It is an undeniable fact that the internet and then social media platforms become a part of our lives in a very fast and accelerating way. Social media platforms have gone beyond their own use and have repositioned themselves as a space where people spend hours in daily life. At this point, the concept of "influencer" has emerged. When we think of influencers, the first image in our mind is personalities who have a lot of followers on social media and have the ability to direct these followers. When we look at the dictionary meaning of the word Influencer, we find the result of people who can reach very large audiences on social media. Influencers have gained importance in the field of marketing thanks to their power to direct the society. They can use digital channels through their social media accounts to share different products or services with their followers and make marketing. Influencers are widely preferred by companies working as B2C; namely, business to consumer, but today this perception has started to break. Now, influencer marketing is preferred by B2B companies as well.
B2B is a term that refers to business to business. This concept, translated into Turkish from company to company, expresses the commercial activities of companies with each other. In the relationship between wholesalers and retailers, the sales of suppliers to the markets as wholesale can be shown as an example of the B2B business model.
In B2B marketing, a company's products or services are marketed to other companies. In the B2C business model, while the target is individuals, in the B2B business model the target is a company. In companies, there is not only single person to make purchases, but there are purchasing departments created for this and these departments are audited by many senior managers. That is why the number of people who need to be persuaded when doing B2B marketing is much higher than in the B2C business model.
What is the affect of Influencer Marketing on B2B market?
The basic logic in B2C campaigns is that reliable and well-known people recommend a product and those who follow it follow that person's advice. While B2B marketing is being carried out, influencers to be cooperated should be selected in order to direct the individuals who make purchasing decisions in the companies. For a B2B marketing campaign to be successful, those in the driver's seat must take a similar approach to B2C marketers but finding innovative ways to target people with deep industry knowledge is essential; Cooperation should be made with influencers that can affect corporate buyers and benefit from basic business-to-business meetings without any problem.
According to a study conducted in 2020, a person spends an average of 145 minutes a day on social media platforms. Therefore, the influencer marketing method, which is widely used in the B2C business model, can also be applied efficiently on the B2B business model. In addition, Tradeatlas.com continues its existence as a website that provides services for B2B companies. TradeAtlas, which gives export and import companies the chance to reach potential companies with which they can trade, also provides deep and classified data related to most sectors.