The power of influencers can turn a brand into a phenomenon and a product into a movement.
The same philosophy also applies to the B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) industry. It is an extremely competitive and ever-evolving industry where new features, tools, and software are born every day to take their place in the market. In this market, the insights derived from influencer marketing case studies become invaluable. It offers a road map to navigate success through the competition.
Being a part of the SaaS brand marketing team, your responsibility lies in showcasing the tangible benefits of an intangible product. To stay ahead of the competition, thinking strategically and innovatively is necessary, and it starts with having an impeccable marketing campaign.
Influencers are starting to hold a major place in every brand’s online marketing campaigns, and so are influencer marketing case studies. It helps you to evaluate your steps and learn from others’ mistakes.
To promote and sell a SaaS product, winning trust is the top-of-the-funnel task, and it can be achieved with influencers. These personalities have a great online presence, and their audience strongly trusts them.
To drive a successful influencer marketing campaign, staying up-to-date with the industry trends and success strategies is most important. You should start by reading some impactful influencer marketing case studies.
These case studies will help you know how to shape brand awareness, growth, and engagement in the B2B SaaS arena with influencer marketing.
Power of Influencer Marketing in B2B SaaS
In the past decade, the marketing landscape has taken a huge turn. Industry niches that used to stick to their same old marketing schemes are not experimenting.
B2B SaaS, a field that used to rely completely on traditional advertising strategies, is now testing its luck in influencer marketing. They overcame the misconception that influencers are not limited to one-size-fits but a versatile approach that works wonders for SaaS.
Influencer marketing is a relationship-demanding approach that is not just restricted to consumer-based brands, but it’s achieving huge success in the B2B domain.
As per the data from Stastica, the SaaS market will reach $374.50 billion by 2028. Influencer marketing was estimated to be worth $21.1 billion in 2024. Imagine the profit you can generate by combining these two different segments of businesses.
To plan a successful influencer marketing campaign for your B2B SaaS brand, start by learning from the best. This blog will walk you through the Top 9 influencer marketing case studies to understand their planning, execution, and outcome. It will help you protect your strategy from possible down-slides and take note of beneficial tips.
Here we go!
9 Top B2B & SaaS Influencer Marketing Case Studies
1. HubSpot (#INBOUND2023)
HubSpot is a leading B2B SaaS Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform trusted by several agencies worldwide. With its horizon expanding in B2B, it is also well renowned in the B2C industry. It helps you manage all your sales and customer relationships in one place.
Objective
HubSpot’s latest influencer marketing campaign aimed to derive more registration and brand awareness for its INBOUND 2023 conference. The activities are planned to attract a larger target audience to their conference.
By leveraging the strong presence of influencers relevant to their reach, HubSpot aims to increase its scale in the competitive CRM and marketing software industry. HubSpot wants to gain more reach in the online and offline sales and marketing industry.
Execution and Collaboration
HubSpot executed its influencer marketing for the online + offline INBOUND 2023 conference by collaborating with prominent marketing and sales influencers.
They invited influencers like Neil Patel, Eric Siu, Reese Witherspoon, and Ann Handle. They were part of keynote sessions, panel discussions, workshops, etc.
For the online campaign, influencers jointly created social media content, blog posts, and videos with HubSpot to highlight the upcoming event, expert insights, and industry trends.
Through the collaboration activities, influencers promoted the event on social media platforms to encourage their followers to register for the conference.
Result
With their messaging style, HubSpot was able to generate yet another milestone with more than 12K attendees offline and 100K viewing online.
Online sessions before and during the event witnessed higher attendance, with the audience eager to learn from the industry experts. The online influencer marketing campaign got a high reach, making this event a phenomenal success.
This entire influencer marketing case study discusses the enhanced HubSpot reputation presented by the popular faces, making it stand out as the industry leader.
Key Takeaways
Best thing to learn from HubSpot influencer marketing case study:
- Align with industry experts online and offline to tap the wider audience related to your niche.
- Go for bigger faces for offline events so attendees find their insights more reliable and take them seriously.
- Give place to influencers for every part of the activity like workshop, hosting, etc. This way, every aspect of your event will be popularized.
2. Salesforce (#CNX23)
Salesforce is a prominent name in the technology and B2B SaaS business world. It is globally recognized for its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solutions. One-stop destination to manage all your sales, services, marketing, and analytics that is capable of fostering stronger customer relations and growth for businesses.
