YOUR B2B CHEAT SHEET

Give B2B Presentations People Remember | Godfrey

Gina Mudie — Wed, 09 Sep 2026 21:35:42 GMT

Not long ago, most brand-facing presentations came from a familiar group: executives, PR professionals and maybe one or two subject matter experts with a strong industry presence. For many B2B teams, presenting simply wasn’t an everyday expectation across the business.

How to Design With Accessibility In Mind | Godfrey

Aaron Kim — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:45:00 GMT

Accessibility has become a defining characteristic of good digital design. Organizations that build it into the design process create better experiences for users while positioning themselves for long-term success.

What is “accessibility in design”?

Accessibility in design refers to the practice of creating digital content created for people with a range of abilities and disabilities, including visual, auditory, cognitive and motor impairments. Key design considerations include:

Perceivability: Consider the use of high-contrast colors, provide text alternatives for images and avoid relying solely on color to convey information. This accommodates users with visual impairments who may rely on assistive technologies like screen readers.

Operability: Ensure websites and applications can be fully navigated and interacted with via keyboard alone. Provide clear focus indicators and logical tab order to assist users with motor disabilities. Interactive elements, especially forms, should include clearly associated labels, descriptive error messages and accessible validation so users can successfully complete tasks like requesting a demo, downloading resources or submitting inquiries.

Understandability: Present content in a clear and concise manner, using plain language, consistent navigation and hierarchical organization. This helps users with cognitive disabilities better comprehend and navigate digital content.

Robustness: Follow web standards, use correct HTML markup and offer fallback options for interactive features. This ensures compatibility across various assistive technologies and platforms, promoting accessibility even as technologies evolve.

AI and Emerging Digital Experiences: As AI-powered search, chatbots and personalized experiences become more common on business websites, accessibility must extend beyond traditional web pages. Organizations should ensure AI interfaces can be navigated with a keyboard, are compatible with screen readers and provide clear, understandable responses for users with cognitive disabilities. Building accessibility into emerging technologies from the start helps create experiences that are inclusive as digital interactions continue to evolve.

User Feedback and Testing: Involve users with disabilities in the design process through regular testing. Seek their input and feedback to identify and address accessibility issues, making iterative improvements to enhance inclusivity.

By considering accessibility from the start, designers can create digital experiences that serve a wider range of users. Most organizations measure accessibility against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, the internationally recognized standard for accessible web experiences. While the ADA establishes legal expectations in the United States, WCAG provides the technical framework organizations use to evaluate and improve digital accessibility. Most public-facing websites aim to meet Level AA conformance, which is widely considered the recommended standard.

WCAG conformance levels include:

Level A – Addresses the most fundamental accessibility requirements.
Level AA – The recommended standard for most websites and the level most organizations target.
Level AAA – The highest level of accessibility, often applied where feasible rather than across an entire website.

What are the benefits of designing for accessibility and inclusion?

Improved User Experience

When digital content is designed with accessibility in mind, it becomes more usable and easier to navigate for everyone, regardless of abilities. For example, providing closed captions for videos makes content more accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing users while also benefiting people watching in noisy environments. Likewise, using semantic HTML, descriptive headings and clear navigation improves the experience for users, search engines and AI-powered search tools alike. Accessible websites are often easier to navigate, faster to understand and better optimized for discoverability.

Accessibility benefits far more than users with disabilities. It improves usability across a wide range of real-world situations, from using a phone outdoors to accessing content in noisy environments or on a slow internet connection.

Increased Market Reach

By designing accessible digital experiences, businesses make it easier for more people to engage with their content, including individuals with disabilities. This can help organizations expand their reach while strengthening customer relationships.

This can be particularly beneficial for businesses in the healthcare, education or financial industries, where accessibility is especially important. For instance, a healthcare company offering telemedicine services through a mobile app can extend its reach by ensuring accessibility for individuals with disabilities. By implementing accessible design practices, such as screen reader compatibility and keyboard navigation, the company enables visually impaired and motor-disabled users to navigate the app, access health information, schedule appointments and communicate with healthcare professionals.

Prioritizing accessibility not only meets legal requirements but also increases customer engagement, loyalty and positive brand reputation while promoting equal access to healthcare services for all individuals.

