B2B marketing leaders consistently prioritize outcomes from the later stages of the buyer journey, yet a significant disconnect exists where influencer and creator marketing programs often see underinvestment. This paradox is highlighted in new research from TopRank Marketing, detailed in their "2027 B2B Creator and Influencer Marketing Report." The study reveals a critical gap: while B2B marketers recognize the power of influencers to build awareness and credibility, they are not fully capitalizing on this influence to drive conversions and foster long-term customer relationships.
The research indicates that B2B marketers who deem their influencer programs highly effective are significantly more likely to leverage influencer marketing to support crucial late-stage buyer journey objectives. This is in contrast to the common perception of influencer marketing as solely an awareness-building tactic, designed to establish brand recognition and foundational trust through the established credibility of B2B creators. While this initial phase is undoubtedly important, the report emphasizes that without a strategic content approach tailored to capitalize on early-stage influence, brands will fail to realize the full value and impact of their investments.
This comprehensive analysis delves into how B2B brands can strategically align their influencer mix, content topics, and formats to resonate with buyers at every stage of their modern journey, from initial awareness to post-sale advocacy.
The Awareness Stage: Capturing Attention and Building Credibility
At the outset of their journey, B2B buyers and buying groups are primarily seeking information that helps them understand their challenges and potential solutions. For these audiences, content from business influencers and creators offers a powerful avenue for broad reach among relevant individuals, establishing brand credibility, initiating conversations, and fostering initial relationships. The objective here is to make a significant impact with thought-provoking content delivered by respected voices within the industry.
B2B Creator Mix for Awareness:
This approach aligns with the prevalent use of influencer marketing in B2B today. Research from TopRank’s "State of B2B Thought Leadership" study consistently shows that a substantial majority of B2B marketers (66%) rely on thought leadership at the awareness stage to enhance visibility and build credibility. This underscores the pivotal role that recognizable and trusted voices play in the early stages of the buyer journey.
The latest B2B influencer marketing survey data from TopRank Marketing further substantiates this. When selecting creators, B2B marketers rank trustworthiness and credibility (46%) and audience relevance (40%) significantly higher than raw audience size (30%). While reach remains important for making an initial impact, it functions more as a tiebreaker than a primary driver at this stage.
Effective influencers and creators for upper-funnel, awareness-stage initiatives often include a category known as "brandividuals." These are typically keynote speakers, consultants, podcasters, social media personalities, and increasingly, entertainment creators who bring high levels of visibility and engaging, "infotainment" style content to industry topics. Entertainment creators represent a newer but rapidly growing segment within the B2B influencer landscape. Recent research indicates that entertainment creators now feature in approximately one-third of all B2B influencer rosters, and highly effective programs utilize them at nearly double the rate of other programs (43% compared to 25%). This suggests a significant opportunity for brands to tap into the engaging nature of entertainment content to capture attention.
Key Insight: Very effective B2B influencer marketing programs are nearly twice as likely as all others to partner with entertainment creators, highlighting their growing importance in capturing initial attention.
Awareness Stage Topic Selection:
Content for the awareness stage should adopt a high-level approach, demonstrating a deep understanding of the industry and the prevalent challenges faced by potential customers. Topics should be designed to spark interest and position the brand as knowledgeable and insightful. Examples include:
- Industry trends and predictions
- Emerging challenges and opportunities
- Broad overviews of key market dynamics
- The future of specific business functions
To Gate or Not to Gate Awareness Stage Content?
For early-stage, top-of-funnel influencer content, the recommendation is to keep it un-gated whenever possible. Lead generation forms should be reserved for later stages of the buyer journey. This strategy is not only beneficial for lead generation logic but also for AI-driven discovery. Research from Bain & Company indicates that approximately 89% of citations for unbranded B2B questions in AI search originate from third-party sources, not brand-owned content. Gated content is effectively invisible to Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI-powered answer engines. Un-gated awareness stage content can thus serve a dual purpose: building organic awareness and contributing to AI citations that increasingly drive early-stage discovery.
B2B Influencer Content Example: DemandBase Assembles a Marketing Superteam
In a notable campaign, TopRank Marketing partnered with DemandBase to transform well-known B2B marketing industry influencers into superhero characters. The narrative centered on saving the B2B marketing world from "human spam," with the overarching goal of raising awareness for DemandBase’s new Smarter GTM™ solution. This bold, colorful, and creative initiative featured prominent figures in the B2B marketing space and notably, did not employ any gating mechanisms, maximizing its reach and shareability. The campaign’s success demonstrated the power of engaging storytelling and recognizable voices in capturing attention at the initial stages of the buyer journey.
