Help! Who are my influencers?

Transcription

1 Traackr Help! Who are my influencers? A marketer s toolkit for understanding influence in the customer journey

2 How do I find the right influencers to create positive impact for my business? Hello Marketer! This toolkit will introduce you to a process that helps you find the people who influence the conversations around your brand. It offers you new ways to be creative and strategic about building meaningful influencer relationships, designed with people at heart. The methods explained here are meant to help you structure your process and capture your best ideas. You can try everything from start to finish or just use the methods that resonate with you. Before you begin, take a moment to meditate on this: We trust friends, colleagues and experts more than advertising. Marketers who get this devote time and resources to creating authentic relationships with the people who matter to their business. These people are the ones who influence your customers and shape your industry. In the past, influence was exerted by a select few (analysts, journalists, celebrities). Now, influence is spread out. Your job is to find the most important people for your brand, whether they re among your prospects, current customers, industry experts or passionate individuals. Finding the true influencers and brand advocates on the social web is an absolute joy. Through the conversations they re leading, I m able to understand so much more about my clients target audiences and their needs. It helps me tap directly into a customer mindset and definitely impacts my approach, not just to social media and content marketing, but to marketing in general. It s like having an always-on focus group providing actionable, valuable insights, all the time. Shannon Coulter VP, Digital Atomic

3 A peoplefirst approach to choosing the right influencers The process of finding the right influencers is what puts your influencer marketing strategy into action. It s a deeply human approach that relies on your ability to be creative, interpret what you observe and develop themes that are meaningful to the people you are targeting all skills you are well versed in as a marketer. This toolkit suggests a three-phased structured approach. Use it along with other methodologies and processes you find useful to discover the people that matter most to you. Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Understand your customers & define your profiles Map the customer journey & identify influencer touchpoints Derive topics for each touchpoint & find influencers by topic

4 PHASE 1 Understand your customers & define your profiles WORKSHEET Worksheets for this phase are available on pages of the toolkit to help you build your own customer profiles. Finding the right influencers for your marketing activities starts by developing a deep understanding of your customers needs, goals, and aspirations. Mapping out who you want to influence, what their needs are and who they rely on for information will help you determine who is truly influential to your customer Learn from customers Who are they? What are their pain points & desires? A deep understanding of peoples motivations and needs is the best foundation for any marketing initiative. Consider the broad spectrum of people who are touched by your brand. There are many ways to learn from existing or potential customers, including interviews, immersing yourself in their context, and learning from peers such as sales or customer service teams. Think more broadly, think of extremes Who is associated with your direct audience? With a curious mindset, inspiration and new perspectives can be found in many places. Consider learning from customers who represent extremes: people that are either completely familiar and involved in your topic, or don t have anything to do with it. Extreme s will help you understand unarticulated behaviors, desires, and needs of the rest of the population that they express more powerfully than others. Describe your profiles What are the attributes of your core and extended audience? The next step is to define profiles that help you focus on what s most important to your customers. These could be inspired by many data points that describe different customers. Create a visual overview of your main and extended audience and write detailed descriptions for at least 3 different s. Be sure to cover a variety of types and experiences. 6 7

5 Overview Research Participants List Make a list of people you want to learn from. Customer Baseball Card Create detailed descriptions for at least 3 different s. Customer X Customer Service Rep X Head of Sales Occupation briefcas What do they do? Personality What type of person are they? Challenges alert What are the toughest parts about their job? Customer Types Consider the core audience and extended audience. Draw a visual reminder. Aspirations heart If they could wave a magic wand, what would they do? Extended Extended Tools settings What types of tools do they use to get their job done? Core Core Resources openbook What do they read? Which types of resources do they like? Extended Extended 8 9

6 PHASE 2 Map the customer journey & influencer touchpoints WORKSHEET Worksheets for this phase are available on pages of the toolkit to help you build your customer journey and identify the moments of influence. Once you develop your customer profiles you can start mapping out their customer journey with you. At each stage of the journey, your customer will be asking different questions and turning to different sources for information and guidance. To figure out the most relevant influencers to engage, you need to know what your customer is looking for and who they are relying on for advice Map the journey for each profile What is your customer s path to purchase? The journey starts before someone even knows you exist and continues on to that person becoming a loyal advocate for your brand and/or product. Create a visual reminder of your customer journey, as a way to organize and communicate your insights. Consider your customer s context What questions do they ask? The next step is to describe your customer s situation and thought process along each step of the journey. What is happening right before they become aware? How do they go from newbie to informed? What do they want or need to know to make a decision? What conditions need to align for them to purchase? Identify the influencer touchpoints Who do they rely on for information and guidance? Once you know your customer s context, you can determine who they interact with and who influences them at each stage. Who triggers them to think about you or your category? Who is answering their questions or teaching them? Who provides information, stories and other content that helps them make a decision? Who controls the environment where they buy? 10 11

