Confidence amongst B2B marketers in the role of influence, both externally and internally, has grown substantially in the past year. Following that growth is the number of B2B influencer marketing success stories inspiring marketers to investigate collaborative content strategies that include influencers.
At the same time, the pandemic has had its effect on marketing budgets and one of the trends over the past year that has stuck is the need for greater accountability and demonstration of ROI for marketing investments. While research shows that 96% of B2B marketers that engage influencers consider their program to be successful, 60% of marketers overall do not feel they have the skills or expertise in-house to execute on influencer programs.
The contrast of confidence and opportunity with the lack of in-house capabilities has drawn more marketers than ever to seek outside help for working with influencers. Agencies with deep expertise in B2B influencer marketing strategy, tactics, software and relationships with top influencers enables B2B brands to hit the ground running with confidence and acceleration that simply isn’t possible working alone.
Our research has found that B2B marketers that seek help from agencies often engage those experts to perform several key functions:
Identify influencers 79%
Manage influencer relationships 76%
Develop influencer marketing strategy 71%
Measure influencer program effectiveness 66%
Integrate with other marketing efforts 63%
Implement influencer marketing campaigns 60%
Manage influencer marketing technology 44%
While the value agencies can provide B2B brands around working with influencers is clear, there are some things marketers should look for and ask in order to separate those with actual skills and capabilities vs. those agencies opportunistically adding another offering to their services mix. Here is a collection of important questions B2B marketers should ask when evaluating B2B Colombia Phone Numbers List marketing agencies for influencer content marketing programs:
How long have B2B companies engaged your agency to deliver influencer marketing services?
As with all marketing strategies that gain popularity, many agencies with tack them on to their services mix in order to capitalize on the trend without actually having the expertise (yet). Do you want to be a guinea pig for an agency or do you want to be another success story?
Have you provided influencer marketing services in our industry before? Please share an example:
Expertise in your industry matters enough that this question must be asked. While overall influencer marketing is newer to B2B than in consumer industries, there are a growing number of specialists that understand the nuances of the industries they focus on and have existing relationships with influencers in those industries. Influence requires authenticity and to create that kind of trusted credibility with industry influencers, it can be very beneficial if the agency has deep expertise and connections already.
What is the size and nature of your influencer network and how do you ensure we are only working with the most impactful influencers?
Experienced B2B marketing agencies that work with influencers understand the value of relationships. Therefore, they will not simply “use” influencers for campaigns, but work to create, maintain and elevate relationships with those influencers so when a new client project comes along, they are warm to the idea of an invitation to participate. The best influencers are very, very busy and in high demand. An existing relationship with the agency is often the reason a coveted influencer says yes to engage in a B2B brand they have not worked with before.
How do you go about identifying and activating the right influencers for us?
As mentioned above, our research found that the top task B2B brands get help with from agencies is influencer identification. It’s important to understand if the agency takes a transactional approach or a more romantic/persuasive approach. Technology also plays a role and if the agency simply says they would use Twitter and LinkedIn vs. a software platform that uses algorithms and sometimes artificial intelligence to analyze vast amounts of social data to identify individuals most appropriate to your topics of relevance, audience resonance and reach – then there will be disappointment. Influence in B2B is more than social data and requires both technology and industry expertise to identify, qualify and activate.
What is your process for campaigns vs. always-on influencer programs?
Many agencies new to influencer content marketing don’t really understand when campaign is right compared to an always-on program or even what an always-on program entails. It’s important that the agency can describe the use case differences and how an influencer program can evolve over time to deliver substantially greater value.
What compensation or value exchange approach do you recommend when working with influencers?
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