3 Ways to Unlock Influencer Marketing for the B2B Buyer Journey

The B2B buyer journey is dynamic. It’s unpredictable and almost impossible to reach decision-makers with relevant content consistently. The pandemic has made it even more difficult, and influencer marketing can make it happen.

The one thing to consider about today’s buyer journey is that it comprises two essential components––research and peer validation. According to a recent Gartner report, buyers spend about 27% of their time researching online.

This data states brands must be visible across the entire digital ecosystem and have active programs on LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, and invest in long-form content programs to ensure visibility in the Google search results. In addition, given the dynamic nature of the buyer journey, brands must make a concerted effort to compel sound buyers with consistent and relevant stories.

The diagram below illustrates how they weave in and out of different phases of the B2B buyer journey. It also shows the various touchpoints where marketers can potentially intercept buyers through content and influencer programs.

Here are three ways to map influencer marketing to the B2B buyer journey

1. Set the stage with organic influencer engagement

The public relations team typically manages organic influencer engagement in most enterprise companies. It’s a low-effort, low involvement approach that involves identifying topical influencers, following them on social media, commenting, and sharing their content.

There is little-to-no rigor in identifying these influencers, as most PR teams rely solely on follower count and audience size. Many influencers are traditional journalists and analysts from first, second, and third-tier research and advisory firms.

This approach may seem like an entry-level method that doesn’t pay dividends, but it does. Brands can show the larger tech community a more human layer to social media engagement by being active and doing more than just publishing press releases. Plus, it’s a straightforward way to get on the radar of the influencers. This approach also sets the stage for more extensive paid influencer campaigns and programs.

2. Reach new audiences using paid influencer activation

Unfortunately, B2B influencer marketing programs don’t get the same level of attention from the industry as consumer brands. The main reason for this is that influencer marketing in the B2B and technology space is more about thought leadership than pretty photos on Instagram or a viral video on TikTok.

The mechanics of paid influencer programs work just like it would with consumer brands. It’s a value exchange of money for influence. But the execution is where it differs. Smart paid influencer campaigns will include a combination of social posts, video, and long-form content.

• Social posts: This includes everything from Twitter, Twitter Threads, LinkedIn updates, and Instagram. Believe it or not, Twitter Chats make a dynamic effect when there’s an influencer involved, supplemented with small investments in paid media.
• Videos: Videos work well when influencers actively talk about industry-related trends and best practices. It also serves as an excellent outlet for influencers and company executives to talk about these same trends, whether pre-recorded or a live stream. A best practice with videos is to post the complete content on YouTube and then cut it into short clips for social media distribution, backlinking it to the full video.
• Long-form content: There are several ways to execute long-form content. It could be an influencer writing content on their blog or having guest posts on the company blog. There are advantages to both, and there’s nothing wrong with having influencers do both. The advantage of having influencer blogs on their site is that they can link it to the primary website using targeted keywords and phrases. This has a long-term, direct benefit for search engine visibility in Google.

One of the main goals of any paid influencer program is to ensure that whatever content is created has a long shelf-life. Unfortunately, most social media platforms don’t have this benefit. Even when a TikTok video or Instagram Story goes viral, the shelf-life will eventually fade. Most people, especially B2B buyers, don’t search these platforms for old content. Instead, they scroll their feeds and engage with new and relevant information.

3. Leverage advanced analytics and influencer research

The great thing about B2B influencer marketing is that you don’t necessarily have to activate a program to see any value.

Let me explain.

While going through the influencer identification process, it’s critical to identify and document at least ten or more influencers, even if you plan to engage with only two or three of them. The next step is to analyze the influencer group so that you can understand the following:

• Top channels: What channels do they use the most, and how are they using them?
• Media affinities: What media outlets do they read, publish on, and share with their communities?
• Content ranking: How well does their content rank in Google for high-volume search terms?
• Conversation patterns: What topics, trends, and stories are top of mind and generating discussion with their audiences?

