Influencer Marketing - Influencer Marketing As A Marketing Discipline

Influencer Marketing As A Marketing Discipline

Influencer Marketing, as increasingly practiced in a commercial context, comprises four main activities:

• Identifying influencers, and ranking them in order of importance.
• Marketing to influencers, to increase awareness of the firm within the influencer community
• Marketing through influencers, using influencers to increase market awareness of the firm amongst target markets
• Marketing with influencers, turning influencers into advocates of the firm.

Influencer Marketing is enhanced by a continual evaluation activity that sits alongside the four main activities.

Influencer Marketing is not synonymous with word of mouth marketing (WOM), but influence may be transmitted in this manner. Thus WOM is a core part of the mechanics of Influencer Marketing.

There are substantial differences in the definition of what an influencer is. Peck defines influencers as "a range of third parties who exercise influence over the organization and its potential customers". Similarly, Brown and Hayes define an influencer as "a third party who significantly shapes the customer's purchasing decision, but may never be accountable for it.". The Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines an influencer as "A person who has a greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace. Keller and Berry note that influencers are activists, are well-connected, have impact, have active minds, and are trendsetters, though this set of attributes is aligned specifically to consumer markets.

Exactly what is included in Influencer Marketing depends on the context (B2C or B2B) and the medium of influence transmission (online or offline, or both). But it is increasingly accepted that companies are keen to identify and engage with influencers. As Keller and Berry note, " Business is working harder and paying more to pursue people who are trying to watch and listen less to its messages." Targeting influencers is seen as a means of amplifying marketing messages, in order to counteract the growing tendency of prospective customers to ignore marketing.