Mid-Stage Engagement: Delivering Practical Utility and Accelerating Performance
As buyers progress through the funnel, their needs shift from broad understanding to actionable insights. At the mid-stage, the focus must be on providing highly useful and practical content that helps individuals solve specific problems and improve their business operations. Content that empowers a key decision-maker to appear more competent to their superiors, secure a promotion, or gain a raise is exceptionally valuable. This stage calls for an influencer mix that reflects a "front-line" mentality, featuring voices with direct experience and actionable knowledge.
The collaboration between B2B brands and influencers can significantly accelerate performance at this juncture. A separate study by TopRank revealed that 72% of marketers who frequently collaborate with influencers find their research-based content to be highly effective, a stark contrast to the 29% effectiveness reported by those who do not engage in frequent collaborations. Practical, experience-driven voices are instrumental in translating insights into tangible actions, which is precisely what mid-funnel buyers require.
Key Insight: 72% of marketers who frequently collaborate with influencers report their research-based content is very effective, underscoring the value of expert collaboration in generating impactful content.
B2B Creator Mix for Engagement:
While retaining a "brandividual" or two can still be beneficial for broad reach in mid-stage campaigns, the primary focus should shift to incorporating trusted voices with practical, hands-on industry experience. This includes individuals actively working within the field or those who have advanced in their careers but maintain a strong connection to industry trends. For instance, a retired CFO who now hosts a CFO interview podcast would be an ideal candidate to discuss finance department challenges. Equally valuable would be showcasing individuals who are currently excelling in their roles and achieving success.
These profiles align with creator types that B2B brands frequently leverage at this stage: executive leaders (33%) and subject matter experts (36%) are among the most commonly utilized creator categories in research, alongside customer advocates. For these influencer partners, the emphasis shifts from sheer reach to delivering valuable, actionable information.
Engagement Topic Recommendations:
Content at this stage should concentrate on providing specific, practical guidance that enhances a user’s business, job performance, or employee experience. While the brand’s solution can be mentioned, it should be done sparingly and contextually. Phrases like, "A platform like ours can simplify this process," are appropriate, but avoid overt sales pitches such as, "The only advice we can offer is to purchase our platform." Such approaches are often perceived negatively, especially as creators tend to avoid direct endorsements.
Recommended content formats include:
- How-to guides and tutorials
- Checklists and templates
- Case studies showcasing practical application
- Webinars and workshops with actionable takeaways
- Expert Q&A sessions addressing specific challenges
Very effective programs are notably more likely to invest in higher-effort, durable content formats developed with creators. This includes podcasts (37% vs. 19%), research reports (35% vs. 22%), and newsletters (38% vs. 25%). If a checklist or how-to guide proves effective, consider developing it into a recurring series rather than a standalone asset to foster ongoing engagement.
To Gate or Not to Gate Mid-Funnel Content?
Research indicates that buyers are more inclined to share their information when influencer content offers clear, credible value, particularly when it is grounded in original data and expert perspectives rather than mere opinion. When gating content, it is crucial to develop a robust landing page that prominently features the creators, their professional headshots, and a preview of their content. This approach provides creators with content they can feel good about promoting.
B2B Influencer Content Example: Prophix Empowers Finance Professionals
Prophix, in collaboration with TopRank Marketing, developed an SEO-driven power page titled "The Finance Career Acceleration Center." This resource features video testimonials from customers who advanced their careers using Prophix, complemented by career advice from CFOs, finance mentors, and finance content creators through a series of influencer interview blog posts and integrated quotes. The influencers provided the practical expertise that buyers were actively seeking, such as guidance on "how to become a CFO," while customers offered tangible proof of success. This dual approach incentivized both groups to amplify content that addressed a career question without resorting to a direct product pitch.
Late-Stage Conversion: Establishing Differentiation and Providing Proof
By the time a buyer reaches the late stage of their journey, they are no longer seeking broad industry pronouncements or endorsements from famous personalities. Their primary objective is to understand why a particular solution is the superior choice, and they are looking for objective validation beyond the brand’s own claims.
At this critical juncture, trust becomes the decisive factor. B2B buyers consistently cite evidence, customer stories, and expert validation as key elements that mitigate risk and accelerate decision-making. Influencers and creators in this phase are not about achieving wide reach; their role is to help build conviction and belief in the solution. The definition of an "influencer" can broaden significantly at this stage to encompass in-house experts and existing customers.
B2B Creator Mix for Conversion:
The majority of influence for late-stage buyer journey content should emanate from individuals with direct, hands-on experience with the brand’s solution. These expert and trusted voices are instrumental in articulating what differentiates the brand from its competitors. Customers, in particular, are invaluable assets, as they can (preferably in their own words) vividly describe their experiences with and without the solution.
