One of my favorite examples for influence is the film from 2004 Mean Girls. When the girls from the North Shore High School see “Queen Bee” Regina George, carry their army and flip-flops, they decide to do the same. It is absurd, but also completely realistic.
Whether we admit it or not, nobody is immune to the power of influence. We all have those to whom we look up and hear, even if they are unconscious. That is why B2B influencer marketing is nothing to mock.
If you hear the word “influencer”, it is not unusual.
But where do you find them and bring them on board? Let us unpack everything you need to know to use the power of the B2B influencer marketing in 2025.
Table of contents
What is B2B influencer marketing?
B2B Influencer Marketing is when companies that sell to other companies work together with a pioneer and respected figures in their room to promote their products or services.
It can take many different forms (as below), but they all turn back to the same goal – build brand awareness with a new or qualified audience and use the employee of the employee to convince this audience to buy.
Some of the most popular forms of B2B influencer marketing are:
- Competitions/giveaways: Influencers give away one of their products on its platform. This can be great to grow their followers and create social evidence.
- Sponsored contributions: You pay the influencer to post your product or service. This is great to reach the audience of an influencer and raise awareness, but could be fake.
- Gifts: Influencer posts on your product in exchange for a free product. This is also ideal for awareness.
- Attorney: Influencers usually receive a unique discount code that you can share with your audience to increase sales for your brand and in turn earn commissions. This is generally one of the best types of B2B influencer marketing for sales.
- Cooperation: Work with an influencer to create a new product, a new service or a offer of content. This can be good for sales and awareness.
These can also be used in various media, but today we see them most often on social media – especially LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram for B2B brands.
How does it differ from the B2C -Influencer marketing?
In marketing, everything is managed by your audience. What you do, say, etc. is about what you hear, say or experience. Here the most important differences between B2B influencer marketing and B2C lies, of course.
LinkedIn editor-in-chief Tequia Burt I compared the two in this diagram great:
No wonder that the B2B influencer marketing follows the nature of the B2B transactions.
It stretches a longer sales cycle and focuses on creating professional credibility and sharing the professional value in order to build long -term partnerships. That is what B2B buyer normally searches and what is gaining your sales, right?
B2C Influencer Marketing, on the other hand, is more carefree and more casual. It is about personal interests and goals and minor, unique purchases. Instead of using the expertise of an influencer, it is about your camaraderie, connection and relativity.
To be honest, the best way to think for me is their work mentor against their work beast (or “Westie” if they like).
The mentor (B2B), which you take career and professional development advice, while the Westie (B2C), which you will speak over your weekend and with your friends, will take over for happy hours for restaurant recommendations.
For fans of The officeOne is the David Wallace of influencers, and the other is more of a Kelly Kapoor.
Find out more about influencer marketing in general in Our free “Ultimate Guide to Influencer Marketing”.
But are B2B -Influencer really worth the hype?
Advantages of the B2B influencer marketing
According to Hype Auditor, The influencer marketing industry will be accepted at around 22.2 billion US dollars by the end of 2025, and who is surprised?
Influencers promote commitment, promote commitment, promote traffic and clicks and generate conversions and sales. For B2B brands, you can also humanize your brand and build trust in a way that other tactics and strategies could never have. Let us reduce these advantages a little more.
Increased brand reach & consciousness
Influencers come with committed and often large audience that actually wait and expect what they will say next. If you work with the right work, your brand can be exposed to many new qualified consumers.
More exposure means more potential customers, which means more sales.
Improved trust
Did you hear the expression “guilty through the association”? Well, it also works in the other direction. If your audience works with an influencer, your audience will be respected and familiar with a vote of trust for your brand
The audience indicate the opinions and advice of the influencers. You trust you to lead you in the right direction. If an influencer feels comfortable to support your business, it must be good in the eyes of your target group.
Humanized your brand (promotes personalized experience)
B2B marketing often gets a bad reputation when it is cold and correct. I think it is difficult not to be if you talk about investments and budgets – but B2B influencer marketing can help.
Even if you do not work for your company, influencers give your audience a human face to connect with it. Someone with whom he can refer or refer to it if he has questions or concerns.
As a rule, influencers deal with their audience at a personal level.
You ask questions, answers to comments and interact with your followers like close friends. This helps to create the more personalized, unique experience of modern buyers of brands and to get them to buy them.
Read: Personalized experiences: Why we love them + brand examples
Examples of great B2B influencer marketing
Okay, everything sounds theoretically great, but what about in practice? Here are three examples that I meet and love.
1. WEWORK
If you are not familiar with him, Ali Abdaal is a doctor who has become an internet entrepreneur and productivity expert. He uses his platforms on YouTube, Instagram and elsewhere to share mindset and organizational tips that are supported by his medical knowledge.
In this example of B2B Influencer marketing from WEWORK, Abdaal shares insights into the advantages of the human connection, while she works and positions Wework to achieve this.
