B2B Influencer Marketing: Importance, Goals & Successful Implementation

1. Own rules of the game for B2B influencers: How does influencer marketing in the B2C differ from the B2B sector?
2. Is B2B influencer marketing effective? And if yes, who is it worth for?
3. How can B2B influencer marketing be successfully implemented?
4. How to find the right influencers for your B2B company
5. Which channels are suitable for B2B influencer marketing?
6. What are the challenges in B2B influencer marketing?
7. Two successful B2B influencer marketing examples
8. Conclusion

One of the main tasks of marketing is to build trust and thus move your own target groups to take action. People primarily trust other people. That's why we often rely on the opinions of others when making our decisions. Recommendations from the circle of friends, expert opinions, ratings and comments on different platforms. That's exactly what Influencer Marketing relies on.

Influencers draw our attention to products and companies (Amplification and Awareness), they build trust in us (Consideration) and ultimately lead us to acquire the products (Conversion). For this, influencers for companies can create real added value for companies.

Influencer marketing has particularly come into the spotlight with the rise of social media platforms and is primarily associated with consumer goods. However, the approach is much older than social media and has long been known in B2B. Testimonials, Key Opinion Leaders (KOL) or expert contributions have been relied on here for a long time. Accordingly, influencer marketing is just as important in B2B as it is in B2C. Because the mechanisms are the same. In detail, however, there are differences. You will find out about these from our guest author Hermann Litau in this article.

Own rules of the game for B2B influencers: How does influencer marketing in the B2C differ from the B2B sector?

The currency of influencers is the attention they receive from their community. And even more important: the trust their followers place in them. Trust is established in different ways: we find the person authentic, they have a proven record in the field they are active in, they share their expertise and other people value their opinion (social proof, e.g. in the form of followers or positive interactions with the shared content). This applies to every kind of influencer, correspondingly both in B2C and B2B. 

The biggest difference between influencers in B2C and B2B lies in the impact they have on the decision-making process. This is primarily due to the fact that the decision-making process in B2C and B2B is very different. While you are likely to order a fitness shake or a T-shirt quickly from your sofa in the evening, the process of buying a new enterprise software is not quite so simple. This means that influencers in B2C are very effective at all three levels of the funnel, all the way down to the conversion. In B2B, however, the effect at the conversion level is less relevant. The likeable manner of a B2B influencer may be the deciding factor that makes you aware of a corporate solution (Amplification and Awareness), but before you come to the decision...

• Compare your own company requirements with the offer
• Other people from your own company are usually involved
• Other products are considered and compared with each other

These more complex relationships lead to the fact that influencers in the B2B environment are usually expected to have a much more extensive understanding of the product, the industry and the competitors. 

This leads to the question: Is influencer marketing relevant in the B2B sector at all? 

Is B2B influencer marketing effective? And if yes, who is it worth for?

B2B influencer marketing can be an effective way to increase the visibility of your own company and product. But is it also worth it in the B2B sector in order to ultimately attract more customers and thus increase sales? The short answer: Yes, it is worth it. The slightly longer answer: Yes, it is worth it, if you pay attention to a few things.

Further up we have established that there are indeed differences in B2B and B2C influencer marketing. But these differences apply to any marketing and sales activities in both areas. B2B is fundamentally more complex in the customer journey. But it also pays off. Because the complexity leads to B2B customers usually bring a larger lifetime value and do not switch so quickly. Accordingly, it is also worthwhile to invest in awareness activities and thus come on the radar of potential customers. With further tools and approaches (e.g. advertising and retargeting), these customers can be accompanied through the entire customer journey and ultimately led to conversion. 

Accordingly, B2B influencer marketing can help both to increase the awareness of your own brand and products and ultimately lead to generating more sales. You can take advantage of this effect regardless of the size or industry of your company. Because no matter how specialized your company is, there are almost always opinion-forming personalities who can bring your brand to a highly relevant target group. You also have the opportunity to start small and work with micro-influencers first. This has the advantage that you don't have to use large budgets. What makes influencers in B2B marketing a real and above all sensible option for small companies. 

How can B2B influencer marketing be successfully implemented?

So it is basically worthwhile for B2B companies to consider influencer marketing. However, this should be done in a thoughtful and targeted manner. The following steps play an important role here:

1. Strategy: goal setting, target group definition, campaign idea and budgets
2. Influencer: research, auditions and briefings
3. Campaign implementation: creation of campaign assets, publication / management, ads and posts
4. Analysis and success evaluation

1. Strategy: Goal setting, target group definition, campaign idea and budgets

As with any campaign, the strategy should be at the beginning of a B2B influencer campaign. Here you should record which goals you want to achieve in influencer marketing exactly. If it's about lead generation, you must also think about the campaign architecture: How do users get from the first interaction with the influencer to direct contact? It is also important to understand whether it is primarily about already known target groups or completely new ones that you have not yet reached. This has an impact on the choice of platforms and influencers. Because here you have to ensure that the followers and the people you want to reach with the campaign actually correspond to the desired target groups. Last but not least, the campaign budget must be set. The following budget blocks should be considered: Influencer fees, campaign asset production (visuals, landing pages etc.), media budget and resources for the conception and management of the entire campaign. For larger campaigns, it is worth involving an agency. This takes on most of the effort, but of course also requires an investment. 

