Page 291 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

giving them special discounts and coupons and cultivate their loyalty by market-
ing to them with additional care.

Tapping into the Positional Influencers

The final category of influencers to cover in this chapter are the positional
influencers. These are the people who are closest to your customers and influence
them the most at the point of purchase. Because they are the people who have to
live with the purchasing decision, they are the most vested in it. But they’re not
celebrities, so they’re not always noticeable and can be the hardest to find. They’re
important, but marketing to them can be similarly difficult.

What makes tapping into the positional influencers harder still is the fact that
how big a role they play in a purchasing decision varies dramatically by the
purchase. For example, if you were to buy a desk for your home, your spouse or
significant other (arguably the most important positional influencer in your life)
would have a huge impact on the purchasing decision. That person’s opinion
would heavily influence where you shop and what you choose. On the other hand,
if you were purchasing a laptop for professional use, that person would play a
much smaller role in the purchasing decision. This is because the choice doesn’t
impact that person significantly and the product isn’t of interest to him or her
even though it’s a high-consideration purchase.

Without a doubt, positional influencers are important. Identifying them can be
challenging, as can developing an understanding of the weight they may carry.

Separating the referent influencers from the positional influencers can be hard
sometimes, especially when you’re marketing on a social platform. In those
cases, separating these two types of influencers doesn’t matter as much. What
matters is to give your customers incentives to bring their influencers to you so
that you can market to them as well. Focus on getting your customers’ influencers,
and the right influencers will be influenced, and then they’ll do the influencing
for you!

The following sections cover tips to allow for positional influencers to play the
role they normally do best.

CHAPTER 18 Accounting for the Influencers 275