Why are B2B influencers important to my business?
As a B2B PR agency we take a fully integrated approach to meeting our clients’ needs. This encompasses PR, content creation, social media, video production and SEO. Increasingly, we are introducing our clients to the benefits of B2B influencer relations.
This method of communicating with your customers delivers maximum brand exposure for the B2B companies that we work with, helping them grow their revenue streams.
Here, in our latest blog, we look at the opportunities available through our influencer relation programmes through a series of FAQ’s:
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is another form of online marketing. In simple terms, influencer relations takes the idea of a well-known and respected person endorsing a product or service. Traditionally, this was done by celebrities although powerful influencers are emerging in the B2B sector. These people can be an important part of a modern content-driven B2B PR campaign.
Who are influencers?
An influencer is someone who has the ability to influence the purchase decisions of others due to their knowledge, position, or reputation. Even B2B influencers can have tens of thousands of followers and a huge number of likes and shares from each social media post.
Most influencers have systematically built their own relevant audience by focusing on their knowledge area, for example, plumbing, joinery, renovation or contracting. Whichever product category you are in there is likely to be an influencer!
As a B2B marketing manager, why should I use influencers?
It’s important to remember that most potential customers aren’t immediately interested, or may not be aware of your brand. That is, until an influencer recommends your brand! Our role is to get influencers to say good things about our clients’ products and services because if they do that, their followers are more likely to take notice.
Why are influencers important for B2B companies?
The great thing about our B2B influencer programme is that it allows you to reach a large number of people with just one blog post or social media update. In addition, because social media and Youtube influencers are very well respected within their industry, their endorsement carries a lot of weight.
How do we work with influencers?
We work with influencers in a variety of different ways. It may involve produce ads, sponsorships, or content. Alternatively, we also contribute to influencer networks which allows us to place sponsored content on behalf of our B2B clients.
Influencers can endorse a product or service within their post (video or written content), whether they are paid or not (in our experience, their followers will still buy the product irrespective of whether the influencer has been paid). That’s because influencers understand they need to protect their reputation and so won’t endorse a product unless they are confident that it does what it says. Their followers understand this.
Does influencer relations work in isolation?
B2B and specification purchases often involve multiple decision-makers, ranging from professional buyers through to engineers and architects. These people often begin their search for products online, with social media, Youtube and even more recent channels such as Instagram and TikTok being a popular and growing platform for B2B. Making sure that your chosen influencer is seen by these potential customers is an important step on the journey to generating new business enquiries.
However, influencer marketing doesn’t work in isolation. Potential supplier evaluation relies on your product and brand appearing on other platforms such as social media, online, and trade magazines, because, although influencers can prompt the interest, it is important that your communication are integrated throughout the new customer acquisition process.
In addition, having readily available and good quality information about your brand on digital channels is a great way to back up what influencers are saying.
How important are influencer to B2B companies?
It is now common for B2B companies to place more sway in what influencers are saying, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t neglect other content creation. Potential customers are still interested in finding out about your product or service. That why, as an integrated B2B PR agency, we provide our clients with PR, social media, content creation and SEO.
All this means traditional forms of B2B PR such as press releases, white papers, case studies and online articles are important in making sure these influencer followers, once interest in your brand is created, can find more out about our clients.
How do I find influencers?
Influencers are difficult to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for. That’s why we offer this service to our clients, providing them with a selection of influencers that we know will be good for their brand.
We do this is by recognising who are the most influential people in your field and make an effort to build genuine relationships.
To find out more about our B2B PR, SEO and social media marketing campaigns, visit: https://dragonflypr.co.uk/