In the world of B2B marketing, advertising with bloggers is becoming an increasingly popular and effective tool, contrary to the common belief that bloggers can only advertise some product for the mass consumer. If in the B2C segment bloggers are associated with fashion, cosmetics and lifestyle, then in the business context there are no ordinary bloggers – they only cooperate with real opinion leaders who can influence key decisions of other companies. Natalia Utkina – CEO of the traffic agency “Sol i Sakhar” shared high-profile cases.
Given the specifics, an influencer marketer is very limited in the goals and formats of cooperation.
What target actions can B2B advertising be used for?
Fine-tuning the positioning and benefits of the brand and product
Advertising with influencers helps make a brand recognizable in a professional environment. This is especially important for companies introducing new products or services to the market. Opinion leaders become information conductors, making complex concepts understandable to a wide business audience. For example, it is very organic to show how a CRM system works or, conversely, break through banner blindness with an unusual integration to emphasize the innovative status.
Strengthening the company’s status
Collaboration with opinion leaders (e.g. experts in construction, marketing, medicine) allows you to demonstrate the company’s professionalism and its compliance with high industry standards. This approach increases trust on the part of potential clients. When choosing this goal, ambassadors are usually selected and long-term contracts are concluded for several advertising placements.
Lead generation and sales promotion
Bloggers with a target audience help not only to tell about the product, but also to bring in interested clients. They can test the product, show its advantages and create demand, motivating companies to ask for advice or purchase. Such integrations are the most expensive, not every influencer agrees to them, because if something goes wrong, the reputation will be damaged.
Expanding your network of contacts
Collaborations with bloggers open up access to their professional circle. In some cases, this can lead to new partnerships and collaborations in the market. How does it work? For example, you want to sell equipment to a clothing manufacturer and you know who the owner or decision maker is. Look at which influencers they follow and try to get into stories tagging your account or brand.
Small and medium-sized businesses almost always choose sales stimulation as their goal, and only in exceptional cases – expanding contacts.
How to Choose the Right Bloggers for B2B?
Perhaps the simplest point, since if the brand has been on the market for a long time, then, one way or another, the employees and the manager follow the opinion leaders. There is definitely a trend towards micro- and niche bloggers with expert content. Most often, opinion leaders are from the professional community, who do not even regularly maintain social networks.
This also has a significant disadvantage, because if the customer and the blogger cannot agree on the content format, then the cooperation will not take place. Considering the fact that each opinion leader in a narrow niche is already valuable, the customer is as loyal as possible to the choice of content format. It is important in principle to get access to someone else’s audience.
Content format
Cases and reviews : bloggers share practical experience of using the product. For example, a manufacturer of cosmetics for beauty salons attracts bloggers to show the product “in action”.
Webinars or broadcasts : interview with a blogger about the service and its usefulness for business. Usually brands choose influencer platforms to conduct such broadcasts, but they can also invite experts to their social networks for a broadcast or webinar.
Educational content : creating educational posts or videos with product integration + educational lessons, conferences, seminars. What Yandex is actively doing now, teaching for free, for example, how to work in the personal account of the ecosystem services.
Unfortunately, for some reason the myth that advertising with bloggers does not work in the B2B format is very actively broadcast, which is why only the most creative companies grow quickly in the absence of much competition, largely due to this myth.
Examples of successful cases
Case 1: Calltouch. Strategy – “making life easier” for the employee
A company selling an analytical program for marketers. They regularly hold informal meetings with contextualists, conferences, announce with opinion leaders, make them ambassadors who constantly publish news and announcements on their social networks.
Case 2: eLama. Strategy – “making life easier” for a freelancer + bonus
The first to react to the news about advertising labeling launched active advertising campaigns for registration in free webinars on labeling: they sold partner ORD (and taught how to work in it), offered to completely delegate advertising labeling through partners.
Case 3: Great Tex. A firm selling machine tools from China. Strategy – controlled word of mouth
Sometimes the most unobvious thing that happens in social networks is UGC (user generated content). Through social networks, which are even irregularly maintained, orders are received thanks to the system of social network marks by their clients – entrepreneurs. An important nuance – the brand account is always closed, therefore, the effect of uniqueness is created.
Case 4: Personal brand. Strategy – “making the director fall in love with you”
All the most popular business bloggers are, in fact, businesses that provide services to other businesses: Mikhail Grebenyuk, Anton Petrochenkov, Alina Ukolova, etc. The laws of B2C apply in this strategy, with only one peculiarity – the quality of content and integrations is heavily filtered.
Case 5: Foreign CRM Company HubSpot. Strategy – “cultivating” ambassadors
They developed a training platform for marketers, invited university professors to record lessons. After completing the courses, you receive an electronic diploma. Who can study? Only a person who confirms that he or she works for the company and indicates the name, contact information and position. The idea is not bad, but there is no feedback from the student, as well as serious verification control. Consequently, a high percentage of irrelevant contacts.
How to evaluate effectiveness
Effective advertising from bloggers is assessed by several key metrics. Firstly, reach – the total number of users who saw the advertisement, allows you to understand the scale of interaction. For example, if a blogger has an audience of up to 10 thousand people, then it would be ideal if 20% of them see the content.
Engagement (likes, comments, reposts) helps to understand how interested the audience is in the advertisement. Conversions are actions that the audience performed after the advertisement, for example, clicks on the website or applications. For a more accurate assessment, the cost of the lead is used , that is, the amount that the company spends on attracting one client. For example, if the blogger’s advertisement cost 50,000 rubles and attracted 100 buyers, the cost of the lead will be 500 rubles.
To make the analysis more precise, companies use UTM tags that are attached to links in advertising posts. They allow you to track the number of clicks, the source of traffic, and even actions on the site – from viewing products to placing an order. For example, if one blogger with a UTM tag has 500 clicks and 50 purchases, and another has 1000 clicks but only 10 purchases, it becomes obvious who worked more effectively.
Equally important is the analysis of the blogger’s audience feedback . Readers often share their opinions in the comments. Such reactions show the audience’s real interest or skepticism. If a blogger often advertises something without any apparent connection, this can reduce trust and advertising effectiveness.
B2B blogger advertising requires careful planning, but when done right, it can be a powerful tool for attracting new customers and increasing loyalty.