How to Scale B2B Influencer Marketing: Operations, Process and Technology

What do remote work and B2B influencer marketing have in common? They both started as experimental and misunderstood concepts, and now it seems like every brand is in it for the long run. Looking back to a marketing focus, nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in our 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report have mature influencer programs. This means they’ve moved beyond one-time collaborations and have established strategic, scalable, and measurable approaches. While both examples continue to shape business as we know it and scale, they require a structured approach to ensure sustained success and impact.

Scaling influencer programs requires more than just adding more budget and bringing in more influencers. It relies on operations, process improvements, and — last but not least — technology (and we’re not just talking about AI). 

Let’s take a closer look at how to optimize each of these areas for growth, pulling key findings from our 2025 B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report.

Building the foundation of a successful influencer program

A one-off influencer marketing campaign is like a bottle rocket — sure, it’ll draw some attention, but it fades fast. For sustained marketing success, an always-on program with ongoing, embedded partnerships should be utilized. Think of it like a firework show — constantly captivating at a grand scale, long-lasting, keeping the audience’s attention, and building excitement with a crescendo. 

Keeping with the firecracker metaphor, it’s easy to see why your Fourth of July celebration isn’t headlined by whimpering firecracker displays, much like successful influencer marketing campaigns aren’t headlined by one-off pilot programs. In fact, we found that 82% of the most successful teams use an always-on approach, leading to deeper trust and credibility, ongoing evergreen content, consistent engagement, and stronger influencer relationships over time. But an ongoing program isn’t a “set it and forget it” situation; it requires a structured team and the right technology to manage relationships at scale.

Continued reading: Always-On Influencer Marketing: What Is It and How Does It Work?

Building an influencer marketing team

Behind every great influencer marketing campaign is a talented team. Data shows that influencer marketing can reside in various departments—marketing, social media, public relations, or even customer service. While the structure of these programs may differ, one thing remains true: the most successful teams work together. And while job titles and responsibilities vary, the majority of successful teams consist of:

• • Influencer Manager – Builds relationships and manages influencer collaborations.
  • Influencer Strategist – Identifies influencers, aligns strategy, and measures performance.
  • Content Strategist – Oversees content creation and ensures alignment with brand messaging.
  • Social Media Manager – Manages content publishing and delivers in-depth social media performance insights
  • Analytics Manager – Tracks, analyzes, and optimizes influencer marketing performance

Do these titles exist at your organization? If you had to pick up the phone and find someone to assign these duties to, would you find someone with the time or expertise to execute and scale an influencer marketing program? 

Often, the answer is no. That’s why many businesses rely on internal teams to find an external agency. Our research found that brands that worked with agencies reported top benefits like time savings, expertise, and experience. Managing influencer programs internally is one thing; scaling them quickly while handling influencer relationships, contracts, and more is a completely different ballgame.

Optimizing processes for efficiency

How would you go about finding the perfect match for your B2B influencer marketing campaign? Would you Google something like “Top Supply Chain Expert” and hope for the best? Maybe try some hashtags or see who’s speaking at industry events. 

Once you find a prospective candidate, there’s still the task of determining whether they align with your goals, audience, and brand — if they offer quality content, good engagement, credibility, and are active. And if they’re a good fit, will they even respond? This process can feel like dating. It may not surprise you to learn that nearly half of marketers surveyed for our report ranked identifying, qualifying, and connecting with influencers as their top challenge.

This becomes an even more tedious task when scaling. That’s why so many marketers turn to agencies and influencer research tools to make the selection, vetting, and contact stages less difficult. 

These tools function like dating apps, offering vast databases of influencers with key information like audience demographics, engagement metrics, pricing, and campaign potential. They also help manage relationships so your email, social media, and phone communications stay organized. Tools like Traackr, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and various industry directories can help scale influencer identification. It should come as no surprise to learn that 52% of marketers use influencer management technology to streamline operations.

Once you’ve identified influencers, developing content is the next step. To increase the scope of your operation without compromising efficiency or quality, arming your influencers with creative briefs is key. At a bare minimum, these briefs should provide an overview of the campaign, content guidelines, goals, timelines, compliance details, and approval processes. 

These briefs allow you to stay focused while encouraging collaboration to make the content feel more authentic. With scaling comes not only expanding content production but growing the reach and output of campaigns. Most teams are doing this already, as we found that 53% of marketers integrate influencer content directly with brand messaging. At the end of the day, marketers should use the influencer content themselves; after all, they’re paying for it! 

