Influencer marketing programs for consumer brands are easy to manage, launch and measure. It’s easy to write about too. That’s why it gets so much media attention in Forbes, Adweek, Digiday, and others. It’s sexy.

For consumer brands, if you have a cool product with mass consumer appeal, there are thousands of influential consumers (called creators) that you can “hire” and activate through paid campaigns. Influencer agencies like Hypr, OpenInfluence, and Clever have access to thousands of influencers as a part of their opt-in influencer network. All you need is a good idea, a sizable budget and they’ll take care of the rest.

It’s not so easy for B2B and technology brands and for a lot of reasons. B2B buyers distrust marketing. Ignore sales. Don’t click on paid search results. Install ad blockers. And they never read a press release. Also, there is a lack of innovation with B2B influencer marketing platforms.Here’s a quick breakdown of the similarities and differences for consumer and B2B brand influencer programs:

Here a few articles that might help put brand influencer programs in context:

• How Researching B2B influencers Can Deliver Actionable Intelligence – MarketingLand
• B2B Decision Makers Are Tired of the Same Old Marketing – Adweek
• Planning Your B2B Marketing Strategy – LinkedIn
• The 1:9:90 Model: A New Approach To B2B Influencer Marketing – Forbes
• 2018: The year of influencer marketing for B2B brands – MarketingLand
• Creating Trust-Based Relationships with B2B Influencer Programs
• Activating B2B influencers across earned, owned, shared & paid media
• Video Podcast: How to Activate B2B Influencers Across All Media Channels
• Video Podcast: Influencer Analytics in 2020: Leading with Data + Research + Insights
• Video Podcast: Planning for Your B2B Influencer Marketing Program in 2020 

You may also find this white paper I wrote helpful, Scaled Influence: Winning the War of Brand Relevance B2B Influencer Marketing. This influencer marketing eBook will also give you more context on how to manage brand influencer marketing programs.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about influencer market programs or platforms. You can find me on Twitter or LinkedIn.