7 B2C Customer Journey & Influencer Matrix Moments of Influence Describe the customer s situation at each stage, who influences them, and how. CROSSFIT NEWBIE In the market for sports apparel. Unaware Aware Deciding Purchasing Customer Context What leads them to discover you? How do they go from newbie to informed? What criteria impact their decision? What sways them to buy? Just started Crossfit. Didn t realize Learning about new criteria for shoes I Searching online. Comparing options. Ready to buy. Subconsciously looking tennis shoes were bad for this sport. didn t realize. Asking questions. Looking Wanting to get the ones. Looking for for an experience. around the gym for inspiration. personality fit. Who / What influences Who helps them become aware? Who do they go to for information? Who provides stories & content? Who controls that environment? Head coach in gym. Fellow Crossfitters. Reviews online written by people who Product websites More experienced Crossfitters. The shoes people are wearing. have the shoes. The family mentality. Bloggers who share their stories. How they influence (Topics) What do they say or do? What types of info do they provide? What are the compelling reasons? What emotional reasons do they have? Giving me tips on how to lift properly. Telling me about their shoes. Telling me about their experience Giving me color choices, making me feel Teaching me about form. Describing features: shape, comfort, feel... (ability to run and lift). cool, touch, more experienced than Telling me where they bought theirs. I am. Keywords s Target Influencers s s s 12 13

8 B2B Customer Journey & Influencer Matrix Moments of Influence Describe the customer s situation at each stage, who influences them, and how. SMALL BUSINESS OWNER Needs to hire more people. In the market for recruiting software. Unaware Aware Deciding Purchasing Customer Context What leads them to discover you? How do they go from newbie to informed? What criteria impact their decision? What sways them to buy? Business expanding. Needs more Look at websites for recruiting Knowing that other businesses like Need to hire fast. employees. Spending time shifting software. Read blogs. Ask questions. them have had success. through s / resumes. Who / What influences Who helps them become aware? Who do they go to for information? Who provides stories & content? Who controls that environment? Other small business owners. Fellow small business owners. Small business owners who have used On website, or phone with Existing service providers (accountants, Friends / family who have hired before. recruiting technology to build their product. lawyers...). Google. business. How they influence (Topics) What do they say or do? What types of info do they provide? What are the compelling reasons? What emotional reasons do they have? Provide advice on how they hire. Talk Describe how recruiting systems work, The people you hire are vital to your Hiring is a pain, a distraction from their about their process and challenges for how long it takes, how easy or difficult success. Make sure you are equipped to real work. Want to get it done fast. small business hiring. recruiting systems are. choose the best. Keywords s Target Influencers s s s 14 15

9 PHASE 3 Derive topics for each touchpoint & find influencers by topic WORKSHEET Worksheets for this phase are available on pages of the toolkit to help you find the right influencers based on the content they produce. Once you ve mapped out the customer journey, identified touchpoints and figured out what types of people play a role in your customers decision-making and information gathering process at each stage of the journey, you get more clarity on possible topics to engage your customers via influencers Define relevant topics for each stage What are the main topics of conversation? The final step in choosing the right influencers is to pull out a list of topics from each stage and find the people who are actively producing content on those topics. At this stage, you ll have a very good grasp on specific topics that make sense to your brand and to your customers. Generate words from topics What terms are being used in social conversations? When you ve identified your topics, it s time to break them down into words and social conversation phrases you can use to find influencers. By going bottom up, starting with your customers, their areas of interests and concerns, you ll be able to find people who are important to their decision-making at every point. Look for relevant influencers Who are the people leading these conversations? Once you know what you re looking for, you ll need to find the people who produce content and have an engaged audience for your specific topics. Traackr will help you discover the right people and surface actionable insights for you based on influencers content

