We’re all fed up with ads, right? The emergence of social networks as primary communication channels made them more visible than ever: ads are now everywhere and at any time.
But one type of ad seems to be the exception.
When we look for recommendations, we usually turn towards our inner circle: loved ones, friends and/or colleagues. There are two reasons for this: first, we are often too lazy to Google search and make a choice out of hundreds of possibilities ourselves and, second, testimonials from people we trust are more convincing than anything a brand can throw our way.
Companies are very aware of our way of thinking and have been making the necessary investments for years now. But most important and very interesting: this is not going to change anytime soon.
This marketing tactic is commonly called “influencer marketing”. In short, it's about trying to convince people who convince others rather than trying to convince potential customers directly. What do you get out of it, as a company? It’s very straight forward: the influencer gets compensated for his/her efforts and, more importantly, doing marketing through a third-party individual that many people trust takes a lot of the skepticism towards the product or service away. Definitely win-win situation!
Although the concept sounds easy keep in mind that influencer marketing is not an easy step to take. What will follow are three necessary tips for B2B companies that want to start an influencer marketing campaign.
1. You’ll be in it for a while
Needless to say, but B2C and B2B companies don’t do marketing and sales the same way. The audience they want to reach are not at all alike, which means that reactions and expectations will be very different.
A B2C company that invests heavily in influencer marketing can expect to see results in their sales within a 40 days period. Whether they sell shoes, bikinis or make-up, reactions to marketing efforts in the B2C space are often impulsive and instantaneous. However, in a B2B environment, conversion cycles take lot longer due to a number of factors. Most notably is the fact that the target group of a B2B company can’t take decisions on their own: buying decisions are usually made at executive level by a number of people. And, more importantly, these decisions can often involve very large sums of money.
In most cases, a B2B company that wants to invest in influencer marketing (via a famous keynote speaker, a respected author, a consultant, etc.) can only expect to see their first results after six months.
Acknowledging this, it is important for a B2B company to strike a mid- to long-term collaboration with an influencer and thus to negotiate the right price at the start and for the entire collaboration. A lot of B2B companies make the basic mistake of collaborating with an influencer only for a few of weeks and after repeatedly extending the collaboration and thus paying a fixed price over and over again, until they finally see some results.
2. Relevance is more important than reach
When it comes to B2B, influencers need to be established experts in their respective field.. Not everyone can talk about your product or service, even if they pretend to know things about, for example, software development..
When relevance is checked, it is very tempting to just look at the number of followers and reach. A lot of social media influencers have big followings but are not very active, thus have a very low engagement rate.
The engagement rate is exactly what a B2B brand should take into account; in other words, the number of actions that followers of that particular influencer take on his/her posts (comments, likes, shares). As a general rule, targeted reach, cost-effectiveness, engagement and accessibility is inversely proportional to followers count. Be sure to check these parameters (the level of engagement in the last 30 days, for instance) before striking up a partnership with a relevant influencer.
3. Be aligned
Last but not least, make sure that there’s an alignment between the influencer, his/her audience and the product you want to sell. About the audience: who follows and consumes the content? What type of companies do the followers work for? What are their interests? There’s nothing worse than investing a lot of time, money and effort in influencers before realizing that the niche they talk to isn’t really relevant to you as a company.
So…
here at The Growcery, we constantly scout the Belgian market to find innovative companies across a range of different industries. In this case, if you don’t have the in-house capabilities to set up an influencer marketing strategy and execute it, Belgian agencies such as Gravity or Influenzo can help.
Anyway, one thing is for sure: you should definitely take influencer marketing seriously if you are a B2B brand. According to the World Federation of Advertisers, 65% of multinational brands will increase influencer marketing spending in the next 12 months. And there’s good reason for this increased confidence: The 2019 Content Preferences Survey from DGR reports 95% of respondents favor credible content from industry influencers as a top preference, a 30% increase compared year over year.