown, brands like Adobe, SAP, and many others are using influencers to help find new audiences and build relationships with customers.

Influencer marketing has evolved significantly in just the past few years and smart B2B brands are taking full advantage of what this channel has to offer.