5 Steps to Launch a Successful B2B Influencer Marketing Campaign on LinkedIn

Launching a B2B influencer marketing campaign on LinkedIn is a bit like following a recipe: you need the right ingredients (from the market), a bit of patience, and a good dose of creativity.

Except here, we're replacing flour and butter with B2B influencers and a well-oiled marketing strategy.

No need to break eggs to succeed, you just need to know where to start. But to create an effective influencer marketing campaign on LinkedIn, you must follow the recipe steps!

Ready to become the master chefs of an influence campaign? On your marks, get set, post!

What you’ll find in this guide:

• Writing a Communication Brief
• Defining a Concept and Communication Strategy
• Identifying Influencers
• Campaign Launch
• Campaign Review and Analysis

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The 5 Steps of a LinkedIn Influencer Campaign

Step 1: Writing a Communication Brief

The brief is essential!

Why launch an influencer marketing campaign on LinkedIn?

• Do I want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or promote a specific offer?
• Who should I target? Which professional profiles? What are my personas?
• What budget should I invest in this new strategic communication channel?
• How can I stand out in a competitive market?
• Does my brand or product have unique features or competitive advantages to leverage?

If you're asking yourself all these questions, you're on the right track!

Before starting, it's crucial to clarify your campaign objectives. Answering these questions is essential. The communication brief is a critical step in preparing your campaign. This is when you must analyze your own brand, your objectives, your competitors, and precisely define your targets.

Understanding what a B2B influencer is and their role in your business strategy is fundamental before launching any campaign.

LinkedIn is a platform full of professionals, but different segments exist based on company size, industry, or job roles. Understanding who you want to reach will help you better target your messages. This is why every company needs a buyer persona.

But first, what is a persona?

A persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer. It's a profile that helps businesses better understand their clients to target their communications effectively.

Before launching, you also need to examine what competitors are doing and have done—why, how, and with what results.

Once all this information is documented, the agency will better understand why you want to work with influencers. But more importantly, they can start conceptualizing the campaign.

If you're wondering why you should partner with a B2B influencer marketing agency on LinkedIn, this strategic foundation is exactly where that expertise becomes invaluable.

Step 2: Defining a Concept and Communication Strategy

The second step happens on the agency's side.

The idea here is to bring a fresh perspective on what's already being done in your industry.

Alongside this research, it's also important to examine how experts in this sector express themselves:

• Does the target client have specific expectations?
• Are they asking recurring questions that could inspire the campaign?
• Is there current news to leverage for product placement?

From this research, the team will work on developing a strategy with original and creative concepts that showcase the agency's strengths (with insights, mechanics, etc.). The agency will propose an engaging communication plan aligned with the brand's visual identity, content formats, communication frequency, etc. This includes a proposed timeline and budget. We thus create the perfect strategic recommendation.

Learning how to find a B2B influencer on LinkedIn who aligns with your brand values and campaign objectives is crucial at this stage.

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Step 3: Identifying Influencers

Influencer identification is a critically important aspect of campaign design.

You need to find the spokesperson who best matches the client's campaign objectives. It's not about follower count but rather the quality of their community profiles, their editorial line, and content approach.

The talent manager will search for influencers who best meet the client's specific needs and audience. They'll then submit their proposals.

It's up to the client to choose the concept and influencers, the creative idea that suits them, and the associated budget.

Understanding what types of content B2B influencers post on LinkedIn helps you identify creators whose style and expertise align with your brand message.

Step 4: Campaign Launch

After discussing this future partnership, the influencer, agency, and client move into the co-creation phase.

The influencer will concretely imagine what the campaign could look like.

How will they highlight the partner company's message?

Several proposals will be made, and multiple rounds of feedback will occur between the agency and content creator for the collaboration.

In the B2B influencer marketing sector, the message to transmit during a partnership is important to craft carefully.

Content can take various forms:

• Blog articles: Detailed analyses on a specific topic
• LinkedIn posts and videos: Product/service highlights or expert testimonials
• Webinars: Online events co-hosted with influencers to explore a topic in depth
• And many more...

The influencer will speak to an audience of professionals who are aware of the latest industry news. If their followers follow them, it's to learn more about their field and discover the latest trends or their opinion on specific products/services.

This is why developing a B2B campaign takes time—the LinkedIn influencer and agency create a post that is simultaneously interesting, engaging, instructive, and timely.

Avoiding common pitfalls is crucial at this stage—review our guide on 10 mistakes to avoid in your B2B influence marketing campaigns to ensure your execution is flawless.

It's also during this step that administrative details are handled: the contract established between the brand, agency, and influencer, etc.

These back-and-forth exchanges intensify before the campaign publication date, as the content proposal is sent to the advertiser for approval.

In this document, the agency shares the creation imagined by the influencer with the post in complete detail:

• The text
• The photo or video that will accompany it
• The carousel design if there is one
• The tracked link that directs to a specific page
• The hashtags to help surface the publication to a precise target audience

This document allows the advertiser to have a concrete idea of what their campaign will be.

During this step, the company can make some important modifications, but cannot change their brief or shift objectives.

The idea is to reassure them by showing what will be produced so they're not surprised once it's live with a detail they don't like.

Once everything is approved, the publication is scheduled and goes live!

For inspiration on successful execution, explore our client case studies to see how we've helped businesses achieve measurable results through strategic LinkedIn influencer campaigns.

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Step 5: Campaign Review and Analysis

And the collaboration doesn't stop when the publication goes live!

After this step comes the analysis phase.

The agency reviews this partnership with the advertiser using quantified data.

It's crucial to track key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate your strategy's impact. On LinkedIn, you can measure elements such as:

• Impressions: How many people saw your publications?
• Engagement rate: How many people interacted with the content?
• Leads generated: How many qualified contacts were created following engagement?
• Return on investment (ROI): What is the real impact of the campaign on your sales or business objectives?

This data allows you to adjust your campaign in real-time to maximize its performance.

On LinkedIn, it's even possible to learn about the employees, industries, and types of companies that were reached, as well as the geographic area.

This way, the agency shares what they appreciated and what they liked least, but also more business-oriented information—namely whether it was relevant to target these people rather than others, their impression of the campaign, the audience response regarding communication, services, and values...

With these insights, the advertiser won't repeat the same mistakes and can create even more impactful communications.

To maximize your campaign's effectiveness, combine influencer marketing with a strong foundation—learn why LinkedIn is essential for building a strong employer brand and how these strategies complement each other.

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Key Takeaways for B2B Influencer Marketing Success

Launching a LinkedIn influencer marketing campaign requires thought, structure, and strategic planning to have real impact.

Not all LinkedIn influencers are right for all your campaigns. You need to choose them wisely, but more importantly, clearly understand your objective to reach the right target audience.

Creating a B2B influencer marketing campaign is more challenging than you might imagine... but we can summarize it in 5 major steps!

For a comprehensive understanding of B2B influence marketing trends and expert insights, download our influencer marketing resources, including our complete ebook and listen to our podcast on influencer marketing for deep-dive conversations with industry experts.

If you also want to dive into the exciting adventure of B2B influencer marketing on LinkedIn, don't let your competitors get ahead!

Ready to launch your first B2B influence campaign? Visit our about us page to discover how Les Années Folles can help you create impactful influencer marketing campaigns that deliver real business results.