According to InvespCro, 94% of marketers believe Influencer Marketing is a successful strategy for B2B businesses, but only 24% include this in their overall business plan. However, recent polls suggest that a majority of B2B marketers plan to invest more in Influencer Marketing this year.

While Influencer Marketing for B2C or D2C brands has a fairly straightforward and streamlined process, B2B Influencer Marketing requires collaborating with subject matter experts who have relevant and engaged audiences.

Finding the Right Partners and Placements

B2B brands are looking for industry experts with influencers ranging from:

• Authors

• Speakers

• Advisors

• LinkedIn & Twitter Social Media Personalities

The types of content can include articles and blogs, social media posts, speaking engagements, conferences, podcasts, and YouTube videos.

Social Media content via LinkedIn and Twitter

Providing a point of voice on relevant industry insights or content, and highlighting the brand or service in a thoughtful and organic way.

Example: American Express started hashtag#AmexAmbassador as a way to leverage corporate influencer personalities to share their experiences with American Express services. From micro to macro-influencers, this program helps raise awareness for the premium services across executives and businesses.

Podcast and Blog Placements

Key value propositions can be organically weaved into the story throughout blog and podcast placements.

Example: Cisco’s Champion Program Encourages influencers to share their unique experiences with Cisco products. Top influencers and industry experts discuss these stories in blogs, podcasts, and social posts.

Webinars and Conferences

Invite industry leaders to events or conferences centered about relevant themes.

Example: In order to showcase their new projects and raise brand awareness, GE invited top influencers in the science and technology space to their new aviation plant in Canada and a transportation division plant in the US. The event resulted in 3.8 million Instagram page views and 3,000 new followers for the brand’s accounts.

Building Up Internal Teams

In addition to partnerships with industry experts, brands can look to their internal team members as key spokespeople for the product or service. Employee shares tend to get 8x more engagement than brand messages. Providing employees with an outlet to share thought leadership, network with potential partners and clients, and speak at events is key to gaining brand recognition and establishing the brand as leaders in the industry.

• Editing, Copywriting, and Content Coordination

• Promotional Posts via Social Media

• Speaking & Event Opportunities for Key Organization Leaders

Example: IBM is an example of a brand using employee advocacy to raise awareness. The organization provides employees with content and assets to post, making it easy for them to promote the company on their own channels.

Finding the right influencers and activating these partnerships through effective placements are keys to growing an efficient B2B Influencer Marketing strategy. By collaborating with influential subject matter experts, businesses can help to further their influence in the industry and grow customer perception as leaders in the space.

To learn more about our Direct Agents solutions and how we can help with your B2B influencer marketing strategy, email us at marketing@directagents.com.

Katherine Grabowsky, Senior Creative & Content Specialist, Direct Agents