Influencer marketing in B2B is often misunderstood, and, as a result, underused. But working with influential people within your industry can be a fantastic way to increase brand awareness, drive an uplift in positive brand sentiment and reach new, untapped audiences. However, before you get ahead of yourself, we thought we’d share a few golden rules to follow if you’re keen to harness the power of influencers in your sector:

1. Be authentic

Do not pay your influencers to push out bland sales messages. Be authentic – get to know them and understand their priorities, and collaborate to create genuinely useful content that will benefit their audience and yours.

2. Do not rely solely on influencers to make your brand look authoritative

Your authority will also be reflected in the content you produce and the customer experience you deliver. If you don’t focus on building your own authority in the market, influencers won’t want to work with you.

3. Identify influencers based on relevance, reach and resonance

Remember these three key elements (relevance, reach, resonance) when seeking out your influencers, and prioritise working with those who tick all three boxes.

4. Look for easy wins

Identify the influencers that are already talking about you and build a relationship with them first. You should also look for the easiest ways to get influencers involved in the content you’re already producing.

5. Collaborate

Focus on collaborating with influencers to produce high-quality content that they’ll want to share just as much as you do.

6. Personalise your influencer communications

Professional influencers might expect to be paid, while others will be happy to use your brand’s authority to build their own profile. Make sure you understand what their needs and expectations are and adapt your engagement with them accordingly.

7. Don’t take the same approach as consumer brands

This speaks for itself, but the focus in B2B is much more about collaboration, rather than paying to get a product featured on a blog or YouTube channel – but this is no bad thing!

8. Take a long-term approach

Remember that it should be a long-term, always-on strategy, not a short-term activity. This will limit the results you can achieve from effective influencer marketing.

9. Once you’ve got them, take care of them

Treat your influencers well! If you don’t put enough into your influencer relationships they won’t reward you. Be prepared to give them a bit more than they’d expect (if they’re attending an event, maybe give them an upgraded hotel room or champagne lunch).

10. Don’t begin with tools and technology

There are some hugely useful influencer tools available – and even using the free ones will give you an edge – but don’t prioritise buying expensive tools that you may well end up under-using.