Once the scope, goals and target groups of the campaign are defined, the campaign should be elaborated on a strategic level. Because it's not enough just to give the influencer a product and hope for the best. 

2. Influencer: Research, auditions and briefings

After the foundation of the campaign has been laid, you need the right influencers for this. These are researched based on the target and target group definition. The most important thing here: The target group that is reached by and with influencers must match our own. Also, brand fit must be checked. You should use tools that simplify this process. Depending on the platform and objective, different influencer marketing tools such as are recommended:

IROIN® Influencer Marketing Suite

Storyclash

influData

Nindo

CreatorIQ

EQOLOT

At this point, a short digression about corporate influencers: Many companies don't need to go looking for influencers for a long time because they already have them in their own company. Your own employees often have very relevant and large networks that they can access. So it's worth taking a look inside and seeing if you can't discover suitable influencers in your own ranks and use them as brand ambassadors in your company. 

Once you have found the right influencers, they are briefed - as comprehensively as possible and in line with your own campaign idea. At the same time, influencers should be given a certain amount of leeway so that they can remain authentic and bring their own personal touch to the campaign. 

3. Campaign implementation: Creation of campaign assets, publication / management, advertising and posts

The next step is to create the necessary assets of the campaign. These can include:

• Posts with influencers that appear on influencer channels
• Posts with influencers who act as ads
• Retargeting ads that address the content with / by influencers
• Lead-Gen forms
• Landing pages
• Conversion events
• etc.

A B2B influencer campaign can be designed individually, simply or even complexly, depending on the goal and available budget. 

4. Analysis and performance evaluation

The last step of the campaign is to analyze the results and determine how successful the campaign was. This can only work if the tracking was set up correctly. 

The following KPIs can play a role in the evaluation of the influencer campaign:

• Impressions / Reach including CPM
• Sentiment
• Clicks to landing page including CPC, CTR
• Leads including CPL

How to find the right influencers for your B2B company

Since the B2B world is usually much smaller (measured in terms of the number of actors), larger opinion leaders are already known. These can be a first point of contact. In addition, it is worth searching for the right personalities on LinkedIn, e.g. among the LinkedIn Top Voices. These are LinkedIn users who are highlighted by LinkedIn for their activities and reach on the platform. It also makes sense to look around the company and look for corporate influencers. 

Which channels are suitable for B2B influencer marketing?

The most important channel for B2B marketing is currently LinkedIn. Here, the decision-makers are located. They can also be addressed very specifically. Much more targeted than on other social networks. Nevertheless, it makes sense to consider other social media platforms as well. Thus, relevant people can also be reached via Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or even via TikTok influencer marketing. This is not to be neglected, especially because the reach is usually much cheaper to buy here. In addition, these platforms are particularly relevant when it comes to younger target groups. For example, if you want to attract potential apprentices to your company, TikTok and YouTube are much more important than LinkedIn. Therefore, you should primarily base your platform choice on your target groups.

What are the challenges in B2B influencer marketing?

B2B influencer marketing of course also brings certain challenges. On the one hand, influencer marketing is always about making influencers appear as authentic as possible for your own brand. However, this means that you give control out of your hand and influencers can miss the mark with the communication style. Therefore, it is all the more important to brief thoroughly and discuss expectations in detail in advance. On the other hand, B2B influencer activities should not look too much like advertising, but rather like a real recommendation from opinion leaders. 

Unlike B2C influencers, B2B influencers are mostly not native social media creators. This poses another challenge: Content creation and coordination (possibly with the employers of the B2B influencers) need to be well planned. 

Two successful B2B influencer marketing examples

Agicap

A good example of successful B2B influencer marketing is Agicap. The company offers liquidity software for companies in different sectors. To promote its own software, Agicap increasingly relies on testimonials from well-known personalities in the respective areas. For example, in e-commerce with the founder of Snocks.

These testimonials are played out as ads on LinkedIn as well as other social media platforms and attempts are made to generate leads. 

B2B influencer marketing example Agicap

This works especially well because the own product was firstly segmented in a target group-appropriate manner (division by industry) and in a second step suitable and highly relevant influencers were identified. For each target group. 

LEDVANCE

Our second example is about corporate influencer marketing. LEDVANCE is a manufacturer of lighting technology, best known through LED lights from various markets. In order to strengthen their own presence on LinkedIn and thus convince possible customers in the B2B sector, LEDVANCE has decided to establish their own employees as corporate influencers. For this, team members from different regions were trained for correct and effective communication on LinkedIn. 

In this way, employees were enabled to contact their own networks with company messages and also cause conversions. The success formula consists of several building blocks. Among other things: 

1. LinkedIn profile set-up
2. Network building
3. Meaningful interactions 
4. Relevant content
5. Marketing / Sales interface

The result? Employees are actively on LinkedIn, the most important business platform for B2B companies, independently. The networks of each individual employee are activated. The brand's reach is expanding. Relevant contacts are approached in a targeted manner and converted to customers. 

B2B influencer marketing example LEDVANCE

Conclusion

As you can see, B2B influencer marketing is a good way to make your B2B company more well-known. But not only that: conversions can also be generated by B2B influencers. The whole thing should be approached strategically and planned. If you're not quite sure, you can also test influencer marketing by testing the collaboration with smaller influencers or implementing corporate influencer marketing in your own company, i.e. building internal influencers. This allows you to play through most of the relevant processes. With that you are well prepared and can then scale.