LinkedIn is one of the largest and most comprehensive B2B networking platforms. Businesses and professionals connect on this platform to discuss new industry trends, share experiences, and grow their professional journeys. 

LinkedIn’s rich community of leaders, decision-makers, and professionals makes it an ideal platform for B2B influencer marketing. 

In fact, LinkedIn has its own program called “LinkedIn Top Voices” for various categories that identify and acknowledge top LinkedIn influencers. So, if you want to build a strong B2B influencer marketing campaign for your brand, LinkedIn is one of the best places to get started. 

In this article, we will cover everything you need to know to build your first LinkedIn influencer marketing programs for B2B brands. 

Why LinkedIn is the Best Platform for B2B Influencer Marketing

LinkedIn stands out for B2B influencer marketing for not one but many reasons.

User base

LinkedIn is a professional networking site. If your target audience consists of executives, leaders, and decision-makers, you’ll most likely find them here. 

Targeted reach

LinkedIn offers advanced filtering options so you can target your audience based on their job titles, industry, company size, demographics, regions, etc. 

Engaging content format

LinkedIn allows users to create content in various formats—text, video, live events, images, and carousels. Influencers can create content in multiple formats to engage with their users, and you can benefit from that when they create content for your brand.

Build credibility and thought leadership

The platform encourages sharing original content with a unique point of view, helping brands build their credibility and thought leadership. 

Networking capabilities

Creating regular content and engaging with the target audience is the key to building a strong network on the platform. Additionally, the platform has built-in capabilities that encourage professionals to expand their network base.

Lead generation

LinkedIn is a highly effective lead-generation channel. Creating regular and authentic content can help brands attract potential customers and drive conversions for their B2B business.

Benefits of LinkedIn Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands

If you’re a B2B business not leveraging LinkedIn influencer marketing, you’re surely missing out. 

Brand awareness

LinkedIn influencers are industry experts, prominent brands, thought leaders, subject matter experts, and well-known professionals whose views and opinions are respected in the industry. So, when you identify them and collaborate with the right influencers, you can increase the chance of your brand’s visibility on LinkedIn. 

“Partnering with LinkedIn influencers has significantly expanded our reach and credibility in the journaling space. For instance, collaborating with an influencer in the productivity niche led to a 40% increase in our website traffic and a notable uptick in our lead generation efforts.” —--Karen Chen, Manager, Journaling Supplies

Building trust and credibility

LinkedIn influencers are well-known brands or professionals who already have built a network that trusts their voice. So, when you partner with these influencers, and they talk about your brand organically, it helps build trust and credibility.

“LinkedIn influencer marketing has been instrumental in building trust quickly with healthcare professionals and potential clients. When respected figures in our industry share their positive experiences or insights about VMeDX, it lends immediate credibility. This kind of endorsement helps us engage with our audience more effectively than traditional marketing methods. It's especially valuable in the medical field, where trust is crucial, and decisions often rely on peer recommendations.” —-- Dr. Gregory Gasic from VMeDx.

Driving traffic to the website

When the content the influencers create resonates with their audience, which is also your target audience, you will naturally see a jump in your website traffic. Since these audiences are already familiar with your brand and offering, there will be higher chances for conversion.

How to Find the Right LinkedIn Influencers for Your Brand

Finding the right influencer to collaborate with your brand is crucial for the success of your influencer marketing campaign. Here’s a step-by-step guide to finding your brand's LinkedIn influencer.

Define your target audience

Defining your target audience is important to identify the right influencers for your brand. Who are these ICPs? Are they marketing managers, sales heads, or C-level executives? 

What are their preferences, interests, and things they care about most? Once you have sketched a clear picture of your target audience, you will get closer to identifying your influencer with a similar target audience and can easily communicate your brand message. 

Search for the right match

Once you have defined your target audience, it’s time to research potential influencers on LinkedIn. 

Using LinkedIn Search

Use LinkedIn's search feature to find the right influencer profile. Enter your target influencer keyword in the search field. You can refine your search by adding filters such as location, area, country, etc. 

Joining LinkedIn Groups

You may also join relevant LinkedIn groups, which are like small communities of professionals within a particular niche, and engage with the active contributors. 

Search for Top Voice

Another way to look for influencers on LinkedIn is to look for the Top Voice batch. LinkedIn rewards top contributors and most active voices on its platform across industries. 

