In B2B, influencer marketing takes on a different look

B2B influencer marketing must be built for longer sales cycles and niche audiences. Learn how to make sustainable brand creation through strategic partnerships.

By Mike Pastore,
Head of Content & Media
Published on October 15, 2026

Table of Contents

When you say “influencer marketing, everyone from marketers to consumers draws an immediate image in their mind. A creator on video talks fast as quick cuts move from influencer to product and back at blinding speed.

It’s a strategy that is effective in B2C because of short sales cycles, products that are easy to explain and demonstrate, and marketers who fawn over the 18- to 35-year-old demographic, which devours social media.

Most B2B marketing organizations are still trying to figure out how to get in on the influencer game. They deal in longer sales cycles, niche audiences, and let’s face it, you can’t exactly deploy a customer data platform in front of a mirror while your phone records the action.

There is some evidence that B2B brands are exploring creator video in an effort to establish credibility and capture the attention of LLMs. But unlike B2C, where agencies and teams specializing in influencer marketing have databases to match creators and brands, most B2B firms are stuck on where to get started.

B2B has no direct response playbook

The biggest differentiator between B2C and B2B influencers is the lack of a direct-response playbook.

In B2C, influencer marketing uses the numbers game to power direct-response plays. B2C brands can find creators with the most followers or the most reach and run a commission-based sales play.

B2B needs an entirely different playbook. Increasingly, that playbook looks more like long-term partnerships than affiliate relationships, Larissa Williams, managing director, communications at Directive, told MarTech.

Directive created a five-step framework called InfluencerOS, which it uses to help B2B marketing teams ramp up influencer marketing with strategies tailored to their unique needs.

Directive’s framework starts with employee and customer advocacy. As companies move along the maturity curve, they move on to creators and eventually to analysts. The most mature programs develop advisory councils that extend beyond their own customers.

The B2B influencers your brand already knows

Employee and customer advocacy add authenticity and credibility for B2B organizations. Unlike influencer programs, where someone is paid to say nice things and then moves on to another brand when the contract expires, customers pay brands to use their products. They’re invested. The same goes for employees.

“Your employee programs are the No. 1 resource that you can activate quickly,” Williams said.

Directive’s framework demystifies and de-risks influencer marketing for B2Bs, but there are organizational issues that need to be addressed by companies that want to get started. For example: who in the marketing organization owns influencer marketing?

In many cases, Williams said, influencer marketing sits on someone’s plate alongside several other responsibilities. It’s most often someone in brand marketing or on the communications team. But it could also live in customer marketing.

“I have yet to come across a dedicated, full-time influencer person in these organizations,” she said.

Measuring influencer marketing in B2B

Without the direct-response model of B2C marketing, B2B marketers will face challenges in measuring — and therefore justifying — their spend on influencer programs.

Williams suggests using a total addressable market (TAM) to help marketing teams move away from direct response. Marketers can measure the percentage of the TAM they’ve had a conversation with before and after the program, which is more powerful than pointing to clicks or traffic.

Some level of marketing maturity is recommended before B2B brands dive too deeply into influencer marketing. The team needs to have people in certain roles, have access to data, and have an idea of their TAM, for example.

Williams said teams that haven’t reached diminishing returns on their demand-capture channels, such as Google and paid social, are likely too early for influencer programs. But she also believes companies that are hyper-focused on their RevOps and MOps, running like well-oiled machines, are missing out.

“You should spend more on brand creation,” she said. “[Influencer marketing] is brand creation.” Influencer programs also need to be activated with capital. Williams said her rule of thumb is “never start a new channel with less than $20K.”

Once funded, let the influencer program run for two times the length of the sales cycle, because the first sales cycle will be spent figuring things out as you go.

Williams predicts that in three years we’ll see dedicated headcount for B2B influencers on B2B marketing teams. She also expects more content creators in the B2B space making it their livelihood.

But as for today, most B2B brands have a long way to go. When asked which of the five steps in Directive’s framework most B2B brands are at, Williams was blunt.

“They are in the basement, up to their waist in water,” she said.

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