Enhanced Brand Reputation

When businesses demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity and diversity, they can build a positive brand reputation among customers, employees and other stakeholders. For example, with websites that are accessible, businesses show they value all users, regardless of their abilities. This can also lead to positive word-of-mouth marketing and increased customer loyalty.

What are the risks of ignoring accessibility and inclusion in design?

Negative Impact on Users

While designing for accessibility and inclusion can have many benefits for businesses, failing to prioritize these considerations can have serious risks and consequences. One of the key risks of overlooking accessibility and inclusion is a negative impact on users; it can unintentionally exclude people with disabilities and make it difficult or impossible for them to use the content. This can lead to lost business opportunities and harm a business’s reputation.

Legal Consequences

Ensuring compliance is not just a matter of good practice, but also a legal obligation. By prioritizing accessibility, businesses can reduce the risk of legal action and fines. For example, a major retailer paid a significant $6 million settlement after a lawsuit alleged their website was not accessible to blind users. Don’t let your business be caught off guard — prioritize accessibility to avoid legal consequences and create a more inclusive digital environment for all users

Brand Reputation Damage

Not prioritizing accessibility can be seen as exclusionary and insensitive, which can turn off potential customers and lead to negative publicity and damage a business’s brand reputation. In today’s digital world, businesses that do not prioritize accessibility run the risk of alienating a significant portion of the population and missing out on potential customers.

Take action

By creating digital content that is accessible to all individuals, businesses can improve user experience, expand reach and enhance reputation. At the same time, ignoring accessibility and inclusion can have serious consequences, including legal risks and negative impacts on users. It’s important for designers and companies to prioritize all users in their designs/products.

Are you wondering if your digital content is accessible and/or what changes could be made to make it even more inclusive? Our team takes a comprehensive approach to identifying accessibility barriers, improving digital experiences, and helping organizations meet evolving accessibility standards. Don’t miss out on expanding your reach and improving user experience. Contact us to conduct a website audit to find out how to make your digital presence more accessible and inclusive.

For more information, check out:

More Than a B2B Web Design Agency

Nobody Reads: 5 Ways To Streamline Content | Godfrey

Paul Mindemann — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Nobody reads. Or at least not the way marketers think they do. Business-to-business (B2B) audiences float between search results, AI summaries, emails, social posts and online influencers. And it’s all in an effort to answer three questions: Does this apply to me? Can I trust it? What do I do next?

Fortunately, B2B audiences still want information. And not just information—they want detail. They compare specifications, validate solutions and build consensus across teams. But before they read, they scan. According to Nielsen Norman Group, people rarely read web content word for word. And to make matters worse, Demand Gen Report's 2024 Content Preferences Benchmark Survey points to a related issue for B2B marketers: too much content, not enough value.

So, how do marketers balance the tendency of B2B audiences to scan content against the need to give them sufficiently valuable information? We need to make content easier to access, evaluate and use. Here are five ways to do it.

1. Lead with the problem

Before you write, identify what your B2B reader is trying to achieve. Are they trying to understand a technology? Compare products? Defend a recommendation? That answer should shape the entire piece, from title to call-to-action. For example, a communication entitled, "A Comprehensive Overview of Predictive Maintenance" implies that a reader may need to invest a significant amount of time before finding a solution to their problem. On the other hand, "How Plant Teams Can Reduce Unplanned Downtime" earns attention faster by promising specific answers to a problem.

This is even more important in complex industries, where one topic can mean different things to different stakeholders: engineers may need proof, managers may be seeking risk reduction and operations may require improved efficiency. If the value of an article, post, email or other communication is not clearly stated up front, the reader may not engage with your piece, much less reach the content they were hoping to find.

2. Turn paragraphs into pathways

Make your communications intentionally easy to scan. Create engaging headlines. Break up long paragraphs. Use bullets to summarize information. And then test it: If someone only reads your headlines and the first sentence under each, would they still understand what you’re trying to communicate?

For B2B marketers, this scannable structure has the side benefit of providing sales teams with sharable content, while also allowing subject matter experts to review documents faster and helping search engines and AI to better understand your content. For more on the importance of making your content indexable online, see our post on winning visibility in the age of AI search.