Shortlist the influencer

Now that you have found some influencers, it’s time to shortlist them. Sieve through their content, engagement rates, and audience demographics to ensure they align with your ICP. Do not just go by the follower numbers; also consider the authenticity of their content, engagement with their audience, relevance to the industry, and so on. 

Once you have shortlisted the influencers, it's time to contact them to gauge their interest in collaborating with your brand and whether they align with your brand’s messaging. 

Let Phyllo help you!

While all the above tasks may sound easy, doing it practically may be a herculean task! If you’re considering working with multiple influencers or building your influencer database, you must invest time and resources to find the right influencers. 

That’s where Phyllo’s LinkedIn Creator Search API comes in to discover and vet LinkedIn influencers. 

With Phyllo’s API, you can easily access identity data and verify the creator's identity and profile data. 

With this API, you can access over 50+ data fields and instantly access a creator’s profile information. You can also analyze their growth trends to understand how their followers, subscribers, and views are growing and decide if you want to work with this influencer. Additionally, the API gives you access to the creator's audience demographics data. 

Best Practices for Collaborating with LinkedIn Influencers 

Here are some best practices to follow while collaborating with LinkedIn influencers that will help you to get the most out of your campaign and lead to successful collaboration. 

Choose the right influencer

To get the maximum benefit out of the collaboration, find and collaborate with the right LinkedIn influencers who already have your potential customers in their network. That way, the partnership content you create reaches your target audience. 

‍As Karen mentions,

“For successful collaborations, we prioritize aligning with influencers who genuinely resonate with our brand values. ‍Clear communication and setting mutual goals from the outset have proven essential. Additionally, co-creating content ensures that the influencer’s authentic voice shines through, making it more relatable to their audience.” 

Clear communication

Setting clear expectations and having clear and transparent communication throughout the partnership helps get the most out of an influencer partnership campaign.

“For successful collaborations, clear communication is key. We ensure that both parties have aligned goals and understand each other’s expectations from the outset. Providing influencers with creative freedom allows them to convey our message authentically. Regular check-ins and feedback sessions help us stay on track and make necessary adjustments to our strategy.”

Use tools for potential influencers’ discovery

When you’re working with a handful of influencers, it's okay to manually search for them across LinkedIn and reach out to them for a partnership. 

But as you scale up and use influencer marketing strategies as one of the primary marketing channels, you will need to invest in influencer search tools like Phyllo API to find the right creators, analyze their profiles, track their engagement, and analyze their growth trends. 

Measuring the Success of Your LinkedIn Influencer Marketing Campaigns

Finding the right influencer and running a campaign on LinkedIn is not enough. You need to measure the performance and track the key indicators to determine whether the campaign is on the right track. 

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Focus on key indicators like engagement, lead generation, and conversions. Analyzing these key metrics can help you understand how the collaboration is going and how you can optimize it for maximum impact. 

Some of the key metrics to track: 

• Engagement metrics like, share, and comments
• Reach and impressions to understand if the campaign is reaching the right audience
• Monitor the follower growth of your brands 
• Use tools like Google Analytics to track visitor influx to your website
• Track sales and conversions from your influencer’s promo codes, affiliate links, and landing pages
• Calculate overall ROI by comparing the total cost of the campaign with the total revenue generated from the camping

How Phyllo Can Help Streamline Your LinkedIn Influencer Marketing Efforts

If you’re starting with LinkedIn influencer marketing efforts, Phyllo’s API for Identity and Engagement can simplify the discovery and management of influencers, providing real-time data and insights. 

The Phyllo API identity gives you instant access to the creator's identity data to easily verify the creator's identity and profile and get deep insights into their fan following and reputation. 

Phyllo API engagement gives instant access to engagement data such as likes, views, reach, and impressions. The Phyllo API has over 50 data fields and frequently updates engagement data, giving you real-time data access. 

Are you Ready for LinkedIn Influencer Marketing? 

If you’re a B2B brand, you can benefit greatly from LinkedIn influencer marketing. By connecting with the right influencers and adopting the right approach and strategy, you can present your brand in front of the decision-makers. If you’re unsure how to find the right influencer, Phyllo API is here to guide you in picking the right influencers. 

Schedule a call today. 

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