3 Use Cases: why your Influencer Marketing should go Predictive
3% of people generate 90% of the impact online, such as views, backlinks, likes, etc. This puts “Influencer Marketing” firmly on the to-do list — leveraging the power of those 3% is a valuable strategy for anyone looking to accelerate reach. As consumers are becoming immune to traditional digital advertising, they are demanding a more authentic medium that marketers haven’t turned into a growth machine. Yet.
If you are considering influencer marketing, you’re in good company — 94% of marketers who used influencer marketing believe it to be an effective strategy. Search volume for “influencer marketing” has steadily climbed in the last few years, according to Google Trends.
Here’s the (expected) catch — 78% of marketers said that determining the ROI of influencer marketing is a top challenge in 2017. While some of influencer marketing benefits are clear — it drives engagement and brand awareness — we’re still challenged in making campaigns successful in terms of hard metrics — conversions and revenue.
In a previous post, we’ve covered how predictive marketing turns content into revenue. Let’s walk through 3 scenarios of how predictive marketing leverages the power of your influencer network to drive engagement and revenue.
Use Case 1 — Gap
Gap has adopted a micro-influencer strategy. The #Gaplove campaign recruits anyone who has purchased a Gap product and has uploaded a picture with that product to Gap.com, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, using #Gaplove. On Gaplove users are given a chance to “Shop this Look” and are redirected to the product page.
You can filter hundreds of people’s looks by women or men, or popular hashtags like #Gapkids, #Babygap, #Gapfit, #Gapxdisney, #Iamgap — and add yours to the collection. Gap’s pulled off an online style, shop, social and share hub.
What if?
Based on how visitors engage (and don’t engage) with influencer media, a Gap marketer could earmark a visitor as qualified for a marketing campaign. Furthermore they could anticipate the key event that triggers the message. Here are some ideas on how Gap could give their influencer marketing a boost in exposure and turn it into revenue:
- Collect and store data. First, let’s store every interaction by a visitor to understand their behavior. Imagine that we’re collecting data from the “Toddler” page dedicated to toddlers clothing. Based on a visitor journey intercepted via predictive modeling, we can tell that a visitor is highly engaged with the “Toddler” section of the website in a marketer quantified way — they’ve browsed though at least 5 clothing items, read a product review over the last week and are predicted to browse “Toddler” products in the future.
- Create visitor segments. Using a platform like Intempt we can specify a target group. We do so by blending past behavior (fact) and future behavior (predicted), For example, we create a segment that contains visitors who have browsed 5 pages of toddler clothing (behavioral property Count of), clicked to see reviews (behavioral property Has Done), have not visited #Gaplove (behavioral property Has Not Done), and are predicted to not add a product to the cart (predictive property Will Not Do Add To Cart).
Time to campaign! Using Intempt Campaign Editor, we create our future campaign in 6 steps by specifying a targeted segment, campaign goal, preferable channels of communication, notification message, and delivery preferences. Here’s what creating our future notification looks like:
Now, we target currently active visitors from our target segment with notifications at key drop off points. In this example, a visitor may not get into the segment on their first visit of the “Toddler” section. They might make it in after a few visits. Later, if they return to the store area and browse toddler without visiting the #Gaplove page, they meet a trigger event (for a campaign) which gets the notification out. Here’s what it could look like:
Why this notification at this time?
The visitors’ past browsing and purchasing behavior as well as their current context is indicative of what will happen:
- they browsed 5 items from “Toddlers” product section, so we use a relevant hashtag to cater to the visitors’ interests;
- they are not aware of the #Gaplove campaign;
- the platform predicted that the visitor is not going to add an item to the cart (Will Not Do Add to Cart predictive property) unless they are influenced, so the “Need some inspiration” notification appears to encourage the visitor to proceed with a purchase later.
If the visitor proceeds to add an item to the cart, we provide them with more than a piece of clothing but also invite them to the #Gaplove influencer community with this message:
Why this notification at this time?
- they have purchased an item after visiting #Gaplove which is a clear indication of such content being of value to the customer;
- they are a potential influencer for Gap’s campaign and can see other influencers by clicking a link.
When the visitor follows a suggested link, they are exposed to a relevant selection of styles.
Use Case 2 — Glossier
Glossier knows the benefits of influencer marketing like no one else — CEO Emily Weiss estimates that Glossier owes 90% of its revenue to their influencers. At one of the Most Innovative Companies of 2017, influencers are regular people — customers who engage with the brand on Instagram, Slack, and at pop-up events. As soon as new product is released, a steady stream of selfies shows on Instagram featuring women using new items, and Glossier re-shares them to the brand’s account. Instagram is now full of Glossier related content: #glossier, #ITGTopShelfie, #cloudpaint, #boybrow, #nofilterjustglossier, #glossierpink
Of all Glossier’s social platforms, the one that has most contributed to the brand’s development is its editorial website, Into the Gloss. The website is filled with how-to’s, product reviews, and, most importantly, interviews.
Glossier recently introduced a referral program to enable their more influential followers to offer product discounts and other incentives to their unique networks with landing pages on Glossier’s website. Each representative’s Glossier page has a video introduction and her top product picks, along with discounts.
What if?
Glossier often engages their customers in product discussions. Considering these discussions shape future products, every customer gets their 15 minutes of fame as a thought leader. Let’s create a campaign that will encourage visitors to step into influencer shoes, reward them, and then drive them to a purchase. Here’s what we do:
- Link those domains. First, let’s identify the shared visitors of our two domains, Glossier.com and intothegloss.com. Using a platform like Intempt, we specify a tracker for Glossier.com and intothegloss.com to understand visitor behavior across domains and leverage the data in the future campaign.