3. Add depth in layers

Streamlined content doesn’t have to be shallow content. Audiences in complex industries often need more depth than average to get their questions answered. But they don’t need it all at once. A better way to structure your content is to think in layers:

Start with the problem.
Explain how you can solve their problem.
Provide proof of your solution.
Offer the next, deeper asset.

A new product launch communication may begin with the problem the product is trying to solve, a comparison table could quickly convey how the solution addresses the problem and a link to specifications or a technical white paper might provide additional details. The point is, we don’t need to remove complexity; we simply need to provide a clearer path through it.

4. Write for the room

Strong content tends to travel: a facility manager may forward it to procurement, a distributor may pull language into an email or a sales rep may use a chart for a presentation. And that’s a good thing. A simple way to facilitate this is by building communications with “modular” pieces that different potential audiences can use. Consider including items like an executive summary, an FAQ section, a comparison chart or a benefits callout.

The buying process is not simple, and neither are the audiences. Content should help the entire decision-making group move with confidence, not just a single member. Check out our guide to marketing to complex industries to learn more about this growing reality.

5. Make the next step unmissable

If nobody makes it to the end of your communication, and your call-to-action (CTA) only lives at the bottom of it, your next step will never be acted upon. That’s why calls-to-action should appear where they are useful – not just where people expect them. Some readers may need a product guide. Other readers may need a comparison tool or a case study. Perhaps some readers are ready to speak with an expert.

Regardless of the location, a good CTA should feel like a partner ready to help, not a salesperson making a pitch. A core-content approach that assimilates all relevant content into a single document approved by key stakeholders can make the process of creating compelling CTAs easier. You can read more about this approach in: Making the Most of Your B2B Content Creation Resources.

Simple, not simplistic

The best B2B content is less like a lecture and more like a decision-making tool. It respects the reader’s time, anticipates questions and gives technical audiences enough detail to help them build trust. Yes, you can keep the details that make your solutions credible. Just make it easier for audiences to identify the problem you can solve, to understand how you are the best solution to that problem and to consider taking the next step.

Need help simplifying a complex story without watering it down? Let's talk about building content that gives your audience information they can use and that will actually get read.

Guide: Launch Your B2B Product With Clarity, Confidence | Godfrey

Julie LaSalle — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 04:00:00 GMT

A new product launch is often a highly anticipated moment for any B2B marketing team — an opportunity to drive pipeline, increase brand visibility and prove your marketing ROI. Yet launches are complex, and it’s not unusual for even strong marketing teams to complete a launch that doesn’t meet expectations.

Why? It’s rarely due to a lack of effort or creativity. It’s common for marketing teams to move quickly into execution, especially when launch timelines are tight. It’s a familiar scenario: a product is nearing readiness, and the immediate reflex is to ask, "What does the ad creative look like?" or "Which channels are we using?"

It’s tempting to start with tactics, especially when pressure is on to get to market quickly. But without a clear strategy, your team can find itself rebuilding the launch process each time, shaping channels, campaigns and content before the product story is fully defined.

Over time, an inconsistent launch process can create hidden costs: extra revision rounds, duplicated effort, budget pressure, inconsistent messaging — internally and externally — and more difficulty connecting your marketing efforts to business impact. How can your team change that?

The answer usually starts with strategy, one that’s structured to help move your launch faster, smarter and with greater confidence.

Strong product launches are built on a solid strategic framework that can then drive measurable business growth. As you build your framework, consider including these three pillars:

Pillar 1: messaging alignment

In many successful launches, the messaging framework makes the go-to-market story clear before any execution begins. This framework should define your core value proposition and address the specific pain points you’re solving for your target audience.

When your messaging is aligned and agreed on early, your creative teams, external partners and internal stakeholders can all work from the exact same blueprint. This eliminates message fragmentation and ensures that launch content resonates consistently across every channel and customer touchpoint.

That established messaging becomes your starting point: align on the framework first so every campaign, piece of content and channel decision builds from the same strategic foundation.

