In the B2C world, the Kardashians promote a product one day and sell it to customers the next, in the B2B world this does not happen. And with good reason.
In B2B influencer marketing there are multiple people involved in the decision-making process and the content must pass through several channels before converting. Additionally, the average purchase size in B2B is far larger than that in B2C, meaning purchasing decisions often follow more complex rules than consumer purchases. Therefore, the conversion takes longer to power.
The communication channels of B2B influencers are diversified
While B2C influencer marketing moves almost exclusively on social media, B2B influencer marketing goes further.
B2B influencers can, for example, share their expertise through webinars, webchat, online tutorials etc. Their content can be conveyed by sector websites and specialized press. Or they may be asked to be guests at events or trade shows.
The competence of the influencer is fundamental
B2B influencer marketing only works when the influencer is recognized and respected for his skills in a specific sector. The best influencers are true experts in the sector and guarantee with their very name the quality of the information they convey, even when they talk about a brand.
Long-term relationships
B2B influencer marketing is based on building long-term relationships, both between brands and influencers and between influencers and the public. This helps build authenticity and trust. In contrast, the B2C influencer can work in the short term, focusing on quick results to convince customers to act immediately.
Clear advantages
Influencer marketing has been growing in popularity for some time in the B2C world, but has received less attention in B2B marketing. For more than 300 B2B respondents in a published survey from Linqia.com the perceived benefits of influencer marketing are clear.
In fact, more than 6 in 10 respondents agree that their marketing results would improve if they included an influencer marketing program, and virtually all (96%) of B2B marketers who engage influencers believe thattheir program is successful.
How to choose the right influencer
It is particularly important to understand how to choose the right influencer for a B2B campaign.
Let's see the 8 most important components in choosing an influencer.
The relevance of its audience with the company target
For almost all interviewees (91%), the more the audience addressed by the influencer overlaps with the brand's target, the greater the possibility of having conversions. The company must know its target, find out who is listening, reading and watching, to find out if there is an opinion leader who is already involved and publicly supports the activity. If there was, he would be a great influencer to start with.
Competence in the matter
79% of those interviewed put competence in second place. In B2B, the influencer must have a profound knowledge of the topic he is dealing with.
Values in line with the brand
64% of the sample interviewed also choose influencers based on the values conveyed. Popularity is important and a metric to consider, but it's not everything. The question remains: are that person and their audience suitable for the brand being promoted, and its objectives?
His ability to create content
Brand advocacy
Indicates the degree of loyalty to the brand. The highest degree is when a customer, in addition to appreciating the product, sees himself in the entire philosophy of the brand and recommends others to purchase it.
The size of the influencer's audience
His charisma and personality
B2B influencer marketing may seem a little dry compared to its B2C counterpart, but that doesn't mean people are any less engaging. You don't necessarily need a character with acting skills, but they certainly need to show passion for their craft and use that passion to connect with audiences.
Professional credentials such as education, job title, or company
Social media reach can be used as a key measure of influence, but it is by no means the only way to evaluate the functionality of a B2B influencer. You might consider influencers who may be less visible on social media, but are respected authors, speakers, experts and researchers.
B2B influencers seem to bring convincing results
Use influencers effectively
Once the ideal person has been chosen, influencers and brands are ready to embark on a successful journey together. But how? We'll see it shortly. The report we cited confirms that this marketing activity is considered useful by everyone, but that few know how to implement it: 74% of B2B marketers agree that l 'influencer marketing improves customer experience with brands, but only 19% use it within their marketing mix.
Furthermore, the report highlights that B2B marketers are optimistic about influencer marketing but unsure of their ability to execute.
For this reason we thought we would create a list of key points to define the steps to take in structuring a successful influencer marketing strategy.
Educate
The selected influencer is a true expert in the sector. That's why he was chosen. However, this does not automatically make him an expert on the company's products: it is necessary to educate him about the company, its products, its customers, its competitors and its corporate culture.
Collaborate
The influencer was chosen because he is respected and knows the sector. His authority must not be diminished by forcing him to follow the given texts to the letter. The more freedom he is given to express himself as he is accustomed to doing, the greater the impact he will have.
Influencer marketing should be a collaborative process. Only 14% of influencers who had no input into a brand's brief felt their campaigns were "very successful.
Listen
The crucial point of every good relationship is good listening. Listening to the influencer and letting him propose ideas encourages cooperation for the benefit of better results and the satisfaction of your audience.
