Bringing a human touch to B2B marketing

The world of business-to-business (B2B) sales and marketing has changed dramatically over the past decade. Tried-and-tested approaches such as trade shows, advertising in trade and tech media as well as direct marketing have lost some of their effectiveness in a world that has transitioned towards digital channels.

While many B2B buyers do their research and make purchases online, brands have fewer direct touchpoints with them. Content marketing and digital advertising haven’t yet been able to close the gap completely. One of the challenges brands face is that their communications often feel dry, impersonal and even monotonous.

The challenges are only multiplying as Gen Z starts to enter the marketplace and millennials form a large proportion of corporate buyers and decisionmakers. To remain relevant, brands need to adjust their tactics for a generation that has been raised on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.

That’s why increasing numbers of B2B companies are turning to influencers for help. An influencer can be nearly anyone with a social media platform and the credibility to enable a brand to extend its reach and authority with its target market. Collaboration can take many forms, including sponsored content, product reviews and endorsements.

The idea gained traction when conferences, expos and sales meetings were cancelled during Covid lockdowns. According to TopRank Marketing, more than 70% of B2B marketers say influencer marketing became more important due to the pandemic and 72% say influencer marketing improves brand reputation.

Next-generation celebrity endorsement

The concept isn’t entirely new. Many B2B advertising campaigns have leveraged celebrity endorsements over the years, and the case study, or customer endorsement, is a mainstay of B2B marketing. What has changed, however, is an increased focus on the authenticity of the content.

The lesson B2B marketers are taking from B2B influencer campaigns is that the right influencer can help humanise a brand. At its best, an influencer campaign will feel fresh and genuine, compared with the stilted language of a client case study that has gone through multiple layers of approval across different corporate communications departments.

Like B2C influencer campaigns, the best B2B campaigns will focus on storytelling, humour and relatability to drive the message home. B2B influencers will generally have built up their audiences because they know how to create content that entertains or inspires that audience. Often the influencers resonate with the audience because they are business owners or the same type of professional as those who use the product or the service a brand is selling.

B2B brands can benefit from working with influencers who are respected in their industry and have a strong reputation for providing valuable insights and recommendations. Those influencers may often be closer to the coalface and to the latest trends, which enables them to come up with new perspectives and surprising views that drive better engagement.

Many B2B brands are already getting good returns from influencer marketing, most notably software-as-a-service companies like Adobe and monday.com. Cisco, for example, has an initiative of “Cisco Champions” sharing its digital platforms. TikTok worked with small businesses on the platform to create content showing how to use TikTok for SMB marketing.

 Balancing risk and reward

 Influencer marketing isn’t without its risks, as many consumer brands have discovered. An influencer who becomes involved in a scandal or posts inappropriate content can damage a brand. The audience might also be sceptical when there isn’t enough transparency about an influencer’s commercial relationship with a brand.

Another risk lies in the cringe factor of aligning with an influencer who isn’t a good fit with the audience or the product. There is a fine line to negotiate between creating content that is more fun and personable than most B2B content and content that comes across as forced or puts the audience off because it doesn’t resonate with them.

An influencer relationship that proves too successful has its own dangers. Marketers walk a fine line between benefiting from an influencer’s clout and the influencer’s brand superseding the company’s name and message. This can result in a lack of control over marketing efforts or disruption of the strategy if the influencer quits.

However, the good news is that B2B brands that are new to influencer marketing can draw on the experiences of consumer brands. Here are some of the proven best practices to consider:

• Define your goals and expectations — It’s always wise to start with clearly delineated goals. Do you want to partner with influencers to help drive sales in a particular product campaign? Or are you hoping to build a long-term relationship that will contribute to building your brand?
• Understand who your audience is and who they follow — Partner as much as possible with influencers who already have attention and respect from your target audience. Spend some time analysing which social media voices have the most credibility and share of voice in your niche.
• Identify potential matches for your brand and strategy — Seek influencers whose style and public persona are a good match for your brand personality. Big celebrity names with high price tags are often not the best match for B2B campaigns. Rather look for someone in your niche that has an engaged and loyal audience interested in what your company does.
• Trust the content creator — If you’re partnering with an influencer, you should largely trust that person’s understanding of the audience and the content that works. It’s important for their voice not to get lost in the content they create for you — you want their authority to shine through. To that end, look for partners with a reputation for responsible and ethical behaviour.
• Define the commercial and working relationship in a contract — Be sure to codify the relationship in a contract that covers the influencer’s commitment in terms of time they’ll spend on your campaign, the creative outputs, the compensation they’ll receive, the approval process and confidentiality.
• Build relationships — It’s becoming increasingly important to have a coherent strategy for working with influencers. These include those with whom you form a direct partnership and others who may discuss your products and company as independent observers. Focus on building genuine relationships based on mutual respect and shared interests.

 B2B marketers have long understood the value of having a customer or an independent observer tell their story. Influencer marketing can take this to a whole new level. It is an increasingly valuable tool for every marketer trying to reach a distracted, busy audience and to add a human dimension to their message. It’s not risk free, but the rewards can be significant for brands that get it right.

Katlego Mahura is the MD at Idea Engineers.