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- THE B2B INFLUENCER PLAYBOOK: A STRATEGY HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
THE B2B INFLUENCER PLAYBOOK: A STRATEGY HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT
The quiet B2B marketing strategy no one’s taking seriously enough...
Niall Ratcliffe
May 25, 2025
In partnership with
Morning!
I think England may be broken. I’m writing this with the window open and 20℃ heat scorching through the window. Is it too hot maybe?
Talking of hot, today I'm going to be talking about a hot topic in B2B - influencer marketing.
12 months ago, I would’ve told you it was a fad. Today, I’m showing you why I’ve drastically changed my mind.
Let’s get into it!
LISTEN TO THE AUDIO VERSION
THE PLAYBOOK
I used to hate the word “influencer.” Especially when it was thrown around on LinkedIn.
I’m not sure when it became such a popular term, or when people started feeling comfortable enough to give themselves that title, but I’ve always found something cringeworthy about it.
In fact, there is something worse: someone who calls themselves a LinkedIn influencer.
So whenever conversations cropped up about influencer marketing in B2B, particularly on LinkedIn, I’d usually laugh them off. I didn’t think there was much substance to it. I certainly didn’t think these so-called “LinkedIn influencers” had the pull to drive meaningful results, especially in the high-ticket world of B2B.
From the outside, it all looked a bit ridiculous. Big software firms and startups were spending £1000s to get micro-influencers with 20,000 to 50,000 followers to talk about their platforms (often with posts that barely got traction).
It just didn’t add up.
I assumed most of these campaigns were quietly written off as brand awareness plays that didn’t move the needle.
But today, I have something to admit. Because the truth is, I was very wrong about the whole space.
Are some companies wasting £1000s on B2B influencer campaigns that drive 0 ROI? Absolutely. But other companies are actually making millions off the back of it, and one of those companies is Fyxer AI.
A few months back, I was chatting with a friend of mine who has about 200,000 followers on LinkedIn. We were chatting about how the influencer space was evolving on the platform, and she mentioned that she was paid £7,000 to post about Fyxer AI.
“Jeez.” I said, “How in the world are you managing to charge so high for just one post?”
We went back and forth about how they priced it, what the results looked like, and whether the brand felt it was worth it. According to her, they were thrilled with the outcome.
Fast forward a few months, and I saw this news article pop up on social media…
Fyxer AI raised another $10 million at Series A, reportedly becoming one of the fastest-growing tech startups in the UK.
I also know from someone inside the business that they’ve credited B2B influencer marketing as a major contributor to their growth.
The truth is, no matter how much we poke fun at the idea of LinkedIn influencers, it’s clear that B2B influencer marketing works. And when done well, it works incredibly well.
Today, I’m breaking down 4 of the most interesting B2B influencer campaigns I’ve seen, and why they hit the mark.
Let’s get into it!
Campaign 1: Instantly (Taking over LinkedIn)
One of the best B2B marketing campaigns I’ve seen executed was Instantly’s on the back end of 2024. Not just because of how effective it was, but also because of how efficient the execution was.
Most brands just throw money at the people with the biggest followings, but Instantly did the exact opposite.
Here’s how they approached it:
1/ They found respected people by their ICP
They didn’t pick “influencers.” They picked people who their ideal customer actually listened to. Often people in similar roles to their target audience so: . outbound marketers, BDRs, lead gen operators. People who lived the same problems and spoke the same language as their target audience.
These weren’t “creators”, but they were credible voices inside the industry.
2/ They got them to write posts on the product
From my research, it looks like Instantly gave out 0 scripts or direction on what these posts needed to look like. They didn’t ask for an endorsement. They just asked them to write a post. Something about how they used the product. Or something adjacent to outbound and lead generation that naturally mentioned Instantly.
As you can see, each post is completely different from the next. Plus, they all look like very normal LinkedIn posts. It felt like honest content shared by normal people.
3/ They promoted those posts as thought leader ads
Once the post went live, Instantly put paid spend behind it using LinkedIn’s thought leader ad format.
See the “Partnership with Instantly.AI”
This meant the post looked like a normal piece of content from a peer, but it showed up in front of thousands more of the right people.
4/ They only used this strategy in short bursts
This wasn’t an always-on campaign. They didn’t run these ads 12 months a year. They only rolled them out in bursts, usually tied to a product launch.
