A significant disconnect exists between the priorities of B2B marketing leaders and the current investment strategies in influencer and creator marketing programs, according to new research. While B2B marketing leaders overwhelmingly prioritize results from the late stages of the buyer journey, such as lead generation and conversion, their influencer and creator marketing initiatives are frequently underfunded and underutilized in these critical areas. This oversight limits the full potential of these programs to drive tangible business outcomes.
The findings are detailed in the "2027 B2B Creator and Influencer Marketing Report" by TopRank Marketing. The research indicates a strong correlation between the perceived effectiveness of an influencer program and its application across the entire B2B buyer journey. Specifically, B2B marketers who rated their influencer programs as "very effective" were significantly more inclined to leverage influencer marketing to support later-stage buyer activities, a departure from the common perception of influencer marketing as solely an awareness-building tactic.
Traditionally, B2B influencer marketing has been predominantly viewed as a tool for building brand awareness and establishing foundational trust. This is achieved by capitalizing on the credibility and reach of established B2B creators and thought leaders. While this initial awareness-building phase is undeniably crucial, the report highlights that without a cohesive content strategy designed to harness this early-stage influence, brands fail to realize the comprehensive value of their investments. The research offers a roadmap for tailoring influencer collaborations, topic selection, and content formats to resonate with buyers at each distinct stage of their modern journey.
The Awareness Stage: Capturing Attention and Building Credibility
At the inception of the B2B buyer journey, potential customers and buying groups are primarily focused on understanding their challenges and exploring potential solutions. Content from B2B influencers and creators plays a pivotal role in reaching a relevant audience, 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.
The report’s findings align with broader industry trends. Research from TopRank’s "State of B2B Thought Leadership" indicates that 66% of B2B marketers utilize thought leadership at the awareness stage to enhance visibility and credibility. This underscores the inherent value of recognizable and trusted voices in the early stages of buyer engagement.
The latest B2B influencer marketing survey data further substantiates this, revealing that when selecting creators, B2B marketers prioritize trustworthiness and credibility (46%) and audience relevance (40%) above sheer audience size (30%). While reach remains a factor, it functions more as a tie-breaker than a primary driver at this initial stage.
B2B Creator Mix for Awareness:
For upper-funnel, awareness-stage initiatives, effective influencers and creators often fall into the category of "brandividuals." This encompasses keynote speakers, consultants, podcasters, social media personalities, and increasingly, entertainment creators. These individuals bring a high level of visibility and engaging, albeit often less in-depth, content on industry topics. The inclusion of entertainment creators in the B2B influencer mix is a relatively new development but one that is rapidly gaining traction. The research indicates that entertainment creators now comprise a third of all B2B influencer rosters, and highly effective programs leverage them at nearly double the rate of other programs (43% versus 25%). This suggests a growing recognition of their ability to capture attention and generate buzz.
Awareness Stage Topic Selection:
Content at the awareness stage should be high-level, designed to showcase a deep understanding of the industry and the challenges faced by potential customers. Topics could include emerging trends, future predictions, analyses of market shifts, and discussions on overarching industry pain points.
To Gate or Not to Gate Awareness Stage Content?
A key recommendation for awareness-stage content is to keep it ungated whenever possible. Lead generation forms should be reserved for later stages of the buyer journey. An additional compelling reason for this approach stems from research by Bain & Company, which 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 essentially invisible to large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered answer engines. Un-gated awareness content can thus serve a dual purpose: building organic awareness and contributing to the AI citations that increasingly drive early-stage discovery.
B2B Influencer Content Example: DemandBase Assembles a Marketing Superteam
In a notable example, TopRank Marketing partnered with DemandBase to transform well-known B2B marketing influencers into superhero characters. This campaign, centered around a narrative of saving the B2B marketing world from "human spam," aimed to raise awareness for DemandBase’s new Smarter GTM™ solution. The campaign was characterized by its bold, colorful, and creative approach, featuring prominent figures in the B2B marketing landscape, and importantly, it remained ungated, maximizing its reach and discoverability.