Managing influencer communications at scale

Handling influencer communications and relationships at scale can feel like building long-term relationships with clients, but now you’re dealing with anywhere from 25-1000 individuals across several clients and campaigns, each with different goals, industries, timelines, time zones, and so on. Best practices for managing these relationships at scale include, but are not limited to:

• Templatized communication with a personal touch: Use templates for efficiency, but personalize them to maintain authenticity.
• Using a centralized communication tool (e.g., Traackr): Keep all communication and updates in one platform for the organization.
• Segmenting influencers: Categorize influencers by audience, engagement, and goals for better targeting.
• Regular check-ins and transparent communication: Schedule updates to stay aligned and address issues quickly.
• Relationship-building strategies for long-term partnerships: Build trust with value-added opportunities and appreciation for their work.
• Engaging on social media: Interact with influencers’ posts to show support and build rapport.
• Signing up for their newsletters: Stay updated on their latest content and deepen your connection.

Adopting these best practices early is crucial for success. Get into good habits early and reap the rewards.

Leveraging technology for scale

AI is everywhere right now, and for good reason. While it’s a topic that marketers (and professionals in every field) can’t ignore, you literally can’t spell influencer marketing without AI. Like in every other industry, AI shouldn’t replace processes; it should optimize them. Forty-four percent of B2B marketers report that using AI to expand and optimize influencer content is the most important emerging trend in B2B influencer marketing today. The use of AI in B2B influencer marketing doesn’t stop there—marketers have cited three key reasons for using AI:

• Influencer Identification – AI matches brands with the most relevant influencers.
• Performance Tracking – AI-powered insights optimize campaigns in real-time.
• Content Personalization – AI adapts messaging based on audience behavior.

Since influencer marketing is all about authenticity, it’s important to find the right balance of how often you use AI to help scale your business. When used responsibly, AI gives your team the time to focus on the human side of things like connecting with influencers and elevating content creativity.

47% of marketers have a clear understanding of how to use AI in their marketing strategy (Hubspot, State of Marketing Report 2025)

As your influencer marketing program scales, so do the KPIs you need to track. Measuring performance is crucial for sustained success. According to our survey, 47% of marketers struggle with measuring and reporting influencer ROI — this challenge will only grow at scale if not addressed properly. We recommend focusing on KPIs that provide a clear picture of the effectiveness of your B2B influencer marketing campaign and show how well influencers are performing in terms of engagement, conversion, and overall impact. Advanced brands track business impact through share of voice and lead generation and use this data to make data-driven decisions.

Track the correlation between brand investment, movements in pipeline and closed-won deals, taking into account the length of your buying cycle.

Continued reading: Generative AI in B2B Influencer Marketing: New Data and Trends

Overcoming scaling challenges in influencer marketing

The majority of marketing teams have funds allocated for B2B influencer marketing programs, and 53% of our respondents reported that their budgets are growing. Notably, those in the C-suite were more likely (76%) than any other role to report that their influencer marketing budget was growing. Elsewhere, LinkedIn’s 2024 B2B Marketing Benchmark found that 61% of B2B leaders say they will increase spend on influencer content in the near future. 

These numbers indicate that influencer marketing is being recognized as a viable strategy for marketers at all levels. However, there are still a number of challenges, especially when scaling, including additional funding for:

• Technology (43%) – Investing in tools that streamline influencer management.
• Research & Audience Analysis (43%) – Enhancing targeting and segmentation.
• Paid Amplification (31%) – Boosting influencer content for greater reach.

It’s worth noting that influencer marketing budgets tend to grow with maturity, so it’s expected that these challenges will be addressed as programs scale. Our report found that 72% of teams with the most advanced strategies have a dedicated budget that’s expected to grow in the coming year.

Additional challenges include:

• Content Ownership (36%) – Clear agreements on content rights, usage duration, and distribution are necessary to avoid confusion.
• Payment Terms (35%) – Clear payment structures are essential for timely and accurate compensation.
• Compliance (34%) – As influencer numbers grow, tracking FTC guidelines and other regulations becomes harder and requires better monitoring.

Best practices for managing influencer marketing at scale include standardizing contracts, automating payments, staying updated on compliance regulations, and providing ongoing training for influencers. It’s also essential to define content ownership and usage terms clearly in contracts and consult legal counsel to prevent issues as campaigns expand.

Continued reading: 2025 Influencer Marketing Budget Trends: Where B2B Marketers Are Investing and Why

The Future of scalable B2B influencer marketing

Scaling a B2B influencer marketing program takes more than just an additional budget. It demands structured operations, optimized processes, the right technology, and often the assistance of an external agency to advise and manage technology, relationship management, performance tracking, contracting, and more.