In 2022, influencer marketing is a multibillion-dollar industry, with influencers contributing to its value on TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube. However, it's not just the influencers and the brands that see such significant potential in this industry: 89% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is far more effective than traditional marketing.
Influencer marketing is typically conducted by a social media influencer who promotes a brand’s product, service, digital asset, or even cryptocurrency. This article will provide a complete guide for creating an influencer marketing funnel in 2023. Even for cryptocurrency or NFT influencers, developing a profitable marketing funnel pyramid of influence is easy. NFT Influencer Marketing is an exciting new way for brands to reach consumers through social media influencers. This method allows brands to connect directly with their target audience by leveraging the influence of popular social media personalities. Let’s explore the marketing funnel.
There are various benefits to using a marketing funnel, as it takes the customer from awareness to conversion seamlessly. Here are just a few of the main reasons why a marketing funnel is necessary.
Marketing funnels help customers learn about the brand. After all, it is the customer's journey. With every step of the funnel, the influencer introduces the customer to the brand, products, and services.
The influencer guides them through this journey to understand the brand's value. This educational journey benefits the influencer and customers because they feel confident about their purchase by the end of the marketing funnel.
Believe it or not, marketing funnels also promote brand loyalty. This method has been used even by traditional marketers for many decades. However, influencer marketing funnels are much more effective due to the direct connection that social media allows.
In addition, this type of funnel promotes success in obtaining high conversion rates and loyalty with their audience.
One of the most significant reasons why a marketing funnel is important is because this helps influencers understand their weak points. So, not only do you know the buyer’s journey and track your sales, but you can also truly optimize your marketing strategy
Using the marketing funnel pyramid of influence, you can understand where there are weaknesses and improve upon them. You can also adjust specific calls to action to make them more effective..
There are several steps involved in the marketing funnel pyramid of influence. Even if it might seem complicated initially, there is a reason for every step. There are six main steps in the marketing pyramid of influence: awareness, interest, intent, conversion, retention, and referral.
Each step is categorized by its placement at the top of the funnel, bottom of the funnel, or even middle of the funnel. To better understand each stage and the funnel, let's discuss the category breakdown of the marketing funnel.
The top of the marketing funnel (TOFU) is essential for brand awareness and capturing the customers' interest. The influencer at this stage will focus on campaigns, their reach, and the organic growth they can create from user-generated content. In the pyramid, this is the awareness step where education on the brand is the most important for the customer.
In the middle of the funnel (MOFU), it's essential to take the awareness created and engage with the customer base. This can be done in a variety of ways. From likes, comments, and shares, people can interact with the brand and become more interested. This is when influencers get people to seek out the brand instead of the brand..
The last portion of the marketing funnel pyramid is the bottom of the funnel, in which link clicks, subscriptions, and conversions are the ultimate goal. Influencers need to drive the sale and get the person on the other end of the phone or screen to make the purchase.
This is when brand awareness and engagement should have done their job. The customer should be convinced that this is the right decision for them and proceed with purchasing the product, service, or cryptocurrency investment.
Now that we have discussed the influencer marketing funnel and the three categorizations for the pyramid, it's time to look at every single step of the funnel. Remember, the goal of the influencer is to grow awareness and generate organic growth and opportunity for sales.
Building loyal followers come only through the marketing funnel. Let's go over the six steps in detail to see what is involved at each stage of the marketing process.
As mentioned, the first stage is awareness. This is campaigns, expanding the reach of the audience and focusing on user-generated content that stimulates organic growth. In this stage, influencers can seamlessly intertwine brand messaging into their content.
For example, cryptocurrency influencers share their experience with a platform or cryptocurrency. This allows people to learn about the brand without a hard sell. 90% of all buyers will consider a product or service if a trusted person talks about it.
Even the most subtle of brand mentions can produce the interest needed for a brand to get a sale from the influencer’s audience.
After creating awareness through a subtle story or sharing of an experience, the next step is interesting. People need to have more targeted information, and the process of building relationships in this step is essential. For example, influencers can post their story on their social media and then comment, like, or even answer questions that people have regarding this platform.
A common rule of thumb is that customers need to hear the message at least seven times before they buy the product or subscribe to something. You can even host a targeted information session live on social media that allows people to learn more. Finally, focus on building relationships to engage with the audience and build trust in all you do. The more customers trust you, the more likely you will get a sale.
The third step, intent, is when the influencer can share demos and trial offers and be more intentional about sharing information about the company. For example, suppose an influencer is promoting an NFT.
In that case, they can use the intent stage to share a trial offer to get people to try the product for themselves or purchase it themselves. Shockingly enough, 74% of people choose companies based on what others share about their online experiences. So by getting people to try the trial offers, you will have more people discussing the product and, ultimately, more trust in what you are marketing.
The next step is conversion. This is about driving sales and the calls to action that get people to sign up, purchase, or even subscribe. This is when the influencer asks for the sale directly. This can be done by messaging people who have questions about the product.
You can also create a post that will share that the cryptocurrency platform subscription is only eligible for a certain amount of time, thus getting people to purchase or subscribe as soon as possible. Customers should be organically driven to buy due to the previous three steps.
After getting the customers to convert, the next step is to retain them and nurture them through loyalty and engagement. It is not just a one-time ordeal to get somebody to purchase or subscribe, but rather a continuous effort to keep people involved and interested.
With cryptocurrency influencers, retention is often done through making a blog, sharing a video, or even continuing to share codes to give people more incentive to follow them. So, even though conversion was the most critical part of the funnel, retention is still crucial because all of this leads to the final step and the marketing jackpot.
The influencer marketing funnel's last stage, arguably the most influential, is the referral stage. This is the final stage in which the customers are loyal and turn into brand evangelists that share the word for you. Not only does this show that you have succeeded, but this is the best form of marketing.
Word-of-mouth marketing is ultimately the best because it is the network of people you have connected with that finally share their trust in the product and then continue to tell others about it. This is best seen in people commenting below posts and sharing that your information is credible, or even tagging one of their friends so that they can take advantage of the customer codes too.
With this guide, you can see how easy it is to use the influencer funnel of marketing to engage and retain customers. Everybody always says that the first goal is to get the first sale, but remember, it's not over after the first success! It's just the beginning.
Let us know if you have any questions. If you have already implemented a marketing funnel as an influencer, let us know below if there’s anything you recommend for the marketing funnel for optimal success!