Influence is powerful. As human beings, we are drawn to influential people. We put a lot of stock in the opinions and values of certain people. In marketing, if you can gain the favor of the influencers, you will win over more customers.

Who are the influencers of your customers? These people may not buy anything from you, but they hold sway over your customers’ opinions about buying from you. Every person has other people who influence them. It’s the reason your mother told you to stay away from the wrong crowd when you were a child. These influencers help us form opinions and, sometimes, deeply held values.

Here is an example of an influencer. It is said that President Abraham Lincoln and his father, Thomas Lincoln, were estranged from one another as adults. Thomas never met Abe’s wife or children and Abe did not attend his father’s funeral. However, as a staunch abolitionist, the father of the president influenced his son at a very young age to disdain slavery. It is one of the reasons that Thomas moved the family out of slave holding Kentucky into Indiana when Abe was seven years old. Thomas was not known for much – he drifted from one job to another and, by all accounts, he was illiterate. However, everywhere he lived, he took a stand against slavery. It was his passion. We likely would never had heard of Abraham Lincoln if it were not for his strong convictions about slavery - and he probably would not have held those convictions if it were not for the influence of his father.

What can you do to shape the opinions of the influencers? First, find out who your customers value as influencers. Here is a simple exercise. Write down a list of your customers. This could be individual names or groups of people. Beside each one, list the people or groups who influence their decision making process. For instance, if your customers are CEOs of large companies, they may be influenced by their lawyers, accountants, and other CEOs who are their peers. If your customers are mothers of preschool aged children, they may be influenced by their pediatricians, bloggers who write about the development of young children, and their parents. Next, devise a way to paint your company or product brand in a favorable way to the influencers. Seek their approval. Involve them in your marketing process. For instance, Trident sugarless gum for years had a tagline that stated four out of five dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum. Do you know how that tagline came to be? Were the marketers of Trident trying to get dentists to chew their gum? No, they wanted the influence of dentists to reach their target market. Trident first marketed its sugar-free gum in 1964 when dental reports were linking tooth decay to sugar. Many dentists were urging their clients to give up on chewing gum. Reacting to those reports, the makers of Trident turned the tables. Trident brilliantly used the influence of dentists to sell their new product, which they claimed promoted dental health. They later used the American Dental Association’s seal of approval on their packages. It was a marketing plan based entirely on influence.