This is not a niche segment; customer advocates represent the second-most common B2B creator type identified in research (42%), trailing only large-audience content creators. Brands that are not systematically identifying and activating their most satisfied customers as creators are significantly underutilizing their most persuasive bottom-funnel asset.
Key Insight: Customer advocates are the second-most common B2B creator type in influencer programs, surpassed only by large-audience content creators, highlighting their immense persuasive power in the final stages of the buyer journey.
Insights on Conversion Stage Content Topics:
Content designed to inspire confidence in decision-making should leverage influencer voices to emphasize the unique strengths of the brand, its people, and its solution. Specifically, conversion content should:
- Showcase customer success stories and testimonials.
- Highlight competitive advantages and unique selling propositions.
- Provide detailed product demonstrations and use cases.
- Feature expert reviews and third-party validations.
- Address specific pain points with tailored solutions.
To Gate or Not to Gate Late Stage Content?
Conversion-focused content is the appropriate venue for lead generation forms. However, as previously noted, it is essential to offer substantial value preceding the gate to ensure influencer partners feel comfortable linking to it.
A crucial consideration for content planning is the growing influence of AI search. This type of third-party-validated proof content is precisely what AI search engines seek to cite. A completely gated asset, however, cannot be cited. Therefore, consider pairing your gated deep-dive content with an un-gated summary or companion piece. This approach maintains the lead-generation mechanism for interested buyers while ensuring that AI answer engines can still access and reference the information, keeping the brand within the discovery ecosystem.
B2B Influencer Marketing Example: Deluxe Guides Bankers with Digital Transformation
In their "Off the Map" guide, Deluxe aimed to illustrate how their Banker’s Dashboard could assist small banks and credit unions in automating processes and enhancing efficiency. The guide integrated advice from industry experts, practitioners, and customers into an un-gated asset. Lead capture was facilitated through a more promotional section on the landing page itself, directly linking to a "Contact Sales" call-to-action. This strategy effectively balanced providing valuable information with a clear path to conversion, demonstrating how influencer expertise can drive tangible business outcomes.
Post-Sale: Fostering Retention and Driving Advocacy
The customer lifecycle in B2B does not conclude with the signing of a contract. Highly effective B2B influencer programs are nearly twice as likely as others to extend influence into the post-sale stage (46% vs. 25%). This gap is arguably the easiest to bridge, as the most impactful creators for this phase are often already within the brand’s existing customer base.
Key Insight: Very effective B2B influencer programs are nearly twice as likely as all others to extend influence into the post-sale stage, underscoring the importance of nurturing existing customer relationships.
B2B Creator Mix for Post-Sale Content:
The focus for post-sale content should be on power users, active community members, and the customer success and support teams who champion them internally. The occasional "graduated" voice—a former customer who has advanced in their career and now speaks more broadly about the category—can also serve to reinforce mid-funnel credibility.
Approach to Expansion Content Topics:
Late-stage expansion content should be designed to help existing customers derive maximum value from the product or service, assuming a baseline level of awareness and product knowledge. Topics to consider include:
- Advanced usage tips and best practices
- New feature demonstrations and implementation guides
- Customer success stories and peer-to-peer learning
- Community highlights and user group updates
- Loyalty programs and exclusive content for existing customers
To Gate or Not to Gate Post-Sale Content?
Lead generation forms are unnecessary for this audience, as they have already converted. If any form of gating is employed, it should pertain to exclusive access, such as a logged-in customer community or a private advisory council.
True B2B Influence is Unlocked Across the Entire Buyer Journey
When B2B influencer voices are intentionally integrated into every stage of the buyer journey—from the initial spark of awareness through to renewal and advocacy—they transcend from being a mere tactic to becoming a robust system.
This systemic approach is particularly crucial in an era where discovery itself has shifted upstream. Answer engines are significantly less likely to cite brands directly compared to third-party voices, and these same voices carry even greater weight once awareness has been established. Programs that effectively leverage influence across evaluation, decision-making, and post-sale stages are those that successfully channel discovery into enduring relationships and tangible results.
The framework developed by TopRank Marketing for the intersection of influence and comprehensive buyer journey content experiences is known as "Best Answer Marketing" (BAM). Through a data-informed and integrated strategy, trust is systematically built, and discovery occurs across the channels where buyers are actively searching, including AI search and LLMs. By adopting BAM, B2B brands can evolve from simply executing campaigns to becoming recognized as the "best answer" brand within their respective categories.
Influencer marketing can indeed generate attention, but it is belief that ultimately moves buyers forward. A well-structured strategy can cultivate this belief at every stage, influencing both the humans making critical decisions and the engines shaping the information they consume. For organizations ready to cultivate B2B influence that delivers measurable performance across the full buyer journey, including the evolving landscape of AI search, strategic partnerships can provide the necessary expertise.