Pillar 2: Cross-Functional Integration

Once the message is defined, every team involved in the launch needs to understand its role. Yet in complex launches, this is often where alignment becomes harder to maintain. After working with B2B brands for more than 75 years, we know that misalignment rarely happens because teams are disengaged. More often, each function is moving quickly with its own priorities, timelines and customer needs.

But without alignment, a product launch can fracture. Sales may be brought in too late to shape enablement needs. Support teams could be unprepared for early customer questions. And when departments aren’t aligned around the same message, the market can end up hearing different stories from different parts of the business.

By integrating your teams early, the launch becomes more coordinated, more credible and more effective. Every team — from marketing to product, from sales to public relations — will understand the goals, the messaging, and the role they play in bringing your brand’s solution to market successfully.

One helpful path to create alignment early is to define cross-functional owners, clarify each team’s responsibilities, and build in a shared readiness check before execution begins.

Pillar 3: A Sequenced, Linear Rollout

After the message is aligned and your teams are ready, the next step is campaign planning. Strong launch plans often roll out in stages rather than focusing every effort on a single launch moment. That usually means planning the rollout as a progression, with each phase preparing the organization and the market for what comes next. You might start with internal upskilling, move to a soft launch with key partners or beta users and finally execute the broader market release.

By mapping stages, your launch strategy sustains momentum beyond launch day. It gives your team time to strengthen internal readiness, test and refine the rollout and build market interest in a way that creates traction over time rather than relying on a single spike of activity.

Momentum is easier to sustain when the rollout is mapped in advance, with clear criteria for each phase and checkpoints that guide the move from one stage to the next.

Turn Strategy into Repeatable Process

No two launches are identical, but these pillars can form the strategy framework for an actionable playbook — a guide that helps prevent your team from starting every launch from scratch. Instead, it provides a solid foundation to execute with greater consistency and confidence.

As you start building your launch playbook, consider these tips:

Audit past launches to identify failure points, from messaging confusion to internal misalignment to channels or tactics that didn’t perform as expected.
Create a scalable structure that defines roles, deliverables and timelines. While some launch specifics may vary, the foundational phases should remain the same.
Set clear go/no-go checkpoints for messaging and other launch elements to ensure readiness at every stage and avoid missteps that cost time and money.

Build a Repeatable Path to B2B Launch Success

A product launch becomes a stronger growth driver when it is built on strategy rather than reactive tactics. Align the messaging, integrate teams and sequence the rollout with purpose, and your launch process can start to function as a repeatable engine for business growth.

Planning to launch a new product? We’re ready to help you move forward with more clarity and confidence.

ESG Standards: Doing Good Is Still Good for Business | Godfrey

Donna Harris — Tue, 19 May 2026 04:00:00 GMT

ESG has a branding problem. In some markets, the term is being politicized. In others, it is being quietly replaced with language like “sustainability,” “risk” or “resilience.” Some companies are leaning in. Others are stepping back.

Search behavior tells a similar story. Interest in ESG and sustainability reporting continues to evolve, with companies and stakeholders now looking for practical guidance around ESG reporting, sustainability reporting and disclosure requirements.

But the shift in language doesn’t signal a shift in expectations.

Companies are still expected to show how they manage environmental impact, social responsibility and governance risk. Stakeholders are looking for clear, defensible data, not broad claims. Recent analysis from the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance reinforces the point: while ESG terminology may fluctuate, investor and stakeholder focus on governance, climate risk and transparency remains firmly in place.

ESG, Defined for Today’s Reality

Over the past several years, disruption has reset expectations for how companies operate. The pandemic, climate volatility and social pressure have all contributed to a broader redefinition of business performance.

Financial results alone are no longer enough. Stakeholders want to understand how those results are achieved and whether they are sustainable over time.

ESG provides a framework for answering that question. At its core, ESG is a set of criteria used to evaluate how a company manages:

Environmental impact
Social responsibility
Governance and oversight

Unlike traditional corporate social responsibility, ESG is built on standardized, externally reported data. It is designed to be compared, scrutinized and used in decision-making.

That distinction matters more now than it did a few years ago.

Regulation is accelerating, particularly in the European Union, where requirements like the Corporate Reporting Directive (CSRD) raise the bar for disclosure. In the United States, progress is slower and more contested, but expectations are still moving in the same direction.

