Tapping into new audiences to scale your business makes sense and influencers are a strategic way to do that. But how should you integrate influencers into your partner program strategy, how do you recruit them and how do you track success? Let’s dig in.
How B2B influencers fit into your partner program strategy
At the custom tools and no-code app building company Glide, Head of Experts, Brett Haralson manages a comprehensive partner program. It’s built of a small affiliate program and a growing experts program, which includes creators who can help clients build solutions while organically discussing the platforms.
“If they start trending on our social radar, we’re watching. If they start talking about Glide, we go and bring them in,” he says.
Why B2B influencers matter in existing partner programs
Integrating influencers into your partner program not only allows you to target specific audiences, but the right influencers can bolster credibility and brand awareness. For Glide's partner program, the goal is to push B2B influencers beyond their promotional skills as brand ambassadors to really leverage their relationships and develop them as strategic business partners.
The role of B2B influencers in partner ecosystems
Haralson reveals the affiliate model only makes up about five per cent of Glide’s partnerships revenue, while resellers and strategic partners round out the other 95 per cent.
So, he’s not invested in traditional influencers or creators who will simply talk about the product and share an affiliate link. The creators in his program are experts — people who have demonstrated platform experience and are able to create content that helps others be successful with Glide’s custom software down the line.
You might also like: Why your B2B company should be on TikTok.
Building authenticity and trust with B2B influencers
By bringing influencers that are already working with the product into their partner program, Glide is able to tap into a targeted segment with built-in trust. Working with a network of solution-builder specialists under their experts program has led to quality leads and a high conversion rate.
Where do B2B influencers fit in a partner program?
Influencers often fit somewhere between affiliate and expert tiers, and tend to be less integrated than other partner types like co-sell partners or integration partners. Depending on the types of influencers you’re targeting, you may bring them on to generate content and increase brand awareness.
However, in the B2B space you can also strategically position them to go beyond awareness to forge deeper partnerships with audiences you’ve been missing.
Affiliate influencers: Leveraging existing partner incentives
If you already have the structure in place for affiliate partners, integrating B2B influencers can be a minimal lift and an easy way to launch an influencer program. Before and during onboarding, ensure you align your goals, discuss the value and expectations of your partnership, and consider setting up a similar or modified commission structure based on performance, conversion and retention.
Co-branded content and thought leadership in partner marketing
Integrating joint content collaborations with B2B influencers and partners is another great way to target specific audiences and engage with target accounts. Bringing on expert influencers who easily use your service and can share that ease of use with others is an organic way to promote your product and bring in high quality leads.
Read more: Lead generation forms vs. deal registration and when to use each.
Partner training and enablement for B2B influencers
At Glide, Haralson is specifically interested in partnering with influencers who are already talking about their product to create educational content that informs their audience of the usefulness of their tool.
To do that, he ensures the partners within Glide’s experts program have all necessary assets and access ahead of a new launch or feature. This creates alignment and ascertains that the B2B influencers have a thorough understanding of how the company is positioning that launch in the market. Then, they can prep their content ahead of launch and Glide can leverage cross-promotion across various channels.
“We all fire on the same day, at the same time,” he says. “We all feed off each other and comment on each other’s content.”
How to onboard B2B influencers into your partner program
As when you’re launching a partnerships program, you want to ensure you’re identifying and targeting the right influencers for your program. You also want to establish a motivating incentive model, think about the easiest onboarding strategy and figure out how you’ll measure key metrics.
Selecting the right B2B influencers for your industry and niche
Glide has social monitoring tools in place to find and vet potential influencers for its experts program, although Haralson says he doesn’t have specific criteria for selecting new partners.
When onboarding influencers to your partner program, consider the types you want to work with:
- Industry thought leaders
- Affiliate marketers who can drive traffic
- Specialized reviewers
- Influencers with engaged communities and high follower counts
Remember that follower count isn’t the only consideration — engagement, authority and audience overlap are all important factors. Haralson also shares that he is open to influencers on a variety of platforms, including Instagram and LinkedIn.
See more: 10 partnership leaders to follow on LinkedIn.
Setting up performance-based compensation models
Glide’s program offers 20 per cent rev share on anything a partner sells for up to two years. However, compensation isn’t just a number in his program. He’s also interested in helping partners grow their businesses because it leads to mutual success.
“I have a running slogan in the experts community, which is I’m here to help them get a yacht,” he says. “If they can generate business and make their business better, I’m going to be better for it. So why would I not create mutual paths of success where we’re all tied together to win?”
Financial wins aren’t the only incentive for joining Glide’s experts program, either. Certified partners receive additional perks like access to private Slack channels, expert directories and early access to new products.
Providing resources and tools for successful partnerships
If you want your partners to be successful for you, you need to set them up for success with the right tools and resources. Haralson wants to make partnerships as easy as possible, which is why Glide has a specialized partner hub. There, partners can see upcoming releases, access marketing materials or use AI to generate social posts for them.
Optimizing B2B influencer partner program performance
A key reason to drive influencer partnerships is the built-in trust they come with. As such, it’s essential to integrate best practices for these types of partnerships in your program and to align your goals across the board.
Aligning brand messaging across partnerships
To maintain consistency in the positioning and execution of new products or launches, Haralson provides partners with access to plenty of tools and materials. However, just because he shares Glide’s approach doesn’t mean he is prescriptive with partners on how to do it. Instead, he encourages them to create organic material of their own while aligning with Glide’s overall approach.
Tracking performance of B2B influencer partnerships
Being able to track who is doing what and compensating them appropriately is an integral part of any influencer program. Glide recently tested providing influencers with a specific coupon code used only when people pay to use the service.
“I automatically map it and they immediately get paid out for it, which is incredible,” he shares. “It cost me nothing, but I can show you the revenue from just a handful of influencers using this. It’s trackable and I can see who’s doing what.”
Avoiding pitfalls in B2B influencer partner programs
While influencers can be a great way to scale business, develop meaningful partnerships and provide education on your company, it’s also important to manage compliance, expectations and overall program integration to foster continued success.
- Vet B2B influencers ahead of time and analyze their audiences to ensure your messages are properly aligned.
- Plan out an exciting incentive structure that goes beyond a basic commission to keep influencers engaged and motivated.
- Track KPIs and the overall quality of leads influencers provide and consider investing more into successful partnerships after a measured period of time.
- Create an easy onboarding process and establish clear guidelines and brand alignment.
Foster ongoing communication and feedback for the continued success of any partnerships program, including those leveraging B2B influencers.
The future of influencer integration in B2B
When it comes to overall influencer partnership programs, Haralson recommends looking at these partnerships as strategic business growth partners, rather than one-off promoters. By doing so you can create a community of platform advocates and build trust with expert-level content.
“Focus on growing your partners,” Haralson adds. “Partners, especially cultivated partners, are going to be the future.”
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