Influencer Marketing & Growth @ lempire (Taplio + lemlist) | Exploring how B2B influencers help SaaS companies drive growth

Alex Llull

I've worked with 200+ creators. Only about 10% get rebooked.

Here's what separates them from the rest:

→ They send a recap without being asked

Post links, key metrics, screenshots. All in one message.

Most creators post and disappear. The ones who make it easy for me to report back to my team go to the top of my list.

→ They offer a discount for round two

"Hey, if you want to lock in another collab, I'll do 15% off."

This might seem counterintuitive. But for creators building a business, consistent work beats one-off payments. And brands appreciate your commitment.

→ They reply within 24-48 hours

Many creators ghost after a collab ends. That's one of the fastest ways to get blacklisted.

Be communicative. And if you can't, just say so. That alone builds trust.

→ They pitch before I do

"Want to turn this into a series?" or "I have an idea for a follow-up."

Brands value proactivity. It shows you're invested beyond just the current project.

→ They're honest when things underperform

One creator told me: "Hey, this one flopped. Here's why I think it happened, and here's what I'd do differently."

That message made me want to work with them more, not less.

Most creators don't do any of this. Which is exactly why you should.

Partnerships @ Perspective | Building B2B creator, influencer and partner programs that drive revenue

→ Found a creator on our niche
→ Paid for one sponsored video (flat fee)
→ Offered affiliate commission on top (he didn't ask for it)
→ Video did really well, signups came in
→ A few converted to paid customers
→ He started seeing passive income hit his account

Then, without us reaching out for a new one, he made 3 more videos about Perspective.

On his own, with no ask, brief or second payment from our side.

Why? Two things:

- He loved the tool and thought it was valuable for his audience
- He saw the potential to own this niche before others did (smart creator)

Once I noticed he was doing that, I reached out. Now we're plotting how to 10x his impact together.

Here's the thing most brands get wrong:

They pay a flat fee. Creator posts. Done. Transaction over.

But flat fee only pays for their time. It doesn't keep them around.

That's why we always offer affiliate compensation on top, even when creators don't ask for it.

Yes, the affiliate cuts into margins on video one. But it almost guarantees videos 2, 3, 4 without extra spend.

It's a retention strategy (if you have a good product).

How do you structure your creator deals? 🤝

Benjamin Fredj

The traditional B2B acquisition playbook is shifting: outbound is saturated with AI, SEO has ceded traffic to ChatGPT and ad CACs have spiked.

Meanwhile, the buyer journey has changed. B2B creators and subject-matter experts are now the sources your prospects trust most.

Kāst helps you build unique, long-term partnerships with the leading voices in your industry your buyers already trust.

Grow brand awareness and accelerate pipeline with Kāst and B2B influencer marketing.

Co-founder and CEO

Ivee is the B2B influence marketing platform helping B2B brands partner with opinion leaders to grow revenue, generate leads and build unique brands.

8 years ago, this creator started writing interviews in a Starbucks. Last week, he sold his media to HubSpot. 

Let that sink in. 

Over time, Pat Walls and Starter Story became:
 • 800,000 YouTube subscribers
 • 300,000 newsletter subscribers
 • 100M+ annual content views 

Meanwhile, HubSpot, the company that *invented* inbound marketing, has been losing organic reach for 2+ years.

So what happened? Inbound 1.0 was about ranking. Inbound 2.0 is about relationships.

In 2026, people don’t buy from logos, ads or cold emails. They buy from PEOPLE they TRUST.

Starter Story didn’t just publish content. It built emotional equity.

This acquisition isn’t about content.

It’s about distribution. It’s about attention. It’s about TRUST (again).

The era of Creator-Led Growth in B2B is no longer a trend. It’s THE moat.

If HubSpot is buying creators, you should ask yourself why.

Benjamin  Fredj

CEO @Kāst | B2B Influencer Marketing Agency

🤯 $1.2B.

A prospect just made me realize our clients have raised over a billion dollars in total.

Beyond the vanity metric I'll shamelessly name-drop at my next fancy dinner, here's what these companies actually have in common.

Raising money isn't the only path to success, but it's a signal of a peculiar kind of ambition: a shot at doing something huge or burning out trying.

These companies don't wait for the perfect product, the perfect brand, or a guaranteed ROI to move.

They have to keep growing. Y Combinator even enshrined 7% WoW growth as a sacred principle.

These scale-ups think in terms of market, not pipeline.
They build an audience before they need one.
Their founders are thought leaders who are known, followed, trusted.

They set the tempo and others follow.

They're the first to go down the AI rabbit hole while the rest of the ecosystem is still figuring out the basics.

And they're the first to make B2B influence a cornerstone of their GTM strategy. 

Not because it's trendy, but because they understand that in a noisy market, the brand that wins trust just wins.

If your competitor is building their brand with field experts and you're not, that's not a minor detail. It's a gap that widens every single day.

Stripe’s 2025 annual letter dropped today. If you’re growing a startup, there’s one insight you can’t afford to ignore:

In December 2025, the number of iOS apps released in a single month jumped 60% year over year.

GitHub pushes surged 41% between Q3 2024 and Q3 2025.

25% of all new Delaware companies are now created through Stripe Atlas.

Stripe just confirmed what many suspected: the barrier to entry has collapsed.

Of course you read that before on Linkedin, but no player of this magnitude confirmed this insight before. 

And that fundamentally changes the question for B2B brands.

Before: "How do we build a better product?" 
Now: "Why should anyone trust us over the ten competitors who launched last week?"

Because if anyone can ship in a few weeks, the product alone no longer justifies the trust. 

Especially in B2B where buying cycles are long, decision committees are wide and perceived risk is high.

Trust isn't built with a better pitch deck.

It's built when someone your buyer already respects says: "These people know what they're talking about."

That's the only competitive advantage you can't clone over a weekend. 

A network of opinion leaders turned ambassadors is a massive weapon you can't ignore.

taplio

The Battle

Alex Llull

Benjamin Fredj

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taplio

The Battle

Alex Llull

Benjamin Fredj

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Engagements

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Alex Llull's LinkedIn Performance

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