The result is a patchwork of requirements that companies must actively navigate.

How can you leverage CSRD in your B2B marketing strategy? Find out here.

What ESG Metrics Actually Tell You

ESG is often described in broad terms. In practice, it is a highly specific framework that measures three key impact areas:

Environmental focuses on emissions, energy use, water consumption and exposure to climate-related risks. Often, this includes supply chain emissions and transition risk.
Social covers how companies manage relationships with employees, customers and communities. This includes safety, labor practices, data privacy and human rights across the value chain.
Governance addresses how companies are directed and controlled. This includes board oversight, executive accountability, transparency and risk management, along with emerging areas like cybersecurity and AI governance.

Together, these factors influence how investors, customers and regulators evaluate companies.

From Outperformance to Risk Management

A few years ago, ESG was often framed as a driver of outperformance. That argument has since softened. The stronger case is simpler: ESG helps companies manage risk.

And there is plenty of risk to manage. Regulatory pressure is increasing, even if unevenly across regions. Climate risk is affecting operations and infrastructure. Supply chains are under greater scrutiny than ever. Alongside all of this, access to capital is increasingly tied to transparency and governance. ESG brings these issues into focus, helping companies assess exposure and build resilience.

Companies use ESG data to:

Anticipate regulatory requirements
Identify operational vulnerabilities
Strengthen supply chain visibility
Improve access to financing

Used strategically, ESG data helps companies identify exposure, avoid disruption, reduce uncertainty and strengthen the factors that support resilience and growth.

Different Labels, Same Expectations

Debate around ESG terminology can make it seem like momentum is slowing. Yet expectations from regulators, investors and customers continue to rise. They’re simply being expressed in different ways across different markets.

Climate risk is already impacting physical assets and supply chains. Policy changes are reshaping energy and industrial systems. Large organizations are pushing ESG requirements down through their supplier networks.

The terminology may change, but the pressure continues to rise.

ESG as an Operating System

Since 2021, which is typically recognized as the year ESG investing went mainstream for investors and corporations, it’s become more embedded in how companies operate.

Instead of functioning solely as a reporting exercise, ESG increasingly influences how organizations:

Evaluate suppliers
Prioritize facility and infrastructure investments
Measure operational efficiency and resource use
Prepare for disruptions across energy, labor and supply chains
Integrate compliance, finance and operational planning

That shift gives ESG a practical role inside business, helping companies manage resources and plan with greater confidence. While ESG-branded investment products may fluctuate, the metrics behind them continue to guide how lenders, insurers and investors assess risk. So, as a label, ESG may attract less attention, but the data still helps define how companies measure exposure, resilience and readiness.

Check out the visual assets our team designed to help a global brand showcase its sustainability-driving value — and clarify complex ESG information — for audiences ranging from prospective employees to investors.

Stakeholder Expectations Have Shifted

Stakeholders are no longer asking whether companies care about ESG. They are asking for proof.

Customers and procurement teams expect ESG disclosures as part of doing business. In many industries, this is now a baseline requirement.
Business partners and suppliers are expected to meet similar standards, creating pressure across the value chain.
Employees are evaluating companies based on leadership, accountability and long-term stability.
Investors and lenders are incorporating ESG data into decisions about capital allocation, pricing and risk.

At the same time, tolerance for inconsistency has dropped. Claims that cannot be backed by data are quickly challenged. As a result, credibility now depends on what can be measured and verified.

What ESG Standards Looks Like Inside the Organization

Internally, ESG is becoming a management discipline. Organizations that integrate ESG effectively gain:

Better visibility into risk and dependencies
Stronger alignment across functions
More efficient use of resources
More consistent, data-driven decision-making

For finance leaders, ESG is tied to cost management, capital access and regulatory readiness. For operations, it is tied to efficiency and resilience.

Technology helps accelerate this shift. Advances in data systems, automation and IoT make it easier to measure performance and act on it in real time.

