Oh no you say, not another type of marketing! So what is influencer marketing and why has it become an important part of the marketing mix for many businesses, especially those with an online presence? For those that read our blog last month on Customer Engagement, influencer marketing is very much an extension of this. Specifically, it refers to a brand’s ability to motivate ‘online influencers’ to act as your advocates.
Why it’s important
Not so long ago, brands strove to generate publicity primarily through paid advertising and via what’s called “earned media” or public relations tactics (PR). Then along came the internet and the possibilities for both exploded. However more importantly, this digital world gave rise to online forums, social media, and things like customer review sites that enabled ordinary people to impart their opinions and beliefs on others.
Consequently, fairly ordinary people became very capable of ‘influencing’ the purchase decisions of others. Pretty heady stuff and something that excited and scared many brands. How could they harness the authenticity and power of these influencers while effectively managing the drawbacks that for example could arise from public criticism about your business?
Evolution of Influencer Marketing
This desire to proactively manage, monitor and motivate these influencers to generate candid and ideally positive statements about a brand explains the reason for the rise of influencer marketing (also referred to as advocate marketing). For some companies, it has almost become an obsession.
And why not, with countless studies substantiating the impact both customer reviews and high profile bloggers have on purchase decisions, it’s no wonder brands were very keen to tap into this and harness its power for their benefit.
At first, some businesses tried to influence these people with free products and preferential service in the hopes of positive feedback. However, public outcry over this practice forced brands to use a more subtle approach to engaging with these groups and garnering their favourable feedback.
Influencing the Influencers
Consequently, many brands developed a very careful and calculated approach to these influencers, with the goal of generating positive word of mouth (WOM) publicity from them. In turn, influencers quickly recognized the power and influence they had over sales, marketing and consumer behaviour and used this to acquire a position of power with brands in their area of expertise.
The various circumstances gave rise to influencer marketing. In many ways it’s the modern version of what used to happen when companies courted reporters and journalists in the hopes of getting them to say something positive about their business. The challenge for most brands today is to try to identify these influencers in the online world; they can virtually be anyone and from anywhere.
So how can brands successfully engage in influencer marketing? The bigger question ought to be when and if brands should engage in this and not necessarily how. Assuming a business made the assessment that they should be doing this, there are a number of things they can do to effectively work with influencers. We’ll discuss this and more in next month’s Sydcam blog. We encourage you to visit our website in mid-November if you’re interested in learning the rest of the story.
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