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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS
Peculiarities of influencer marketing in B2B
The terms influencer marketing and influencer relations, In terms of credibility, influencer marketing clearly
as well as their opportunities for corporate outperforms traditional advertising formats, since trust
communication, have been discussed for around ten in influencers is high due to their commitment and
years now. Essentially, it is about how opinion building social authority. Influencers can be used to market
works for stakeholders, especially customers or other specific products and services for particular customer
reference groups, and what levels beyond journalism or segments. First and foremost, credibility and trust
advertising are involved. motivate customers to follow recommendations from
influencers, demanding from companies to give up
Since quality content is key to the success of many some control over their content. Authentic and
companies - be it videos, webinars, blogs, testimonials successful influencer marketing is therefore not only
or social media posts - marketers are increasingly characterized by the trust that customers bring to
focusing on content marketing and clever storytelling to influencers.
have a positive influence on purchasing decisions. In
doing so, the content is no longer just produced by the Authentic influencer marketing isn’t as established in
companies themselves. Especially in B2C the B2B environment as it is in many B2C sectors.
communication, opinion-makers, so-called influencers, Nonetheless, promising potentials for lead generation
have firmly established themselves in recent years, exist in the B2B environment as well, since purchasing
because studies show that consumers increasingly buy decisions are based on rational, factual knowledge
products that are recommended by them. Hence, many rather than emotions. Reach, which is the central
marketing departments set aside budgets to target criterion for co-operations with influencers in B2C, is
people with influence and reach. not so crucial in B2B, rather the relevance of technical
content and a good personal reputation of the
For instance, at the end of 2017, Hubert Burda Media influencer.
launched the content and influencer platform “Brands
you love” that connects companies and influencers. The So, finding suitable influencers is often a bigger
influencer industry is obviously becoming more and challenge in B2B, because celebrities and high-reach
more professional: agencies even specialize in this area creators are not ranking first in B2B. Instead, B2B
and tools make it easily possible to identify suitable companies should rely on customers, business
influencers.
partners and employees.
10 February 2019 - Strategic Social Media, Influencer Marketing & Paid Media