Four tips for making influencer marketing a successful measurable discipline

The way companies market themselves is changing – it has to as their offerings simply do not connect with the way most people learn about new products and make decisions to buy. The bottom line: consumers are increasingly ignoring corporate marketing and relying instead on the experiences and recommendations of friends, family, co-workers, and online peers.

 

A Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey found that recommendations from personal acquaintances and online consumer reviews topped the trust list for more than 25,000 consumers from 50 countries. In fact, 90% of consumers surveyed said they’d trust recommendations from people they know. This research is not alone in its findings. Numerous other studies all draw the same conclusion – the majority of people buy based on the conversation and recommendations of trusted friends, family members, colleagues and, increasingly, online reviewers.

 

It stands to reason, therefore, that a customer who consistently influences the purchases of 5 to 10 friends and co-workers has a higher value than one who spends more individually but has little or no influence on others.

 

 

Marketers, understandably, put a lot of energy into identifying their most influential customers: the customers who are often the first to try new products, have large social networks, and are most vociferous in talking up (or down) their experiences online and offline. It seems obvious that these 'hyperactive' customers would sit at the top of the list. The reality, however, is that these customers are not necessarily any more influential in swaying the purchase behaviour of their networks than those with smaller networks and softer voices. In fact, it is a different subset of customers that truly serves as the 'everyday influencers', with much greater impact on peer purchase behaviour. These 'influencers' are already in your customer base – you just need to pinpoint them and start nurturing your relationship with them.