B2B Influencer Marketing: Why Your Best Influencers Might Already Work for You

For years, influencer marketing has revolved around famous faces, picture-perfect lifestyles and the seemingly endless business of filming yourself opening things.

It might seem a world away from the usual B2B marketing playbook. But underneath all the glamour and perfectly polished Instagram feeds is a pretty simple idea. We value the opinions of people we know and trust.

And it seems the business world is starting to take notice.

B2B influencer marketing brings industry experts and respected voices into the spotlight, helping businesses reach people who genuinely care about what they have to say.

Influencer marketing heavyweight Billion Dollar Boy Group has made an interesting move, snapping up Creator Authority, an agency that knows a thing or two about B2B influence on LinkedIn.

It suggests there’s a growing appetite for the people shaping opinions and influencing decisions in the B2B world. And it seems businesses are starting to take a much closer look at the creators behind those conversations.

And the numbers make for interesting reading. Research cited in the announcement suggests 59% of B2B buyers are consuming creator content on LinkedIn, while one in five marketers surveyed by Billion Dollar Boy had invested in B2B creator marketing in 2026.

It seems influencer marketing is starting to find its feet well beyond celebrity endorsements and consumer brands.

But for B2B businesses, the real opportunity might be much closer to home.

Your founders, directors and specialists know the industry, understand the challenges and have probably learned a few lessons the hard way. Letting potential customers hear some of that thinking can do wonders for building familiarity and trust before the first conversation even happens.

That’s where founder-led marketing comes into the picture. Rather than working with external creators, it works from the inside out, building familiarity and trust through the experience and opinions of the people running the show.

Of course, working with a paid influencer and giving your founder a voice are two rather different things. But the thinking behind them isn’t a million miles apart. When people know who you are, respect your experience and trust your judgement, they’re far more inclined to pay attention.

Why personal voices matter in B2B marketing

There’s something slightly ironic about all of this.

For years, businesses have gone to ridiculous lengths to sound as professional as possible. Every word carefully considered, every opinion softened and every sentence polished until there’s barely a hint of personality left.

And businesses are starting to put some serious money behind the people with real experience under their belts, and aren’t afraid to share a thing or two, even when it goes against the grain.

Think about your own LinkedIn feed for a second.

You’re probably following a handful of people whose posts you regularly stop to read. Most likely founders, marketers, industry specialists or business leaders who’ve been around the block once or twice.

You trust their perspective because they’ve earned it. They’ve shared their knowledge, backed up their opinions and given you plenty of reasons to listen. And that kind of familiarity is worth its weight in gold.

So if they were to recommend a product, share an interesting business or sing the praises of someone they’ve worked with, the likelihood of you paying attention skyrockets.

That’s influence.

Your next influential voice might already be on the payroll

When businesses think about influencer marketing, their first instinct is usually to look outside their own four walls for someone who’s already built an audience worth talking to.

There’s plenty to be said for that approach, of course. But what if some of the most valuable voices for your business are already sitting right under your nose?

That’s where founder-led marketing comes into the picture. Rather than relying on someone else’s influence, it gives the person behind the business a chance to build some of their own, sharing their experiences, opinions and the occasional lesson learned the hard way.

The people who built the business. The specialists who’ve spent years mastering their craft, the directors who’ve made difficult decisions, and the people that have stuck by and believed in the business when it maybe wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows.

These are the people with stories worth telling. But in a lot of businesses, they’re almost invisible.

From a linkedin perspective, the company might have been publishing three times a week, sharing company updates and the occasional ‘happy birthday’ to their favourite employee.

All whilst the founder who’s spent blood, sweat and tears building the business has never shared a single thought or perspective about the industry they know inside out.

When you put it that way, it seems a rather strange way to go about things.

What B2B businesses can learn from M&S

M&S offers a useful example of this in Kathryn Turner, its Director of Product Development. She’s been sharing recommendations and giving customers a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes, picking up over a million views on some videos. And unlike someone reading from a script, she’s talking about products she’s had a hand in developing.

And that gives her something an outside creator might struggle to match. She knows the thinking, the decisions and all the little details that go into getting those products onto the shelves in the first place.

The takeaway goes a little further than convincing us all to pop into M&S for something sweet. It’s about recognising how much interesting knowledge already exists within a business. 

Give those people a voice, a bit of encouragement and the freedom to be themselves, and there’s every chance others will want to hear what they’ve got to say.

How thought leadership builds trust in B2B

B2B buying decisions aren’t usually made on a whim. You’re hardly going to stumble across a brilliant LinkedIn post and immediately sign off a six figure deal.

