Influencer marketing continues to become an increasingly popular social marketing strategy as companies look for ways to create content marketing that resonates.
Content discovery platform Bloglovin surveyed 100 marketing pros to get a sense of the current state of influencer marketing. Respondents stated they feel influencer marketing helps them raise brand awareness and reach target audiences. Fewer than 20 percent of those surveyed said they weren’t working with influencers yet, but they planned to this year.
The strategy is most often associated with consumer marketing, but there is a role for influencer marketing in the B2B world. B2B marketing agency Leadtail offers these four rules for effective use of influencer marketing:
1. Focus on who influences your target audience.
Don’t be distracted by who has the most fans and followers on social media. Influence isn’t about popularity. Instead, focus on identifying those people who are influential with your buyers.
Make a list of thought leaders, industry analysts, speakers at conferences and contributors to relevant publications and blogs. And don’t forget employees of your customers (or even your company’s employees) that have domain expertise and are active on social media.
Just keep in mind, it’s about who sways your prospects and customers in particular.
2. Understand that influencers are not all the same.
Influencers, like most people, have different interests, areas of expertise, and approaches to how they work and communicate with others. Simply put, not all influencers are the same.
So identify those folks that influence your target audience and align with your company’s market positioning and product offerings. The key here is to really understand whom it is you want to engage on your brand’s behalf.
Top CMO influencer @TedRubin states, “The biggest mistake brands make when trying to engage me as an influencer, is not first trying to understand who I am and what I stand for. They think it is all about the money for me, and simply the number and reach for them. I write a lot about looking people in the eye digitally, and they reference that, but clearly have no clue how to do it themselves.”
3. Engage influencers by helping them first.
The real challenge in influencer marketing isn’t identifying the right influencers, it’s engaging them. The first step is to get on their radar. You can do this in lots of ways including: sharing their content, commenting on their blog posts, asking them questions, and getting introduced via your personal network.
Once you’ve gotten their undivided attention, the wrong thing is to ask them to do something for you right off the bat. Instead, ask how you can help them. You want to build a relationship with them. The best way is to help them first. Here are four simple ways:
- Make them look good by congratulating them on their successes, sharing their “earned media,” referencing them as experts, and recommending them to others.
- Get them more visibility by writing about your top influencers, quoting them in blog posts and bylines, and amplifying their social content on a regular basis.
- Solve a problem for them by answering their questions, giving free access to your products and services, and helping get the word out about their upcoming webinar, book or passion project.
- Bring them business as many influencers are looking for paid speaking engagements, consulting jobs, advertisers, and quality leads for their sales teams.
Top influencers are busy people that are being pitched all the time by folks that just want something from them. If you really want to get their attention, then do something unexpected. Go ahead and ask how you can help them.
4. Be clear on how you’d like influencers to help you.
If you’ve done a good job in helping out an influencer then don’t be surprised when they say the magic words: “Thank you. Now what can I do for you?” There is a lot an influencer can help a B2B marketer with, including:
- Sharing your brand content
- Giving you a byline or blog quote
- Being a guest on a webinar or podcast
- Collaborating on a white paper
- Attending a customer event
- Speaking at a user conference
They key is to understand what’s the right thing to ask for given a particular influencer and where you are in the relationship building process. Start with simple requests and then move up the curve — and make sure to continue helping them along the way, too.
