Are Influencer Marketing and Word of Mouth Marketing The Same Thing?

By Ted Wright June 24, 2019

By Ted Wright

The short answer is… no. But you can’t have one without the other.

Influencers like to share things and Word of Mouth Marketing is about sharing stories.

Can see why they’re so closely connected?

Everybody wants to compare Influencer Marketing vs Word of Mouth Marketing

But you need to truly understand both in order to do this correctly.

According to Engagement Labs, one of the premier authorities on word of mouth measurement, influencers are just 10% of the population out there in the world.

This group of people have a certain psychological makeup that gives them joy just from sharing stories with others.

• They enjoy engaging in conversation with a wide variety of people.
• They like to get and give advice.
• They keep up with things that are new.

Since word of mouth marketing is all about sharing stories, it makes sense that we need influencers to get stories moving. But we need the real kind. Those that are intrinsically motivated, not promoting something just to get paid.

Everybody can be influential about something to someone

This 10% influencer population share stories at a rate 10 times that of the normal population.

This is not to say that bloggers and YouTubers are not influential, of course they are, and many other people can be influential as well, but they are not by definition, influencers.

According to Procter & Gamble, a single real influencer is worth one million brand-specific conversations, within that person’s social network, within a year.

One million conversations can be generated from this person.

We have a single influencer and a buy-through rate of between 20%-92%. Functionally, this means you can dominate the US market in a category if you start out with a base of 1,000-10,000 influencers.

10,000 influencers x 1,000,000 conversations in a year… run it for a couple of years…

You do the math.

Invest Where It Counts

When creating a Word of Mouth Marketing strategy and defining appropriate target audiences, why wouldn’t you want to invest money in this group, where you are more likely to have a greater bang for your buck?

This is a critical concept when trying to measure Word of Mouth Marketing and its potential effectiveness.

Make sure your story is worth sharing

This is the role of Word of Mouth Marketing – creating stories worthy of being shared by real influencers.

Consumers trust influencers more than they trust you, so it’s important to find someone of influence to share your brand’s story.

This is where success lies.

Ted Wright is the founder of Fizz, the world’s leading word of mouth marketing (WOMM) agency. Ted is also an acclaimed WOMM keynote speaker and the author of Fizz: Harness the Power of Word of Mouth Marketing to Drive Brand Growth. 

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