There has been a distinctive shift in the power of marketing away from businesses and brands and is now in the hands of influencers and people online (Berthon et al., 2012). Influence through eWOM has completely changed the way business-to-consumer (B2C) communication works (Cramer, 2015). It is mainly down to the sheer scale and accessibility of platforms such as Instagram and YouTube that allow for this shift in power to take place (Berthon et al., 2012). The proof is in the numbers as according to TapinInfluence (2016) influencer marketing results in 11x more ROI than traditional marketing. Read more influencer marketing statistics here.

Relevance is a key determinant when thinking about the use of influencers for marketing strategies. It is something that is very important to consider when attempting to find an appropriate influencer for your business. It is ultimately the main driver for a successful influencer campaign (Radey, 2015). During the process of finding an appropriate influencer it is therefore important to match the demographic of your brand to the influencer, if these do not match then the campaign will not be a success (Radey, 2015). Having the ability to link your product to the right target audience through an influencer is the key to endorsement marketing (Li, Lee & Lien, 2012).

Help on finding a relevant influencer for your brand

Source: Public relations and marketing (2015)

How do companies incentivise influencers to encourage positive WOM?

Building an authentic relationship with an influencer is usually not focused on a monetary price or payment and involves much more creative ways which will really show the influencer you are interested in them as a person, not just for their platform (Sideqik, 2015). This is great news for small businesses that perhaps do not have the money to pay influencers large sums of money in return for an endorsement.

It has been found that trust as well as satisfaction are key determinants when deciding to spread positive WOM about a brand and results in a very good ROI for brands who implement these factors well (Ranaweera & Prabhu, 2003). The next section will look at ways to engage in a relationship with an influencer by nurturing trust and satisfaction:

Step 1: Engage with them on social media

This is a very straightforward tactic and allows the influencer to know you are taking an interest in their content, as well as subtly reinforcing your brand name in the influencers mind. As shown in the example below, BBC Three responded to Jess’ post in order to keep the relationship developing. However, make sure the comment is relevant and engages with the content otherwise this could lead to a weakening of the relationship (Zhang et al., 2016). This is linked to the idea that to develop a dynamic relationship, repeated interactions are something that helps to build the association between your company and the influencer (Zhang et al., 2016), whether this is by following them or sharing their content.

Step 2: Invite the influencers to a company event/launch

The example below shows an influencer at a Bobby Brown event. By inviting the influencer, this is an effective way to show respect for what they do, as well as giving the chance for the business to talk to the influencer face to face and make a positive impression. In order to retain a long-term relationship with the influencer, Ranaweera & Prabhu (2003) emphasise trust as becoming a truly important factor in this process. An added bonus would be for the influencer to post on their social media accounts whilst there, already spreading WOM about the brand to their followers.

5 benefits of inviting influencers to your event 

Step 3: Send free samples or offer discounts

Perhaps the most important one of all is to encourage the influencer to try out your product/service either for free or at a discounted rate. Particularly if you are looking to seek a review from them, this is a great tactic to use as they are encouraged to physically try out the product and form opinions for themselves to share with their following. This encourages the beginning of the relationship through the ‘transactional state’ (Zhang et al., 2016). To develop the relationship further, Zhang et al., (2016) explains it will be important for companies to involve influencers with new products or services in order to increase the value of the firm to the influencer, resulting in positive WOM.

Read more on creative ways to incentivise your influencers here

REMEMBER!

The risk of using influencers to build eWOM is assuming that they will be spreading positive messages about your brand. Due to the nature of social media, negative eWOM can severely affect a brands image and could escalate to brand dilution (Balaji et al., 2015). Therefore these tips are essential in order to build a positive relationship with influencers first.

References

Balaji, M.S., Khong, K.W. & Chong, A.Y.L. (2016) Determinants of negative word-of-mouth communication using social networking sites, Information & Management, vol. 53, no. 4, pp. 528-540.

Barker, S., (2016) 4 creative ways to compensate influencers (that don’t involve money). Curatti, 24 October 2016. [online] <https://curatti.com/compensate-influencers/> [accessed 27 April 2017]

Berthon, P.R., Pitt, L.F., Plangger, K. & Shapiro, D. (2012) Marketing meets Web 2.0, social media, and creative consumers: Implications for international marketing strategy, ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, AMSTERDAM.

Cramer, T. (2015) Online Influencers: The New Word-of-Mouth, ONLINE INC, WILTON.

Li, Y., Lee, Y. & Lien, N. (2012) Online Social Advertising via Influential Endorsers, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 119-154.

Radey, T., (2015) Influencer Marketing: Why relevance is more important than vanity metrics. Public Relations & Marketing. 27 May 2015. [online] <http://www.pr2020.com/blog/influencer-marketing-why-relevance-is-more-important-than-vanity-metrics> [accessed 28 April 2017]

Ranaweera, C. & Prabhu, J., (2003) On the relative importance of customer satisfaction and trust as determinants of customer retention and positive word of mouth. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for marketing, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp.82-90.

Sideqik (2015) The ultimate cheat sheet on how to incentivize influencers. Sideqik, 13 November 2015 [online] <https://www.sideqik.com/together-marketing/the-ultimate-cheat-sheet-on-how-to-incentivize-your-influencers> [accessed 28 April 2017]

Tapininfluence (2017) The ultimate list of influencer marketing statistics. Tapininfluence. [online] <https://www.tapinfluence.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/> [accessed 25 April 2017]

Zhang, J.Z., Watson, G.F., Palmatier, R.W. & Dant, R.P. (2016) Dynamic relationship marketing, Journal of Marketing, vol. 80, no. 5, pp. 53-75.