3 Advanced B2B Influencer Marketing Case Studies

OST has created a host of award-winning influencer marketing programmes in recent years, so we thought it was about time we shared some of our most successful B2B influencer marketing case studies.

Here are three of our favourites, featuring technology brands you might just have heard of…

#RefinitivSocial100

Refinitiv is a global provider of financial market data and infrastructure. As a fresh, new brand (created in 2018), Refinitiv was keen to build awareness within the financial sector and, especially, among innovative thought-leaders in the sector.

In 2019, Refinitiv approached us to work on their B2B influencer marketing strategy, including their new #RefinitivSocial100 list of social media influencers in the fintech sector. Refinitiv spent months working with OST and Onalytica, the influencer relationship platform, analysing the data and curating the list.

To ensure the final 100 rankings were based absolutely on merit, we removed pure ‘amplifiers’ (i.e. professional influencers, not subject-matter-experts), along with journalists and other professionals.

When it was published in July 2019, the list was praised within the industry as both accurate and useful. It was also widely shared, attracting over 10 million impressions in the initial fortnight.

The launch of the list was just the start. Since then, the on-going programme has hosted Influencer Breakfasts in London and New York and provided keynote speakers for Refinitiv conferences and podcasts across three continents.

RefinitivSocial100 London Breakfast Meeting

We have co-created scores of posts and articles with the top 100 influencers, helping to build positive awareness of the Refinitiv brand. The programme was recently shortlisted for the 2020 Influencer Marketing Awards.

LISTEN:  Hear OST’s Managing Director, Luke Brynley-Jones, in conversation with Refinitiv’s Global Director of Social Media, Kelvin Lee, in our recorded 2020 webinar here.

Salesforce UK Influencer Programme

Salesforce is the world’s leading cloud-based CRM company. In 2018, we began to work with Salesforce UK to engage with UK-based tech/CRM influencers with a view to boosting online brand reach, engagement and credibility.

By smartly integrating internal subject-matter-expert (SME), influencer and customer advocate (#Trailblazer) insights into their social media content, Salesforce has added valuable insights to their content and, at the same time, increased their reach.

The involvement of influencers at events has been crucial in this strategy. The Dreamforce To You event, for example, was attended by several high-profile UK programme influencers.

With the support of their B2B influencer marketing programme, Salesforce UK’s LinkedIn account attracted over 200k engagements in 2018/19 (significantly up on the previous 12 months). Influencer engagement on branded content also increased by more than 50%, helping to drive branded reach and credibility.

Sage Global Influencer Programme

Sage is a global accountancy software company with offices in 24 countries. In 2019, Sage launched its Global Influencer Programme with the aim of boosting social media reach and engagement.

Having worked with Sage on a pilot global influencer programme in English during 2018, we felt we would get better results through greater localisation, i.e. running bespoke, local language programmes in each country.

Sage decided to adopt our proposed B2B influencer marketing strategy, but to make it work, it would need to involve the buy-in and support of local teams, which would require both training and practical support.

OST devised a detailed programme of support to help local teams build their programmes. Our in-country teams worked directly with their local offices to onboard and integrate local influencers into their marketing.

LinkedIn Chat announcement for Sage’s Brazil influencer programme LinkedIn chat

Over 9 months, Sage’s Global Influencer programme involved over 120 small business and accountancy influencers in 6 countries in 5 languages. Collectively, the programme generated over 200 million organic impressions for the brand.

Need help? Did you enjoy these B2B influencer marketing case studies? If you’re interested in developing your own B2B influencer marketing programme, please get in touch.