CRM and influencer management

Given how important influencers, (academics, industry analysts, journalists, bloggers, professional advisors etc.) have become, as their ability to make themselves heard has increased, and the ability of marketers to influence more directly has declined, I’m surprised how little use organisations make of their CRM platforms to support influencer marketing.

For example, as consultant who helps clients select and implement CRM software, I receive a lot of correspondence from technology providers, integrators, and implementation partners, but it’s generally in context to me as a customer, rather than as a potential influencer. In other words: ‘Hi Richard, I just wanted to let you know at ABC Ltd (a project I was involved in four years ago) that we have a special 20% discount offer on all additional licences this month.’

While there are notable exceptions, and some organisations really do manage influencers well, having looked at a lot of systems over the years, I think influencer management is an often neglected area.

The starting point of course is the strategy – defining who the influencer community is and how they are to be communicated with. While the strategy will vary from organisation to organisation, CRM technology can have a key role in supporting it. Information that you may want to track about influencers might include:

• Influencer type – because different types of influencer may need to treated in different ways
• Area of influence – what are they influential about?
• Level of influence – how influential are they?
• Interests – what are they interested in hearing from us about?
• Priority – how important is this influencer to us?
• Awareness – how aware of us are they?
• Attitude – are they promoters or detractors?
• Communication preferences – how do they wish to be contacted? What means of communication do they respond to?
• Communications – what mailing lists are they on?
• Contact history – a full history of phone calls, emails, and meetings
• Email communications history – what communications have they received from us? Ideally this will include how they responded to them, for example whether they were opened, what links were followed etc.
• Related contacts/organisations – who is the influencer linked to and what is the nature of the relationship?
• Social profile – links to their social profiles such as Twitter, LinkedIn, blog, Facebook, and Klout
• Events – which of our events has an influencer attended?
• Relationship manager – who is their assigned contact in our organisation?
• Mentions – identifies what influencers have said about us
• Reporting – including influencer contact activity by user, and neglected influencers

The capabilities described above are relatively straightforward to implement from a CRM technology perspective. The harder work is normally determining the strategy and supporting processes, and getting people to follow them. However, given that potential customers are less and less likely to believe what we say about ourselves as marketers, then trying to influence what others have to say only becomes more important. If it’s not something that’s currently well supported in your CRM system, you may be missing a significant opportunity.

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