2019 saw the continued rise in influencer marketing’s power and scope in both B2C and B2B industries. This continued the explosion of interest in the practice over the past two years, and with more practitioners than ever going all-in, influencer marketing has been a primary focus of what we have explored on our blog throughout the year.
We’re lucky to have some of the strongest B2B influencer marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank Marketing blog, including our CEO Lee Odden, Ashley Zeckman, Joshua Nite, Caitlin Burgess, Anne Leuman, Nick Nelson, Tiffani Allen, Debbie Friez, the author of this post, and Alexis Hall, among others.
As an industry approaching $20 billion annually, influencer marketing is now far from a shiny new object to savvy marketers. The insight and expertise our team has acquired helping some of the top brands in the world including 3M, Adobe, SAP, LinkedIn, and Oracle plan, implement and measure influencer marketing programs has often made it here to our blog. To help our blog community grow their influencer marketing knowledge, we’re delighted to offer this list of our most popular influencer marketing posts of 2019.
Of course, collaborating with influencers is something we do daily for clients and ourselves, and influencer engagement has become even more central to our B2B content marketing solutions, alongside social media marketing, SEO, and online advertising.
The influencer marketing posts that proved to be our most popular of 2019 based on web analytics and social media data are listed below. We hope that they will help you ask the right questions and provide truly best-answer solutions to some of the most important challenges we’ll all be facing in 2020.
We give a giant thank you to Lee Odden, Ashley Zeckman, Josh Nite, Anne Leuman, and Caitlin Burgess for their work in advocating influencer marketing best practices.
In addition to the list below, we’ve published several popular influencer lists this year, and while we won’t place them on this list, we wanted to share them here as they’re a great way to find and follow some of the leading digital marketing influencers.
- The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers in 2019
- 50 Content Marketing Influencers and Experts to Follow 2019 #CMWorld
- 50 Top B2B Marketing Influencers, Experts and Speakers in 2019
Our Most Popular Influencer Marketing Posts in 2019:
1. 7 Top B2B Influencer Marketing Trends for 2020 — Lee Odden
Our CEO Lee wrote the most popular influencer marketing post of 2019 on our blog, exploring some of the most important and relevant trends to recognize for 2020.
Highlighting trends including influence artificial intelligence (AI), democratized influence, brandividual media, more engaging content, integration with martech, the consumerization of B2B influence and more, Lee took a powerful look at many of the influencer marketing trends that are likely to rise in 2020. Check out all of Lee’s 2,600+ posts here, and follow him on Twitter.
“Not staying on top of how the world of influencer marketing is evolving is simply leaving your customers open to the influence of your competition..” @LeeOdden Share on X2. Inspiring Examples of B2B Influencer Marketing in Action — Lee Odden
Lee also wrote our second most popular influencer marketing post of the year, offering up 10 inspiring examples of B2B influencer marketing in action, showing how B2B influencer marketing can help increase credibility by promoting to buyers using people they trust. Lee looked at how more B2B brands are realizing that while different than B2C, working with influencers in a business to business context represents a significant opportunity to create more credible content.
3. 5 Key Trends in B2B Influencer Marketing Plus Critical Do’s and Don’ts — Lee Odden
Offering an exploration of critical do’s and don’ts for B2B marketers, Lee also penned our third most popular influencer marketing article of the year, digging in to the world of micro and macro influencers, centralized influencer operations, always-on influencer engagement, a focus shift to both quality and quantity metrics, and the rise of influencer marketing software investment. Combined with five key trends to be aware of, this is an insightful look at the power of B2B influencer marketing when done right.
4. The Next Level of Influence: 30 Essential Influencer Marketing Statistics — Joshua Nite
In the fourth most popular influencer marketing post of 2019, our Senior Content Marketing Manager Josh shared 30 statistics to help take your influencer marketing to the next level — what we call Influence 2.0. Josh’s post is a great way to upgrade your influencer marketing and get ready for what comes next. Check out all of Josh’s posts here, and follow him on Twitter.
