For a lot of people trying to reach grow their client base, the question of how to approach social influences on the consumer can be daunting.

True, it is not easy – it takes dedication, serious thought, and considerable research. Figuring out what factors and people are at play when in comes to social influences on the consumer will get easier the more you do it, but it is always a challenging part of marketing.

Conventional marketing focuses primarily on reaching out directly to the consumer, but more sophisticated marketing methods focus less on the consumer themselves, and more on the events or people who influence a buyer.

It is called influence marketing – an all important means of marketing that takes into account social influences, or the ‘culture of the consumer’. Knowing who influences a buyer is an important step to knowing the right message to deliver – and how to deliver it.

For example, a car salesman who wants to sell a minivan to a father of four might take his wife to one side of the room and highlight its safety features and carrying capacity. That same salesman may tell the friend of the young man kicking the tires of a sports car how impressive he will be with the ladies behind the wheel of that car. The assumption here, is that the husband in this scenario trusts the opinion of his wife; and the friend the young man he brought along is with him to pitch in his two cents as well!

The difference between making a sale and letting the consumer walk out the door often comes down not to convincing the potential buyer, but convincing the influencer. And sometimes ‘the influencer’ isn’t a person, but a trend or matter of perspective.

In this case, determining the social influences that guide a particular consumer should be the top priority for those in the world of marketing. So get researching!