Mid-Stage Engagement: Delivering Practical Utility and Actionable Insights
As buyers progress to the mid-stage of their journey, their focus shifts from broad understanding to seeking practical, highly useful content that can directly address their specific needs and help them make informed decisions. Content at this stage should aim to endear the brand to the audience by providing tangible value. Helping a key decision-maker appear knowledgeable to their superiors, gain a promotion, or achieve a career advancement is considered invaluable. This necessitates a more "on the front lines" mentality in the B2B influencer mix.
Collaboration between B2B brands and influencers at this stage can significantly accelerate performance. The B2B thought leadership report found that 72% of marketers who frequently collaborate with influencers consider their research-based content to be very effective, compared to just 29% of those who do not. Experience-driven voices are instrumental in translating insights into actionable strategies, which is precisely what mid-funnel buyers require.
B2B Creator Mix for Engagement:
While incorporating a "brandividual" can still be beneficial for reaching a wider audience in mid-stage campaigns, the focus should expand to include trusted voices with practical, hands-on experience in the relevant industry. This could include individuals currently working in the field or those who have advanced in their careers but maintain a keen understanding of industry dynamics. For instance, a retired CFO who now hosts a CFO interview podcast would be an excellent choice for content targeting the finance department. Similarly, a successful professional currently excelling in their role and embodying best practices could be a valuable contributor. These profiles align with creator types that B2B brands already heavily rely on at this stage: executive leaders (33%) and subject matter experts (36%), alongside customer advocates. For these influencer partners, the emphasis shifts from massive reach to providing useful, actionable information.
Engagement Topic Recommendations:
Content should concentrate on providing specific, practical assistance that can improve a prospect’s business operations, job performance, or employee experience. While the brand’s solution can be subtly introduced, it should not be the sole focus. Phrases like "A platform like ours simplifies this process" are appropriate, but overt sales pitches such as "Our entire recommendation is to purchase our platform" are detrimental, especially given creators’ general aversion to direct endorsements.
Content types that prove effective at this stage include how-to guides, checklists, case studies that highlight specific problem-solving, best practice recommendations, and expert interviews offering detailed insights.
To Gate or Not to Gate Mid-Funnel Content?
Research indicates that buyers are more amenable to sharing 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 mid-funnel content, it is crucial to build a robust landing page that prominently features the creators, including their headshots and a preview of their content, thereby providing them with valuable assets to share.
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 initiative centered around video testimonials from customers who advanced their careers using Prophix, complemented by career advice from CFOs, finance mentors, and content creators. Through a series of influencer interview blog posts and integrated quotes, the page provided the practical expertise that buyers were actively seeking, such as "how to become a CFO," while customers offered authentic validation. This approach effectively addressed career-related questions before introducing a product pitch, creating a valuable resource for the target audience.
Late-Stage Conversion: Driving Differentiation and Providing Proof
By the late stages of the buyer journey, prospects are no longer seeking general industry insights or prominent names. Their primary objective is to understand why a specific solution is the best choice, and they require validation beyond the brand’s own assertions. At this juncture, trust becomes the decisive factor. B2B buyers consistently rely on evidence, customer testimonials, and expert validation to mitigate risk and accelerate their decision-making processes. Influencers and creators in this phase are less about achieving broad reach and more about fostering belief and confidence in the solution.
The definition of an influencer can broaden considerably at this stage to encompass in-house experts and existing customers.
B2B Creator Mix for Conversion:
For late-stage buyer journey content, the most impactful influence should emanate from individuals with firsthand experience using the brand’s solution. These expert and trusted voices are essential for articulating what differentiates the brand from its competitors. Customers are particularly valuable at this stage, as they can authentically describe their experiences with and without the solution. Customer advocates are the second most common type of B2B creator identified in the research (42%), trailing only large-audience content creators. Brands that do not systematically identify and activate their most satisfied customers as creators are overlooking one of their most persuasive bottom-funnel assets.
