From Clicks to Conversations: How B2B Influence Really Spreads Now

There is a quiet shift in how B2B content is shared.

A familiar situation plays out in many B2B organisations. A campaign goes live. Engagement looks average. Click-through rates are fine, but not exceptional.

Then sales comes back with feedback like:

“They already knew about us.” “Your content has been circulating internally.” “Someone forwarded a deck before we even spoke.”

And marketing is left wondering: Where did that influence actually happen? It didn’t show up in dashboards. It wasn’t visible in likes or comments. But it clearly mattered!

This gap — between what we can measure and what actually influences decisions — is becoming one of the biggest blind spots in B2B marketing.

The quiet shift in how B2B content is shared

B2B buying has always been different from consumer buying. It’s slower. Riskier. More political. As a result, B2B buyers don’t behave loudly. They don’t always like posts. They don’t comment publicly. They don’t signal intent in obvious ways.

Instead, they share privately.

More and more B2B influence now travels through:

• Slack channels

• WhatsApp groups

• Email forwards

• Internal documents and meeting notes

This is often referred to as dark social — not because it’s secretive, but because it’s invisible to traditional analytics. Research consistently shows that B2B buyers spend the majority of their journey self-educating before engaging sales. What’s changing is where that education is discussed and validated.

The more considered the purchase, the more private the sharing. Enterprise decisions involve career risk, budget scrutiny, internal alignment, and long-term consequences. So buyers don’t agree publicly.

They test ideas privately.

Why clicks and likes are no longer reliable signals

For years, B2B marketing optimised for visibility. (impressions, clicks, engagement rates, attribution models etc.) These metrics worked when journeys were simpler, there were fewer channels, and user attention was easier to capture.

Today, they tell only part of the story.

• Clicks reward curiosity, not conviction.

• Likes signal agreement, not influence.

• Attribution assumes a linear journey that no longer exists.

Clicks vs Resonance — B2B Marketing Reality

Dimension	Clicks	Resonance
Where it happens	Public platforms	Private conversations
Typical channels	LinkedIn, X, search ads	Slack, WhatsApp, email, meetings
What it signals	Curiosity	Understanding and agreement
Time horizon	Short-term	Long-term
Buyer behaviour	Individual	Collective (buying committee)
Ease of measurement	Easy	Hard
What it optimises for	Activity	Influence
Impact on decisions	Indirect	Direct
Role in B2B	Entry point	Decision shaper

In reality, B2B buying looks more like this:

One person reads an article → forwards it to a colleague → who shares it internally → where it shapes discussion weeks later.

By the time sales is involved, the influence has already happened — quietly. This is why many teams feel something is “working” even when the numbers don’t look impressive. And why others feel busy without seeing impact.

The problem isn’t performance. It’s the measurement model.

From clicks to social resonance

If clicks tell us what was touched, resonance tells us what travelled.

Social resonance is about:

• what gets forwarded

• what gets quoted internally

• what gets reused in conversations

• what sticks long enough to influence decisions

Content with high resonance often looks unremarkable in public metrics. But it shows up repeatedly in places marketing can’t see. This is why some assets, like a sharp POV or a simple narrative or a clear blog post, become an unofficial sales tool.

They’re easy to share privately because they help someone explain an idea to someone else.

Case-style examples from B2B reality

1. Low engagement, high influence

A mid-sized B2B tech company publishes a long-form article explaining a category problem clearly — without promotion.

Traffic is modest. Engagement is average. But over time, sales starts hearing:

“We read your piece internally.” “This explains what we’ve been struggling with.” “Someone sent this around our team.”

The article doesn’t convert directly. It converts indirectly — by shaping internal understanding. Public metrics understate its impact.

2. High engagement, low memory

Another team runs frequent campaigns with strong visuals and short-term engagement.

Likes are healthy. Clicks look good. But when sales asks buyers what stood out, the answer is vague:

“You post a lot.” “We see you everywhere.”

Visibility exists. Meaning doesn’t.

The content was consumed — but not remembered. It travelled publicly, but not privately.

3. Internal sharing as a force multiplier

In stronger organisations, the same narrative appears everywhere:

• blog posts

• sales decks

• internal Slack channels

• leadership presentations

Teams forward content internally because it helps them explain the company consistently. Private sharing creates alignment first. External trust follows.

What CMOs should optimise for now

This shift doesn’t mean metrics don’t matter. It means they’re incomplete.

Modern B2B marketing needs to ask different questions:

• Is this content easy to forward?

• Can it be summarised in one sentence?

• Would someone send this to a colleague without context?

Content that travels privately tends to share a few traits:

• clear point of view

• simple language

• repeatable framing

• credibility over cleverness

It doesn’t try to impress algorithms. It tries to help people explain something to others.

The teams that win won’t be the ones chasing more clicks. They’ll be the ones shaping the conversations that happen when they’re not in the room.