The below is an example of an influencer analysis content snapshot. The data represents the top keywords and phrases that a group of influencers uses in public social media channels and long-form content over a specific time. It’s clustered into topics and subtopics, and the different sizes of the color-coded boxes represent volume—the larger the box, the larger volume of conversation. The smaller boxes are the subtopics. This type of audience analysis makes it easier to understand the context of their conversation without making sense of 13K mentions manually.

This type of data offers more value than you can imagine. The thing about technology influencers is that they can move markets and create categories based on their thought leadership.

Think about terms like digital transformation, future of work, digital workplace, 4th Industrial Revolution, and so on. These terms are “buzzwords” created by influencers. Today, every tech brand in Silicon Valley and beyond spends a mass amount of dollars trying to associate themselves with this language through PR, paid search, and other forms of marketing. For context, the term “digital transformation” costs almost $10 a click on Google.

The opportunity for B2B enterprise companies to leverage this type of data has long-term benefits when used to inform everything they are publishing on social and digital channels. This data informs blog posts, social content, press releases, and even the keywords and phrases you are bidding on for Google paid search. In 2020, McKinsey suggested that brands must reimagine their narratives based on the pandemic.

This data can also be used for sales enablement initiatives. For example, this type of intelligence benefits the sales organization while engaging with its top customers to be better prepared to have thoughtful discussions about industry topics and business challenges.

The only caveat is that brands must identify the top influencers. Otherwise, all of the efforts would go down the drain.

To sum it all up!

For B2B and technology brands, influencer marketing is still in its infancy. So even though companies spend $41B in 2022 on influencer marketing, it’s safe to assume that this number accounts mainly for consumer brands. When it comes to activating influencer programs, it’s safe to say that many technology companies are already engaging organically with influencers in some way or another.

I would also venture to say that a few have operationalized paid influencer programs and are integrating them into more extensive brand campaigns. Very few, however, are using the data to inform other forms of marketing and content programs. This is not just an opportunity, but it will become table stakes in 2022.

The B2B buyer journey is dynamic. It’s unpredictable and almost impossible to reach decision-makers with relevant content consistently. The pandemic has made it even more difficult, and influencer marketing can make it happen.

The one thing to consider about today’s buyer journey is that it comprises two essential components––research and peer validation. According to a recent Gartner report, buyers spend about 27% of their time researching online.

This data states brands must be visible across the entire digital ecosystem and have active programs on LinkedIn, Twitter, GitHub, and invest in long-form content programs to ensure visibility in the Google search results. In addition, given the dynamic nature of the buyer journey, brands must make a concerted effort to compel sound buyers with consistent and relevant stories.

The diagram below illustrates how they weave in and out of different phases of the B2B buyer journey. It also shows the various touchpoints where marketers can potentially intercept buyers through content and influencer programs.

Here are three ways to map influencer marketing to the B2B buyer journey

1. Set the stage with organic influencer engagement

The public relations team typically manages organic influencer engagement in most enterprise companies. It’s a low-effort, low involvement approach that involves identifying topical influencers, following them on social media, commenting, and sharing their content.

There is little-to-no rigor in identifying these influencers, as most PR teams rely solely on follower count and audience size. Many influencers are traditional journalists and analysts from first, second, and third-tier research and advisory firms.

This approach may seem like an entry-level method that doesn’t pay dividends, but it does. Brands can show the larger tech community a more human layer to social media engagement by being active and doing more than just publishing press releases. Plus, it’s a straightforward way to get on the radar of the influencers. This approach also sets the stage for more extensive paid influencer campaigns and programs.

2. Reach new audiences using paid influencer activation

Unfortunately, B2B influencer marketing programs don’t get the same level of attention from the industry as consumer brands. The main reason for this is that influencer marketing in the B2B and technology space is more about thought leadership than pretty photos on Instagram or a viral video on TikTok.

