Simply put, building relationships with influencers can help businesses to connect with key audiences.
If done right, brands can use the trust and respect that influencers have already built with their audience to cultivate new relationships with potential customers. Plus, they can generate traffic, build product awareness, and nurture leads – win, win, win, win!
B2C companies have long embraced influencer marketing. Just look at the recent viral success that Stanley has enjoyed with its 1913 Quencher ‘travel tumbler’. Influencer marketing helped boost the brand’s annual sales to $750 million after incoming CMO, Terence Reilly realised “…influencer opportunity was just the magic that Stanley might need”. It’s a great example of how the strategy can generate successful growth when done right. But B2B brands have been slower on the uptake.
That’s changing. More and more B2B businesses are experimenting with influencer marketing as a strategy, and it’s arguably moving from ‘niche’ to ‘normal’. The trick is knowing who to connect with – and what to communicate – for the relationship to return the best results.
Here’s our checklist of what B2B marketers should prioritise when working with influencers.
What to look for
1. Expertise – Look for experts with established credibility and a relevant audience within the B2B industry, who are followed and respected for their knowledge and experience.
2. Authenticity – Customers are smart and can see through influencers who don’t fully understand their niche or have a full grasp on the facts.
3. Content – Look for influencers whose content aligns naturally with your brand, lending credibility and helping you speak directly to potential customers’ pain points.
4. Audience – Is their audience relevant? Resonance can often be more important than follower numbers – think quality over quantity.
Five B2B influencers making waves right now
If you’d like to see how powerful a well-paired partnership between B2B brands and influencers can be, it’s worth following top players like the five trendsetters we’ve showcased below:
Neil Patel is a marketing influencer and New York Times bestselling author. He’s worked with top brands like Amazon, Microsoft, Airbnb, and Google, while his marketing blog generates over 4 million visitors per month.
Jay Baer is a keynote speaker, B2B influencer, researcher, and author. He specialises in business growth and customer experience strategy, and has worked with brands such as Hitachi, Pfizer, McDonalds, and American Express.
Ann Handley is a digital marketing and content expert, author, and keynote speaker. She was recognized by ForbesWoman as one of the top 20 women bloggers and is Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs.
Joe Pulizzi is a content entrepreneur, author, and founder of The Tilt Newsletter. He curates two weekly podcasts for content entrepreneurs and content marketing professionals.
Morgan J Ingram is a sales expert, podcaster, and influencer. His work has been featured in the LinkedIn Sales Insider, the Hubspot blog, and the Harvard Business Review.
This list is just a jump-off point. Plenty of people are making waves in the B2B space – it’s worth taking a moment to explore more.
To find out how we connected GoodShape with influencers to help build authority for its bold new brand in the marketplace, follow the link to our case study.
And if you’ve got a similar project in mind, we’d love to help – get in touch.
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