Influencer Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing

When a channel or marketing tactic is trending, I often get asked “should we try that too?”

Whether it’s being on TikTok, trying influencer marketing or investing in blogging for SEO, my answer is the same every time - “it depends.”

Before you invest in ANY digital marketing tactic you should absolutely define:

• The goals you want to achieve

• Your target audience and what channels they use

• What your competition is doing

• What the investment will be for each channel (time + money)

• What the ROI could be

• Your overarching communication strategy

But, when it comes to influencer marketing, there are some key opportunities and benefits that other traditional marketing tactics can’t deliver.

For example, see how a client of mine, Four Corners Algonquin, went viral and booked out their entire inventory of bubble tents a year in advance through a partnership with a trusted influencer @WaddupCanada.

But, before we get carried away with the power of influencer marketing, let’s break down the difference between influencer marketing vs. traditional marketing and why you might choose one avenue over the other.

What is influencer marketing?

Businesses use influencer marketing as a strategy to promote their brand, product or services to the followers of an influencer or digital creator they’ve chosen to partner with.

Today, influencer marketing is a powerful digital form of “word-of-mouth” marketing.

Influencer marketing marked a major shift in how brands reach consumers. Instead of paying for highly produced ads, or even celebrity endorsements, savvy marketers began to tap into the deep relationships and trust built between influencers and their followers.

89% of marketers will increase or maintain their influencer marketing investment in 2023.

- Hubspot

Types of influencers

There are three different types of influencers defined by their audience size:

TYPE	AUDIENCE SIZE	PARTNERSHIP DEALS
Nano Influencers	Less than 1,000 followers	“In kind” receipt of free products in exchange for promotion
​Micro influencers	1,000 to 100,000 followers	“In kind” receipt of free products or paid partnership in exchange for promotion
Macro influencers	100,000+ followers	More often than not paid partnership in exchange for promotion

It’s absolutely critical to learn more about the exact demographics of the influencer you are looking to partner with. For example, there are some Canadian based influencers who hold the majority of their following in the U.S. and vice versa.

3 different types of influencer partnerships

There are three general approaches to partnering with an influencer:

• Seeding: In this approach, brands gift their product or service to an influencer with a no-strings attached expectation (i.e. the influencer does not need to post on behalf of your brand)
  

• In kind or gifting partnerships: In this partnership a brand would give away their product or service for free to an influencer in exchange for content promotion.
  

• Paid: Paid influencer partnerships can take many forms from paid advertising to behind the scenes contracts that outline a personalized and customized approach to content collaboration. In this approach brands directly pay influencers to promote their product or service.

What are the benefits of using influencer marketing?

Compared to traditional marketing tactics like email marketing, media relations or paid advertising, influencer marketing tends to focus on a hyper targeted, relevant audience.

Influencer marketing vs. traditional marketing tends to result in more authentic, trustworthy content - generated from real people who are talking about or using your brand in everyday life situations.

Here are just some of the benefits of using influencer marketing:

Increased brand awareness: Expose your brand to new audiences curated by an influencer related to your specific industry, values or niche.

Increased credibility: Instead of talking about your brand’s benefits and features, you let other people do it for you, thereby increasing credibility - similar to a review.

Increased creativity: Depending on the influencer, you can have your product or service positioned in new, surprising, authentic and creative ways vs. relying on old campaign concepts.

Cost effectiveness: Influencers usually have higher levels of engagement with their followers and on their content, which can lead to a better ROI.

Is influencer marketing right for your brand?

In many cases influencer marketing outperforms brand-created content.

Yet, many brands are understandably hesitant to try influencer marketing, or give it a second chance after a bad experience.

Remember, no two influencers are the same, and it’s critical you collaborate with someone you trust - more on than below!

To know if influencer marketing is a tactic you should explore, begin with some research.

Consider:

• Does your target audience spend time on social media?

• Does your brand/service have active and optimized social media accounts?

• Are there influencers focusing on your specific industry?

• What type of content would you expect an influencer to generate?

• Are you comfortable having someone else speak on behalf of your product or service?

• Do you have a budget for influencer marketing?

Compared to influencer marketing, traditional marketing typically allows brands to have more control over their message and the medium. Traditional marketing tactics like event marketing, direct mail and print advertising are formats in which you can own your story, ensure campaign alignment and try to control for specific variables like your lead conversion funnel.

How to ensure a successful influencer marketing partnership

If you think influencer marketing may be worth it for your brand, or you’re looking to have more successful partnerships with a high ROI, use these five tips below:

1. Find alignment with your values: It’s one thing to find an influencer in your industry and one who has a sizable audience, but it’s another to find someone who shares your core values and will represent your brand in line with your core purpose.
   

2. Find authentic fit: Does the influencer already use your product? Is this someone who would genuinely pay for or try your service if they had known about it? An influencer might say yes to a partnership for money, but their followers will know if it’s an authentic alignment or not.
   

3. Look for skillful content creation: Please don’t get me wrong here, I’m not advocating for over-produced, professional content - what I am flagging, is to see if the influencer offers a unique perspective or fresh content, or if everything in their feed looks the same (i.e. you won’t stand out).
   

4. Check to see if they optimize their content: This might seem simple, but many influencers don’t use hashtags, they don’t use keywords and they aren’t tagging other accounts in their posts.
   

5. Be okay with letting go: You should trust the influencer so much that you don’t feel the need to script them or put containers around what they can and can’t say. Scripted partnerships will come across as ads, which is the opposite of the magic of great influencer marketing.

Extra Tip: Try combining a giveaway or limited time offer with an influencer partnership - it’s a great way to maximize the value of each strategy together, plus incentivize the audiences of your influencer to take action.

A successful influencer partnership that went viral

This may surprise you, but when Four Corners Algonquin partnered with @WaddupCanada there were no bounds or requests in terms of content creation.

The partnership had alignment in terms of values, authentic fit, skilful content creation and optimized content - read: we trusted them.

@WaddupCanada posted the content they wanted to, when they wanted to, and optimized their post by tagging a number of travel and media accounts, which in turn led to their Instagram reel being viewed 5.9 million times!

The partnership amounted to a sell-out success with all bubble tent inventory for the next season being booked within weeks of the reel going live.

The partnership was a win-win for @WaddupCanada as well as they gained tens of thousands of followers from the viral post.

The impact of influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has changed the game of digital marketing, yet it isn’t for every brand.

Yes, the right influencer can yield substantial results, bringing new audiences, followers and fans to your brand, but like any strategy, it has to be used wisely and skillfully.

While influencer marketing is having its time in the sun, along with other forms of user generated content, the success of this tactic at its core remains similar to most other forms of marketing: find shared purpose, share your story, and listen to your audience.

Lastly, it’s just one tool in the digital marketing toolkit.

Every brand is different, and while there are tactics proven to yield more results than others, I personally and professionally believe you won’t know what will work for your brand unless you try.

Trying means looking into the tactic and exploring options - you might realize at the end of your research that influencer marketing isn’t for you, and that’s okay.