Top Influence Marketing News: Do You Wanna Buy a Watch?

By Nyerr Parham

If you’ve ever been in a conversation about digital marketing with anyone, it’s nearly a sure bet that the subject of “ROI” has come up.  Why?  Because, as marketers, the end goal is nearly always sales.  The traditional path-to-purchase has been awareness, consideration, purchase.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  As we explain in our newest eBook, the purchasing process is no longer linear; instead, it has shifted to a circular path, with multiple touch points prior to purchase.  It’s time to understand where these touch points are and realize that it’s not about the “hard sell” anymore.

With that, we’ve been viewing recent news in influence marketing through a sales prism.  Here’s what we’ve been reading lately.

It’s the Decision Shapers
Anyone that’s spent time in sales has tried to pitch to the “decision maker,” without much success.    Buying decisions, particularly in B2B, now largely depend on a consensus between stakeholders.  To reach these stakeholders, you need to build a coalition of the willing.  Bob Apollo of Inflexion Point, tells us that it’s not about the decision makers, but about the decision shapers.

Read the full article on Inflexion Point: Why Your Sales People Need to Focus on the Decision Shapers

Influence Marketing vs. Sales Strategy
Like social media and traditional media, influence marketing is not a strategy.  It’s one tactic you should be incorporating to execute your strategy.  Sam Fiorella states at Huffington Post, “To be effective, marketers — or their selected consumer representatives — must exert influence over the decision-making process.”

Read the full article at Huffington Post: Influence Marketing vs. Sales Strategy

Ever Heard of Influencer Selling?
If you met someone with a wide network of friends at a local meet up and you knew that many people trusted his or her opinion, what would you do?  Would you pull out your catalogue of watches and try to make a sale on the spot?  Not likely.  Instead, you would try to connect, woo and build a relationship with this person.  Tech Market Europe talks about how influencer marketing applies in the B2B tech industry too.

Read the full article at Tech Market Europe: Ever Heard of “Influencer Selling?”

Does It Work?
We’ve laid out the path of influence marketing enlightenment for you, but you’re probably asking, “Does it really work?”  Have you heard of Popchips?  (You know, that little snack company with $93.7 million in revenue in 2012.) They incorporated influencer marketing into their strategy from day one.

Read the full article at Forbes:
Influencer Marketing: How Your Business Can Benefit from Popchip’s Secret Recipe

Did we miss your favorite influencer marketing article in our roundup?  Drop us a link in the comments section below.