What Comes Next

The challenge has shifted from adopting ESG to navigating its complexity. Companies must manage:

Different regulatory expectations across regions
Increasing demands for transparency and accuracy
Internal coordination across teams
Ongoing scrutiny from stakeholders

By linking ESG performance to business outcomes and supporting their claims with reliable, defensible data, they can be better prepared to make well-grounded decisions that support growth and resilience.

Get in touch to find out how we can support your team with ESG messaging strategy that aligns with your brand strategy and business objectives.

Why B2B Influencer Relations Is No Longer Optional

Melissa.Einfrank@godfrey.com (Melissa Einfrank ) — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Remember when the primary B2B marketing tactics were data-heavy white papers and dry, text-heavy webinars? Luckily, we now have more tools in our toolkit. The evolution of B2B marketing has shifted dramatically from corporate monologues to authentic, dynamic conversations. Buyers now expect the same engaging, relationship-driven content in their professional lives that they consume in their personal feeds. This is where trusted third parties — influencers — come in.

Influencers aren’t just sharing skin care recs and dancing to the latest trending song anymore. In B2B, they’ve become an integral part of an effective PR and marketing strategy. By ignoring niche influencers, you risk missing your audience in the places they trust most. According to Forrester’s B2B 2026 Budget Planning Guide, 80% of B2B marketing decision-makers from high-growth companies reported that buyers seek more third-party validation before making a purchase decision.

As we look at the strategies driving awareness and engagement, earned influencer relations stands out as a non-negotiable component. Here is why building long-term, organic partnerships with industry experts is no longer optional for B2B companies:

1. The Shift in B2B Buyer Behavior

B2B buyers are more skeptical than ever. They must navigate complex integrations, balance constrained budgets and appease cross-functional buying committees. Glossy brochures and polished sales pitches simply do not carry the credibility they used to. Buyers demand authenticity, and they typically trust input from people more than they trust information provided by brands.

Data confirms this shift: 95% of decision-makers trust thought leadership over traditional marketing materials. B2B buyers look for independent experts to validate their choices.

Think of influencers like the keynote speaker everyone listens to at an industry conference. When a respected engineer or manufacturing expert highlights a new piece of equipment or process innovation, the audience pays attention. Their credibility turns a vendor claim into a real industry conversation, helping skeptical buyers see the value and move from curiosity to consideration.

2. Why Earned Influencer Relations Work in B2B

When marketing to cross-functional decision makers, it’s important to distinguish between paid influencer engagements and earned influencer relations. Paid campaigns are typically short-term arrangements where influencers receive compensation to promote a product or service — think of it as a direct transaction, often driven by a specific launch or event. While these partnerships can offer immediate visibility, they can be limited in scope and may come across as scripted or sales-focused.

Earned influencer relations, in contrast, are rooted in authentic connection and mutual value. These relationships develop over time and are based on shared expertise and genuine respect. Instead of a single campaign, earned partnerships extend across multiple touchpoints — webinars, industry panels, thought leadership content and social engagement — offering brands a trusted voice in the communities that matter most.

The power of earned relationships lies in credibility and authenticity. When an industry influencer talks about your brand or solution organically, their endorsement resonates because audiences trust that the recommendation isn’t motivated solely by payment. B2B influencers are active practitioners; they are deeply familiar with the regulatory hurdles, complex integrations and budgeting challenges that your customers face every day. This shared experience enables them to speak directly to pain points in a way that feels both relevant and realistic.

These long-term partnerships have a compounding effect. Over time, they establish a foundation of trust that influences not just awareness, but also consideration and purchase decisions. And the data backs it up: 79% of marketers with mature influencer programs report outstanding results. Investing in earned relationships isn’t just about reputation — it’s a proven strategy for sustained ROI and pipeline growth.

3. The Role of Influencers Across the Buyer Journey

Influencers can support your multi-channel marketing campaigns at every stage of the funnel. They do not just generate top-of-funnel hype and awareness; they actively guide prospects toward a purchase.

