10 Mistakes to Avoid in Your B2B Influence Marketing Campaigns

What’s Inside This Post:

• Focusing Solely on Selling at Any Price
• Only Thinking Short-Term
• Prioritizing Subscriber Count Above All Else
• Only Working With "Big" Influencers
• Forgetting to Analyze Campaign Results
• Not Involving Your Employees
• Setting Up Too Short a Timeline
• Not Respecting the Influencer's Creative Codes
• Hiding the Partnership
• Underestimating Your Budget

‍

Running an effective B2B influencer marketing campaign on social networks isn't easy, especially for companies just starting out. Many businesses dive into influencer marketing without understanding its fundamental principles, leading to wasted budgets and disappointing results.

Common questions we hear:

• What budget should we allocate to influencer marketing?
• Which B2B influencers should we contact?
• What strategy should we implement for maximum ROI?

Whether you're in B2C or B2B, influence marketing is not something to take lightly. In this comprehensive guide, we'll answer these critical questions and help you avoid the costliest mistakes in B2B influencer campaigns.

‍

Understanding B2B Influence Marketing

First, let's establish the foundation: A B2B influence campaign relies on the reputation of industry experts, commonly called "opinion leaders" or KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders), to promote a brand, product, or service.

These experts have genuinely engaged communities, primarily on LinkedIn, the world's leading professional social network. They position themselves as prescribers because, based on their professional experiences, their communities consider them authentic experts in their respective fields.

Want to understand this strategy better? Start by learning what makes a B2B influencer effective by reading our complete guide on what is a B2B influencer, their definition, role, and business impact.

Now, let's explore the main mistakes to avoid when launching your B2B influencer marketing campaign.

‍

1. Focusing Solely on Selling at Any Price

Generally, B2C influencer campaigns have the primary objective of driving immediate product sales. In B2B, the goals are fundamentally different and more strategic.

B2B influencer marketing essentially aims to:

• Increase company reputation and brand awareness
• Disseminate relevant thought leadership messages
• Position your organization around specific expertise and know-how
• Highlight your company's unique capabilities

Businesses, unlike individual consumers, aren't just looking for a service—they want to build solid relationships with credible professionals who can support their reputation in specific industries.

This is why a B2B influence campaign must be co-created with influencers around captivating, impactful stories that arouse emotion within their communities and generate meaningful engagement.

Forget excessive product promotion with discount codes distributed to anyone interested. That's not how B2B decision-makers make purchasing decisions.

It's imperative that your audience—or rather, the influencer's audience—remembers the story you tell. The narrative must resonate deeply enough that prospects decide on their own to move to the next stage of the conversion funnel.

Case in Point:

Inès Sivignon, our agency's expert web editorial influencer, explained to Stellar during their white paper launch last January:

"Today, it's no longer enough to extol the merits of a product to sell. Just as it's no longer sufficient to promote an article to generate influencer marketing success. Consumers no longer buy a product or service—they buy an experience, a transformation."

‍

2. Only Thinking Short-Term

Short-term influencer collaborations may seem attractive at first due to lower costs. However, engaging with a B2B influencer over the long term leads to far more authentic and genuine relationships.

Why long-term partnerships work better:

• Your brand gains more exposure and visibility over time
• Repeated mentions by an influencer build credibility with their community
• The more an influencer discusses a particular brand, the more credible their endorsement becomes
• Influencers have more time to immerse themselves in your brand and develop creative content ideas
• Long-term relationships generate significantly higher engagement and conversion rates

Real Success Story:

Amélie Favre-Guittet, our label's HR influencer, has collaborated with Edenred France for 10 months. Through her posts, Amélie reveals Edenred's solutions for remote work and their mobility ticket offerings.

Amélie genuinely aligns with Edenred's values and vision. Additionally, Edenred trusts her with creative freedom for content creation. As a result, Amélie's LinkedIn community welcomed this collaboration enthusiastically, increasing Edenred's visibility, reputation, and credibility through consistent, recurring content.