Yes, the video begins with a sponsorship open, but the content is still helpful and so good and of course fits the rest of Abdaals Feed. It is a very well made example of a sponsored video that is honestly to be expected with Abdaal.
Bonus:
In this bonus example from the Creator’s channel, Abdaal discusses six KI tools with which he improves its productivity.
In it he manages not to one, not two, but not to include three Affiliate links and mentions without descending as a sale. With 464,000 views and 13,000 likes to write this, I would not be surprised if this video had been extremely lucrative for the brands and Abdaal itself.
2. Inbound
The Drift Kings Media creator The program works with independent business manufacturers to help them grow through financial capital and sales to new target groups.
One of the best known is Sarah Chen-SpellingsA guide in risk capital and the moderator of the billion dollars -moves podcast with a committed audience of 20,000 LinkedIn followers and 3K+ newsletter subscribers.
In this LinkedIn video, our inbound team works with Chen-Spellings to present the event experience while participating and speaks for the first time.
It is quick and playful and catches exactly what it actually feels like to be striking in the room.
3 .. Montag.com
Here is a great example of the B2B influencer that is not based on social media. (Tell yourself, they were out there!)
I probably don’t have to remember it, but in 2020 many teams had to work from a distance during the Covid 19 pandemic. They were looking for tools and tips on how to do it well, and project management software company Monday.com classified themselves to help.
They interviewed a group of business influencers such as Shama Hyder from Zen Media and shared their conversations in blog articles on their website:
The campaign has exceeded the goal of social media more than 1,790% And more than 300,000 organic impressions on social media.
How to build a B2B influencer strategy
- Determine your campaign goals and timeline.
- Define your campaign audience.
- Insert your budget.
- Select your platform (s).
- Identify your influencers.
- Develop your plan for creating and starting content.
- Create a plan for measuring the results.
If you have worked in marketing for a while, it seems quite familiar to build a B2B influencer strategy. But even if you are new to the industry, you will prepare success with these seven steps.
1. Determine your campaign goals and your timeline.
You cannot know what you have to do if you don’t know where you want to go. So what do you hope to achieve with your B2B influencer marketing?
Are you trying to sharpen brand awareness? Are you looking for other leads? Take what you want to do and convert it Smart-specific, measurable, accessible, relevant and time.
This format helps to eliminate ambiguities whether you have achieved what you should and to define your success metrics. It also documents your timeline.
Smart B2B influencer marketing targets may look like this:
- Increase brand awareness: Get 1,000 new followers on Instagram from the influencer campaign by February 28, 2025.
- Increase lines: Generate 250 free test applications via LinkedIn influencer affiliate link by February 28, 2025.
- Increase sales: Sell ​​5,000 units of influencer product work by February 28, 2025.
Here is a simple formula that you can use to play around:
Generate (number) leads concentrate on (topic/product) to (date) on (date)
You can also use this free template for the objective to summarize your goals, to calculate your greatest marketing needs and to set deadlines.
2. Define your campaign audience.
Who are you trying to achieve? The more information you can collect about your target group, the better. Where do you spend your free time? What kind of content do you consume? Who do you contact for advice or industrial knowledge?
The answers to these questions not only provide information on personalities and platforms that you use in your B2B influencer marketing campaigns, but also the messages.
For example, if you try to meet Millennial entrepreneurs, you can better work with the Gary Vaynerchuks in the world about the Warren buffets.
Take this time to check your buyer personas for relevant details. If you do not yet have it or want to create campaign-specific personas, read our free buyer-personal templates.
3. Set your budget.
The budget has a strong impact on how your B2B Influencer marketing campaign will actually look like.
Different influencers have different price tags and expectations. For example, cooperation with a mega influencer (someone with over a million followers) will probably cost more than with a micro-influencer (with 10-100,000 followers).
In contrast, others (like me) can be okay in exchange for free products or services.
Take this time to mark your financial readiness so you know which options your options are.
After our 2025 report report of the state of marketingBrands most frequently output 50-74% of their marketing budget for influencers or content manufacturers, but how much does it really cost?
Influencer Marketing Hub Almost half (47%) of the brands found less than $ 10,000 for influencer marketing in 2024, while around 8-20% of the brands spent between $ 11,000 and $ 500,000. So the possibilities are very subjective. Do what is realistic for your brand and goals.
Hubpot employee Kinzal Jalan becomes more detailed how you can determine your influencer marketing budget here.
4. Select your platform (s).
While we used to touch, influencer marketing campaigns can take place on any platform or in any medium, but in 2025 we usually talk about social media or digital.
The best channel is really dependent on your target group. So enter your data to see where you hang around and consume content, but in general. Drift Kings Media research found These marketers see the highest ROI of influencers on Facebook (28%), Instagram (22%) and YouTube (12%).
5. Identify your influencer.
Now I know that many of you may have started your B2B Influencer marketing strategy with a certain personality, but if you haven’t done it, it is the time to find you.
