Are There Influencers in Your Marketing Future?

How do influencers build trust?How do influencers build trust?

Marketing is changing. The next generation of clients has different expectation of what marketing is and how they decide what and who they buy from. So many marketing messages, so little time. Is it time for you to add influencers to your marketing mix?

People have always been influenced by others. Today’s marketing influencers could have a large impact on your marketing effectiveness. So when is a good time to add influencers to your marketing efforts?  I thought I share six ideas that can help you decide if influencers can help give your brand a boost in your market. I learned about influence many year ago from Robert Cialdini and his principles of influence.

These principals hold up amazing well, even today with all the changes occurring in sales and marketing. I’m sure Robert might say influence impacts on a very foundational level and is timeless. So what do you want in your influencers? Here are the six principles of influence that social influencers can use to help positively impact your brand and your marketing efforts.

Influencers understand reciprocity. Being an influencer means you are always providing value to your markets. The best influencers overinvest in providing great ideas on a regular basis in their areas of expertise.  An extraordinary influencer is the sharer of not only their own great ideas, but others. They are constantly providing great value to their markets and people they serve.

Influencers understand the power of social proof. Ever wonder why many thought leaders have so many recommendations on their LinkedIn profiles? It’s because if you say it, it might be true, if someone else says it is true.  Good influencers knows what their audience considers social proof. You should consider who your audience considers the right social proof. This can change over your career. Good influencers watch and seize opportunities to help develop deeper relationships with new people arriving in their sphere of influence. They support other influencers.

Influencers understand commitment and consistency. Why do we trust influencers so much? I believe it’s because we are very comfortable trusting people we’ve seen and known over a long term. The more often we see them, the more likely we are to be influenced by what they say. In constantly changing times, great influencers provide stability in our lives. For this reason, many influencers work on very strict publishing schedules.

Influencers understand to be trusted you must be liked. It’s amazing what we will do for people we like. People expect to like the people they invest their time and money with. People will give influencers many chances if they like them. As people, we love to help people we like.

Influencers understand the best way to be liked is based on how we make others feel better about themselves. If you help others feel great about themselves, you never come up short in the ability to influence others. If you don’t like someone, what will you do for them? You already know the answer, and it isn’t good. Influencers understand how to help others reach their goals and dreams.

Influencers understand how authority works to impact others. People are looking to be lead and great influencers are willing to step up. It’s interesting than much of the power we give up comes from being influenced by symbols of authority. If you don’t believe me, how do you feel when you see a person in uniform? Are you responding to them or their clothing?

I believe this may be one of the major shifts occurring in society today. People are digging deeper before giving up their personal power. When you start noticing all the ways you are being influenced, you become a stronger person. Authority works for influencers because we are not aware of it. Once you start noticing this, you may be surprised how much more powerful you feel.

Influencers understand scarcity in getting people to take action. I just got a gift from a friend. It’s one of 12,000 signed copies of a book. It’s numbered and signed. I bet 12,000 won’t read the book, but scarcity made my friend buy it for me. Influencers understand less is more when being available.

Influencers understand that the best way to get people to take action is take it away. People always want what they can’t have. One of my favorite lines when speaking in front of audiences is remember a time before you were married. Wasn’t there one person you wanted to date that didn’t know you were alive? You always want what you can’t have.

Scarcity drives many of our bad decisions. Tell me I can’t have it and you got me hooked. Influencers understand working with fewer people many times can get you more exposure. The best influencers use scarcity to get people to take action. It also means that we sometime make bad decisions. False collectibles are based on this premise. Most of us have at least one item we bought this way.

Next week we will share how to use these principles to impact people in a more powerful way.  See you next week.

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