Influencing Influencers

In the wider world of marketing, the use of social media influencers to promote product was one of the hottest advertising trends in 2016. It’s easy to understand why. Having a live human being (albeit a celebrity) tout your services personalizes the campaign and makes it more relatable.

But in the world of water and wastewater treatment, “rock star” influencers are harder to come by. We don’t have many celebrities and certainly few on a global scale and we tend to care more about filter media than social media. However, the power of endorsement is incredibly strong in our industry. Few engineers or operators are willing to guinea pig a new solution. And we all know how important it is to get that successful pilot up and running and use it as a reference on future sales calls.

I recently came across the Advertising Age article Four Rules to Successfully Scale Influencer Campaigns. Despite its focus on social media influencing, the rules can certainly be tweaked for getting the most out of your case histories and testimonial pool.

RULE 1: More than one

It can be a struggle to get customers to agree to go on record and advocate for your product. We’re often eager to get the good word out from them and they are more interested to wait and see how the pilot is doing in a few months’ time. Coupled with the need to run things through legal sign off and it’s easy to get discouraged and settle for one “flagship” reference.

Avoid this temptation. As the Advertising Age article points out, “Consistency is what opens the gate to scalability.” You might have won an installation with DC Water which provides significant credibility but if your technology is equally suited to smaller applications and/or more rural ones, you’re going to want to find a variety of references to fill your testimonial needs.

RULE 2: Follow the influencer

Once you’ve established an advocate, don’t leave them out of your targeting process. It’s important to understand who they know in the industry and follow them there. If they attend local WEA meetings with their operator peers, make sure you’re providing the resources for those fellow attendees to easily find out more information about your services. Chances are that your influencer will be discussing your products unprompted if they are working well and certainly if they are not (but that’s another issue).

Also make sure that you are providing your influencer with the benefits and features of your product being highlighted in your brand publishing efforts and content. He may be thrilled that your product is bright orange and not green but that’s unlikely to sway the next prospect. The differentiators identified through operator feedback and being pieced together in your marketing collateral however are likely to turn heads.

RULE 3: Standardize behavior

As with social media influencing, it’s important that your customer is able to explain what she likes about your product in her own voice. However, it’s your job to provide that customer with enough data over time to inspire her to continue to promote your virtues with her peers.

Staying actively involved in the measurement of your equipment’s performance and keeping your customer informed of the results is a great way to do this. Treatment operators are busy and can quickly move on to the next big thing to worry about now that your solution has solved the last one. By thinking through how you’ll continue to bring their attention back to your product, you’ll standardize an activity that can be used to support your next advocate and the one after that.

RULE 4: Advocacy In A Box

It’s great to have an engineer out there spreading the good word about your solution. It’s also something that you’re going to want to keep control of. You don’t want them overselling to the point where you’re being set up to underperform. And you’re going to want to be very clear up front on what can be disclosed and what can’t to protect yourself from competitor encroachment or worse, undue regulator enquiry.

Getting an influencer excited to talk about your solution is a testimonial in and of itself. But the real work has only just begun. The hard graft goes into fostering your relationship with that individual and arming them with the benefits of your brand publishing-inspired talking points to ensure you get the most out of each satisfied customer.