Awareness: Introducing the Brand – At the top of the funnel, influencers introduce your brand to untapped segments of your target audiences. They cut through the noise of crowded digital channels, putting your brand in front of the right eyes.
Consideration: Validating Options – During the evaluation phase, buyers compare solutions. Here, influencers can validate your solutions through deep-dive reviews, videos, case studies or podcast interviews. They translate complex technical jargon into practical business value, helping buyers see exactly how your technology integrates with their existing systems.
Decision: Driving Action – When it comes time to narrow your decision set, an influencer’s endorsement can serve as the ultimate tipping point. Statistics show that nearly half of buyers visit a vendor’s website immediately after engaging with influencer content. This direct action provides the data-driven insights and traffic spikes necessary to prove influencer relations ROI.

4. Strategies for Building Earned Influencer Relations

Executing a successful influencer strategy requires alignment with your broader business goals. Here are actionable ways to maximize your ROI potential through influencer partnerships.

Find the Right Influencers – Focus on relevance and expertise over follower count. A micro-influencer (these are influencers with smaller, but highly targeted followers) with 5,000 highly engaged community members is infinitely more valuable than a generalist with 50,000 followers. Look for practitioners who align with your specific industry and vertical and understand your buyers' pain points.
Use Relationship-Building Tactics – Do not only approach influencers when you need something. Engage with their content organically. Leave thoughtful comments, share their insights and facilitate dialogue. Make a point to set up casual coffee meetups if you attend the same industry events and trade shows. These in-person connections build trust and can uncover additional organic partnership opportunities. This is where your PR team can provide massive support. They are natural connection builders and will work with influencers in a very similar manner to reporters and editors.
Co-Create Content – Influencers know what resonates with their audience better than you do — that’s why you are working with them, after all. Collaborate on thought leadership pieces, interactive webinars, research reports and videos. Co-created content naturally blends your brand’s strategic expertise with the influencer’s unique voice.
Leverage Employee Advocacy – Do not overlook the experts sitting right inside your organization. Your employees are influencers, too. In fact, combined employee networks are typically 12 times larger than a company’s corporate following. Encourage your product managers, sales leaders and technical teams to share their expertise in spaces like LinkedIn to boost brand visibility.

5. Overcoming Challenges in B2B Influencer Relations

While the benefits are clear, building an influencer program comes with hurdles. Approaching these challenges proactively ensures your marketing strategy remains scalable and effective.

Finding the Right Fit – Identifying the perfect partner can be a challenge if you don’t know where to start. Currently, 48% of marketers struggle to identify the right influencers for their brand. The solution is to focus on shared values and goals. Do the research — deep dive into LinkedIn and YouTube to vet potential partners, ensuring their audience aligns with your ideal customer profile.
Managing Potential Crises – Even trusted voices can encounter controversy. While brands can’t control external behavior, they can prepare for it. Partner with your PR team to create a crisis-response framework so that if an influencer partnership becomes problematic, your team can act quickly, communicate clearly and safeguard your brand’s reputation.
Maintaining Authenticity – The fastest way to ruin an influencer partnership is by handing them a rigid, corporate script. Let influencers speak in their own voice. Provide them with key messaging, product access and performance metrics, but give them the creative freedom to deliver the message in a way their audience will actually consume.

6. The Future of B2B Influencer Relations

The future of B2B marketing is increasingly shaped by human-centered thought leadership. Now, more than ever, buyers value genuine human connections and relatable content over polished corporate speak. Think of the best B2B influencers as the conference speakers everyone lines up to hear — authentic experts who combine credibility with an ability to connect and build consensus around new ideas.

Do the research to find the right people to partner with, and don't lose sight of the human element. Marketers who prioritize always-on, relationship-driven strategies are seeing the biggest wins. Currently, 99% of marketers using an always-on approach rate their influencer programs as highly effective.

Transform Your Strategy Through Authentic Connections

B2B influencers are essential for building trust, establishing credibility and driving engagement across multiple decision makers. By shifting your focus from paid, short-term campaigns to earned, strategic relationships, you’ll align your marketing efforts with modern B2B buyer expectations and drive measurable revenue growth.

Take the time to evaluate your current multi-channel campaigns. Identify the voices your audience already trust and start building those relationships today. Explore influencer relations for your brand and watch your pipeline transform through the power of authentic, expert validation. Reach out to talk about ways to find the right influencers for your program.