5. Why Always-On Is Always Better for Driving B2B Influencer Marketing Success — Caitlin Burgess
When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, always-on is always better, and in our fifth most popular influencer marketing post of the year, our Senior Content Marketing Manager Caitlin shares why strong relationships and always-on commitment to influencer marketing combine to help you refine, evolve, and scale your marketing efforts. Featuring seasoned influencer marketing leaders at B2B brands, Caitlin’s post reveals how at its core, influencer marketing is all about brands engaging and developing relationships with individuals — individuals who have relevant topical expertise, reach, and resonance that aligns with the goals of the brand. Check out all of Caitlin’s posts here, and follow her on Twitter.
Companies should approach influencers as partners, not just as people that they can use for their marketing efforts and launches. - @AmishaGandhi #B2BInfluencerMarketing Share on X6. 5 Essential Questions to Guide Your B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy — Ashley Zeckman
Our Senior Director of Digital Strategy Ashley Zeckman answered five common questions about influencer marketing in our sixth most popular post of the year, with answers and insight including:
• What is B2B influencer marketing?
• How effective is it?
• How can I get leadership to buy in?
• Short-term gain or long-term reward?
• Who are the right influencers for your brand?
Ashley explored how each influencer type holds a different value for your audience and your brand, and how finding your right influencer mix means the right tactics, the right topics and the right experts. Check out all of Ashley’s posts here, and follow her on Twitter.
Influencer marketing activates internal and industry experts with engaged networks to co-create content of mutual value and achieve measurable business goals. - @leeodden Share on X7. How Can B2B Brands Benefit from Collaborating with Influencers? Let’s Get the Scoop from the Experts — Caitlin Burgess
How can B2B brands benefit from collaborating with influencers? In this post Caitlin holds another spot on our top ten list for the year, sharing actionable insight from experts including Whitney Magnuson, Rani Mani, Lucy Zarlengo Moran, Martin Jones, Konstanze Alex, and others.
Working with B2B influencers allows our brand to have a constant pulse check with purchase decision-makers. @konstanze @dell Share on X8. Examples of B2B Influencer Marketing to Inspire You in 2019 — Lee Odden
Another top influencer marketing post of the years comes from Lee, sharing B2B influencer marketing inspiration with powerful examples of success from our clients at 3M, Dell, Oracle Dyn, Prophix, and SAP to help you visualize ways to make your influencer marketing efforts more impactful and meaningful. Lee’s article makes it clear that an influencer content program can be a powerful force in your B2B marketing mix.
9. Sowing the Seeds of Success: 3 Elements of Strong B2B Influencer Relationships — Caitlin Burgess
What characteristics do the best influencer/brand relationships share? In another top post of the year, Caitlin shows how to sow the seeds of success using elements that form stronger B2B influencer relationships, including:
• The Fit Factor
• A Foundation of Trust
• Commitment to Co-Creation
• Greater Long-Term Interaction
10. Hitting Your Target: Why Account-Based Marketing and Influencers Are the Perfect Match — Nick Nelson
In the tenth most popular influencer marketing article of the year, our Senior Content Strategist Nick digs into the essentials of account based marketing (ABM) and its intersection with influencer marketing. Nick shows how ABM can bring a clearer focus to your B2B influencer marketing strategy and how it helps hit your influencer marketing targets and gain ideal customers. Check out all of Nick’s posts here, and follow him on Twitter.
Thanks TopRank Marketing Writers & Readers
There you have it — a strong group of 10 of our top influencer marketing posts for 2019.
We published dozens of posts this year specifically about influencer marketing, and we plan to bring you even more in 2020, so stay tuned.
Please let us know which influencer marketing topics and ideas you’d like to see us focus on for 2020 — we’d love to hear your suggestions. If you’d like to get a handle on influencer marketing trends, be sure to also check out Ashley Zeckman’s post.
Many thanks to each of you who read our blog regularly, and to all of you who comment on and share our posts on the TopRank Marketing social media channels at Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
