0:40 So, we like to ask the potential client to actually step back and really consider, should you pay your B2B influencer?

1:21 So, they’re often speakers, they’re often authors, they may have their own consultancy, and really who they partner with is very important, and oftentimes very well thought through

1:47 We do get phone calls from B2B marketers who have actually reached out to quite a few influencers in their space, offering payment typically to hawk their brand and they get no response.

2:02 So their brand is now potentially in jeopardy with those influencers, and re-establishing those relationships becomes much more difficult because they were approached inappropriately.

3:17 So, really think through that, most B2B influencers don’t want to be thought of as someone who is getting paid to hawk a brand.

4:07 If you establish and lay a solid foundation of letting influencers know that you honor them, you honor their point of view, you like to co-create with them, then you can move into a point in which you bring up the check book.

Your offer to an influencer should:

• Ensure that you really understand who the influencer is and what they are about.
• Be clear that that you will not jeopardize their brand
• Emphasize that you are not there to “hawk their brand”
• Show that your relationship will be a partnership
• And clarify that you offer to pay based on the amount of time and energy that influencer is actually allocating toward you and your brand.