Many brands are now leveraging social media to increase their sales. However, social media audiences are often averse to promotional content because their goal is to socialize, be entertained, and be informed. That means that to increase sales, you need to have a strategy for how to put your products or services in front of the right audience without being overly promotional.

One of the social commerce strategies and trends you should consider is the use of influencer marketing. With statistics indicating that 69% of shoppers trust influencers in the same way they do family and friends, this can be an effective way of driving sales. In this article, we guide you on how influencer marketing works at different stages of the sales funnel.

Why Use a Full-Funnel Approach to Influencer Marketing

Working with influencers at the different stages of the sales funnel can bring outstanding results for several reasons, such as:

Trust Building

One of the key aspects of influencer marketing is its ability to connect with the target audience. As noted earlier, customers trust the recommendation of an influencer in the same way they do with family and friends. Therefore, an influencer can enable a more powerful connection with your consumer. When you add influencers at different stages, you can easily build trust.

Better Audience Targeting

When you are able to better target your audience at the exact stage they are in, you can achieve better results. Influencers can enable you to better reach certain demographics that would be otherwise difficult to reach using conventional methods. This is because it becomes easier to send more relevant, personalized, and timely messaging.

Higher ROI

When you can track and analyze the impact of the influencer in the different stages of the sales funnel, you can get better results with your marketing budget. However, when doing that, you need to find an influencer who is already generating a lot of buzz and use them in the contemplation stage to sway prospects.

The Role of an Influencer in Different Stages of the Sales Funnel

In its early days, influencer marketing was limited to driving brand awareness. However, today, that has changed, and the marketing method is now used to engage customers in the different stages of the customer journey. Also known as the sales funnel, the customer journey consists of 4 major stages. 

These are:

Brand Awareness 

The first stage is when people become aware of your brand and start to conduct research. It is the widest portion of the sales funnel. It represents the first people who hear about your brand, either by reading your social media post or hearing about it from other customers. At this stage, the social media user isn't aware that they have a problem; they want a solution.

However, as they interact with your content, they notice the problem and start learning about the possible solutions. Influencer marketing can help in this stage in different ways, such as:

• Wider reach. Depending on their category, influencers can help you reach a larger following. Therefore, they can help drive brand awareness among interested persons. 
• Providing social proof: There are many benefits of social proof, such as increasing conversion, as it reduces purchase hesitation and shows customer reviews. Influencers can be a good source of social proof, as they can create posts of themselves enjoying your product, a recommendation strategy that can offer greater results.
• Sharing your brand story. Influencers can create a video showcasing themselves using your product and providing their own experience. This offers a certain level of authenticity compared to polished ads.

Therefore, influencers can help in gaining more exposure in the brand awareness stage and attracting new customers.

Consideration/Interest

After customers are made aware of your brand, some of them will start to develop interest. Out of those you reach in the awareness stage, those who show interest will be fewer, and that's why the sales funnel becomes narrower at this stage. At this stage, the customer will start considering your brand and evaluating how it matches the competitor.

Influencers can come in handy in helping you remove doubts that shoppers may have about your brand and to make them choose your brand over that of the competitor. They can do that by creating content that helps remove doubts, such as:

• Authentic demos. Influencers can create videos showcasing real user cases of your brand and personal routines, proving that the product works in solving a certain problem.
• Expert validation. Social media users usually consider influencers as their trusted authority, depending on them for recommendations and to make an informed decision.
• Comparison review. Influencers can post transparent content that compares your brand to others, helping your brand stand out in the market.

In addition to the above, influencers can create reviews, comparisons, and lessons to persuade your followers to consider your brand.

Conversion

Also known as the bottom of the funnel, the conversion stage is where the prospect makes the final step to buy. In this stage, the focus of any marketing strategy should be to remove any friction that can hinder prospects from completing the purchase and ensure a more seamless checkout process.

Influencer marketing can help in the conversion stage by motivating your prospects to act instantly. They can do that using different resources, such as:

• Exclusive promo codes. You can provide the influencers with some personalized discount codes or even affiliate links. This provides their followers with a great financial incentive to convince them to buy while allowing you to track their ROI.
• Flash sale and limited-time offer. An influencer can also be an effective resource for promoting flash sales and time-sensitive deals. When their social media followers discover that they have a limited time to enjoy a deal, it helps hasten their buying decisions.
• Live Shopping events. You can use different social commerce features to make your influencer showcase your brand live using features such as TikTok Shop or Instagram Live. They can use these live sessions to answer some of the common questions prospects may have, showcase how the product works, and prompt instant in-app checkout.
• Generate audience trust. You can choose between nano and micro influencers who have a deeper relationship and a higher level of trust with their audience, which can result in a higher conversion rate.
• Retargeting campaigns. You can partner with an influencer to create some highly converting ads, such as unboxing videos and testimonials. You can then share the posts as paid ads that are directed to users who are already engaging with your brand but haven't purchased.

Advocacy

The sales funnel doesn't end with purchase. You need to convert those highly satisfied customers into loyal brand advocates through word-of-mouth marketing. You can partner with influencers to maintain this momentum. 

The influencer can help in different ways, such as:

• Leverage a nano influencer for UGC. From your customers, you can find satisfied ones with at least one thousand followers. A good idea would be to go with those already creating videos using the product, reviewing it, or even unboxing it. You can then reshare their videos to showcase a truly authentic customer experience in your official channel, helping drive social proof.
• Create a brand ambassador program. Invite the most loyal buyers and long-term creators to work as exclusive brand ambassadors. You can use promo codes, a custom affiliate link, and early access to the new product drops.
• Run an interactive challenge. You can offer an incentive to your audience so that they share stories when using the product. For instance, you can ask users to share videos while using the product under a particular branded hashtag for a chance to win a prize and be featured on the page.

Tips for Using Influencers for the Sales Funnel

To get the best results when using influencers for the different stages, you should:

Ensure a Clear Goal for Each Stage

First, start by determining exactly what you want to achieve in each stage, including the key indicators you want to track in each stage. This will enable you to track progress and adjust accordingly for better results.

For instance, in the contemplation stage, you might want to track metrics such as click-through rate and engagement rather than impressions, as these are more effective for tracking brand awareness. Ensure that you understand how each stage builds on the previous ones.

Create High-Quality Content

You will also need to consider the content that is more effective for the different stages. For instance, you might want to create informative and entertaining content, such as a viral challenge, for the awareness stage to showcase your brand’s personality. In the consideration stage, you can create different content that shows how to use your product, reviews, and testimonials.

Choose the Right Influencer

One of the factors that will impact the results of your influencer marketing strategy is the choice of an influencer. Make sure you choose an influencer who matches the requirements of the different stages of the sales funnel. A good idea would be to work with different kinds of micro-influencers. For instance, a mega influencer can be important for driving brand awareness. On the other hand, micro-influencers can help you increase interaction.

Track Progress for Every Stage

You need to track the performance of each stage of the sales funnel. For instance, you can track impressions, brand mentions, and reach in the awareness stage. You can track audience growth and brand mentions by using a social listening tool. For the conversion stage, you can track sales, while for the advocacy stage, you can track brand mentions and reviews.

In Conclusion

Using a full-funnel method for influencer marketing can be key to driving brand awareness in the consideration, conversion, and customer loyalty stages. To do that effectively, our guide will help you get started. We recommend you also read our guide on creating an influencer marketing template that works.