How business-to-business marketers can practice ‘influencer marketing'
Influencer marketing is a discipline based on focusing attention on the individuals (influencers) who advise decision-makers. An influencer is a third party who significantly shapes a purchasing decision, but may never be accountable for it. Key elements of influencer marketing include identifying and ranking influencers, building influencer engagement programmes and embedding influencer-led messages into marketing activities.
Decision-makers - the prime target for advertisers - are growing ever-more sceptical of marketing and, as the volume of marketing messages continues to increase, reaching these key influencers has become vital. Even if you have established a source of differentiation for your brand, and your message is heard, you are nonetheless likely to be disbelieved, simply because you are selling something. A decision-maker's standard response to your marketing is: 'You would say that, wouldn't you?'
So if they don't believe you, who do they believe? The answer is that they listen to information from a wide variety of sources. The stakes in business decision-making are too high to leave to one influential adviser, so multiple opinions are tapped for insight and guidance.
Around every significant decision there forms an ecosystem of different influencers. Journalists and analysts are the better-known categories, but others can include systems integrators, consultants, academics, authors, management gurus, purchasing co-operatives, regulators, government executives, resellers, standards-setters, lobbyists, environmental activists and bloggers. But what is influence, how does it work, and how do you know who has it?
From a B2B marketing viewpoint, there is only one worthwhile c ...