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What is a BtoB influencer?

You have certainly recognized this description of a new web job. He is obviously an influencer.

For the past decade, these content creators have been supporting advertisers to help them communicate properly on social platforms.

All sectors are concerned:

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• The beauty
• Fashion
• The sport
• The tech
• Well-being...

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Recently, the professional environment has also been developing this form of communication.

BtoB influencers play the same role as their BtoC colleague but there are some particularities to take into account.

Who are these content creators whispering in the ears of decision-makers? What are they talking about on their social networks?

Which companies carry out BtoB influence marketing in France?

In this article we shed some light on this rapidly developing sector.

Who are the influencers in BtoB influencer marketing?

BtoB influencers are professionals who have been working in their profession for about fifteen or even twenty years.

To share their know-how, they mainly started on LinkedIn.

Over the years, their words have taken on more and more space. These professionals have become experts in their field. They are recognized in their specialty and are now considered opinion leaders.

Their audience is following their message with interest to learn and learn about the influencer's favorite subject.

These speeches may concern themes such as management, HR, commerce or even social media.

Examples of BtoB influencers

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Jean Pascal Mollet/Linkedin Influencer

On LinkedIn, these influencers are followed by tens, even hundreds of thousands of people.

They publish on a daily basis and their posts are appreciated by hundreds of users.

For example, Jean Pascal Mollet, sales coach, is followed by more than 100,000 people on LinkedIn.

He publishes posts daily: on Mondays, it's to thank one of his customers, the other days of the week, it's to animate his community and share some stories with him. The proof with this one:

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Messages that make people react: 151 likes and 50 comments and over 30,000 views in just 48 hours

It is one of the most viewed accounts in the “Sales, E-Commerce and Management in France” category on Linkedin.

To support this success, the content creator is now surrounded by The Roaring Twenties label.

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Dimitri Ribal/Linkedin Micro Influencer

The influence agency also works with Dimitri Ribal, social media manager in Btob.

On LinkedIn, he enjoys creating creative content for his more than 24,000 subscribers.

Original publications that give the platform a slightly more dynamic side or “advice” content to excel as an entrepreneur, for example.

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Dynamic Content by Dimitri reaching 650,000 people‍

“Given the enthusiasm, I hope that this will push creators with motion design capabilities to offer content in this style on LinkedIn,” he details in comments.

Other users on the social network are very successful.

It is also possible to cite Amélie Favre Guittet, which also evolves within the Label The Roaring Twenties.

She posts every 2-3 days on LinkedIn. The influencer has come up with different types of content to discuss HR issues with her community.

Amélie posts “battles of the day”, polls, reports directly every week or even shares white papers.

More than 200,000 people follow her on the platform.

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At the beginning of the year, his work was recognized by LinkedIn.

She was named”Linkedin TOP VOICES Job 2021”.

Some of the influencers on the social network are in this ranking*.

Among these personalities, it is possible to find journalists, consultants, consultants, coaches, business managers or even employees within a company. Like Amélie Favre Guittet, they are followed for their expertise and the messages they convey to their community.

Influencers on LinkedIn France

In a recent study conducted by CMIT and Faber Content, 77% of BtoB influencers are on LinkedIn.

The platform brings together 22 million registered accounts in France. 2.2 million people consult their profiles at least once a day.

At the same time, 86% of them use Twitter. 81.8% of them consider themselves to be a content creator, i.e. they imagine posts for social networks.

18.2% are content curators. They relay information found on various sites to help their subscribers keep an eye out. Their opinions are now becoming valuable for businesses.

A communication strategy with a BtoB influencer, but why?

As we saw earlier, influencers on LinkedIn are followed by thousands of people. Their posts have enormous visibility on the platform and can reach professionals from all sectors, and more specifically decision-makers. When an advertiser uses their services, they want above all to have a return on investment. “Concretely, what will the publication of an influencer bring me?” is certainly one of the questions they get asked the most.

Various data will allow him to know the impact of this type of work:

• The engagement rate
• The number of shares
• The number of views
• The clicks (Tracked links)
• Community feedback
• Reading time
• the number of sales...

By analyzing these various metrics, it is easy to realize that by turning to the right brand ambassador, the ROI of the campaign will be good.

It will be even 11 times greater to what the business could have with traditional advertising.

In recent studies, consumers also shared their opinions on this new form of communication.

82% of them are very attentive to recommendations from micro and nano-influencers, i.e. people with less than 100,000 followers on social networks.