Objective
Being a very active event organizer such as Dreamforce, Salesforce World Tour, Trailblazer, and more, Salesforce has generated immense buzz with its newest event, “Connection 2023,” with influencer marketing campaigns on social media.
Its main objective was to attract as many people and businesses as possible who have an interest in growing in technology and customer relationships. With influencer reach, Sealsforce plans to establish a stronger position within the B2B SaaS industry.
Execution and Collaboration
With its unique promotional style and authentic ideas for influencer collaboration, Salesforce wishes to leave a lasting impact and convert many into Trailblazers.
Salesforce invited not only numerous influencers but businesses too to be keynote speakers, share ideas, and discuss digital transformations and insights on CRM. Powerful personalities and leaders such as Dan Levy, Marc Benioff, and Reid Hoffman were invited as a speakers.
Their never seen before collaboration style with the influencers of not just their niche but of different fields was also remarkable. Salesforce has capitalized on every possible medium to promote its “Connections 2023” event.
Forming connections with their various products and events to squeeze more juice out of their influencer marketing campaign has resulted in their favor.
Result
Thanks to their influencer marketing activities, “Connections 2023” attracted a 35% increase in event attendance, seeing a prominent rise from the previous year.
Overall, the event got millions of mentions on all the global social media platforms, and influencers benefited by reaching over 12 million users.
Influencer marketing has made it easy for Salesforce to generate sales in this B2B SaaS industry with a boost in brand authority.
Key Takeaways
Things to learn from the Salesforce influencer marketing case study:
- Cross-industry collaboration with influencers to expand the horizon and reach.
- Co-connecting other relevant events can drive the audience from there to your pages.
- Going for platforms more relevant to your industry, like X (formerly Twitter), for the entrepreneur field.
3. Shopify (#POCGo):
Shopify is a B2B SaaS e-commerce platform that works as a catalyst to empower entrepreneurs. A suite filled with powerful tools that help you manage your store online + offline.
Shopify is a top choice when it comes to any new business owner to build a website for their business online. Along with that, Shopify also takes steps to simplify offline store management for its users.
Objective
The Aim of their newest Shopify influencer marketing campaign is to promote their POC Go. It is a portable device that offline stores can use to take payments from their customers anywhere in the store.
The objective was to take advantage of the influence successful business owners and entrepreneurs have. Collaborating with e-commerce experts to get their inspirational image to speak for Shopify POS Go.
The campaign was centered around this new product, taking advantage of the influence and reaching as many businesses with their reach. Shopify wishes to showcase its POS Go better than any other point of sale system.
Execution and Collaboration
The game plan of Shopify was to benefit from traditional influencer marketing and also leverage the actual Shopify store owners. Campaign talks about their success stories, tips, and tricks circling around their product.
The real-time experience shared by influencers and store owners was used to convince buyers. This collaboration between Shopify, store owners, e-commerce experts, and entrepreneurs generated a series of content, like videos, social media posts, website features, and blogs.
Result
By making the smart move of collaborating with the physical store, this influencer marketing campaign reaches more than just social media channels. Causing a real influence through e-commerce experts, the campaign successfully showcased the benefits of POS Go.
Shopify gained new users by deriving commitment and authenticity and actively engaging with the community. By July 2023, Shopify generated a revenue of $3.202 billion. Gaining over a thousand purchases on website apps, Shopify influencer marketing campaign provided visibility to the brand.
Key Takeaways
Value gained from Shopify B2B influencer marketing case study:
- The real influence lies mainly in Shopify customers. This way, they promote their product and their customer product, too. #WinWin
- The success stories were able to demonstrate the real-world impact of their product and services.
- With the multi-platform influencer campaign (blogs, videos, giveaways, website features, etc.), both Shopify and their store owners benefited.
4. Microsoft
Microsoft is an organization that needs no introduction, with a 21% market share worldwide in the tech industry. Most used for its cloud solutions, productivity tools, and operating systems, it has always reserved the front seat for innovation in technology. Microsoft caters to both B2C and B2B SaaS industries, providing software such as Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365.
Objective
Microsoft’s strategy behind its influencer marketing campaign was to establish authority in the competitive B2B SaaS industry. For product promotion, they were aiming for its AI companion, “Copilot.”
As influencer marketing turns out to be the most trusted source of promotion, Microsoft wishes to leverage influencer reach to set Copilot above other AI software. This will improve brand trust, gain audience engagement, and educate everyone with its new software.