Building A B2B Video Toolkit | Godfrey Insights

Tom Gorman — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Promoting a new product launch in a complex B2B industry isn’t just about making noise. It’s about creating clarity. And successful launches don’t rely on one slick video. They rely on a video toolkit that can support every stage of the buyer’s journey with multiple, modular video assets that engage, educate and ultimately win B2B customers by meeting them where they are in the buying process.

How To Write Paid Search Ads | Industrial B2B Google Ads Guide

Godfrey Team — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Paid search advertising can feel overwhelming, especially in industrial and manufacturing markets where product searches are complex and buyers are technical. The good news is you don’t need to be an engineer to write great advanced Google search ads for a technical target. Once you understand how industrial buyers search, how Google organizes campaigns, and what a strong ad actually looks like, the entire process becomes much easier. This guide provides you with the background and practical skills to use paid search more effectively or have informed conversations with your paid search experts.

Beyond The Booth: Turning B2B Trade Shows Into Sales | Godfrey

Sarah Poliski — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 05:00:00 GMT

Trade shows are back and bigger than ever. For B2B companies, these events are pivotal opportunities to engage target audiences, establish thought leadership, and, most importantly, fuel the sales pipeline.

From What’s Now To What’s Next: AI In B2B Marketing | Insights

Erin Michalak — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMT

From decoding the wackiest of dreams to planning last-minute weekend getaways, artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere in our lives — and marketing is no exception. This year, 74% of marketers surveyed by Marketing AI Institute said that AI is either “critically” or “very” important to their marketing in the next year.

So how does our B2B marketing agency use AI to empower our customers with innovative solutions that align with their goals for growth, efficiency and ROI?

At Godfrey, we are always looking ahead to what an AI-powered future will bring to business and marketing, manufacturing sales, creative work and content creation and search visibility. Overall, we’ve come to see AI as a strategic accelerator — a tool that improves targeting, automates processes and sharpens decision-making.

B2B marketers work in a complex space defined by technical products, multiple stakeholders and long buying cycles. AI provides tools to better navigate this world by helping us analyze clients’ data more deeply, uncovering a richer level of insights about their solutions and the buying process than was previously possible. It also helps us accelerate processes, from trend spotting to creative ideation.

Keeping it Human in an AI World

Ultimately, B2B buyers are still human beings. They make decisions based not only on facts, but also on trust, emotion and connection. While AI can accelerate how we uncover insights and generate options, its true value lies in how our strategists and creatives apply those outputs. We use the speed of AI to more quickly understand audiences and then apply that knowledge to craft messages that resonate.

Maintaining this balance comes down to discipline and intent. From strategy to public relations to creative, our teams leverage AI to strengthen our work — not to serve as a substitute for human insight, empathy, connection or creativity. Strategic decisions and final deliverables always go through human hands to make sure every client story connects with the real people making buying decisions.

"Our teams leverage AI to strengthen our work — not to serve as a substitute for human insight, empathy, connection or creativity."

Navigating the Hype for Real Results

As an agency, we’re in the unique position to function as both practitioners and advisors. It’s our responsibility to cut through the hype surrounding AI, identify what’s genuinely useful from what’s still experimental and guide clients toward practical, useful applications aligned with their business objectives. For example, when we use AI to significantly accelerate research, it allows our team the time to focus on high-value strategy and creative execution. This pragmatic approach ensures that our AI use directly supports our clients' marketing goals.

Ensuring Responsible AI Practices

As our team explores and uses AI tools, clear guidelines ensure transparency, security and accountability — and we’ll continue to update those guidelines as needed. We disclose our use of AI, safeguard client data and mandate a human review for all AI-generated content. Our team understands that AI outputs are intended as inputs for our work, not as the final product.

What’s Next?

What are we watching closely as AI evolves? The potential for personalization at scale and predictive analytics. We believe AI will enable a level of personalization and prediction that was previously impossible, changing how we all access and process information. And that will be a game-changer for our clients.

Since 1947, we’ve embraced every major marketing shift, from the earliest days of desktop publishing to the rise of the internet. As we integrate AI into our processes, we remain what we have always been — a strategic partner, committed to creating and executing strategies that align marketing objectives with business outcomes in the B2B space.

Want to talk about how AI is impacting your marketing? Book a conversation with me.