Use your goals, your budget and platform to identify the influencer or the influencers that fit into the bill. But remember that you also want to have someone who of course fits your brand.
The B2B INFLUENCER, with which you work with which you work, should share your values ​​and realistically use and enjoy your product or service. You should speak your language and be able to give real, valuable insights why your offer is a smart choice.
If this is not the case, the cooperation or confirmation appear fake and make up even the most loyal viewers.
Think about it: If you are a commercial cookie knife manufacturer, it would make more sense to work with a popular cook as an expert at crypto coin. In addition, the audience of the chef would probably be much greater.
A Influencer marketing platform Can be helpful in your hunt, but you can also carry out your research on social media. For example, search #Entrepreneurship on LinkedIn Hundreds of people who have the range and voice they are looking for.
Note: AI influencer marketing is also a hot topic. Colleagues Drift Kings Mediater Erica Santiago dug in this conversation in “AI influencer marketing: How artificial intelligence could change the influencer marketing.”
6. Develop your plan for creating and starting content.
Who does what for your influencer marketing campaign? Do you create the content or is your influencer? Do you have creative freedom or do you have a short one you have to follow?
This is the part of your strategy in which you will actually carry out all expectations and their start and promotion of your campaign.
We fear how to work with influencers (regardless of whether they are B2B or B2C) here:
7. Create a plan for measuring the results.
As soon as your campaign has been started, you have to pursue your performance to determine whether you achieve your goals. This also helps you to know whether you have to turn and collect data at any time in order to refine future campaigns.
Depending on your goals, the metrics can include the website traffic, the number of new followers, conversions or even income.
Platforms like the Meltwasser -Influencer -Marketing -Suite Help measure these numbers, but you can also follow your data by persecution of URLS and the campaign tool in Drift Kings Media Or with a simple table.
We have some free templates to make it easier for you to get started.
Tips for the success of the B2B influencer marketing
1. GO Micro
It may be exciting to get a Celeb status influencer like Mr. Beast, but our survey showed that both B2B and B2C brands recorded the greatest success in 2024 with micro-100k followers).
You see Mega-Influencer like Mr. Beast have a massive audience, but with their size it is almost impossible for them to maintain the personalized commitment that they have brought where they are and that people are longing.
Smaller, more niche influencers are not confronted with this problem. The reported advantages of smaller influencers included more confidence with their followers, access to close-knit communities and the ability to further expand their influencer marketing budget.
source
Do you need further instructions on how you can work with micro-influencers? Take a look at “my comprehensive guide to micro-influencer marketing.”
2. Use the AI ​​to scale public relations
I’ll be real with you. I love to work with other brands and creators, but the Outreach process is the worst. There are so many messages and as many are unanswered.
Fortunately, we have to help AI these days.
Sure, you can use the automation for message contacts with a name or social media trade in, but these are triggered as robots and spams and are quickly ignored. (I can’t tell you how many of them sit in my Instagram inquiry after receipt of the inbox.)
If you scale your B2B INFLUencer marketing strategy, use generative AI instead to create personalized Outreach messages.
When Drift Kings Media explains Ben Pines for content and director of content at AI21 Labs, everything begins with a request that contains A:
- Hook: This is something to attract the attention of your influencer, like a compliment or a personal detail to show that you have seen your work. Here they stand out from other brands.
- Give: They offer this to the influencer.
- Take: You ask for that.
- Call of action: You have to do that to get started. (View you on e -mail, call you, etc.)
Close this in Chatgpt or even in the Breeze copilot in HubSpot and receive a solid template that you can adapt for any person on your list. Pines also recommends using generative AI to find out the creators by using requests to summarize your content.
Find out more about his process here.
3 .. focus on long -term partnerships
It may be tempting to fill a wide network and work with many influencers at the same time to advertise for your B2B brand, Drift Kings Media manager of the creator partnerships, partnerships, Alanah Josephadvises against it.
“My top tip for the success of B2B Influencer Marketing is to invest the time in the search for the right creator and build permanent partnerships with you,” she says.
“I have found that the partnership with fewer creators who deeply understand their audience provides better results than to spread their budget in many unique collaboration. If the creators become familiar with their brand over time, the quality and authenticity of their content improves naturally. Then the magic really happens. “
I would also argue that this is the case if an influencer confirmation comes out as the most authentic. It is not a flash-in-the-helper video or a story that the influencer really took the time to learn. In other words, what you share with your audience is much more sound and trustworthy.
For example B2B Marketing Advisor Erin Balsa is a long -time partner of Navattic. On your platforms you will find regular contributions to the use of the demo tool to improve your shopping experience.
Under the B2B influence
At 2025, the brands that master B2B -Influencer -Marketing are in full swing, not only build up visibility, but also permanent trust -which transforms into real, measurable business growth. Now it is time to use this strategy and make it an important part of your marketing playbook.
Ready to take the next step? Identify potential influencers, produce your public relations work and experiment with campaigns that correspond to your goals. The future of B2B marketing is social, and those who accept it early will start the way.