You Ask, I Answer: Building Partnerships with Influencers?

In today's episode, we're going to answer some questions about influencer marketing, specifically B2B influencer marketing. Recently I had the opportunity to attend the B2B Influencer Marketing Summit held by SAP and Analytica. They invited me to speak on a panel. And normally I try to say no to panels because panels, by their very nature, are very broad and not very deep, right? If you have two, three or four panelists and uh say a 30-minute time slot, you really can't dig deep into any one topic and still give everyone a chance to speak, uh, to be heard in a fair and equitable manner, uh, and get through a lot of material.

Typically does not happen. So panels are good for sort of a broad, very surface-level look at something and not a deep dive. And a lot of the questions that the uh the team had put together for the panelists are really good questions that deserve more time than we had. So uh I figured I would tackle some of these questions uh here where there is no time limit, there's no uh other panelists. Um I don't have to worry about talking over somebody or uh trying to get uh something out too quickly and not saying what uh what might be useful or helpful.

So let's dig in. The first one now the first question from the panel that we'll start with today's episode is uh what's the best way for a relationship to form between you, meaning an influencer, uh, and a brand within the context of B2B marketing? And at least for me, the um the longest lasting and most successful partnerships that I've had with brands are typically around brands and products and services that I already use or that uh someone offers me a chance to use and say, hey, here's the here's a thing. Uh we think it's good. Here's why we think it's good, and we'd like to give it to you uh you know without any strings attached to try it out.

Um software services in the past I've worked with, like Talk Walker, for example, IBM Watson Studio things. These are all services that I've had a chance to try. And then as I see if you know if the company has the goods or not, typically that can then lead to an engagement of some kind, a piece of content, a recommendation, something that is of useful value. And the value exchange is pretty clear. I get ongoing access to the product, and they get ongoing exposure with uh the audience, with you.

Um I feel like those are the relationships that tend to work the best for me. Um what tends to work less well is at least on a long-term basis, are uh, you know, hey, here's a thing, would you talk about it? Right? Um, or would you like to do an interview with somebody? Stuff like that, and I get a ton of those pitches.

Really, they're done by marketers who expect influencers to be like advertisers. And to some degree, and with some folks, that is 100% uh the case. You give the person your money and they do the thing that um you ask them to do. But certainly within B2B marketing, there is almost an expected level of expertise or credibility that goes with the influencer marketing, to not just have someone shilling for your company, but to actually understand the use case. Why would somebody use this product or service?

Uh, what makes it valuable? It's different than consumer B2C influencer marketing, right? You see uh a celebrity or even a micro influencer. They get the product, they like the product, they do a few things on Instagram with it, and and they're out. They've they've accomplished their goal.

You don't tend to see a lot of long-term partnerships with influencers in B2C. Typically, you know, they come and go. Sponsorships are the same way. Go to a you know, a popular YouTubers account, uh, you see them hawking, you know, mailboxes this day and uh fresh food delivery this day. And you know what you never get a sense of okay, this is a company that aligns well with the influencer, and that the influencer would be credible to talk about, right?

Um I had a a company recently give me a product, and I'm like, I I don't use this product, I I I don't really like this product. Um I didn't feel comfortable representing it because as like this is really off target, right? I talk about marketing and data science and AI. And you gave me this, you know, left-handed smoke shifter thing, and it's like it's not really not really on target. And that's a big part of uh building those relationships as well.

Is is the is the brand relevant, right? Is there something that I personally find interesting? Now, you know, there's that is not to say there aren't there isn't room for consumer goods within a B2B influencers uh sphere, right? If you happen to manufacture, say hand folded katanas, sure, hit me up, right? Um doing stuff with swords is very much part of who I am.

But I think that's that's where a lot of brands go wrong. They do not do their homework. They do not investigate who they're looking at for influencers. They've typically gone into some influencer marketing software, pulled a list of the requisite number of followers or whatever that uh surface metric they're using, and they don't really dig in and say, okay, is this person the kind of person that we would want representing us? Give you a simple example.

I dig pretty deep into people's claims about AI. And if you say you're using AI and it's not particularly robust or you're just outright lying, I'm probably gonna say that out loud. I'm gonna say, Oh yeah, this company they they they kind of have AI, but it's really primitive and uh perhaps don't use their software, right? That's not gonna make a uh a brand manager super happy to hear that from an influencer that presumably they've they've paid money or spent time developing a relationship on. So that's a consideration as well.

It's gonna vary, your experience is gonna vary. Every influencer, because they're all human, right? They're all people, every influencer is gonna be different. Some influencers are gonna say, yeah, just give me your credit card and we'll do stuff. Others are gonna say, Who are you?

What do you do and why are you talking to me? And the spectrum is as wide and as varied as there are people. So forming relationships with influencers means doing your homework, making sure that it's re what you have to offer is relevant, making sure that uh their audience is relevant to you, and figuring out ways to do stuff uh in advance by doing your homework that are aligned and work for both you and the influence you have in mind. So that's today's question from the uh B2B Influencer Marketing Summit. If you like this video, go ahead and hit that subscribe button.