Word of mouth marketing needs influencers
Influencer Marketing and word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) are inter-related. I’m a big fan of WOMM, Influencer50 is a member of WOMMA, and I’ve just read Andy Sernowitz’s book on WOM. Andy is the CEO of WOMMA.
But WOMM by itself lacks a key ingredient. As Seth Godin says in Purple Cow, it is useless to advertise to anyone except sneezers (i.e. talkers) with influence. I’d go further by extending advertising to all forms of marketing. People rarely buy just because they experience marketing. The marketing message is corroborated, enhanced and personalised through WOMM. And WOMM needs sneezers with influence.
In a B2C context, WOMM happens primarily at a peer level. That is, consumers talk to other consumers, and the message spreads.
In the B2B environment, things work differently. There are good reasons for this. There are competitive issues: if we are in the same field, passing on recommendations may erode the competitive advantage my firm has over yours. There are community issues: companies tend to be insular and don’t often communicate with other firms.
Instead, WOMM is mediated (often informally) by influencers. Recommendations, experiences, gossip and stories from the field are all related by various influencer types. Some of this communication is overt, published in analyst reports, journalistic articles and blogs. But much of it, up to 80% we estimate, happens in closed circles. These can be private meetings, invitation-only events, on the golf course, in lifts, over lunch, and so on.
Influencers are influencers because they have expertise and because they like to influence. So they are more than willing to pass on messages that reinforce their influence.
The crux of Influencer Marketing is to communicate your messages to influencers, such that those messages are then communicated by influencers to your customers and prospects.
Remember, though, that your product or service will only be talked about if it is worth being talked about.
But WOMM by itself lacks a key ingredient. As Seth Godin says in Purple Cow, it is useless to advertise to anyone except sneezers (i.e. talkers) with influence. I’d go further by extending advertising to all forms of marketing. People rarely buy just because they experience marketing. The marketing message is corroborated, enhanced and personalised through WOMM. And WOMM needs sneezers with influence.
In a B2C context, WOMM happens primarily at a peer level. That is, consumers talk to other consumers, and the message spreads.
In the B2B environment, things work differently. There are good reasons for this. There are competitive issues: if we are in the same field, passing on recommendations may erode the competitive advantage my firm has over yours. There are community issues: companies tend to be insular and don’t often communicate with other firms.
Instead, WOMM is mediated (often informally) by influencers. Recommendations, experiences, gossip and stories from the field are all related by various influencer types. Some of this communication is overt, published in analyst reports, journalistic articles and blogs. But much of it, up to 80% we estimate, happens in closed circles. These can be private meetings, invitation-only events, on the golf course, in lifts, over lunch, and so on.
Influencers are influencers because they have expertise and because they like to influence. So they are more than willing to pass on messages that reinforce their influence.
The crux of Influencer Marketing is to communicate your messages to influencers, such that those messages are then communicated by influencers to your customers and prospects.
Remember, though, that your product or service will only be talked about if it is worth being talked about.
Labels: influencer marketing, influencers, WOM, WOMMA, word of mouth
posted by Duncan Brown at 5:14 pm
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