10 B2C Customer Journey & Influencer Matrix Moments of Influence Describe the customer s situation at each stage, who influences them, and how. CROSSFIT NEWBIE In the market for sports apparel. Unaware Aware Deciding Purchasing Customer Context What leads them to discover you? How do they go from newbie to informed? What criteria impact their decision? What sways them to buy? Just started Crossfit. Didn t realize Learning about new criteria for shoes I Searching online. Comparing options. Ready to buy. Subconsciously looking tennis shoes were bad for this sport. didn t realize. Asking questions. Looking Wanting to get the ones. Looking for for an experience. around the gym for inspiration. personality fit. Who / What influences Who helps them become aware? Who do they go to for information? Who provides stories & content? Who controls that environment? Head coach in gym. Fellow Crossfitters. Reviews online written by people who Product websites More experienced Crossfitters. The shoes people are wearing. have the shoes. The family mentality. Bloggers who share their stories. How they influence (Topics) What do they say or do? What types of info do they provide? What are the compelling reasons? What emotional reasons do they have? Giving me tips on how to lift properly. Telling me about their shoes. Telling me about their experience Giving me color choices, making me feel Teaching me about form. Describing features: shape, comfort, feel... (ability to run and lift). cool, touch, more experienced than Telling me where they bought theirs. I am. Keywords getting started with crossfit crossfit shoe options flat sole crossfit shoes wod sneaker customize crossfit shoes, Nano 2.0, Lift new to crossfit footwear crossfit reebok nike lifting shoes Trainer, LunarTRI1 proper form beginner crossfit olympic lifting experience with BRAND s Target Influencers s s s Coaches. Experienced practitioners. Experienced practitioners in person and People who have already purchased the Brand. Representatives. online. product

11 B2B Customer Journey & Influencer Matrix Moments of Influence Describe the customer s situation at each stage, who influences them, and how. SMALL BUSINESS OWNER Needs to hire more people. In the market for recruiting software. Unaware Aware Deciding Purchasing Customer Context What leads them to discover you? How do they go from newbie to informed? What criteria impact their decision? What sways them to buy? Business expanding. Needs more Look at websites for recruiting Knowing that other businesses like Need to hire fast. employees. Spending time shifting software. Read blogs. Ask questions. them have had success. through s / resumes. Who / What influences Who helps them become aware? Who do they go to for information? Who provides stories & content? Who controls that environment? Other small business owners. Fellow small business owners. Small business owners who have used On website, or phone with Existing service providers (accountants, Friends / family who have hired before. recruiting technology to build their product. lawyers...). Google. business. How they influence (Topics) What do they say or do? What types of info do they provide? What are the compelling reasons? What emotional reasons do they have? Provide advice on how they hire. Talk Describe how recruiting systems work, The people you hire are vital to your Hiring is a pain, a distraction from their about their process and challenges for how long it takes, how easy or difficult success. Make sure you are equipped to real work. Want to get it done fast. small business hiring. recruiting systems are. choose the best. Keywords small business owner hiring better way to hire easier way to small business success spend less time free up your time easier way to hire people recruit people hiring software for hiring find higher quality people built we ll help you get going small businesses hard to find good people small businesses recruiting tools amazing team here to help s Target Influencers s s s Small business accountants. Small business owners. Current customers. Sales Representatives. Small business lawyers. Small business management gurus. Other small business service providers

12 Worksheets

13 Overview Research Participants List Make a list of people you want to learn from. Customer Baseball Card Create detailed descriptions for at least 3 different s. Occupation Personality Challenges briefcas alert Customer Types Consider the core audience and extended audience. Draw a visual reminder. Aspirations heart Extended Extended Tools settings Core Core Resources openbook Extended Extended 24 25

14 Overview Customer Baseball Card Create detailed descriptions for at least 3 different s. Customer Baseball Card Create detailed descriptions for at least 3 different s. Occupation briefcas Occupation briefcas Personality Personality Challenges alert Challenges alert Aspirations heart Aspirations heart Tools settings Tools settings Resources openbook Resources openbook 26 27

15 Customer Journey & Influencer Matrix Moments of Influence Describe the customer s situation at each stage, who influences them, and how. Unaware Aware Deciding Purchasing Customer Context What leads them to discover you? How do they go from newbie to informed? What criteria impact their decision? What sways them to buy? Who / What influences Who helps them become aware? Who do they go to for information? Who provides stories & content? Who controls that environment? How they influence (Topics) What do they say or do? What types of info do they provide? What are the compelling reasons? What emotional reasons do they have? Keywords s Target Influencers s s s 28 29

16 Influencer About Traackr Identification / Toolkit Traackr enables marketers to focus their social initiatives on the people who have the greatest ability to impact their objectives. The platform discovers, monitors and measures online influencers and the content they produce. More than 140 brands including EMC, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Thomson Reuters and half of the top 50 communications agencies use Traackr to drive successful social programs and earn more attention by engaging with the right people. You can learn more at info@traackr.com 901 Mission Street, Suite 205 San Francisco, CA Traackr 30