Search
The campaign in which the influencer will be involved must be well studied and considered. The better the research and the more interesting the brief, the more likely the influencer will be interested and involved in the campaign. 70% of influencers who think brands do a lot of research on them consider their campaigns “very successful”.
Commercial agreements
This point is often underestimated. You need to have a contractual agreement that makes it clear what is expected of each party. It should outline the time the content is active for and give the brand the opportunity to distance itself from the influencer if necessary: it is important to carefully manage any type of risk to the business.
The advantages of influencer marketing in B2B
Now let's look at the benefits that B2B brands can gain from including influencer marketing in their marketing mix. Here is a list of 5 of the most common and impactful benefits of working with influencers:
Influencers add credibility and authenticity to brand content
Correctly identifying the most interesting topics for customers helps the brand understand those on which it needs to increase its credibility. This leads him to find people who already have the desired influence. Collaborating with experts who are respected authorities on the identified topics produces content, communications and often advocacy that is credible and empathetic to customers' desires and goals.
Influencers, in collaboration with executives, create brand thought leadership
Connecting influencers and business leaders to collaborate on similar content, interviews, videos, virtual events and exchanges can amplify key brand leadership messages. Whether hosting a webinar to discuss the brand's latest research findings or a white paper to conduct a live streaming video series or podcast interviews between managers and influencers, collaborating means connecting diverse, trusted voices in the industry with brand messaging. brands. This can foster credibility, differentiation and leadership.
Influencers can co-create better content experiences for customers
According to a search in the State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 74% of B2B marketers believe that collaborating on content with influencers helps improve the experience for prospects and customers.
A growing number of professional influencers in the B2B world have experience creating content. This means the ability to produce video content, podcast content or graphic and textual content that is in tune with customer expectations. This is more experiential content that the brand may not have the resources to produce independently.
Alternatively, even if the B2B brand has the resources to create great video, audio, graphic and textual content, adding influencer contributions “optimizes” for credibility and authenticity, which results in growth of value.
Influencers accelerate the production, promotion and impact of content
If designed and planned effectively, influencer engagement can create a larger community of influencers that the brand can tap into for a variety of content creation. Some companies manage to have 10, 25 or even 75 industry experts available for content creation.
Developing an influencer community means creating authentic relationships between the brand and influencers based on mutual benefits and shared values. Not only does an engaged community of influencers help create content, they are involved in distributing content for their own benefit as well.
Influencer collaborations can help optimize brand content for search
There is a compelling connection between the topics and keywords people search for and the topics industry experts are influential on.
The optimization of content with keywords is at the heart of improving the discoverability of brands on search engines. Involving influencers on those same topics is a way to optimize and simultaneously increase credibility. What's the point of being found in searches if people don't trust what they find?
Diving a little deeper into the world of influencers and the SEO connection, marketers could also evaluate the influencers they are working with based on their ranking in Google search. When those same influencers contribute to content published by the brand, their identity lends credibility and relevance to search.
Another evaluation concerns the SEO effectiveness of the space in which influencers publish, i.e. their blog or website. What is the authority of the domain where the influencer posts, and which links he or she includes in the content carry weight? Does the influencer's content rank on search engines for the topics the brand wants to be most influential on? Is the influencer creating the type of SEO optimized content? Videos, audio, images, texts, academic articles, books, etc.
The SEO value of working with an influencer isn't universal across all topics, but, with a little research, you can uncover some very valuable opportunities and build relationships to help your brand's content become findable and credible right when customers are looking for them.
Obviously this is not an exhaustive list of all the benefits a B2B brand could gain from working with influencers. While many B2B marketers may skim the surface of what is possible by working with influencers, those who can look a little deeper can find tremendous benefit and value. This not only accelerates the impact and effectiveness of marketing for short-term campaigns, but works for the brand in the long term and increases the perception of leadership in the sector.
Impact on the brand
In influencer marketing research for B2B brands it is highlighted that marketers, working with influencers, have seen the greatest results in some fields.
Brand Awareness (84%), Brand Reputation (58%) and Brand Advocacy (32%) are among the most cited items of the research carried out.
Smart use of B2B influencers who pair experts with collaborations and content promotion can help lesser-known brands and already leading brands become both more credible and trustworthy.
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Conclusion
Our articles on influencers, both in the field of b2c and in that of b2b, highlight how, in both cases, influencers can be an element of great impact and with important effects on the brand's activity, but only if correctly managed and integrated into our marketing strategy, short and long term.
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