Unlocking Growth: B2B Influencer Marketing for Tech Companies

If you are an active LinkedIn user, you must have noticed the rise of - 

1. Thought Leaders - Experts in a field who share their experiences and opinions on niche problems / topics / strategies.

2. Content creators - Who talk about how a certain product has made their work life easier.

3. Founders and executives of tech companies who create collaborative videos, podcasts, newsletters and posts with other subject matter experts in their field.

These are just a few examples of how the LI community has been leveraging B2B influencers as a part of their marketing strategy. Let’s understand who exactly is an influencer and what are the different ways of leveraging influencer marketing.

Who is an influencer?

From the buyer’s POV - 

It is essentially someone who lets you build trust. You must have seen this very predominantly in B2C, where before you buy a product, you instinctively check what an influencer has to say about a product / which influencer is using it. This is not a new phenomenon, conceptually, influencer marketing has been going on for years - think celebrity endorsements, they are a form of influencer marketing as well. It is just that now, B2B has caught on to it. A huge chunk of work we do today includes using a SaaS product, and having someone to vouch for it can definitely enable the purchase decision.  

From the seller’s POV, it is someone who helps in -

1. Increasing the visibility of the product in cases where the team itself does not have enough presence on social media to promote their product.

2. Even if the team does have an audience, they can reach out to a new audience pool - the influencers’ audience.

3. Enabling trust for users in both the product and the team.

4. Showcasing various use-cases of the product and helping potential buyers build a deep understanding of the product.

5. Creating a demand generation channel because of all of the above!

Types of influencers - internal and external 

Internal Influencers

It's a no-brainer! Your employees are your biggest advocates - they know your product in and out and come with the right intentions to help you grow. Every employee has different touchpoints with the customers. While it is imperative for founders to build their brand, it does not have to end there. Multiple companies like Hockeystack, Chili Piper, RB2B, have been using this blanketed approach where employees talk about experiences in their respective roles. This content is usually around sales processes / product launches / performance of marketing strategies / customer success strategies etc. This transparency helps in building a holistic image of the company and boots confidence in the users’ mind regarding the authenticity of the product. HockeyStack has built a great model around this - apart from their CEO Buğra Gündüz posting about his opinions, strategies, updates, etc, a lot of their employees also post on LI based on their expertise; You can see Emir Atli, their CRO, talk about deal closures, trends in revenue, strategies that worked for them. Their Head of Growth, Canberk Beker usually talks about HockeyStack Labs - their ultra successful newsletter, paid media strategies and creates collaborative podcast / video content with other experts in growth, Claudia Ring, their VP of Marketing also talks about their marketing strategies. 

External Influencers

These can be anyone such as a thought leader, an agency, a partner company, subject matter experts, your customers - anyone who talks about your product in a way that others would want to explore what you have to offer. Once they figured internal influencing was working for them, Hockeystack also made external influencers core to their marketing strategy. Influencers of all above mentioned types are creating content for them - resulting in what I recently read being termed as surround sound marketing!

1. They have a partnership with Dave Gerhardt - a thought leader in marketing,  who talked about Blog Vitals Dashboard, a resource created by HockeyStack for content marketers. 

2. A lot of agencies and solopreneurs have been sharing insights built on top of reports published by Hockeystack and citing those reports in their posts. Such organic integration, which is done by relevant people, who genuinely benefit from the product, creates a deep impact on customers.

3. HockeyStack team, especially their head of growth, Canberk Beker does a lot of video podcasts with growth professionals from other companies. Video podcast partnerships are a great way to talk about your product in front of a new audience. Viewers start associating you with the topics you speak about, creating a great brand recall when they are in the market to buy products. 

4. They also recently created a video campaign with their long time customer ActiveCampaign. While this is not traditional influencer marketing, it definitely speaks to the audience, helps them see the product in action, and establishes credibility for the product.

This is the model that HockeyStack has created leveraging both internal and external influencers and it works wonders as a marketing strategy as you can read here.

To get started on your influencer marketing journey, you can take inspiration HockeyStack’s journey or you can also reach out to Amanda Branson, Founder at Saafluencer who helped us understand the nuances of influencer marketing and has lots of DIY templates as well as custom strategies to help you get started with B2B influencer marketing. You can also hire SaaSfluencer to run your entire influencer marketing initiative! The team’s expertise lies in working with SaaS founders or marketers who aim to amplify their brand’s presence and attract quality leads. For those attending tech week, Amanda is also hosting an event where you can witness her in action at SaaSy Influencer Marketing Podcast ft. Co-Founder @ ClickUp

To conclude, rather than thinking of influencer marketing as a one off partnership with a top voice on a social media platform, it will help to think about it as a holistic content strategy where you engage both your active and passive ICP through multiple forms of content, reaching them across multiple channels through professionals they follow and trust. 

PS - Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article where we dive deeper into the steps you can take to get started with influencer marketing.