Insights on Conversion Stage Content Topics:
Content designed to instill decision confidence should leverage influencer voices to highlight the unique strengths of the brand, its people, and its solution. Specifically, conversion content should focus on:
- Demonstrating Product Value: Showcasing how the solution solves specific problems or achieves desired outcomes.
- Providing Social Proof: Featuring testimonials, case studies, and endorsements from satisfied customers and industry experts.
- Highlighting Differentiators: Clearly articulating what sets the solution apart from competitors.
- Offering Expert Validation: Incorporating insights and endorsements from respected figures in the field.
- Addressing Concerns: Proactively answering common objections or questions that arise during the evaluation phase.
To Gate or Not to Gate Late Stage Content?
Conversion-focused content is the appropriate place to implement lead generation forms. However, as previously noted, it is crucial to offer substantial value upfront to ensure that influencer partners feel comfortable linking to the gated asset. A potential consideration for content planning is that this type of third-party-validated proof content is highly sought after by AI search engines. A fully gated asset cannot be cited. Therefore, it is advisable to pair gated in-depth content with an ungated summary or companion piece. This strategy allows for lead capture from interested buyers while ensuring that answer engines can still access and cite the content, maintaining visibility.
B2B Influencer Marketing Example: Deluxe Guides Bankers with Digital Transformation
Deluxe developed an ungated asset titled "Off the Map," a guide designed to illustrate how their Banker’s Dashboard can assist small banks and credit unions in automating processes and enhancing efficiency. The resource features advice from industry experts, practitioners, and customers. Lead capture is facilitated through a more promotional section on the landing page itself, directly leading to a "Contact Sales" call-to-action. This approach strategically balances providing valuable information with capturing leads from interested parties.
Post-Sale: Fostering Retention and Advocacy
The customer lifecycle for B2B organizations extends well beyond the initial sale. Highly effective B2B influencer programs are nearly twice as likely as others to extend their influence into the post-sale stage (46% versus 25%). This gap represents a significant opportunity for growth, as the most effective creators for this phase are often found within the existing customer base.
B2B Creator Mix for Post-Sale Content:
The focus for post-sale content should be on engaging power users, active community members, and the customer success and support teams who champion them internally. Occasionally, the insights of "graduated" voices – former customers who have advanced in their careers and now speak more broadly about the category – can also be valuable, bridging back to mid-funnel credibility.
Approach to Expansion Content Topics:
Late-stage expansion content aims to help existing customers derive greater value from their investment, assuming a baseline level of awareness and product knowledge. Topics include advanced usage tips, best practices for maximizing ROI, strategies for integrating the solution into broader workflows, customer success stories showcasing ongoing value, and invitations to exclusive user communities or advisory boards.
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 gate is employed, it should be based on belonging, such as access to a logged-in customer community or a private council.
True B2B Influence is Unlocked Across the Buyer Journey
When B2B influencer voices are strategically aligned with every stage of the buyer journey, from the initial spark of awareness through renewal and advocacy, they transcend a mere tactic and evolve into a cohesive system. This integrated approach is particularly vital in today’s evolving discovery landscape, where answer engines are more likely to cite third-party voices than brands directly. These same voices carry even greater weight once awareness has been established. Programs that maintain influence through evaluation, decision-making, and post-sale stages are effectively channeling discovery into enduring relationships and tangible results.
The "Best Answer Marketing" (BAM) system, developed by TopRank Marketing, addresses the intersection of influence and comprehensive buyer journey content experiences. 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 transition from executing isolated campaigns to becoming the definitive "best answer" brand within their respective categories.
While influencer marketing can effectively generate attention, it is belief that truly moves buyers forward. A well-crafted strategy can cultivate this belief at every stage, influencing both the human decision-makers and the AI engines shaping their perception. For organizations seeking to build B2B influence that delivers across the full buyer journey, including AI-driven search environments, strategic partnerships and expert guidance are essential.