With regard to the BtoB environment, 91% of managers interviewed by LinkedIn believe that the social network is the best platform for finding interesting content.

Faced with such results, companies therefore have every interest in considering a BtoB campaign.

This type of partnership will be essential to reach a specific professional target and encourage them to discover their service and/or product.

In addition to wanting to generate traffic, the advertiser will also be able to benefit from a production 100% designed for social networks. The BtoB influencer with whom he will work, knows how to interest his community, he does it daily.

Communication with these future customers will be more appropriate and will receive better visibility.

Gain visibility, fame and reputation

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With the health crisis, visibility is the key today. The French have become accustomed to staying at home and scanning social networks for a little longer. Above all, they want to get rid of the traditional media and their lots of bad news.

In a study conducted by LinkedIn France with the Institut du CSA In March 2020, among 1002 French people aged 18 and over, users explained why they visited the platform more during lockdown:

• 33% wanted to keep in touch with their professional contact,
• 25% wanted to stay informed about the activity of their company or sector,
• 24% found it to be a perfect tool for planning virtual meetings,
• 23% used it to organize their work with colleagues more easily.

The social network is both a work tool and a way to keep up to date with trends and developments in your sector. To reach these professionals, advertisers have every interest in turning to the application and imagining new forms of communication.

To gain popularity more quickly, influencers are the solution: they are used to being listened to and know how to express themselves to attract the attention of an audience. Another advantage is that they generally have among their subscribers the people you want to talk to.

To interest this professional target group on LinkedIn, advertisers like to turn to content creation. In the CMIT study, 23.9% found this strategy to be the most appropriate.

For TopRank, BtoB influencers explain that 79% of the most requested action is publishing on social networks.

With this type of collaboration, brands will be able to achieve three specific objectives:

• gain notoriety: the thousands of influencer subscribers will see the publication.
• generate traffic; by adding a link to the post and a call to action, the influencer will be able to refer their community to an external page.
• gain credibility: by surrounding himself with an expert, the advertiser will gain the trust of his subscribers and his future customers.

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Influencers who become the image of the brand

Influencers will become ambassadors of the company and will be the image of the brand to a targeted audience. Recently, the BtoB influencer Roseline Laloupe collaborated alongside a company, RH Performances.

The content creator wrote a post, which you can find just below, inviting her community to sign up for a webinar.

“As an HR influencer, my mission is to highlight a brand, a concept, a company. Recently, that's what I did with this post that I wrote on LinkedIn to talk about diversities. I highlighted this firm, RH Performances, because I find it interesting to highlight companies that stand out from the crowd,” she explained at the start of the online conference.

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While in France, BtoB influencer marketing campaigns are beginning to emerge, they have already been well established in the United States for several years.

Agencies like TopRank have made it their specialty by imagining innovative content to promote the brand's expertise.

They support advertisers to gain visibility via BtoB influencers.

Among the campaigns that worked best, you can find several examples in This article.

It is possible to mention the one with Dell Technologies.

In 2019, the company wants to benefit from the popularity of certain influencers to imagine useful content for its customers.

The teams then turn to a podcast, hosted by these opinion leaders. The “Dell Luminaries” shows are hosted by two personalities: Mark Schaefer, social media marketing consultant, and Doug Karr, founder of Martech blog and expert in digital transformation.

In each episode, they interview brand collaborators to share their vision of the evolution of technology. The objective was also to embody these speeches with headliners known to all.

The podcast is still available on This page.

Another example still led by this agency is the one with Cherwell Software.

The company aimed to gain notoriety as a software provider and engagement through BtoB influencers.

Fifteen opinion leaders have been activated. Everyone came to create different content to increase brand visibility: blog articles, an ebook on IT service management 2020, organic content posted on social networks and paid social media.

Results: the ebook was viewed 170% more than usual and shared nearly 2,000 times.

This campaign represented 22% of all company prospects for the entire year. By embodying brand values, influencers have been able to attract new customers.

And in France, which companies use Btob influence marketing?

It can be a large group, an ETI or an SME and even a start-up.

Any business can use this marketing strategy.

Above all, they must set a goal with the agency and for the label to select the perfect credible influencer on its market capable of reaching the right persona.

Within the Les Années Folles label, the companies requesting the team are varied.

It can be a marketing tool or a sales solution, a large real estate group or even an anti-wave patch company.

Unlike BtoC influencer marketing, campaigns with a BtoB influencer require thought, time and strategy.

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It is necessary to work on the message to be conveyed to the senior managers who follow it in order to inform and/or train them correctly.

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