Influence: How focused are you in the currency of the digital world?
Welcome to the 10th Issue of The Funnel Chemistry. To be honest, I was quite doubtful if this issue would be out at all.
I was not well and couldn’t complete my sketch note. But I remembered that you would be waiting and hence picked up my strength and completed the note and composed this issue! I got to where I am because of the love that you have been showing! Thank You!
Well, let’s get to business. This email has 1300+ words and would take 5 Minutes and 15 Seconds of your time approximately.
Background
One of the major events that got me thinking this week was how an Influencer by name Hitesha Chandranee accused a Zomato delivery guy Kamaraj of hitting her. Apparently the tiff was because of a delayed delivery. She took to Social Media about it. What I saw happening was a two-side story unfold instead of just a one-sided one.
As I write this, a case has been filed against her for wrongful restraint, assault with intent to dishonor, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation! Post the FIR, her friend came up and confessed that Hitesha has had a history of such behavior which strengthened the case against her. I guess that’s the end of her Influence! You can read the full story here.
Zomato completely supported both parties with great care and the issue was handled brilliantly by the team. This has got nothing to do with marketing, but it got me to think about the nature and role of Influence in Marketing!
Understanding Influence
Very simply put, Influence is the power that keeps the funnel going! As a marketer you need influence to convert your audience from one layer/step in the funnel to the next! Sometimes a sales person does the job. In the digital world, content can do the job!
The word Influence directly points to changing behavior! Isn’t that what marketing is supposed to do? Change the status quo and persuade people to do something else than what they have always been doing so far?
So, to me, the lesson that got reopened today is what had been one of the most important lessons that I learnt!
Influence = Marketing!
I won’t be exaggerating if I say that Influence is currency in the digital world. If you can influence your audience in a way that benefits a brand, then you can trade with a marketer!
Here is my sketch note that has a few things that I wanted to say about Influence and Influence Marketing
The only name that I can recollect when I think of Influence is Robert Cialdini who wrote the book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. The six ways in which we can develop and exert influence are clearly outlined with great use cases in this book. Must read if you want to understand how Influence works!
Also, my thoughts drifted to the concept of Opinion Leadership which was an early form of Influencer Marketing. Opinion Leaders were those people in your community whose opinion mattered. Usually they are considered experts in their given area.
For example, if you want to read some interesting books, you would go ask that avid reader in your community. You would approach a veteran of a career when you want career development advice. The idea is that their experience and expertise will help you.
Opinion Leadership was one of the first attempts at formalizing word of mouth marketing! Marketers recruited opinion leaders who could influence the market and generate positive PR for their brand!
Malcom Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point introduced the concept of Market Mavens to refer to those consumers who are product experts and can give extensive information about a given product category because of their involvement with it.
For example, you would have encountered automobile enthusiasts who collect extensive information about different cars/bikes and can make expert comments on the performance, design, technology used, etc. These people collect such information because they simply love it. They are Collectors and Connoisseurs! In other words they are the personification of Robert Cialdini’s Authority attribute.
Well those were some of my thoughts. Hope it helped to establish the concept well. Let’s move on.
Deepening the concept
In this section I present 3 curated links which will help you to explore the concept of influence and learn how to apply it to enhance your marketing efforts. These 3 articles are highly valuable and can act as references at any given instance of time. I recommend that you take time to go through each carefully. You have a week to do that! That’s a lot of time.
Understanding The Difference Between Influence Marketing And Influencer Marketing
Influence Marketing is the process of marketing your brand to Influencers. There is a subtle difference between Influencer Marketing and Influence Marketing and this Forbes article makes that clear. It’s a must read to understand the context of this issue!
Breaking from Tradition: The Four Ms of Influence Marketing
The arrival of Digital platforms has changed marketing forever. As a marketer you need to adopt the traditional marketing practices to suit the digital world. The same goes to Influence as well. This article explores the same and proposes the 4Ms framework.
Here's How You Can do Influence Marketing
Identifying the right Influencers for your brand is a critical step towards Influencer marketing. This article clarifies how you can find those influencers and analyze if they are right for your brand.
How to use this knowledge?
If you have understood this concept you already know that there is not much of choice about using influence in your brand’s marketing. Ask yourself the following questions.
A. What is the extent I am using influence in my entire sales funnel? Remember you can use influence to convert your audience at each stage of the funnel. So, how can you improve your flow in the funnel and how can you expand the metrics you are tracking through the use of Influence?
B. Where are my conversions the weakest in my funnel? What can I do to make my influence stronger in that area? For example, people are hitting my website and downloading my free content but they are not buying anything from my website. So how can I influence people to buy?
C. What kind of Influence will work best at a given stage in the sales funnel? For example, using a celebrity or influencer will expand your reach. Writing provocative content will improve your conversions. Collaborative incentives will help build loyalty. So different tactics and forms of influence will be applicable for different contexts. So figure out which is best and use that.
Next Steps
Knowledge on its own doesn’t produce any results. Actions do. If you are not going to act based on this knowledge then your entire effort in reading this is a waste. You have one week to implement what you have just read. If you are feeling left out for some reason or the other, you can simply hit reply to this email and begin to talk to me. I will be more than glad to help.
If you liked this article and have felt reading this helps out, please share this with a friend who you think it helps. By sharing this you are not only helping me, but you would be reaching out to fellow digital marketers who would benefit from such sharing. You know which tactic of influence that would be! Increase your share of influence. Click here to share.
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So, that’s it for this week. See you Next Thursday with another issue.