Influencer marketing is creating a strong impact in the B2B sector in the post-pandemic scenario. It has reportedly increased the efficiency of customer experience and the identification of prospects.

With the post-lockdown scenario, organizations have never been hungrier for success, growth, and stability. In the B2B landscape, the sales and marketing strategies have seen a shift with the introduction of a successful online strategy from the consumer market, i.e., ‘Influencer marketing.’ With the term influencer, an Instagram celebrity or famous personalities in the media endorsing a product is the first thing flashing into mind, but this is not the case in B2B markets.

Influencer marketing is the process of endorsing a product or a service by a famous personality or a celebrity to convince the targeted audience. In a recent study, 49% of B2B marketers are considering or beginning to experiment with influencer marketing. This has been creating magic even in the B2B sector, making it a new-age word-of-mouth strategy instilling trust, credibility, and engagement among the buyers. In B2B selling, the industry leaders require a more tangible, convincing, and strategic pitch from the sales team for buying the product/service; a video featuring a celebrity is not the trick here. The two major challenges to tackle in the B2B sector are how to bring the best of influencer marketing and who qualifies as an influencer in the business sector.

Who is an influencer in the B2B landscape?

The key in identifying influencers is analyzing the target audience’s buyer persona and blending it with account-based marketing strategies. They can be divided into four categories based on their expertise in the arena.

• Brandividual – Influencers who have created a brand and are known to be brand influencers
• Upcoming influencers – They are budding influencers in social media through their content
• Niche expert – Influencers who have expertise in the targeted niche area and can assist with insights about the market
• Internal experts – Employees or clients constitute internal experts. Client testimonials or employee reviews stays the most effective marketing strategy to date for prospects

Recent reports indicate that over 60% of consumers are more likely to consider, purchase or even pay a premium price if they feel a high brand connection. Hence it is imperative to choose an influencer who relates best to your target market.

Why influencer marketing is the way ahead:

Once the B2B sector starts exploring the field of influencer marketing, it will evolve from the abstract solution to a more definitive one. 57 percent of marketers indicated that influencer marketing would become fully integrated into all marketing activities over the next three years. Some of the major benefits are:

• It Increases the feeling of security, loyalty and expands the reach of audience and brand awareness
• Gain instant credibility due to the endorsement from an industry leader
• It increases customer engagement as they would be excited to see why the influencer chose your brand.

Strategies for building an influencer campaign

• Co-creating the content with the influencer makes it more persuasive and engaging
• Use customer testimonials and build more trusting relationship with existing clients
• Be consistent with the campaigns and arrange follow-ups periodically
• Utilize the power of employee reviews, as they are the strongest brand advocates

Draup for sales intelligence platform assists users with a vast trove of company accounts and market landscape overview, thus enabling sales teams to plan their engaging data-driven narrative to attract customers. Insights on influencers of the stakeholders give an upper hand while identifying the right influencer for your campaign.