Execution and Collaboration
Starting the influencer marketing campaign by collaborating with tech influencers and cloud experts, Microsoft took advantage of industry MVPs and businesses, too.
Find influencers who can demonstrate a comparison of Copilot and other tools for promotion. Microsoft ensured that the audience was educated with the basic guide to the software with influencer marketing. With the help of the established credibility of top influencers and tech-savvy in the B2B SaaS and IT, this influencer campaign reached millions.
Result
Microsoft’s influencer marketing campaigns to promote their AI Assistant Copilot yield impressive results. It created a buzz among the B2B SaaS and IT industries.
Audience reach and engagement grew, and the conversion rate took the hype for Copilot and other Microsoft software.
Key Takeaways
Pointers to take home from Microsoft influencer marketing case study:
- Strategic planning to partner with influencers and businesses. Pick the personalities who can genuinely provide valuable results.
- Drive a Win-Win partnership with those who believe in your product to louder your authenticity.
- While launching a new product, make sure to educate the audience with the influencer collaborative content.
5. SquareSpace
SquareSpace is an all-in-one B2B SaaS website-building platform that supports businesses and individuals to create professional websites. Its backhand building interface is user-friendly, which helps you customize your templates and add tools. SquareSpace is a very popular solution for web designing to empower your business.
Objective
The primary aim of the influencer marketing campaign was to showcase versatility and user-friendliness while targeting small business owners and entrepreneurs.
By taking advantage of influencer collaboration. SquareSpace wants to create authenticity to relate with the target audience. It should be able to demonstrate the tool’s ability to build websites with ease through SquareSpace.
Execution and Collaboration
SquareSpace influencer marketing begins with collaborating with a diverse group of personalities from different niches relevant to theirs. Influencers were picked for their expertise in various content forms such as blogging, e-commerce entrepreneur expertise, artistic front, and photography.
By providing free access to influencers to demonstrate the area of website building, SquareSpace leveraged its online presence. These influencers create their personalized websites to convince their audience to pick SquareSpace for their online business.
Result
As a result of the influencer’s reach and online engagement, SquareSpace received increased sign-ups. And its social media channels generated higher engagement.
Improved customer response to SquareSpace features, with 95% citing their influencer content. Its ability to pick the perfect influencer for the activity has supported the campaign’s success.
Key Takeaways
The following are the learnings from SquareSpace B2B influencer marketing case studies:
- Encourage influencers to use the features and demonstrate their benefit to the audience in real-time.
- Create not just videos but also blogs, memes, social media updates, etc., to reach more audiences faster.
- Making the best-fit choice when it comes to influencers and celebrities to ensure you reach the most suited niche.
6. Canva
We all know what Canva does. With its intent to empower individuals and businesses to create visual content effortlessly, Canva has a user-friendly B2B SaaS module. It has a vast template library and tools for design for social media graphics and more.
Objective
With the latest influencer marketing campaign, Canva aims to increase awareness about its improved tools and features. The primary goal is to showcase the streamlined design process to elevate the quality of visual content.
Mark it as an easy-to-use tool as a substitute for several other complex design software.
Execution and Collaboration
Collaborating with well-known influencers in the field of creative professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners, Canva went for diverse groups. It conducted the influencer marketing campaign primarily across platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok.
All the influencers picked have one thing in common: a passion for design, creativity, and content creation. Canva provided influencers free access to Canva Pro and encouraged them to showcase their design journey through it.
Result
Thousands of social media posts were shared during this campaign, making it a buzz of its time and attracting several potential users.
An increase in Canva Pro user sign-ups every month made this campaign a success. The combined social media reach of influencer marketing was in millions, which gave Canva the place it worked for. By 2023, over 150 million people will use Canva Pro.
Key Takeaways
The Canva influencer marketing case study shares value such as:
- By sharing free access or samples of your product, you can provide value to the influencers. This interests them and encourages them to create their best content.
- Canva leveraged user-generated content to create a belief in the audience for the product.
7. Monday.com
Monday.com is a premium B2B SaaS organization of Work Operating System (Work OS). This helps businesses organize, manage, and execute projects and teamwork. It offers a customized workspace for collaboration and tracking the team’s workflow with ease.
