The new marketing funnel: How community influence drives conversions

Awareness came from big-brand storytelling, digital ads, and influencer partnerships with macro’s, designed to reach as many people as possible. Consideration was driven by retargeting, reviews, and brand messaging aimed at reinforcing credibility. Only after multiple brand touchpoints would consumers reach the conversion phase - often requiring promotional tactics to drive consumer action.

Now, consumers don’t follow this step-by-step journey. Instead of waiting to be guided, they turn to social proof and community-driven content to make decisions in real time. The old funnel is breaking - because trust now comes before awareness, not after. Today’s consumers - particularly Gen Z and millennials - engage with brands on their own terms. They don’t move through a step-by-step digital funnel; instead, they enter a dynamic ecosystem where trust is built through real conversations, not advertising.

At Brand Influence Agency, we’ve seen how this shift has fundamentally changed the way brands must approach marketing. Consumers no longer passively absorb brand messaging before making a purchase decision. Instead, they are influenced by community-first, social-proof-driven content that shapes their preferences before they even visit a website or add to cart.

From awareness to immediate trust

The old way of marketing relied on exposure - big-budget ads, PR coverage, and polished brand campaigns designed to capture attention. But modern consumers don’t just want to see your brand; they want to experience it through voices they trust.

Gen Z and millennials are digital-first, peer-driven consumers who seek out reviews, social proof, and community recommendations before making a decision. Consider these statistics:

• The 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer indicates that 66% of adult Gen Z and Millennials who follow influencers trust online influencers they follow who talk about, review, and recommend brands and products (Edelman Trust Barometer).
  
• Google's internal research reveals that nearly 40% of Gen Z users prefer platforms like TikTok and Instagram over Google Search for discovering information (Edelman Trust Barometer).
  
• Nano and micro-influencers have engagement rates 3–5x higher than macro-influencers, making their content far more impactful in driving consideration (Influence.co).

This means brands must start where trust already exists—within communities of real consumers who influence purchasing decisions every day.

How community influence flips the funnel

With community influencer marketing, the journey no longer begins with awareness; it begins with trust and advocacy. Here’s how:

1. Social proof as the first touchpoint

Instead of top-down brand messaging, community influencer marketing launches with mass-scale peer recommendations. Thousands of nano and micro-influencers share real experiences, testimonials, and product reviews—creating an authentic, immediate trust factor that traditional ads can’t replicate.

To drive hype around the PRIME Hydration launch in South Africa, Brand Influence activated 150 influential Gen Z kids and their parents in a two week project, #DrinkPRIMEwithCheckers. The result?

• 4.4M reach (239% of the target)
  
• 2.9M+ video views (1350% of the target)
  
• 565 pieces of content (188% of the target)

This proves that trusted peer advocacy can create massive organic reach and in-store conversions, bypassing traditional awareness-building.

2. Engagement drives consideration

Unlike polished campaigns, community-generated content sparks real conversations. Consumers don’t just see a product - they watch it in action through unboxings, live reviews, and before-and-after transformations. This creates a direct pathway from trust to active engagement.

To drive mass engagement for Chicken Licken, we activated 300 Hotwings lovers for a one-week challenge in a #HotWingsChallenge project. Brand Influence achieved:

• 428% of the target reach
  
• 1852% of the target engagement
  
• 112% of the target content creation

Instead of passively consuming brand ads, audiences engaged in a viral community challenge, turning customers into brand advocates and driving large scale hype with fun content.

3. Conversion feels like a natural next step

By the time consumers are exposed to branded messaging, they’ve already seen multiple people in their social circles using and loving the product. This shortens the purchase journey because consumers are making decisions based on trusted recommendations rather than brand claims.

Capitec wanted to drive brand love and app engagement, so Brand Influence recruited 100 existing Capitec App users to create authentic, relatable content. The results for our #MyCapitecAppLife project?

• 247% of target reach
  
• 431% of target engagement
  
• 350 posts driving real-time conversations

This approach turned real customers into credible brand storytellers, accelerating trust and conversions.

Community-generated content: The conversion accelerator

Our influencer communities with hundreds of nano and micro influencers going live at the time in a community of conversation don’t just create buzz - they drive action through social stories. Every campaign generates a high-volume library of user-generated content (UGC) that fuels long-term engagement, remarketing strategies, and always-on advocacy.

Our #HydramaticLipstick project with Avon is a perfect example of how social proof, when executed meaningfully and at scale, drives conversions. By activating 1,000 beauty influencers in the nano and micro influencer space, we created an instant wave of peer-led advocacy that broke the internet in just one day. This surge in authentic content and engagement led to a 122% increase in lipstick sales in March, followed by a further 32% increase in April.This campaign wasn’t just about awareness—it was about putting the product into real conversations, where trust already existed.

Brand Influence Agency is now integrating Share of Voice (SOV) reporting into its Post-Campaign Analyses (PCAs). SOV measures a brand’s visibility in the market relative to competitors, showing how much of the industry conversation a campaign captures. By tracking SOV, we can now quantify not just engagement, but actual market dominance-proving that community-driven influence doesn’t just make noise, it moves the needle on sales.

The future of marketing is community-driven

The new marketing funnel isn’t a funnel at all - it’s a network of real conversations, trusted voices, and community-led influence that accelerates conversions.

By shifting the focus from brand-to-consumer messaging to peer-driven storytelling, Brand Influence Agency helps brands integrate seamlessly into consumer conversations, ensuring that trust, not advertising, drives purchase decisions.

Welcome to the future of marketing - where community is the strategy, and influence is the outcome.

Let’s make it happen by going BIG! Visit brandinfluenceagency.co.za or email az.oc.ecneulfnidnarb@ofni for more information.