7 Things to be Hyper-Aware of B2B Influencer Marketing

Do you know 67% of marketers believe that influencer marketing campaigns help them reach a more targeted audience?

Also, 61% of consumers rely on social media as the most important source of information when shopping and brands get 11x higher ROI through influencer marketing than traditional marketing methods.

So, what do these facts and figures show?

Isn’t it showing the growth and advantageous features of influencer marketing?

As every marketing method, especially B2B, need efforts and investments, the marketer looks for returns that are high performing & effective, and low on cost.

Influencer marketing is certainly a weapon for B2B businesses where the campaigning never ends and thus one should strategize the plan after long research.

Influencer marketing is used because of the trust factor that influencers get in their industry and thus this factor also works in the B2B market. But, there are other things that should also be considered when going for B2B influencer marketing.

1) Spend Time Educating Influencers about Your Products/Services

When you’re selling B2B products and want to add influencers for your promotion, you need to focus on educating them about products.

Why to do this?

There are two good reasons to educate your promoting partner for taking out your products to their audience.

The first one is, the true influencers are passionate about the industry and company and thus they’ll look to expand their knowledge and would go for your tips to know about the ins and outs of your products and services.

The second one is it increases the effectiveness of your influencer, how?

Suppose, you hired your industry influencer who already has some experience with your products and thus when they will be educated, their knowledge and hence effectiveness will increase. They’ll able to do better storytelling after learning.

So try to spend time on educating about your products and services to your influencers.

2) It takes longer for the B2B Influencer impact

In B2C business, grabbing consumer’s attention is easier as they different resources to do that.

Therefore, if you’re looking to make your B2B business successful, you need to provide more time comparatively.

Further, B2B influencer marketing will take time to make an impact on consumers as B2B shopping involves multiple decision makers. This is why one should not expect results for B2B influencer marketing for at least 6 months and one should work with B2B influencers for one year at a time.  This is completely different from B2C influencer marketing and this can be as short as 30 days.

3) Be Aware of B2B Influencer Conflicts

Again, the job profiles of B2B and B2C influencers are completely different. B2C influencers only recommend products whereas B2B influencers may be anyone holding a company or may have a “day job”, something like this and are prominent in part because of the position.

As a result, B2B influencers may likely not be able to participate or at least won’t be able to participate in a way your business would find ideal, due to their key responsibilities.

This is another reason for giving time to find and activate B2B influencers. 60 days would be the minimum lead time to find out influencers and figure out what’s possible and what creates an untenable conflict.

4) Focus on Co-creation

If you’re planning that B2B influencers are going to copy your party line or retweet your brand summary word by word; then buy some ads.

The more influencers put their words for your products, more impactful and influential they’re on your behalf.

Further, go for co-creation that is found right people and educate them on your piece of content and make them aware of your plans and strategies. Then, listen to them and let them come up with their ideas on making the content engaging and also in their advertisement process.

5) Don’t Focus Only On Social Strength

In B2B marketing, social media influence is not the only thing that should be measured for effective marketing. You may find B2B influencers non-active on social media and one of them is Seth Godin, a massive influencer modest to social media appearances.

For B2B influencer marketing programs considering speakers, thinkers, podcasters, authors, and researchers can be useful.

6) Know Who Leverages Your Target Audience

When you’re going to do B2B marketing, you should focus on the influencers who influence your audience. Make a list of people who have fans and followers from your industry and that can be anyone.

You just need to find people who are influential with your buyers and those persons could be leaders, industry analysts, speakers or even employees of your customers.

7) Know Influencers Are Not All The Same

If you think all influencers are the same and can prove to be worthy in the way they do to your competitors.

Like other people, Influencers too have different interests, areas of expertise and approaches for their working and communication with their audiences. Choose your influencers with a complete analysis of their profile and add them only when they fit on your scale. As you can seen in the images, Meghan M.Biro is from HR and Barb Giamanco is Advisor, Speaker and Author.

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Conclusion

In the world of B2B marketing, influencers owe a great value and can remarkably pace the advertising of a company.

But, to pick a right influencer for your objectives there are various things to be explored. Here is the list of 7 vital elements that you must look before hiring a B2B influencer.