This article is part of a series: "Activating influencers across the customer journey" comprised of the following:
Overview - Awareness - Consideration (this article) - Conversion
Let’s go back to our marketing funnel. After the awareness level comes the consideration stage where engagement reigns king.
So, you’ve launched a successful awareness campaign with the right influencers but now you want to push people further down the tunnel. A consideration campaign will further build the hype around your product, and peak the interest of your targeted audience. It will allow you to find those who are truly intrigued by what you have to offer and are prospective customers.
Just like with awareness campaigns, finding these people requires partnering with the right influencers, ones whose audience will engage with your branded content. This begins with selecting influencers who are interesting and persuasive, and whose content is in and of itself engaging. The type of content the influencer favors should also be taken into consideration because videos and/or stories often drive better discussions and allow you to get a sense of your audience’s perspectives. Most importantly, the key is to work with authentic influencers who are true fans of your brand, as it’s this “perceived” authenticity that will encourage people to engage with the content and drive their consideration of your product and service.
It’s also important to keep in mind the quantitative metrics that are indicative of the performance the influencers will generate with the most important one being their engagement score.
The engagement score reflects the level of engagement the influencer’s content receives, it’s the main KPI for this type of campaign. A low engagement score is a red flag, it’s an indicator that working with this influencer will not yield the results you need nor help you reach prospective customers.
However, similarly to the viewership score in awareness campaigns, an engagement score above a 6 is a good sign of the outcome to expect should you choose to work with this influencer because a high engagement rate translates into better conversion rates. Video engagement is more valuable than photo engagement due to the multilayered nature of the action required - the audience will have to take the time to view the video in addition to liking and commenting, and this effort is more indicative of a potential to convert than mere photo engagement.
Other metrics to keep an eye on are the Cost per Engagement (CPE) as the ideal CPE is dependent on the customer lifetime value (CLTV) and it fluctuates accordingly, "Adding to Cart" as this is an indication of intent and "lifts in search volume" as this would be considered a Zero Moment of Truth. The ZMOT refers to the moment between when a person is alerted to a product and when they decide to convert. Basically, the time when people research the product, and this is a sign of interest in the product, but at the same time a risk that customers would buy from a competitor.
Your choice will also be influenced by the engagement objective you are looking to achieve, e.g. encouraging discussions, collecting sentiment or collecting audience perspectives on a specific topic or issue. Each objective is better achieved with a different combination of formats and influencers, and the factors you value most will differ depending on your overarching objective.
These factors and objectives guide your selection of influencers, be it micro or macro influencers, and just like with any other influencer marketing campaign and as was shown in the first part of this series, you will be faced with the choice between the two.
You can work with one, big influencer whose presence offers you wider reach. For example, L’Oreal teamed up with Dubai-based mega beauty influencer, Narins Beauty on a competition post, the quintessential engagement strategy, as part of a long term collaboration. The stature of these influencers instigates their audience to interact with the audience. Macro influencers often don’t generate the same level of engagement as smaller influencers whose audience is often more engaged and responsive. So to better connect with their audience, ASOS worked with a bunch of nano and micro influencers as part of their #AsSeenOnMe campaign where they asked customers to showcase their ASOS outfits using the hashtag.
As previously asserted, while macro and micro influencers both have their advantages, smaller influencers tend to have a more homogeneous audience who’s more likely to be proactive in listening to the recommendations and guidance of these influencers.
The end goal is to find the right balance that will allow you to generate the consideration you need to get on the right track to conversions and loyalty. Once you’ve found this balance and you’ve launched your campaign, it’s time to monitor its success through relevant metrics. These usually include metrics that are more action-based and thus reflect higher intent such as comments (and likes to a lower extent) and click-through rates. But some views-based metrics are still important e.g. view-through rate which will allow you to assess how interested the viewers are in what you’re selling as the more time they spend watching, the more likely it is that they’re interested in considering converting.
We began with the framework for a successful awareness campaign before moving to the pillars of an influencer marketing strategy geared towards consideration. Up next is how to leverage influencers to generate conversions.
Read next article ➡️ Conversion
