Influencer Marketing and Word of Mouth have many differences. Also, depending on how you look at them, they are also very much the same.
They are The Parent Trap’s Lindsay Lohan and Lindsay Lohan of the marketing world. They look very similar. But one wears overalls and the other wears dresses and it was the 90’s so those styles were diametrically opposed. How will they ever get along? Can they work together to reunite their family? What sort of terrible parenting is this?!
One of the most noticeable differences between Influencer Marketing and Word of Mouth is the amount you pay the individual influencer. It’s the difference between Paid Search and Organic Search.
Organic Search takes more time to implement but will ultimately be more authentic and build more trust with your audience than Paid.
Paid search is quick and there’s hardly any ramp-up time. It’s the short-term solution to your campaign vs. Word of Mouth’s long-term brand lift.
In the same way, you can pay an influencer to deliver your message to a mass audience in one big campaign or you can build brand engagement with your audience and allow them to share your message.
Who Is Carrying Your Message?
With Word of Mouth you’re not selecting an athlete, celebrity or any particular influencer to promote your product. You’re using brand messaging and your customers’ own experiences to disseminate the message.
An Influencer is typically chosen depending on the size of their audience and their ability to sway that audience’s buying behavior.
However, since the introduction of Nano and Micro Influencers, the definition of an Influencer is less about celebrity status and more about the individuals affect on their peers. It’s less about the quantity of their following and more about the quality of their following and the affect they have over them.
Eventually we’ll introduce influencers with smaller and smaller followings. The guy who drinks a pop (Yes, we say pop here. Welcome to the Midwest.) and says, “This pop tastes good,” is now carrying that product’s marketing message. His audience just happens to be the few people within ear shot of his message.
Does this make him an influencer? When does a person stop being an influencer and just become another product user within an audience segment? At the moment, Nano Influencers tend to have about 1000 social media followers. The next logical step is the Pico Influencer. They could have as few as 100 followers. And if your eyes didn’t roll back into your head at the mention of “Pico Influencer,” you’ve got nerves of steel.
The important question becomes who are these followers?
Building Relationships
Word of Mouth and Influencer Marketing both require building relationships. When it comes to Influencer Marketing you will need to build a relationship with your chosen influencer(s) if it’s intended to be a lasting relationship. With word of mouth you need to build relationships with all of your customers, and for your sake this had better be a lasting relationship.
If you’ve chosen the correct influencer and you have a trusting relationship with them, they should have the skills to relay your message to their audience in a manner that will connect best with that audience. Let them influence in their own way. Don’t stifle the reason you chose them.