The Power of Influencer Marketing for B2B Companies

About influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is a strategy in which companies partner with influential people with a significant following to promote their products or services to their large audience. 

These individuals, known as influencers, play a unique role in leveraging their credibility and relationships with their followers to raise awareness of the brand and promote its offers. This role is particularly significant in the B2B context. 

The steps involved in influencer marketing include the following: 

• Businesses must identify the right influencer to work with.
• They must reach out to the influencer and build a relationship with them.
• Together, the business and influencer can plan the campaign.
• Influencers will then create the content (such as blog posts, videos, or stories that feature the brand).
• The influencer shares the content across their digital marketing platforms (usually social media, such as Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, or their blog).
• The business then monitors and analyses the metrics, including reach, engagement, traffic, and sales.

The benefits of influencer marketing in the modern landscape 

The influencer marketing market size stood at over $21 billion (approximately R388 billion) in 2023 as more businesses see the value of investing in this type of marketing. This is because influencer marketing holds several benefits for brands. 

1. Leverage the influencer’s credibility and trust

Influencers have already built trust with their audiences. When they share their personal experiences with your products or services, their promotions feel more genuine to their followers, leading to a more positive perception of your brand. 

2. Targeted reach & higher conversions

Many influencers have particular audiences, allowing brands to target prospective customers who are interested in their offers. Additionally, influencer posts often have higher engagement rates than cold ads, which could lead to a far higher conversion rate.

3. Cost-effectiveness

Brands can work with different size influencers, making your budget flexible. Some micro-influencers generally have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers, and macro-influencers have 100,000 to 1 million followers. 

Typically, the more followers influencers have, the more expensive it is to work with them. However, this can differ based on the industry since some industries, such as finance, pay higher rates for influencers (big or small) since their followers generally have more money to spend. 

4. SEO and online presence

Influencer marketing typically includes backlinks to your business website, which increases its domain authority. Sites with higher domain authority are considered more valuable to Google, meaning you’ll be eligible to rank for more topics on the first pages of search results. 

The role of influencer marketing for B2B companies

Influencer marketing can be particularly useful for business-to-business (B2B) companies. 

This is because many influencers are experts, thought leaders, or analysts with considerable credibility in specialised fields such as technology, marketing, finances, trading, and more. 

For example, many business owners follow thought leaders in the technology industry. As such, it can be highly lucrative for technology companies (such as SaaS) to partner with these influencers to sell new and innovative products. 

This means that influencer marketing for B2B companies can lead to remarkably high returns on investment as they’re indirectly targeting other business owners with high buying power and budgets. 

How to become a B2B influencer marketer

To become a successful influencer, individuals must build strong foundational skills in marketing, social media presence, and personal branding. 

Here are the steps to becoming an influencer marketer: 

1. Develop a personal brand: Influencers need to focus on a specific area of expertise in which they have extensive experience or knowledge. This could include beauty, finances, healthcare, technology, or marketing. 
2. Create a solid social media presence: They should regularly post high-quality content demonstrating their thought leadership, including blog posts, YouTube videos, white papers, and case studies. The content should have consistent messaging that aligns with their values, expertise, and the needs and wants of their audience. 
3. Attract a significant following: Influencers should build their following by networking with other industry professionals, conducting SEO and keyword research, and staying consistent with their posting schedule. 
4. Learn marketing fundamentals: Enrol in online marketing for business courses, such as the Higher Certificate in Marketing, to learn the basics of digital marketing, content marketing, SEO, and social media marketing. 

Beneficial business marketing courses for prospective B2B influencer marketers

Becoming a successful B2B influencer involves more than just having a significant following. It also requires a strong foundation in marketing skills and the ability to keep up with marketing trends. 

There are several courses available to help with this, including: 

• The Higher Certificate in Marketing provides students with foundational marketing skills. This marketing certificate focuses on developing a broad range of marketing abilities that enable candidates to maintain a healthy relationship between the company’s objectives and resources.
• The Higher Certificate in Digital Marketing teaches students digital marketing skills, including branding, content marketing, web design, and more. 
• The Higher Certificate in Social Media Communication aims to teach students social media marketing and communication skills so they can build an effective following and use different social platforms.
• The Bachelor of Commerce in Digital Marketing is a three-year, in-depth course that teaches students various aspects of digital marketing, including content marketing strategy, social media, consumer behaviour, and more. 

Companies can enrol their employees in these courses to implement an effective influencer marketing strategy. After taking the course, employees will have the skills to identify the target audience, find influencers, and develop a high-level content strategy for maximum ROI. 

Register for a Higher Certificate in Marketing with MANCOSA

Implementing influencer marketing for B2B businesses can be very effective if you can identify the right target audience, influencer, and strategy to achieve maximum brand recognition and conversions. 

Have a look at MANCOSA’s various B2C and B2B marketing courses, including the Higher Certificate in Marketing,  Higher Certificate in Digital Marketing, and Bachelor of Commerce in Digital Marketing