The result? For a few days, it felt like everyone on LinkedIn was talking about Instantly. It created a sense of momentum. Then it went quiet.
Which meant the campaign never got stale. It didn’t burn all of their marketing budget. It just punched hard when it mattered.
And that right there is a beautiful example of how you can nail influencer marketing in B2B on LinkedIn.
Campaign 2: Semrush (Creating a day)
Another approach to B2B influencer marketing was what Semrush did with their invite-only ‘SEMrush Influencer Weekend’ in London.
Here’s what they did:
1/ Picked 10-15 B2B influencers based in London. A mix of business CEOs, creators and prominent LinkedIn voices.
2/ Organised a dinner and full-day experience (with everything Semrush branded)
3/ Hired a professional photographer to capture everything.
4/ Shared the photos back with the attendees.
Then, within hours of the event being over, LinkedIn was full of high-profile B2B creators posting about their experience with the Semrush team.
Which, by the looks of the posts, weren’t paid ads - they were essentially promoting Semrush for free.
I don’t have the stats from the campaign, but I’d bet those posts drove millions of impressions. At the very least, it cemented Semrush’s name in the UK B2B space as a brand that’s playing a different game.
All because they made it easy for these influencers to:
A) Share high-quality images online
B) Flex a little to their audience (that they got invited)
C) Talk about the people they were with
Influencers always need content to share, and Semrush essentially just created a perfect scenario for them to share content about them - even if they weren’t directly promoting the product.
Campaign 3: Hootsuite (Using Props)
Most B2B influencer campaigns stop at the caption. Which when you think about it… doesn’t really make sense as we all know the visual is often 60%+ of what gets people’s attention.
Hootsuite got that. So instead of just briefing creators on what to say, they gave them something to show.
They sent their influencers props. Big, bold, physical props designed to turn a feed post into something that couldn’t be ignored.
Just take a look at their newspaper campaign they launched in 2024.
They sent a mix of micro and macro influencers a giant printed newspaper branded “The Hoot Post”, with headlines about the biggest social media trends for 2025. The brief was simple. Each creator wrote a post about the importance of community engagement and how Hootsuite helps brands stay involved in the comments. But the actual key to the campaign was getting them to share a photo with the newspaper.
Because that did 2 things:
1/ Allowed Hootsuite to guarantee their brand would be clearly included in every single post.
2/ It gets people to stop and wonder why in the world they keep seeing these big newspapers all over their feed, they then stop to check out the campaign, giving the campaign more impact.
They launched a similar campaign recently with Sophie Miller, which also seemed to be a hit.
They built a “Social media help desk” where people could call in to get advice from Sophie Miller. But again, rather than just having her post, they sent a Hootsuite-branded phone and a desk nametag for the post.
It’s not like props like this are revolutionary, but when you’re paying £1000s to get someone to talk about your brand… you may as well do everything you can to increase the impact - and props do just that.
Campaign 4: Fyxer (GTM with a big net)
Then you’ve got Fyxer AI’s strategy, which honestly wasn’t anything clever.
No props. No influencer day. No crazy activation. Instead, they just did the basics, and they did them well.
They found influential entrepreneurs on LinkedIn. People who not only had reach, but felt relatable to the audience Fyxer was targeting. Founders, operators, busy professionals. People who looked like their customers.
Then they paid them to talk about their experience. Not to post a generic plug. But to share how they were using Fyxer, why they liked it, and what problems it solved for them personally.
There wasn’t a central campaign theme or rollout date. They just cast a wide net.
For a few weeks, it felt like every other post in the LinkedIn startup world was someone talking about how Fyxer was saving them time, sorting their inbox, or drafting emails that actually sounded like them.
It was basic influencer marketing, but it worked, and it became the foundation of their go-to-market strategy.
No one knew who they were a few years ago. Now they’ve raised $10 million and are fast becoming one of the most talked-about AI startups in the UK.
🌱 THE GREENHOUSE
Things I’ve saved this week that are worth seeing:
TL;DR
B2B influencer marketing is here to stay. The question is, how can you do it in the most effective and unique way possible?
These 4 brands did it, and you can too.
Hopefully you found this playbook useful, if you did please share it with a friend :)
Until next Sunday.
— Niall
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