Influencer Content Helps Drive Customer Conversion

Influencer content is climbing the value chain in marketing, according to the recently released “The Value of Influencer Content 2017” study. The paper by Linqia indicates that this content, which once lived exclusively at the top of the marketing funnel to drive awareness or engagement of brands or products – but not so much to drive sales – is now expanding to help with actual conversions.

A look at what baby food company Gerber did with its new Lil’ Beanies products is a case in point. The company’s campaign for Lil’ Beanies aimed to drive both awareness and sales through Kroger, Publix, Target, and Walmart retail outlets. The plan of attack, executed by Catapult and Linqia, involved launching a two-phase influencer marketing program to reach parents with content emphasizing these products as a great nutritional snack for toddlers.

And it worked. More than 9.4K pieces of content reached an audience of more than 56.7 million. And that influencer content yielded more than 260,000 online engagements and a 5 percent sale lift.

“I was most impressed by the influencer content – it’s better than the kind of stuff we would put together in house or with an agency or on our own,” said David Greci, brand manager at Gerber. “You can’t replicate influencer marketing’s ability to get real consumers with a good following to talk about products in their own voice.”

That’s great news, but it should be noted that as influencer marketing evolves, the metrics around it need to advance as well.

“Attribution tactics are being built into influencer programs that will enable brands to track consumer behavior and action all the way through the path to purchase,” Linqia explains. “As a result, more marketers are starting to use influencer content to drive mid to bottom of the funnel conversions like sales and signups.”