Audience research
Part of How to run B2B influencer marketing audience research before briefing creators
How to run B2B influencer marketing customer interviews
A practical guide to customer interviews in B2B influencer marketing: when they beat surveys, consent and recruitment, coding themes and creator briefs.
What to take away
- Customer interviews have shifted from a discovery extra to a standing input for B2B influencer marketing, because buyer committees rarely share one objection and surveys flatten the difference.
- The UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, which our UK data protection rules walk through, shape what you record, how long you keep it and who hears it.
- Inclusion criteria belong on paper before recruitment startsrole, buying involvement, sector and purchase recency.
- Findings earn their keep only when they change a creator brief, a messaging test or a content angle.
- Paid creator activity still needs disclosure under the CAP Code, however good the research behind it.
Why interviews beat surveys alone
A survey tells you how many buyers hold a view. An interview tells you why, and which words they use unprompted. Together the survey sizes the problem and the interviews explain the mechanism.
B2B influencer marketing customer interviews matter because the buying unit is rarely one person. A finance lead, a technical evaluator and an end user can sit in the same deal and describe it differently.
Ten to fifteen interviews per segment is enough to hear the same objection twice. Our guide to B2B influencer marketing audience research shows how interviews and surveys fit together.
Inclusion criteria to fix first
Write the criteria before you recruit, and keep them visible during analysis.
| Criterion | Example |
|---|
Inclusion criteria to fix first
- Role in the buying unit
- Purchase recencywithin 18 months
- Organisation sizenamed band
- Sectortwo or three sectors
- GeographyUK only
In full, the four criteria are:
- Role.The person who owned the budget, signed the contract or ran the evaluation, not a day-to-day user with no say in the purchase.
- Buying involvement.They took part in the last decision on a supplier like yours, so they can describe the committee, the alternatives considered and the objections that surfaced.
- Sector.A comparable sector and company size, so the buying committee in the interview looks like the one you actually sell to.
- Purchase recency.Recent enough that they still remember the process and the words they used, and not so long ago that the product on the table has changed.
State the geography explicitly, because consent wording and retention periods differ once you recruit outside the UK. UK recruitment sits under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, so the wording and the retention period you promise have to be set country by country. Work by providers in other markets is still useful context, but a US-based agency such as HireInfluence does not set a UK standard.
Recruitment and consent
Recruit through customer success teams, account managers and your own user base. Avoid recruiting only your happiest accounts; churned and stalled buyers often explain more.
Consent needs to cover the recording, the purpose, who will hear it and how long you keep it. The law that applies to UK recruitment is the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and the ICO's guidance on business-to-business marketing is the reference point for how that data can be used, including what you must tell a buyer before you record and what is needed before you quote them in content.
If you plan to turn quotes into survey questions, our guide to the survey stage shows how the two stages connect without re-contacting the same people twice.
Question design that survives coding
Ask about the last decision, not decisions in general. "Walk me through the last time you evaluated a supplier like ours" produces a story, while "How important is thought leadership?" produces a number with no context.
Keep the guide to five or six topics and let the interviewee talk. Probe on triggers, alternatives considered, people consulted and what nearly stopped the purchase.
Code the transcripts into themes within a week, while the interviews are fresh. Two coders working separately, then comparing notes, reduces the risk that one person's assumptions become the finding.
Turning findings into creator briefs
Interview themes should change something concrete. A brief that says "talk about integration pain" is weaker than one that names the phrase buyers used and the stage where they used it.
Map each theme to a creator, a format and a measure. If a theme cannot link to any of the three, it belongs in an internal deck rather than a paid brief.
Take a theme such as "integration pain". It maps to a creator who builds and explains integrations, a format such as a short teardown video or a written explainer, and a measure such as demo requests or questions left in the comments. A theme that links to none of the three is a research note for the internal deck, not a paid brief.
Once money changes hands, the CAP Code (the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing) requires that marketing communications are obviously identifiable as such, and the ASA's advice for businesses sets out the disclosure expectations that apply to influencer activity.
Common questions
How many customer interviews are enough?
Ten to fifteen per segment is a workable starting point, because repeated themes matter more than volume. If every interview adds a new theme, the segment is probably too broad.
Do I need consent to quote a buyer?
Yes. Consent for the interview is not consent to publish a quote, so ask separately and record the answer.
Can interview findings replace a survey?
No. Interviews explain motives and language; surveys measure how widely those views are held. Use them together, with the interviews informing the survey questions.
Should creators see raw transcripts?
Rarely. Share coded themes and approved quotes instead, so identifiable detail stays with the team that collected it.