There’s plenty of digging to do, different businesses to size up and usually more than one person who needs to be won over. That sort of confidence doesn’t come from a single LinkedIn post.

And this is where consistency really earns its keep. You’re gradually giving people more reasons to recognise you, respect your judgement and make your business stand out from the crowd. It’s a long game, but one worth playing.

Not every post needs to come with a sales pitch. Sometimes, sharing useful content that challenges the usual way of thinking or gives people a peek behind the scenes is more than enough. And when the time comes for someone to make a decision, you’ll have spent months giving them reasons to feel confident choosing you.

A founder sharing the highs and lows of running a business is connecting with people who’ve probably been through a few of the same headaches.

 A technical director sharing a few tricks of the trade is demonstrating their expertise without having to sell a thing. And a marketing leader offering a fresh perspective is making sure people remember what they’ve got to say.

None of this means every business owner needs to become a full-time content creator, far from it.

There’s a world of difference between chasing thousands of followers and becoming someone whose opinion actually carries weight in your industry. 

And for most B2B businesses, we’d argue the latter is worth considerably more.

How to give your people a useful role in your marketing

• Know your crowd. There’s not much point sharing all your brilliant ideas if they’re falling on the wrong ears. Work out who you’d like to reach and what they’d actually find useful.
• Find your willing voices. Look for people who know their stuff, have a few interesting opinions and actually enjoy sharing them. A fancy job title doesn’t automatically make someone worth listening to.
• Look for ideas in the everyday. Forget sitting around desperately trying to dream up something clever. You’d be surprised how much interesting content is hiding in the conversations you’re already having.
• Help people find their voice. Not everyone enjoys sitting down to write, and that’s absolutely fine. Sometimes a quick chat is all it takes to get those brilliant ideas out of someone’s head and onto the page.
• Set a few ground rules. Make sure everyone knows what’s fair game, what needs to stay behind closed doors and when it’s worth getting a second pair of eyes on something before hitting publish.
• Keep an eye on the bigger picture. Let personalities shine and people share what they know, but make sure those conversations are helping build the reputation you’d love your business to have.

Why your B2B needs a point of view to stand out

There’s a catch, of course.

Simply putting a founder’s name and photograph above another generic LinkedIn post isn’t going to achieve very much.

We’ve all seen those posts and we’ve all definitely scrolled past them.

The ones about leadership being a journey, embracing challenges and unlocking opportunities. Lovely sentiments, I’m sure, but you could swap the author’s name for practically anybody else’s and nobody would notice.

The people who build genuinely engaged audiences tend to offer something more.

A fresh perspective that gets you thinking, an experience that makes you nod along or an opinion that ruffles some feathers.

The best kind of observation is the one that makes you smirk because the exact same thing has been niggling at you for years.

Those are the things that tend to stick in people’s minds. And the personality behind them matters just as much. After all, your brand voice is just as important as how you look. If someone wouldn’t dream of saying those words in real life, they probably shouldn’t be appearing under their name on LinkedIn.

Some people are naturally funny, others are thoughtful, analytical or wonderfully blunt. Let them be themselves.

It’s heartbreaking to see someone with years of experience and a huge personality being moulded into just another generic LinkedIn voice. They don’t need to stir up controversy every week. Sometimes, simply sharing what they know is far more valuable.

So, where does this leave B2B marketing?

That’s not to say traditional brand marketing is about to disappear into the sunset. Far from it. Businesses still need thoughtful positioning, brilliant branding, beautiful websites and marketing that knows where it’s heading. 

All the things that show the outside world what your business is capable of and why it deserves a place on their radar.

But I do think it’s about time the people behind those businesses had a bigger part to play in telling their stories. 

And judging by the growing investment in B2B creator marketing, it seems we’re not the only ones thinking along those lines.

The goal isn’t to have every CEO building a personal brand and obsessing over how many likes their latest post gets.

But it is about recognising that years of knowledge, experience and personality deserve to be shared with the world, rather than tucked away behind a company logo.

So, next time you’re staring at a blank LinkedIn post wondering what on earth to talk about, try picking the brains of the people around you. 

Chances are, they’ve got plenty of interesting things to say. Because while brands can tell people what they believe in, it’s the people behind them who can show what those beliefs actually look like in practice.

This is where strategic coherence comes into play. Let your founder speak in their own voice, but make sure their LinkedIn, your website and the rest of your marketing are all pulling in the same direction.

The last thing anyone wants is a customer scratching their head wondering whether they’ve stumbled across a different business.

Your people can help tell the story. Your brand, website and marketing need to carry it through.

And that’s exactly what we believe at Giant Peach. Bringing your strategy, brand, websites and marketing together to make sure the outside world sees what your business is really capable of.

Fancy a chat?