Moments of influence are the backbone of any targeted marketing campaign. These moments can occur when a consumer interacts with your brand at any point along the path to purchase journey. Brands must make the most of their potential moments of influence to convey a clear brand message and convert consumers into customers. How exactly companies can pinpoint these moments of influence is another matter entirely.
Today, we will define moments of influence, discuss how these moments are related to the customer path to purchase journey, review touchpoints, and micro-moments, and finally explore how to utilize customer feedback to enhance future brand interactions.
Defining “Moments of Influence”
A moment of influence can be thought of as any interaction a brand has with a consumer. More specifically, we try to pinpoint these interactions which have a clear impact on consumer behavior. Brand interactions may come in the form of:
- Social media posts
- Advertisements
- Visits to the brand’s website
- Purchases
- Customer service interactions
- Consumers doing research on a particular product or service
- Consumers visiting a brick & mortar store
- And much more
To capitalize on these brand interactions, brands should view them as opportunities to influence consumers’ thoughts, feelings, and actions (more on this below).
Understanding the Customer Journey
A customer journey can be defined as “the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand. Instead of looking at just a part of a transaction or experience, the customer journey documents the full experience of being a customer.” This includes any and all of the brand interactions we listed above that occur from the moment a need arises until the customer makes a purchase. In fact, many a single purchase does not end the customer journey, as many brands will understand the value of turning consumers into loyal brand advocates.
It is important to understand that no two customer journeys are exactly alike. Identifying your key consumer base, getting to know their needs, their technological capabilities, their budgets, and many other factors are critical to gleaning a full picture of what moments of influence will pay the highest dividends along their customer journey.
Many brands find that mapping different customer journeys is useful for their brand strategy. For example, some customers may waltz into a brick & mortar store and make a purchase based on the product packaging and features alone. Other customers might first look up online reviews, watch informational videos, visit the company website, then ultimately buy the product on an ecommerce site like Amazon. These wildly different customer journeys could realistically apply to the same product or set of products. Capitalizing on all customer journey avenues is a great way to drive sales.
How to Pinpoint Touchpoints, Micro-Moments, and Moments of Influence
Touchpoints: another way of stating customer interaction or moment of influence is a “touchpoint”. Much like customer interactions, touchpoints can vary dramatically from in-store interactions to quick Google searches. Identifying touchpoints is likely step one in any process to pinpoint moments of influence. While some touchpoints are more valuable than others, they all offer an opportunity to influence customer behavior.
Micro-moments: another key aspect of moments of influence is capitalizing on micro-moments. As the population becomes more tech savvy and our lives are lived through screens, micro-moments, or micro-touchpoints, are becoming more and more prevalent. When you only have a few seconds of interaction with a potential customer, how can you convey a clear brand message that will stick? In 2020 and beyond, answering this question can be the difference between success and failure for marketing campaigns.
Evaluating and Utilizing Customer Experience Data
Finally, in order to truly capitalize on moments of influence, firms must also seek to understand how their previous marketing campaigns and products were received by consumers. These customer experience analyses can be as simple or complex as you’d like, but they generally boil down to three basic components:
- What did customers do at various points along the customer journey? Needless to say that actions that customers took during moments of influence is the most important aspect of any post-mortem. Understanding which moments converted to sales or conversely turned potential customers away is critical.
- What did customers feel at various points along the customer journey? Almost as important as customer action is customer reaction. How customers feel about your brand will inform future decisions including repeat purchases and likelihood of recommending your product(s).
- What did customers think at various points along the customer journey? Last but not least, evaluating what customers were thinking can inform your company of what worked and what didn’t during moments of influence.
Clock Tower Insight Helps Businesses Grow Using Moments of Influence
At Clock Tower Insight, we turn data into business solutions. By maximizing brand positioning, CX management, moments of influence, and more, we help build our clients brands in the short and long term. Clock Tower Insight believes that happy customers equal a happy business. We work closely with clients to tailor their brand from top to bottom in order to maximize positive image, exposure, and sales.
To learn more about how we may be able to help your business grow, read about our 15 plus years of focused experience working with brands such as Starbucks, Kraft, McDonald’s, and much more.