Influence is older than the internet
Influencer marketing sounds modern, but the principle is familiar. The moment one business recommends a supplier to another, they are influencing a decision. What’s changed is scale and speed. Today, recommendations travel through LinkedIn posts, podcasts, webinars, communities, partner newsletters, and niche industry voices that senior people actually pay attention to.
For B2B brands, this matters because buyers rarely move from “never heard of you” to “book a meeting” in one step. Influence helps warm the ground. Data helps you choose where to step. Telemarketing helps you convert that warmer interest into a real conversation.
The rise of influencer marketing (in B2B terms)
In B2B, “influencer” usually means credible expertise, not celebrity. It might be an operations leader who shares honest lessons, a consultant who’s known for sensible takes, a trade journalist, a community organiser, or even your own customers when they speak publicly about what changed after they implemented your solution.
If you want a useful snapshot of how creator-style content is shaping B2B attention, LinkedIn’s view is worth reading. The Rise of B2B Influence lays out why professional audiences respond to trusted voices on the platforms where they already do work-thinking. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}
Data-driven marketing: the targeting engine
Data-driven marketing is how you stop guessing. It helps you identify the right roles, sectors, triggers, and buying conditions, then tailor what you say to the people who are most likely to care. Telemarketers have used “data plus judgement” forever. What’s improved is the amount of signal available, and how quickly you can act on it.
Done properly, data does two jobs:
- Selection: who you speak to (and who you don’t).
- Relevance: what you lead with, based on their context.
Combining influencer and data-driven marketing
On their own, influencer campaigns can become vague awareness plays. On their own, data-driven campaigns can become cold and mechanical. Put them together and you get a stronger sequence: trusted voice + targeted follow-up + human conversation.
A simple playbook that works in the real world
- Start with the buying group: decide which roles matter (budget holder, user, technical validator) and what “success” looks like.
- Choose the right kind of influence: pick voices that your buyers already respect. Small, credible audiences often beat big, noisy ones.
- Agree a useful theme: avoid product promotion. Aim for practical lessons, risks, and trade-offs that buyers recognise.
- Capture signals: build a list around people engaging with the topic, attending the event, or fitting the segment you care about.
- Follow up like a human: call with a proposition and a question, not a pitch. Good examples live in telemarketing questioning techniques.
What this looks like: A niche industry voice runs a short webinar on reducing onboarding friction. Your follow-up call is not “Did you like the webinar?” It’s “What part of onboarding causes the most rework today?” That’s where meetings come from.
Using multiple platforms (without creating chaos)
Influence works best when it’s consistent across a few channels your buyers actually use. That doesn’t mean being everywhere. It means choosing a small set and connecting them so each touchpoint supports the next.
A practical channel mix
- LinkedIn: thought-led posts, short clips, and comment threads where prospects reveal what they care about.
- Webinars and roundtables: high-signal attendance lists and strong contextual follow-up.
- Partner newsletters: borrowed trust, especially when partners serve the same buying group.
- Telephone: the trust engine, where you qualify, handle nuance, and agree next steps.
If you’re building a joined-up approach, this article on inbound and outbound telemarketing explains how to connect channels so each side makes the other stronger.
Where telephone fits in (and why it still matters)
Influencer marketing can open the door, but it rarely closes the loop. Telephone is where you learn the context behind the click, and where you can respond in the buyer’s language. It’s also where you find out what content actually landed, what felt off, and what needs explaining in plain English.
Done well, telemarketing does more than “generate leads”. It creates value even when a prospect is not ready today: it improves data, sharpens propositions, and builds memory. If you want a clearer set of outcomes to measure, see telemarketing call goals.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Picking influence by follower count: relevance and trust beat reach.
- Turning everything into an advert: senior audiences switch off when they feel “worked on”.
- Calling too fast, with no context: warm intent still needs respectful timing and a useful opener.
- Not capturing buyer language: the words your market uses should shape the next proposition, email, and landing page.
Next step
If you want influence and telemarketing to work as one system, talk to Blue Donkey. We’ll help you choose the right voices, build a tidy follow-up list, and run proposition-led calls that turn warmer attention into meetings that hold.