‍

‍

3. Prioritizing Subscriber Count Above All Else

"You need a certain number of followers to get customers" is a dangerous myth.

Many businesses on LinkedIn (and other social networks) obsessively chase follower counts. The idea that you must acquire a specific number of subscribers to be taken seriously has been popular for years, especially when launching your brand.

However, we firmly believe that subscriber quality trumps quantity.

In our experience, dramatically increasing subscriber numbers should never be a primary objective in your LinkedIn influence campaigns.

Why follower count isn't everything:

A company with 10,000 followers may appear "credible" at first glance. However, if your publications and content generate zero engagement, you'll lose all credibility in your prospects' eyes. The LinkedIn algorithm will notice this lack of engagement and stop promoting your content.

The smarter approach:

Through your influencer collaborations, ensure that professionals want to follow your page because they're genuinely interested in your actions, values, and industry insights. Create authentic connections with them before they even click "follow" so they become truly committed to your brand.

‍

4. Only Working With "Big" Influencers

Many companies want to work exclusively with macro-influencers—those with massive communities sometimes numbering hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Don't overlook the power of nano and micro-influencers.

Because of their smaller, more focused communities, these influencers maintain much more intimate relationships with their subscribers. Working with a nano or micro-influencer is often a safer bet for B2B brands because their engagement rates are typically higher than influencers with larger follower counts.

You'll see encouraging results immediately. These influencers are generally very active, confident in their expertise, and their communities can more easily identify with their authentic perspectives.

Case Study:

Benoit Perreau is a B2B micro-influencer for our label and an expert in disability inclusion. His community consists of 9,000 people, but his engagement rate on LinkedIn is 7%—substantially higher than influencers with much larger communities. (An engagement rate above 1% on LinkedIn is considered "good.")

His community is extremely committed and more receptive to the messages he communicates, making every collaboration highly effective.

Ready to find the right influencer for your campaign? Discover proven strategies by exploring our complete guide on how to find a B2B influencer on LinkedIn.

You may also be interested in checking out our free eBook on the Types of Influencers in B2B Marketing.

‍

5. Forgetting to Analyze Campaign Results

Analyzing results and statistics from your influence campaigns is crucial for determining campaign effectiveness relative to your established goals.

This process allows you to:

1. Assess your company's ability to achieve its objectives
2. Evaluate whether you obtained the best possible results with the resources invested

A performance indicator (KPI) must be associated with a specific objective. The more KPIs you track, the more goals you're pursuing—or potentially, your goals aren't specific enough. In the latter case, you may miss achieving your true ambitions.

Key Performance Indicators for B2B Influencer Campaigns:

Campaign Reach Metrics:

• Impressions before, during, and after the campaign
• Engagement rate trends
• Website traffic generated
• Follower growth

Essential questions to answer:

• How many followers does the influencer have?
• What is their typical engagement rate?
• Do they have an actively engaged community?
• How many people viewed the influencer's posts?
• What was your follower count before and after the campaign?

Campaign Engagement Metrics:

LinkedIn provides numerous indicators including:

• Number of clicks
• Likes and reactions
• Shares and reposts
• Video views
• Comments and conversations

These indicators are essential for understanding whether the content posted by the influencer resonates with their community and drives meaningful action.

‍

‍

6. Not Involving Your Employees

As you may know, employee advocacy—a strategy imported from the United States—has been rapidly growing in France in recent years.

We firmly believe that your employees are your best brand ambassadors.

By becoming your advocates on social networks, your employees allow you to multiply the impact of your digital communication strategy tenfold.

Employee advocacy offers enormous potential for:

• Acquiring qualified prospects, customers, and candidates
• Gaining credibility and visibility on LinkedIn
• Reducing costs of your digital communication strategy
• Positioning your company as a market expert
• Strengthening your employer brand to recruit top talent
• Improving overall brand image
• Engaging and involving employees through trust and empowerment

Learn more about this powerful strategy by discovering why LinkedIn is the essential network for your employer brand by reading our comprehensive guide.