Objective
Monday.com planned an influencer marketing campaign to increase its brand awareness and showcase the product’s versatility. This campaign was designed to highlight real-life examples and product usage from across the industry.
By partnering with top influencers from diverse niches and businesses, Monday.com wants to demonstrate its tool as a medium to improve productivity.
Execution and Collaboration
Choosing influencers from diverse fields, relevant or non-relevant to their niche, allowed Monday.com to expand its horizons. This list of influencers includes project managers, entrepreneurs, and remote work companies. Also, they went for many offline work organizations and small business owners.
They provided each influencer with free access to their Work OS software and gave them the liberty to manage work in a customized manner. Influencers created various content formats, such as blog posts, video tutorials, and social media updates, talking about the benefits of Monday.com.
Monday.com then leveraged these influencers’ created content on their social media channels and website blogs.
Results
This influencer marketing campaign generated an increase in Monday.com’s social media reach and millions of impressions.
With a significant increase in trial sign-ups, this collaborative campaign between Monday.com and influencers succeeded.
Key Takeaways
Major pointers to learn from Monday.com Instagram influencer marketing case study:
- Monday.com succeeded in the objective of reaching a wider audience by picking some influencers who were out of its niche.
- Making interactive content (videos & demos) can generate more reach than regular and boring content to promote the product.
8. Adobe
Adobe is a global leader in B2B SaaS organization of creative software solutions. It has a diverse range of Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat products. It works with the idea to allow creative professionals to bring their ideas to life.
Objective
The latest influencer marketing campaign run by Adobe was centered on creating buzz for their new product, Adobe Creative Cloud suite. This campaign plans to target influencers from the creative and design field and also the students of design schools.
The objective was to increase brand awareness and product knowledge by showcasing the tool’s capabilities.
Execution and Collaboration
Adobe went for very selective influencers and artists already using Adobe Creative Cloud. By conducting exclusive workshops for education on YouTube and Instagram, these influencers targeted their audience.
With the tint of the casualness of Behind-the-scene content, Adobe wanted the community to feel authentic about the product. Also, with the contest of creative challenges to artists, Adobe plans to attract new users.
Results
Generating immense reach with its creative challenge to creative artists, Adone got what it aimed for. There was a significant increase in the Creative Cloud subscription.
The combined collaborative content and the creative challenge got thousands of entries from Adobe users. Millions of impressions were generated from the influencer’s created content.
Key Takeaways
Primary value to take from Adobe influencer marketing case study:
- Collaborate with influencers who are already passionate about your products; this will ensure positive conversions.
- Engage through education to enlighten the audience with the features and tools of your software.
- Engage your community with contests to convert more user interest and create more interactive challenges.
9. Semrush
Semrush is a SaaS platform that works as a perfect digital marketing toolkit to empower businesses and marketers. Equipped with numerous tools for SEO, content marketing, and content analysis, this tool helps succeed online. It is a resource that no SEO or a marketer can work without, over 10 million users have used it since 2008.
Objective
The latest influencer marketing campaign run by Semrush had a very clear objective. It aimed to improve its brand image in the digital marketing and SEO community to be more than just a tool to analyze online presence.
Having the objective to establish itself as the industry leader in its specific niche, Semrush collaborated with top influencers and experts with a loud voice.
Execution and Collaboration
Starting with the strict influencer selection process, Semrush picked only the ones who have well-known positions. The arena of influencers includes marketers, SEO enthusiasts, content creators, etc.
They promoted several new features of Semrush, etc. The collaboration involved co-creating content that provides insights, best practices, and tips for this digital marketing tool.
Results
Semrush reached millions through this influencer marketing campaign. It also got an increase in engagement on its own social media. An increase in the number of new users and sign-ups was seen.
Key Takeaways
With the Semrush influencer marketing case study, you can learn:
- Develop a long-term relationship between brand + influencer so your collaborative content can relate better with your audience.
- Also create some educational content that is remotely relevant. This will direct more audience by educating them.
After being through with the most prominent and educating influencer marketing case studies, you must have learned how important influencers are.
In this existing world of B2B SaaS, influencer marketing works as a secret sauce of success. It is not just a trend but a strategy that can take a brand to new heights.
One common element that resonated with all the case studies was the careful selection of influencers. Taking a very calculated risk to promote the brand. Keeping your eye on these influencer marketing case studies will help you learn.
Your brand might just become a big thing in the B2B SaaS industry and part of our next case study.
