Influencer marketing in the B2B sector is increasingly used. Influencer marketing has been a strategy used by more and more companies since the popularity of social media. However, in the B2B sector vloggers and bloggers are becoming increasingly important as well. In this article we will discuss B2B influencer marketing in more detail and give tips on how to be successful with this form of B2B Online Marketing.
What is influencer marketing B2B?
Connecting a brand to a popular or influential person is not a new principle. For years and even centuries, influential people have been used to stimulate products. Since the popularity of social media, the term Influencer marketing has come up. Influencer marketing is a form of online marketing in which products are promoted through an influential person rather than through the company itself. These influential people are called influencers and hence being able to influence their many followers with the products they use and recommend on their channels. It is often the case that companies collaborate with the influencer, who is then paid to promote the company’s products or services on their social media.
Why use influencer marketing in B2B?
A common misconception is that influencer marketing is mainly effective for B2C. However, it is just as profitable in B2B because here too the intention is to sell products or services, only to another target group. Since both target groups for B2C and B2B are active on social media, it is equally profitable for the B2B sector to engage in influencer marketing. Online marketers are constantly looking for new online marketing techniques that are effective for selling their products or services. Influencer marketing is a good technique for B2B since products and services are shown by one person who serves as an example for the target group and who they follow and therefore find interesting. Hence, it is safe to assume that the influencer showing the products has an effect on the target group, with the result that they also want to buy and use the products. 2018 showed that more and more B2B companies are involved in influencer marketing. This will increase even more in the future. For the B2B customers within Jelba we run several successful campaigns with B2B Influencers.
How do I do it?
Start with research. Researching influencers within your field is certainly the first step. Without knowing if there are any potential influencers that might be of interest to you, you can’t start considering influencer marketing in B2B. You can do research by typing different keywords in for example youtube and see if someone makes vlogs to which you can connect your product or service. For example, if you sell workwear, an influential professional can be a good option. Then you look at the number of followers, how often the videos are viewed and whether there are many reactions to them. You can also see if the influencer is active on multiple social channels. This is often the case.
Then you can approach the influencer and discuss the options together. The big advantage of influencer marketing is that you can start small. Spending a lot of money and executing large campaigns is not immediately necessary. Starting small and looking at what it does is often a step in the right direction.
3 tipps for B2B influencer marketing
First of all, we advise you to gather expertise before you start influencer marketing in B2B. If you don’t have enough experts in house to make influencer marketing successful, we advise you to hire this knowledge through a specialised B2B Marketing agency. Below we list some tips that are important for successful influencer marketing in B2B.
- Make it measurable (especially in the beginning)
Because influencer marketing probably runs simultaneously with other marketing activities, it is important that it is made measurable. This can be done in different ways. The tip we give for this is to communicate an action code to the influencer on his/her social media channels. This code must be unique for the influencer, so do not use the discount code for promotion on your own channels. When an order is placed with the code that is communicated by the influencer, you can keep track of how many orders are placed through this marketing activity. - A large range is not automatically good
Often you will think, this influencer has so many followers that must be good! This is not always the case in B2B. In contrast to B2C, reach in B2B is not that important. It is much more efficient to have a smaller number of followers who are very specific, so messages through the channel are spot-on. This form of influencer marketing is also called micro-influence marketing. At Jelba we have contact with various micro-influencers who bring attention to the products of our clients. By micro we mean at least 1,000 subscribers and an average of 100,000 views on a vlog in the target group. - Make sure that the content is clear to multiple people
Unlike B2C, purchasing decisions in B2B are made by several people. This makes the work of the influencer more difficult. It is his/her job to promote the product so that it appeals to different people. Purchasing decisions within the B2B can be made, for example, by the director, but also by employees in other layers of the company.
Return on influencer marketing in B2B
In the world of B2B Online Marketing everything is measurable and we also want to know the impact of each digital channel on the return on investment. In April 2019 Emerce published a study with the outcome: the bigger the influencer, the lower the return. For B2C this is a fact, as the target group is less loyal and very diverse. The return on investment in B2B Influencer marketing is high. An important reason for this is that the reach is smaller, but focused. As described earlier, B2B Influencer marketing involves more micro-influencer marketing. Jelba is an expert in the field of B2B online marketing and we believe that B2B influencer marketing is a great technique for the B2B sector.
Would you like some advice? Or do you think it’s important that your B2B online marketing and influencer marketing is done by experts? Please contact us. We will be happy to help you grow online. We believe in B2B online business.