How can Influencer Marketing support CRM?
The role of Influencer Marketing in the wider customer journey
When Unilever announced plans to hire 20 x more influencers and increase its Influencer Marketing budget by 30% to 50% [1], marketers everywhere sat up and paid attention. That’s not a small tweak; it’s a serious strategy shift.
PR agencies have been utilising Influencers for years of course, but their popularity has been steadily growing amongst marketers – and if there were any lingering doubts about how powerful their influence can be… well Unilever has put them to bed.
So, what does it all mean for CRM? And in particular email marketing? How can smart marketers use influencers not just to get likes and shares, but to actually strengthen relationships through their customer journeys?
Shared goals
At its core, CRM is about building long-term relationships with your customers and donors. It’s about trust, loyalty, and meaningful engagement – that’s Influencer Marketing’s jam too. And it’s that synergy that marketers can utilise.
As the team at MindMatrix points out “…Influencers help amplify brand messages, often viewed as more authentic…” [2], and authenticity matters more than ever – 86% of consumers say authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support [3]. Influencers are relationship builders. They have established relationships with their followers, and their endorsements can significantly impact how potential customers perceive a brand.
When you integrate Influencer Marketing into your CRM strategy, you’re effectively adding a layer of trusted communication between your brand and your audience. You have to choose the right influencers of course. Just like good old fashioned celebrity endorsement, brand fit is important.
Influencers are savvy at managing their personal brands, but there’s always a chance that they’ll misbehave or tweet something outrageous which could be associated with your brand. The benefits can outweigh the risks, but it’s worth considering.
Harnessing influencers for your email campaigns
Influencer Marketing isn’t just about social posts. You can use them in your email sends too. And with the right data permissions, they could also bring their audience with them, increasing your brand’s reach to potential new customers.
Imagine sending emails with content from an influencer endorsing your brand or message, with links out to videos showing them using it in their lives. It’s direct, it’s personal, and if done right, it’s instantly more engaging than more generic brand content. After all content is what influencers do best. And email marketers always need engaging content.
Here are a few ways you could integrate influencers into your email marketing:
- Exclusive content: Offer influencer-led content like tips, tutorials or behind-the-scenes footage in your email newsletters.
- Co-branded campaigns: Collaborate with influencers on special promotions that are shared exclusively through email.
- Testimonial and review integration: Use influencer quotes or reviews directly in your emails to add a genuine voice.
- Event invitations: Promote events where influencers are speaking or appearing – building buzz and boosting attendance.
As Forbes explains, “Influencers create an aspirational narrative that taps into emotional drivers, prompting followers to take action – such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter.” [4] And when that action feeds back into your CRM system, you can better track engagement and nurture those leads effectively.
Influencers through the customer journey
Thinking about influencers purely at the ‘top of the funnel’ is a mistake. They can and play an important role at every stage of the customer journey.
- Awareness: At the start, influencers introduce your brand to their audiences, building interest through authentic storytelling.
- Consideration: Here’s where influencer product reviews and demos shine. They help potential customers understand your offering on a practical, personal level.
- Conversion: Influencer-led offers (think discount codes, exclusive product drops) can drive direct action.
- Loyalty and Advocacy: Use your CRM to identify loyal customers who discovered you via influencers and re-engage them with influencer-driven content or loyalty programmes.
As Business.com notes, “Influencers can extend a brand’s reach, foster deeper relationships with audiences, and maintain customer loyalty over the long haul.” [5]
Tracking and measuring success
One of the most exciting parts of incorporating influencer marketing into CRM is how measurable it becomes. CRM platforms like Monday.com and Salesforce offer tools to track influencer-driven leads, monitor customer interactions, and measure lifetime value.
As Monday.com puts it, “Social media provides rich data, such as interests, brand affinities and personality traits,” [6] which can all be fed into your CRM to create more tailored, meaningful interactions.
And it’s not just about initial sales. Using your CRM, you can track how customers engaged via influencers behave over time – are they more loyal? Do they spend more? Are they bigger advocates?
By gathering these insights, you can fine-tune your influencer strategies, working only with the partners who genuinely drive long-term value.
The power of authenticity
Of course, it’s important that influencer integration happens naturally within your CRM journey. Authenticity is everything. It’s not just about finding a big name – it’s about finding the right voice, at the right time, to enhance the customer experience without disrupting it.
Influencers aren’t just megaphones – they help to humanise your brand, build credibility, and foster loyalty. When you combine the emotional connection they can foster, with the powerful data and personalisation capabilities of CRM, you’re onto something transformative.
That’s where the experts at Flourish can help, offering insight and guidance on how to weave influencer marketing seamlessly into your CRM strategy and email journeys for maximum impact.
If you want to talk about how we can help you create customer journeys that connect, inspire, and convert, get in touch with our team.
Sources:
[3] https://www.salesforce.com/ca/hub/marketing/influencer-marketing-when-use/
[5] https://www.business.com/articles/influencers-and-branding/
