Analysis: Functional and dry. Does B2B content spell boring?

It seems like B2B marketers are fast embracing influencer marketing with 93% of business-to-business marketers saying that they planning to increase their usage of influencers. A majority or 76% of B2B marketers are already utilising influencers in their marketing strategies, said Ogilvy’s Influencing Business Global Report.

Globally, B2B Influencer marketing is growing, sized at US$11.7B in revenue as of 2022 and we are seeing a similar growth trend in Asia, said Emily Poon, president of public relations and influence in Asia, at Ogilvy. Poon added that from conversations with senior marketers in the region, more marketers in the region are increasing their investment and outreach via B2B influencers as part of their overall marketing mix.

Don't miss: B2B marketers eye influencer marketing, but fail at human-centricity

She explained, savvy marketers are already engaging these B2B influencers – who may be external parties relevant to their industry or even employees within their companies – to partner and increase advocacy for their businesses.

“This uptake is primarily due to an increasing recognition of the value of authentic, trusted voices in marketing, as well as effectiveness of B2B influencer marketing across the marketing funnel in lead generation in the shorter term and increased sales over the medium to longer time horizons,” said Poon.

Despite their attempts at influencer marketing, one criticism B2B marketers often face is that the content isn’t always human-centric enough.

Although research done by the LinkedIn B2B Institute found that inspiring emotion is seven times more effective that delivering rational benefits alone, Southeast Asia under indexes against the global average in using B2B influencers to bring a more human-centric storytelling narrative to their brands.

In fact, only 41% of B2B marketers in SEA tap into human-centric storytelling compared to 62% in Kenya or 58% in the United States of America.

“B2B targeting generally has a sharper focus on the target’s professional role,” said Shouvik Mukherjee, chief creative officer, Asia Pacific at Golin Group. While B2C influencer marketing can be likened to luring a lot of small sardines into a giant net, B2B influencer marketing is like using a small rod to land a giant trout.

“It is actually easier to get a better assessment of the human aspects of the B2B target groups as they are way smaller and can be identified to even an individual. However, it’s possible lose focus of the person behind the profession,” he said. Since generating sales leads or closing a sales deal is possible on digital channels, marketers may deprioritise their role as brand builders.

According to Juliana Chan, CEO of Wildtype Media who is well regarded as an influencer in the B2B space given her commentaries around work culture and personal branding on LinkedIn, B2B influencer marketing employs different mechanics from B2C marketing which she says still, to an extent, employs more of “spray and pray mechanics”.

“Many consumer brands are still simply looking for a massively popular influencer to dust a little bit of their online magic onto the product or service,” she said.

Chan argued that B2B marketers also use storytelling to connect with their audiences.  While Chan doesn’t regard herself as a B2B influencer, over the years, she has worked with brands such as AstraZeneca, J&J, Roche, McLaren, Audi and many others.

“That said, the content could be hyper niche and incredibly technical such as quantum computing or artificial intelligence, and so it could be perceived as inaccessible to folks outside that specific industry. Nonetheless, there is always room to tell better stories,” she added.

Where B2B falters

Poon added that marketers in the B2B arena tend to fall into the comfort trap of communicating “functional benefits over more purpose-driven” and emotional storytelling.

This is very likely due to a belief that when it comes to B2B decision-making, individuals make 100% rational, facts-based decisions based on data and customer testimonials, when in fact, our research shows otherwise.

“It also takes bravery to go for a less ‘tried and tested’ emotion-based storytelling approach over falling back on facts and figures.”

As such, B2B marketers tend to forget the biggest secret sauce in B2B influence marketing lies in the influencer’s personality and unique ability to resonate through storytelling and sharing their own journeys.

“The ability of brands to tap into that for their B2B communications will win over more hearts, minds and eventually driving leads and conversions,” she said.

We also found that B2B customers, like any customers, resonate as well, if not better with stories of how to overcome failures, more so than overly-polished brand messages.

How to get B2B right

Chan added that in the B2B influencer marketing scene, companies are “not necessarily looking for absolute numbers and obvious popularity”, but perhaps someone with clear domain expertise and industry clout, she said.

“The challenge here is that if you shift in the wrong direction by just a few degrees, you may end up with zero return on investment. But if you get the correct influencer, who may not immediately appear to be popular, you may get full ROI and a complete capture on that market,” she said.

While broad rules of any influencer engagement is similar, Mukherjee outlines five aspects to keep in view for the B2B outreach:

1. Employees as influencers: Employees can be the most credible and authentic brand advocates. They have the technical expertise and the professional exigency to be the best B2B opinion leaders.  

2. Customers as influencers: A customer with an influential voice turned into a brand advocate can be the biggest asset in B2B marketing.

3. Build lasting relationships: While long term relationships are preferred for any influencer marketing engagement, it is critical in the B2B space for it to be credible.

4. Engage influencers as consultants: In a B2B set up some influencers can act like a business consultant providing valuable insights into customers, any discipline or an industry to help elevate the business proposition.

5. Understand engagement dynamics: Everyone uses different social platforms with different purpose. Understanding the reasons behind and mindset of audiences on specific platforms, can help customise B2B influencer outreach across digital channels. 

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