The mechanics of paid influencer programs work just like it would with consumer brands. It’s a value exchange of money for influence. But the execution is where it differs. Smart paid influencer campaigns will include a combination of social posts, video, and long-form content.

• Social posts: This includes everything from Twitter, Twitter Threads, LinkedIn updates, and Instagram. Believe it or not, Twitter Chats make a dynamic effect when there’s an influencer involved, supplemented with small investments in paid media.
• Videos: Videos work well when influencers actively talk about industry-related trends and best practices. It also serves as an excellent outlet for influencers and company executives to talk about these same trends, whether pre-recorded or a live stream. A best practice with videos is to post the complete content on YouTube and then cut it into short clips for social media distribution, backlinking it to the full video.
• Long-form content: There are several ways to execute long-form content. It could be an influencer writing content on their blog or having guest posts on the company blog. There are advantages to both, and there’s nothing wrong with having influencers do both. The advantage of having influencer blogs on their site is that they can link it to the primary website using targeted keywords and phrases. This has a long-term, direct benefit for search engine visibility in Google.

One of the main goals of any paid influencer program is to ensure that whatever content is created has a long shelf-life. Unfortunately, most social media platforms don’t have this benefit. Even when a TikTok video or Instagram Story goes viral, the shelf-life will eventually fade. Most people, especially B2B buyers, don’t search these platforms for old content. Instead, they scroll their feeds and engage with new and relevant information.

3. Leverage advanced analytics and influencer research

The great thing about B2B influencer marketing is that you don’t necessarily have to activate a program to see any value.

Let me explain.

While going through the influencer identification process, it’s critical to identify and document at least ten or more influencers, even if you plan to engage with only two or three of them. The next step is to analyze the influencer group so that you can understand the following:

• Top channels: What channels do they use the most, and how are they using them?
• Media affinities: What media outlets do they read, publish on, and share with their communities?
• Content ranking: How well does their content rank in Google for high-volume search terms?
• Conversation patterns: What topics, trends, and stories are top of mind and generating discussion with their audiences?

The below is an example of an influencer analysis content snapshot. The data represents the top keywords and phrases that a group of influencers uses in public social media channels and long-form content over a specific time. It’s clustered into topics and subtopics, and the different sizes of the color-coded boxes represent volume—the larger the box, the larger volume of conversation. The smaller boxes are the subtopics. This type of audience analysis makes it easier to understand the context of their conversation without making sense of 13K mentions manually.

This type of data offers more value than you can imagine. The thing about technology influencers is that they can move markets and create categories based on their thought leadership.

Think about terms like digital transformation, future of work, digital workplace, 4th Industrial Revolution, and so on. These terms are “buzzwords” created by influencers. Today, every tech brand in Silicon Valley and beyond spends a mass amount of dollars trying to associate themselves with this language through PR, paid search, and other forms of marketing. For context, the term “digital transformation” costs almost $10 a click on Google.

The opportunity for B2B enterprise companies to leverage this type of data has long-term benefits when used to inform everything they are publishing on social and digital channels. This data informs blog posts, social content, press releases, and even the keywords and phrases you are bidding on for Google paid search. In 2020, McKinsey suggested that brands must reimagine their narratives based on the pandemic.

This data can also be used for sales enablement initiatives. For example, this type of intelligence benefits the sales organization while engaging with its top customers to be better prepared to have thoughtful discussions about industry topics and business challenges.

The only caveat is that brands must identify the top influencers. Otherwise, all of the efforts would go down the drain.

To sum it all up!

For B2B and technology brands, influencer marketing is still in its infancy. So even though companies spend $41B in 2022 on influencer marketing, it’s safe to assume that this number accounts mainly for consumer brands. When it comes to activating influencer programs, it’s safe to say that many technology companies are already engaging organically with influencers in some way or another.

I would also venture to say that a few have operationalized paid influencer programs and are integrating them into more extensive brand campaigns. Very few, however, are using the data to inform other forms of marketing and content programs. This is not just an opportunity, but it will become table stakes in 2022.