‍

7. Setting Up Too Short a Timeline

A successful influencer campaign requires adequate time. The more prepared and planned in advance, the easier it is to work on original, high-quality concepts.

Influencer campaigns generally coincide with commercial calendars. When actions follow sales objectives, campaigns must respect embargoes related to product releases or align with important company milestones.

Best practice: Contact opinion leaders early enough to plan their content in accordance with their editorial calendars (which are often written several weeks in advance).

Rushing the process compromises content quality and authentic storytelling—two critical elements of B2B influencer success.

‍

‍

8. Not Respecting the Influencer's Creative Codes

The influencer is, above all, a content creator.

Make sure to grant them creative freedom—the influencer's tone, environment, spontaneity, and personality are what unite their community and make them valued on social networks.

Don't define overly specific rules at the risk of displeasing their community and causing engagement rates to plummet.

If your campaign brief is too rigid and detailed, the content produced by the influencer will seem inauthentic, and you won't reach your goals. Trust the influencer's expertise in understanding what resonates with their audience.

Want to see what great B2B influencer content looks like? Get inspired by exploring proven content formats by reading our article on what types of content B2B influencers post on LinkedIn.

‍

9. Hiding the Partnership

Transparency is essential for any influence campaign.

Today, consumers are more demanding and more aware of the personalities they follow. They place high importance on the relevance and authenticity of partnerships established by influencers with brands.

To create authentic partnerships based on trust, there's nothing better than opting for long-term collaborations with influencers.

Additionally, keep in mind that each partnership must be clearly identified as sponsored content. Transparency is what allows influencer marketing to be structured, opinion leaders to become professional, brands to be reassured, and audiences to be properly informed.

Transparency is non-negotiable in B2B influencer marketing.

‍

10. Underestimating Your Budget

It's critical to allocate a budget for your influence strategy that aligns with your defined objectives.

Be aware that everything comes at a cost:

• Influencer compensation
• Shipping costs for product samples or gifts
• Content production expenses
• Travel and event costs
• Strategy development and campaign management

The budget for an influence campaign depends on:

• The objectives you've established
• The size and scope of the campaign
• The influencer(s) you're considering
• The engagement rates of selected influencers

One of the primary factors in pricing is the influencer's engagement rate. The higher the engagement rate, the higher the cost—but also the higher the potential ROI.

It's essential to determine in advance the budget you can allocate to a LinkedIn influence campaign and adapt your objectives accordingly.

Before launching your campaign, make sure you understand the complete process by learning the 5 steps to launch a successful B2B influencer marketing campaign on LinkedIn.

‍

Ready to Launch a Winning B2B Influencer Campaign?

Avoiding these 10 common mistakes will put you ahead of most companies attempting B2B influencer marketing on LinkedIn. But knowing what not to do is only half the battle—executing a successful campaign requires expertise, established influencer relationships, and strategic planning.

At Les Années Folles, we've perfected the art of B2B influencer marketing through years of successful campaigns for clients across industries. Our network of vetted LinkedIn influencers, proven content strategies, and data-driven approach deliver measurable results:

✓ Higher engagement rates than industry averages
✓ Authentic partnerships that resonate with professional audiences
✓ Long-term collaborations that build genuine brand credibility
✓ Transparent reporting so you always know your ROI

Don't let these common mistakes derail your B2B influencer marketing success.

Partner with Les Années Folles and leverage our expertise to create campaigns that truly move the needle for your business.

Want to see what success looks like? View real campaign results by exploring our case studies featuring clients who avoided these mistakes and achieved remarkable ROI.

‍

Contact Les Années Folles today and let's discuss how we can help you build brand awareness, generate qualified leads, and position your company as an industry leader through strategic B2B influencer marketing.

‍

‍