Now, we store every interaction by a visitor on both websites to understand their behavior. Doing something significantly complex in other marketing platforms has never been simpler.
- Segment our visitors. For this segment, we are focusing on first-time or returning visitors who haven’t made a purchase, added products to the cart nor have visited intothegloss.com yet, but have browsed the Skincare section on the glossier.com, looking particularly for moisturising products.
- Time to campaign! For this campaign, the trigger event is its absence. When products are reviewed, but nothing is added to the cart, we know it’s a good time to send a notification inviting the visitor to leave their input “Perfect Moisturizer” discussion on Glossier’s companion website — intothegloss.com — and get a reward for it. Final look:
Why this notification at this time?
- the visitor was looking for moisturizing skincare products ;
- the visitor hasn’t added a product into the cart;
- the visitor is new and may want to share their opinion on intothegloss.com.
We know from Visitor Journeys that visitors click into intothegloss.com and leave their thoughts on a perfect moisturizer. Since we track behavior on both websites, we can tell that the visitor engaged with a notification and left their opinion. To keep our promise, we notify them about a discount for skincare items, linking back to the gloss.com store.
Why this notification at this time?
- the visitor has engaged with an influencer activity;
- the visitor has shown brand loyalty by leaving their comment;
- the visitor is predicted to make a purchase when we offer the %15 discount on subsequent purchases.
In this scenario, we leveraged a visitor’s intent on becoming an influencer and used that intent to convert them into a customer.
Use Case 3 — TD Ameritrade
TD Ameritrade’s “Human Finance Project” isn’t another marketing campaign — it’s a movement, according to the company’s marketing director Kelly Caffrey. One story at a time, the company is aiming to change the perception of the finance industry by introducing real investment advisors (RIAs) online. Personal storytelling puts a “human face” on financial industry. TD Ameritrade’s campaign doesn’t come across as a sales pitch and uses regular people — not celebrities — to engage with the audience.
TD Ameritrade encourages advisors to share their passion by contributing a photo to Twitter or Instagram, along with a caption that highlights who or what motivates them to do their best at being a financial advisor, and tag it with #HumanFinanceProject. The company supports advisors with a comprehensive “How-to” guide, giving all tools necessary to become brand ambassadors.
What If?
To boost their current influencer strategy, I would create a marketing campaign that sheds more light on their current influencer efforts. As with Glossier, we are going to collect data from the company’s two domains to create a richer customer intent profile that will shape our future campaign. In particular:
- Link two domains together. From TD Ameritrade’s resources.tdainstitutional.com and tdainstitutional.com, we are looking to have shared data across two websites for any visitor.
- Create a segment — by visualizing it. Here, we segment our visitors as narrowly as we can. Let’s focus on an individual who is looking into becoming a real investment adviser. There are two sections on the main website called “Making a Move” and “Benefits of Independence” which cater to visitors possibly interested in starting an independent practice. By using the Event Visualizer, we are going to create events that will be building blocks for the future segment. We are looking for visitors who browsed at least 3 pages from both sections (behavioral property Count of), engaged with at least one of the pages for additional information (behavioral property Has Done), haven’t been to Human Finance page (behavioral property Has Not Done) and are not predicted to fill in the lead capture contact form, which is main goal of the website (predictive property Will Not Do). Such a segment indicates an intent to know more about RIA practice or to become one, but lack of persuasion to proceed.
We use the Event Visualizer — one of the Intempt tools that overlays your website and lets you capture events by demonstrating them. We simply perform actions we want to track and the event is generated and retroactively applied to your traffic. Here’s an example:
Moving on to notifications. We set “Engages with a page” as a trigger event for our personalized notification. If a visitor falls into a segment described earlier, they are qualified to see a notification introducing one of their Human Finance stories. Taking one step further — a story is coming from an adviser of the same geolocation as our visitor. Here’s what it could look like:
Why this notification at this time?
- The visitor has browsed at least 3 exploring pages and engaged with one of them, which indicates intent;
- The visitor is new to #HumanFinanceProject, so a story can really grab their attention;
- The visitor is browsing from San Francisco area, triggering a story from a local RIA.
Imagine that visitor clicks a link to read Catie’s story. To harvest that interest, we’re showing another notification that leads a visitor closer to the final stages of the funnel:
Why this notification at this time?
- the visitor got interested in Catie’s story by engaging with a previous notification;
- the visitor is guided to a Contact Us page to make a contact request and be converted into a lead;
- the visitor is introduced to #HumanFinanceProject and encouraged to share their story in the future, but the hashtag is not a live link in order to keep them focused on filling in the contact form.
By visualizing events, creating a segment and a series of information-related notifications, we’re guiding visitor towards filling in a contact form in a gentle, non-salesy manner.
Final Thoughts
According to the leading mind of Jay Baer, “True influence drives action — not just awareness.” Powered with predictive marketing, your influencer strategy will not only get the exposure it deserves and strengthen your brand, but it will also deliver measurable results. Intempt is a product designed to help every company be smarter with their consumers and influencers. Consumers will be delighted to have marketing anticipate their needs, and marketing will be delighted to bring additional revenue to the table without needless ads. We believe in handing marketers the keys to embed intelligence in every site or app.
