B2B Influencer Marketing: Complete Guide for 2024

While the business-to-business (B2B) landscape does differ from the business-to-consumer (B2C) ecosystem, the two often share marketing trends and strategies. More and more, B2B brands have begun using tactics traditionally used by consumer-focused brands, including influencer marketing. B2B influencer marketing gives marketers like you a chance to connect with some of the biggest social media personalities and subsequently borrow their reach to engage with your ideal clients. 

The following guide will explore everything you need to know about working with B2B influencers in 2024.

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What Is B2B Influencer Marketing?

B2B influencer marketing involves partnering with social media personalities and borrowing their reach to promote your products or services. Unlike B2C marketing, though, which targets a broad audience, B2B influencer marketing focuses on building relationships with key decision-makers in other businesses. By leveraging the trust and authority of influencers, you can effectively reach and engage with stakeholders. 

Benefits of B2B Influencer Marketing

Harnessing the potential benefits of influencer marketing in the B2B space can offer a ton of benefits for your business, including: 

Increased Brand Awareness

Before you can sway their opinions or win them over, you need to be able to get on the radar of stakeholders in the first place. Social media influencers are exceptional at generating buzz about products or services and connecting with their audience. Together, you can get your content in front of tens of thousands of users, including business owners and stakeholders who influence decision-making within their organizations.

Top influencers have already established credibility with their followings, which means you won’t be starting your relationship with prospective clients from square one. Instead, they may be more prone to believe in your products and services simply because an influencer they respect endorsed your company. 

Targeted Audience Reach

B2B influencers have a deep understanding of their niche and highly targeted audiences. By collaborating with these people, your brand can reach the exact demographics you’re aiming for.

Whether you’re targeting IT professionals, marketing managers, or healthcare administrators, there’s an influencer out there whose audience matches your ideal customer profile — all you need to do is find them and strike an agreement that’s beneficial for both of you. 

Enhanced Credibility and Trust

One of the biggest takeaways of influencer marketing for B2B marketers is that your target audience members are also consumers. While they may be acting in the capacity of a stakeholder or business leader, they still participate in many of the same decision-making processes as everyday customers. 

Research suggests that 69% of consumers trust influencer recommendations. And though that rate may be slightly lower among business leaders, it’s still safe to say the recommendations of social media influencers can sway a healthy portion of your target audience. That’s because the influencers they follow have already established credibility and trust, and you’re just borrowing a bit of it during your campaign. 

Higher Engagement Rates

Content shared by influencers often receives higher engagement rates compared to posts shared by brands. Influencers know how to create videos that resonate with their audience, leading to more likes, shares, comments, and overall engagement. Of course, the more interactions you receive during a campaign, the better your brand’s visibility. A single viral post could get your brand and products in front of tens of thousands of people. 

Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy

Teaming up with an influencer can also prove to be a budget-friendly option. Instead of spending large sums on wide-reaching ads, you can invest in targeted campaigns with influencers who already have a direct line to your desired audience. Additionally, the return on investment (ROI) of an influencer marketing strategy is often higher because of the trust and authenticity associated with influencer endorsements. 

How Does B2B Influencer Marketing Work?

The concept of B2B influencer marketing is pretty simple. You’ll first decide what you want to achieve and how a social media personality fits into that vision. 

From there, you’ll seek out the right influencers. Focus on individuals with relevant audiences, values that align with yours, and the requisite authority to sway the decision-makers you are targeting. 

Next, it’ll be up to you to develop a strategy that includes concrete objectives and content plans. Great content is the foundation of any influencer campaign. Make sure to work with your new partner on this step! It’ll take both of you to create engaging, valuable videos that resonate with their target audience. The entire process should be hands-on and collaborative. 

Once the campaign is running, monitor its performance campaigns so you can build on what works and fix what doesn’t. 

Types of Influencer Marketing

Influencers usually fall into one of the following four categories based on the size of their audiences: 

Mega- or Celebrity Influencers

A celebrity or mega-influencer has over one million followers. In turn, they enjoy incredible reach, but that also means they demand a hefty price tag for their time. With that in mind, mega influencers may not be the best fit for B2B marketing unless you’re specifically trying to make a big splash and their audience overlaps significantly with your target market. 

Macro-Influencers

A macro-influencer typically has between 100,000 and one million followers. They are often industry experts, thought leaders, or popular content creators. And since they offer a good balance between reach and engagement, they are popular choices for B2B campaigns. 

Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers have smaller, more niche followings, typically between 10,000 and 100,000. That may sound like a detriment, but micro-influencers are known for maintaining strong connections with their loyal audiences. 

Nano-Influencers

Nano-influencers are individuals with small (typically under 10,000 followers) but highly engaged audiences. You may want to consider a nano-influencer partnership for hyper-targeted campaigns within tight-knit communities. 

B2B Influencer Marketing Channels

Professional networking platform LinkedIn is the cream of the crop when it comes to B2B influencer marketing channels. It has all of the tools and features necessary to connect with business decision-makers and thought leaders. And with your new partners, you’ll be able to promote products and services directly to other professionals.

X (formerly known as Twitter) is great for real-time engagement and sharing industry news, updates, and thought leadership content. Influencers can use hashtags and participate in industry-specific conversations to get people buzzing about what your brand offers.

Blogs, podcasts, webinars, and industry publications are a few other marketing channels you can take advantage of. Typically, top influencers will be active in one or more of these spaces so they can grow their footprint. 

B2B Influencer Marketing Metrics & KPIs 

How do you know if your B2B influencers are delivering meaningful results? The answer, as always, lies in paying attention to the right data points. Here are some of the influencer marketing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll want to track:

• Engagement Rates: Numbers of likes, shares, comments, and other interactions
• Reach and Impressions: The number of people who see your content 
• Lead Generation: The number of leads your partners generate 
• Conversion Rates: How many leads convert into customers 
• Return on Investment: Comparison of costs vs. how much revenue you generate 

Each of these metrics provides a piece of the puzzle. If something isn’t right, you can dig deeper into each to find out why. 

B2B Influencer Marketing Best Practices

Start with your choice of social media influencers. Ensure the people you partner with align with your brand values and have a relevant audience. Then collaborate with them to create authentic content that creates value for your audience. 

Additionally, you’ll want to set clear expectations about your goals and expectations. Being upfront with your influencer partners will reduce the likelihood of friction and help you forge a lasting relationship, which is beneficial for both parties. 

As for the video side of the equation, consider partnering with a development team that can produce great content at scale. Video marketplaces like QuickFrame can repurpose existing assets or help you create fresh new videos that wow your audience. 

B2B Influencer Marketing Examples

The following are three brands that have successfully leveraged B2B influencers to grow their reach and acquire new clients: 

SAP

SAP, a software solutions company, frequently invites industry influencers to major events to boost social engagement. For example, the company invited five influencers to an event in Germany to speak about exciting topics like machine learning. The five influencers were responsible for 50% of all social media mentions of SAP’s event. 

Microsoft

Microsoft teamed up with National Geographic to launch the “Make What’s Next” campaign. It focused on encouraging women to get more involved in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Only 6.7% of women graduate with STEM degrees, which is one of the main motivators behind the initiative. Ultimately, the campaign was a huge hit, racking up 150 million digital impressions. 

Canva

Canva partnered with Corporate Natalie, a popular influencer who manages to speak to both B2B and B2C consumers, to promote their Canva Create event. Natalie shared Instagram content, including Reels (watch it here!) and Stories to promote the event. The Reel alone has more than 4.7 million views, creating a massive audience for the collaboration. 

How QuickFrame Can Help Your Brand

There are two key ingredients to any successful B2B influencer marketing campaign: the right influencer and great video production. Once you’ve chosen your campaign goals, defined your why, and identified the right partners for your B2B influencer initiative. All that’s left to do is power your campaign with stellar video content. And QuickFrame has you covered.

At QuickFrame, we specialize in creating engaging content that’s great for Connected TV, social media marketing, and more. When it comes to made-for-social content, our makers maintain the user-generated and authentic vibe that today’s audiences love. 

With QuickFrame on your side, you’ll fuel your next successful B2B campaign. Ready to get started? Connect with QuickFrame today! 

B2B Influencer Marketing: Final Thoughts 

B2B influencers can drive significant benefits for your business, from increased brand awareness and credibility to higher engagement rates and cost-effective marketing. And by understanding how B2B partnerships work and choosing the right influencers, you’ll be well on your way toward achieving your growth goals. By investing in quality video content, you’ll create an effective foundation for winning the hearts and minds of prospective clients.