What's the best way to get sales conversion? How can I make prospects buy my product? How can I get the word out and generate sales?

We all know there is no silver bullet to those questions. In reality, it's hard. It takes a lot of steps to convince a buyer to reach a purchase decision. This is because your prospects go through a messy, lengthy purchase journey, and it is not a one-way funnel anymore.

I found the below framework quite useful to understand the purchase journey of current consumers. In this model, between the twin poles of trigger and purchase, consumers continuously explore and evaluate the options available until they are psychologically ready to purchase. 

[Source: Think with Google]

You don’t want them to stay in the endless loop of exploration and evaluation. How would you accelerate the journey of your customers and make them feel confident to choose your product?

The short answer is to be present at decision-making moments across the purchase journey. Given that consumers are finding inspiration or information more and more through their online activities during the pandemic, you must strategize your digital presence across multiple online platforms.

I know you have already been overwhelmed with so many things to do for digital marketing. Your budget may have been spread out across social media, emails, blogs, SEO, and Facebook ads, and you don’t see much impact there. If you are a small brand with a limited budget, I recommend focusing on influence marketing first since influencer marketing can provide unique benefits to brands like you. 

First of all, influencers are great channels to reach your target audience at a granular level. People follow a specific influencer or YouTube channel that shares an interest with them. So exposing your brand and distributing your content through selected social channels allows for very sophisticated targeting. It means efficiency and better ROI. Zero in on the prospects who are already interested in your product or category by working with influencers relevant to your brand and story. Online videos serve as an excellent alternative to evaluate and explore products indirectly at low opportunity costs, accelerating the psychological journey needed for buying decisions. Social proof also plays a critical role here. 

Second, influencers know how to create content that people watch. Many companies create a video via an agency. In most cases, the $5,000 - $10,000 budget video on YouTube generates a few hundred views organically. To increase the clicks or likes, the companies add extra money into their budget. This approach is quite challenging for small brands, as digital advertising costs are rising, and it is getting hard to stand out from the competition. Influencer marketing campaigns are more efficient as content creation and distribution are integrated. The influencer-created content is optimized for the channel and audience. It is more appealing and engaging to the audience.

[Source: McKinsey & Company]

Last but not least, when influencers talk about a certain brand or product, their fans trust it because influencers earned the relationship by talking to their subscribers, listening to them, and explaining in their language. Gen Z and millennials are not easily swayed by sugar-coated marketing messages. They care about transparency and authenticity. If you work with influencers who understand your brand identity and communicate or recreate it in their own way, it can be a very powerful story that resonates with this digital-savvy generation. Young generations are willing to try a small, unfamiliar brand when they see that you are true to your brand promise and there is social proof.

In sum, building a strong digital presence of your brand and product will lead you to increase sales conversion. Influencer marketing is a powerful way to inspire customers in the purchase journey. When you identify the right influencers who can talk to your target audience and partner with them, it allows you to create targeted, integrated, authentic digital marketing campaigns.

Interested in learning more about influencer marketing best practices and how to improve your current process? Here are the resources we developed for you. Check them out, and let us know if you have any questions. We are here for your success! 🤗