Saas Marketer - Influencer Marketing in B2B

Now, technically, I live with four cats, but the fourth is called Gino and he’s my sister’s… he’s not very nice.

He bullies Shakespeare because he’s the oldest, and I don’t stand for it. The other day I walked into the kitchen and the two of them were there, staring at each other. Shakespeare, attempting to be something of a Mike Ehrmantraut but was far more of a Gale Boetticher, started hissing at him, trying to be intimidating. Gino, on the other hand, stared at him and attempted to bonk him on the head.

I could see where this was going. I ran in and stood between them, giving Shakespeare ample time to run away. He did so, of course, but Gino… well, he did something rather unexpected. He stood on two feet and flexed his muscles, like a kangaroo threatening to drown someone; he was on two feet now, still much smaller than me and yet, somehow, that made it all the more intimidating. He got real close, knowing full well that I’m allergic, and said with a roadman accent: ‘Wot u gna do, skinny boi’.

I looked down on him, mimicking his voice ‘I’m gna fck u up bludclat if u keep messin w my boi, u feel me?’

At that, he nodded, and reverted back to a normal cat. I don’t think he was expecting me to stand up for myself. Ever since then we don’t acknowledge each other, but if we lock eyes and we’re alone, he briefly shows his muscles just to show off, to which I show my huge hands. 
He never knows how to respond.

Anyways, let’s get onto some B2B news lol

B2B’s Lack of Influencer Marketing

📱 Everyone's an Influencer

Everyone nowadays is an influencer of some sort; if you go online and share your thoughts through some type of visual content, you are, by definition, an influencer, or at the very least a content creator. Phones and social media have given us the opportunity to put ourselves out there on a scale that wasn’t possible before. If you try hard enough, or if you upload the right kind of content at the right time, you could very well become famous and scratch that fame itch you’ve been trying to get to ever since you were a kid.

Perhaps it’s unhealthy how much we want to create content and how much we’re constantly seeking that dopamine fix of validation from strangers we’ve never met. But one thing is for sure: it’s the world we live in, and it drives the market.

Businesses, whether they’re B2B or B2C, rely on influencers and content creators. They need people like you (yes, you!) to reach out to as many other people as possible. User Generated Content was the thing for a while, but recently that’s faded and businesses (particularly in B2C) rely much more on famous influencers now.

🤔 How Can B2B Use Influencers, Though?

Undoubtedly, one of the most important things brands need to do - something we learned from Paul Archer on his podcast ‘Building Brand Awareness’ – is making sure the influencers they choose are authentic and genuine. If the influencers are constantly supporting loads of brands, it will only come across as shallow and unbelievable, and it will just be a waste of money for the brand.

In a survey by InvespCro this year, they found that 94% of marketers believe influencer marketing is a successful strategy for B2B businesses, and yet only 24% of B2B businesses actually make the most of it.

Bizarre, right? It’s a massive market, something that’s gone untapped for far too long in the B2B world. So why is that? What’s stopping them from biting the bullet and really putting all of their chips in the influencer basket? 

Well, I hate to say it, but B2B are just a generally frightened bunch.

💪 C’mon, B2B, Grow Some Balls

I’m sorry if that offends you, but come on. B2B brands are so confined to their niche, to their community, that one gets the impression that they’re actually scared to go out there and show their face to the world. It’s almost as though the entire industry lives within a Plato’s Cave, only interacting with one another.

It makes sense at first glance; they’re business-to-business, why would they want influencers to get involved? It sounds like they should strictly deal with businesses and nothing else.

But how incredible would it be if they branched out and tried something new and different? I’m not denying that B2B use influencer marketing on occasion, but they need to use it way more. Change is never an easy process, it’s rarely welcomed, sometimes shunned in the name of conformism, but imagine for a second just how good it would be if B2B tried to do something truly, wonderfully different.

Imagine.

Read on the web >>