The customer is king. Know your audience. Both of these are common clichés in the marketing world. And in the case of business-to-business (B2B) marketing versus business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing, they ring particularly true. They’re also the main reasons B2B Influencer Marketing works so well.
As Saleforce’s 4th annual state of marketing report noted, the vast majority of marketers are competing today based on the experience they can provide a customer. Around 86 percent of “high-performing” marketers agreed with the statement that “Marketing is increasingly competing on the basis of customer experience.” Around 69 percent of moderately performing marketers also agreed with that statement.
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Introducing The B2B Influencer Marketing Guide
Influencer marketing is one way that B2B companies can improve the experience of their customers. As the 2017 SOCE put it, “Influencer marketing continues to be seen as a legitimate and top-ranked marketing approach in effectiveness among both Marketers and Consumers.”
One reason for that is that the number of channels available to B2B marketers has grown considerably over the past few years. As the Salesforce study notes, today’s B2B marketers are likely to use marketing channels that didn’t even exist five years ago.
By 2019, it’s expected that 40 percent of all B2B marketing budgets will be put towards those new or emerging channels. The new(ish) channels that have seen considerable growth in the B2B marketing arena over the past few years include:
- Social media ads (130 percent growth over two years)
- Native ads/sponsored content (147 percent growth over two years)
- Video advertising (204 percent growth over two years)
Videos, social media posts, and sponsored content were among the most popular marketing approaches used by influencer marketers in 2016, according to the 2017 State of the Creator Economy report. For example, 44 percent of marketers have used sponsored video at some point in their careers by 2016, while a sponsored Facebook update was by far the most popular approach, used by 78 percent of marketers in 2016.
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The Influencer Marketer’s Guide To B2B Influencer Marketing
In the new ebook, “The Influencer Marketer’s Guide To B2B Influencer Marketing,” you’ll learn:
- How to shape the B2B Customer Experience
- The ways that B2B & B2C Influencer Marketing differ
- Five steps to building a B2B Influencer Marketing campaign
- Examples of brands successfully using B2B Influencer Marketing
- Top B2B influencers
- And how to start using B2B Influencer Marketing
It’s never too late to start B2B Influencer Marketing. Start by choosing your social media platform. Then, select your influencers. And then brainstorm content types and topics that will resonate with your ideal audience.
Remember that you don’t have to go it alone when putting together your B2B influencer marketing campaign. Influencer marketplaces can help you find people to work with. Influencer marketing software is there to help you through each step of the process, from connecting with influencers to tracking the results of a campaign.
