For companies opting for influencer marketing tactics in the B2B space, the fun part is usually figuring out who your influencer is. Often, picking an individual is just the the easy part. Making sure you successfully leverage them to generate leads and increase conversions, on the other hand, is slightly trickier.
Following up to our post on this subject from a few weeks ago, the following sections provide companies with a roadmap of sorts, necessary to ensure your influencer is bringing the most to your business. Influencer tactics aren’t cheap; make sure your investment gives you the returns you’re after.
- Create great content
Once you’ve agreed on an individual, it’s important that you create meaningful content for your influencer to engage with. While most influencers come up with their own messaging, providing them an in-depth understanding about your products/services in an engaging and concise manner, will help them create better content for their audiences. Ultimately, this is what it all boils down to; the content you make available publicly and privately to your influencer determines just how successful your campaign will turn out to be.
- Define your goals
Once you’ve sorted the nitty gritties of picking your influencer, it’s important to sit down and consider what your campaign goals are. Taking a look into your influencer’s online content, social media followings, and overall messaging, will help you identify the specific goals you can reach through your campaign. Identifying these is not only essential for internal, organisational clarity, but will also help your influencer understand what you’re trying to achieve. This allows them to tailor their messaging to suit the outcome you’re after.
- Compensating influencers
First off, if you view paying influencers as just another business expenditure, you’re doing it wrong. As many companies who’ve successfully used influencers to multiply their profits would tell you, influencers are an investment for your business.
Sure, it doesn’t come cheap; but if done right, the rewards are immeasurable. While compensation comes down to monetary rewards in many cases, certain influencers might appreciate being offered other, equally appealing, options. Take a look at the list below for alternatives forms of reimbursement you can offer:
- Exclusive early-access to products and services
This kind of compensation is usually more effective in the B2B context. Giving your influencer access into your products in the development or research stage, sharing insights and research not available to the public, exclusive demos and other such offers, might be of more value than any financial compensation you could offer.
- Brand association/status
If you influencer is interested in achieving some sort of mutually-reinforcing increase in social media following or the like, you could grant them brand status that they can add to their portfolio. For instance this could be something like ‘Official Product Tester’ or anything along those lines. Alternatively, you could even add their social media page or personal profile onto a relevant section of your website, providing them with industry-wide credibility and status.
These are just a few of the many benefits that can be offered to your influencer of choice. Having candid discussions with the individuals you choose and identifying what they might be more inclined to will prove to be a fruitful exercise, benefiting both you and your influencer in the long run.
- Engaging influencers beyond your campaign
While engaging with influencers at the outset might only be for the purposes of your marketing campaign, companies that try to create a more lasting relationship with these individuals, are the ones doing it right. In the B2B context, especially if your company is a reputed organisation well-known within your business community, influencers are quite willing to create more value than one-off engagements. Communicating with your influencer, proving to be an organisation that reflects their own values and ethos, can easily help create something more permanent and rewarding.
This doesn’t just benefit you and create more engagement with your company in a more sustainable manner, but also brings in a host of benefits to your influencer. This agreement may even work without the need for financial compensation in the long run; all of which depends on the relationship you create with the individuals you bring in.
Key Takeaways
In the enthusiastic launching of influencer marketing tactics and campaigns, companies often put in most of their effort in identifying an influencer, with less attention paid to what happens after. Getting your messaging right, identifying your goals and ultimately, engaging with your influencer beyond the completion of your campaign, are key focus areas businesses cannot afford to lose sight on. Successful campaigns don’t just rest on the individuals taking your brand messaging to the public, but very much on the other nitty gritties that are often easily overlooked.
At Hype Insight, we aim to make marketing a walk in the park. Contact us today for marketing solutions that blow your competitors out of the water.