The rise and rise of B2B influencer marketing

It was when I found myself whispering sweet nothings of encouragement to a gloopy sponge one winter’s night that I knew I had finally succumbed to an influencer. “Come on, Minkeeh,” I said, as I panted a fake Essex accent version of a cleaning pad brand name while massaging pink paste all over my kitchen sink.   

The “cleanfluencer”, Sophie Hinchcliffe, AKA Mrs. Hinch, had gotten to me (and to 4.7 million other people who follow her on Instagram) with her breezy videos of herself scrubbing, dusting, mopping, removing mould, karate-chopping cushions, bagging bargains and explaining how to “bedgasm” a bed ready for the week ahead.  

Hinchcliffe’s meteoric rise to success—and commercial gold status—is astonishing. Since starting her Instagram account in 2018, the former Essex hairdresser has developed a branded vocabulary where “hinch” can be a verb, a noun, and an adjective. Her followers call themselves the #HinchArmy or Hinchers. Cleaning is “hinching”.   

Her products have names: there’s Dave the duster, Vera the spray mop, and the cupboard stacked with cleaning kit is Narnia. Facebook groups are devoted to her favourite disinfectant. She has four best-selling books and tabloids rush to publish her latest cleaning tips. Advertising deals include Procter & Gamble, and Hinchcliffe has collaborated with major British supermarket chains.   

Mrs Hinch is a paragon of the very 21st-century marketing phenomenon of consumer influencing with her emotional appeal (relatable yet aspirational, chatty and funny), large and loyal social media following, and transactional value: she is paid as much as £25,000 per Instagram post. She has a good story to tell and is selling a lifestyle as much as cleaning hacks.  

The direct opposite, in other words, of traditional business-to-business marketing with its focus on lead generation, long-term relationship building, rational decision-making, technical and industry-driven expert language, and specialist, even niche, audiences.   

So, it is no wonder that so many of us still associate influencing with TikTokers, Instagrammers, and YouTubers—the celebrity mega-influencers with millions of followers making viral videos in predominantly beauty, fashion, food, and drinks.   

From stuffy boardroom to influencer platform  

But a growing and crucial segment of the marketing world is business-to-business influencing, with enterprises selling to other companies and tapping into the seemingly unlimited opportunities social media offers.   

The global influencer market has more than doubled since 2019. In 2022, it was valued at a jaw-dropping $16.4 billion, research by Statista shows. And B2B influencer marketing alone was predicted to generate $11.7 billion by the end of 2022, with more than 38% of B2B companies exploring influencer marketing as a new lead-generation avenue. Seventy-one percent of B2B marketers interviewed in a 2022 survey said influencer marketing became critically important during the pandemic.  

Efforts to find the human story in B2B marketing are, of course, nothing new. Neither are attempts to personally influence people to change their behaviour. And while boardroom heavyweights might deny any similarities with the fashionable Mrs. Hinch, industry and business leaders have long been quoted in financial publications, written books, and spoken at events. Networkers sat on boards of myriads of companies and oiled introductions.   

In 1994 Joel Kurtzman, then editor-in-chief of the US magazine Strategy and Business, coined the term “thought leader”, describing it as a person who is recognised by peers, customers, and industry experts as someone who “deeply understands the business they are in, the needs of their customers and the broader marketplace in which they operate. They have distinctively original ideas, unique points of view, and new insights.”  

With the social media explosion and proliferation of communication channels, the term may have become jargonistic and slightly stale—let’s be honest, not everyone describing themselves as thought leaders offer original ideas, unique points of view, or new insights—but there is little doubt that thought leadership content influences the majority of buyers and can help brands win, retain and even grow customer business.   

Authentic, relatable, and a good story  

The 2019 Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study found that thought leadership is more powerful than marketers think, and B2B buyers are likely to pay more to work with companies who have clearly articulated their vision through thought leadership.   

But then it must be done well.  

Substance matters, the study found, with decision-makers disappointed if the content is not high quality.   

Today’s successful B2B influencer is no flash-in-the-pan and does not chase clicks or followers – after all, the aim is not to generate immediate sales, but to build brand awareness, generate demand leads, build trust, and educate. Therefore, these influencers are industry experts; a source of knowledge and advice whose opinion you can trust. They are authentic, relatable, and tell a good story.  

Take Bernard Marr, a calm, plain-dressing consultant, author, and business strategist—he has degrees in business, engineering and technology—who is so influential on social media that big brands such as Microsoft, IBM, Dell, Vodafone and Google want to partner with him. Two million people follow Marr on social media, and LinkedIn, where he has nearly 1,5 million followers, has called him one of the world’s top 5 B2B influencers. (It is worth noting that LinkedIn has positioned itself as the go-to forum for B2B influencers, adding “creator mode” and enabling newsletters.)  

Cut the fluff  

Marr’s newsletter alone has over a million subscribers, and he also creates customer videos, white papers, research reports, and other long-form content. There is no fluff in his offering: he specialises in new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.   

Not every business can afford a Marr though—and as brilliant as he may be, even Marr is not the right fit for every company or campaign. As LinkedIn’s Steve Kearns explains in his blog, B2B influencers often have a much smaller but more targeted following that B2C influencers. You do not need a big name or a star—you want someone who can tell a good, credible story, understands your niche, and reaches your target audience.   

Besides, influencers can take many forms: an employee or customer can amplify your unique selling points and strengths on social media. Peer opinions count more than glitzy campaigns and, if done well, will make you stand out.   

 You (and us) sell you best   

Ultimately, though, you are your own best influencer and brand ambassador. You know your product and what makes it unique. You can tell your story best and showcase your expertise, whether it is in thought leadership, explainers, newsletters, blogs, or podcasts. You know who your audience is, and you can foster your connection with them.  

But you need a plan with clear goals, creativity, and more time than any busy senior executive has (according to a profile in Bloomberg, Marr spends a third of his working hours on social media content creation). While everyone has a good story to tell, not everybody knows how to tell their story well. 

But they can, with the right partners. I get to work every day with a team of specialists, including some of the best writers I have come across in over three decades—who know what is relatable and how to connect people to their audience.  

Unlike Mrs Hinch, I have lost my enthusiasm for scrubbing kitchen sinks and I have never taken to the karate-chopped cushion. But I love polished words, organised thoughts, and crisp copy without a hint of fluff. Don't you?