6 B2B Influencer Marketing Trends For 2021

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Thinkers360 recently announced the release of our 2021 B2B Influencer Marketing Outlook Study As a follow-on from our 2021 B2B Thought Leadership Outlook Study, the purpose of the research was to better understand current and future trends with regard to B2B influencer marketing, from both content producer and consumer perspectives, and plans for 2021. Of course, influencers are often thought leaders and vice versa, so there’s an interesting overlapping relationship between the two, and we saw many similarities as well as differences between the two studies.

The latest findings from our research show that brands and influencers that getting far more sophisticated when it comes to how they work with one another and social media metrics, once influencer marketers’ favorite yardstick, are becoming put aside in favor of more authentic metrics for measuring both expertise and campaign results.

Since our founding, we’ve held the belief that B2B influencer marketing is far more than transactional and requires a completely different approach than B2C influencer marketing for brands to be successful. For this reason, we sought out to disrupt the traditional influencer marketing approaches which looked purely at social media (which can be gamed with the purchase of fake followers and spamming) with our patent-pending holistic measure of thought leadership and authentic influence looking far beyond social media alone.

With insights from our research, here’s 6 B2B influencer marketing trends which we expect to grow in 2021:

What are the key attributes of world-class influencer content and thought leadership content from the perspective of audiences? Content consumers cited “relevant” (93%), “engaging” (92%) and “impactful” (92%) as extremely important or very important attributes of influencer content. In contrast, “insightful” (96%) and “forward looking” (91%) were the top attributes of world-class thought leadership content. We also found that authors, entrepreneurs and speakers, in addition to social media influencers, were among the primary sources of influencer content among these audiences.

Traditional notions of thought leadership such as “peer-reviewed” (42%), “provocative” (46%), “adopted” (37%), “collaborative” (36%) and “counter-intuitive” (36%) were cited by the majority as only moderately important in their influencer content.

Compared to thought leadership content, the primary requirements for influencer content are that it’s “relevant” and “engaging”. While “insight” is also important in influencer content, there’s less emphasis on it being “forward-looking” when compared to thought leadership.

In 2021, we expect B2B marketers to pursue both influence and thought leadership approaches at key stages of their marketing funnels to help prospects inform their strategy, aid decision-making, and ultimately make purchase decisions. The key will be to use each at the most appropriate times in the marketing funnel and recognize the subtle differences between both.

Our survey found that 70% of B2B influencers, including nano, micro and macro-influencers, are working with 10 brands or less per year and their engagements often last over 6 months (32%) and over $20K (21%).

We found that, when influencers work with brands, the typical duration of an engagement varies considerably from under 1 month to over 6 months per engagement. While engagement duration was evenly distributed, the two most common engagement durations were 1-2 months (22%) and over 6 months (32%). It’s clear that B2B influencer marketing engagements are more than transactional, as in the B2C case, and often last in excess of 6 months per engagement.

The typical size of an engagement varies considerably from under $1K to over $20K per engagement. While engagement size was evenly distributed, the two most common engagement sizes were $5-10K (21%) and over $20K (21%).

B2B marketers can use the Thinkers360 influencer marketing framework to help segment their influencer communities into strategic influencers (tier 1), core influencers (tier 2) and tactical influencers (tier 3) (see “5 best practices for working with B2B influencers and thought leaders“). It’s the tier 1 influencers that you’ll work with on these more strategic, longer-duration and more personal engagements.

Influencer content producers cited “authors” (56%), “consultants” (55%), “speakers” (50%), “entrepreneurs” (47%) and “social media influencers” (45%) as the personas they most identify with. The results show that many influencers identify with multiple personas, not just that of social media influencer.

In our survey, when influencers work with brands, they provide a variety of services including “consulting” (83%), “advising” (67%), “speaking” (63%), “influencing” (50%) and “authoring” (47%). Since B2B influencers identify with multiple personas, it makes sense that their services also mirror this fact. B2B influencers may start with social media services, but often bundle a variety of services including authoring, consulting and speaking as part of an engagement.

B2B marketers should get to know their influencers’ personas, particularly their most strategic influencers (i.e. tier 1), to take advantage of their strengths and deepen these relationships to leverage the full breadth of their expertise.

Influencers stated that “holistic metrics (e.g. across all content)” were the most effective measures and metrics for brands to gauge their expertise. Interestingly, “social media metrics (e.g. follower counts)” were cited by only 12% as the most effective measures and metrics for brands to gauge their expertise.

Since most B2B influencers are delivering more than social media services for the brands they work with, it makes sense that holistic metrics were cited by 2x as many influencers as the most effective measures and metrics when compared to social media metrics.

Influencers stated that “tangible deliverables” (67%) were the most frequent means of measuring results and ROI with the brands they work with. Interestingly, “social media metrics” were cited by only 43% (i.e. less than half of respondents) as a means of measuring results and ROI.

Since most B2B influencers are delivering more than social media services for the brands they work with, it makes sense that tangible deliverables were cited by 1.5x as many influencers when compared to social media metrics.

In terms of outlets for sourcing and disseminating influencer content, both producers and consumers of content held very similar plans. Influencer content producers cited “social media channels” (75%), “specialist communities” (62%), “conferences & events” (60%) and “individual web sites” (46%) as their primary outlets for influencer content in 2021.

All other destinations were seen more as secondary outlets than primary sources with “academic web sites” seen by 48% as not applicable. Beyond social media, nearly 2/3 of producers plan to leverage specialist communities as well as conferences and events as primary outlets for their influencer content.

Consumers of influencer content went one step further and actually cited “specialist communities” (60%) above “social media channels” (57%) for their primary sources. We also found that “articles & blogs” (84%), “social media” (65%) and “speaking” (60%) are the primary formats for influencer content production in 2021

Social media is clearly a common meeting place, but specialist communities and conferences and events help to cut through the noise and often provide that more personal connection.

If you’re interested in further findings from our study, the complete report, including extensive analysis and interpretation, is now available to Thinkers360 members at the Content Plan level and above.

“Connecting global brands and audiences with the world’s foremost thought leaders and influencers on business and technology for game-changing results”

Thinkers360 is an opt-in network of the world’s foremost thought leaders — including academics, analysts, authors, consultants, influencers and speakers — with over 25M followers on social media combined. The company is differentiated by its unique patent-pending algorithms that measure thought leadership and authentic influence looking far beyond social media alone.

Thinkers360’s enterprise services help global brands find and work with thought leaders and influencers as well as showcase their own corporate executives, experts and content among the community to build their own thought leadership profiles and portfolios and “influence the influencers”.

Thinkers360 is an opt-in network of the world’s foremost thought leaders — including academics, analysts, authors, consultants, influencers and speakers — with over 25M followers on social media combined. We are differentiated by our unique patent-pending algorithms that measure thought leadership and authentic influence looking far beyond social media alone.

Individuals: Connect and work with global brands as an author, influencer, speaker and more. Showcase your thought leadership profile and portfolio, build your media kit, and participate in our global leaderboards and opportunity marketplace: Sign-Up (free) | Newsletter

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Want to discover and work with authors, influencers and speakers (including access to our unique thought leader reports and analytics, personal introductions, and our zero-transaction fee speaker bureau)? Contact us to discuss any of your thought leadership and B2B influencer marketing needs at info@thinkers360.com

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