What is the future of influencer marketing?
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing on social networks that includes recommendations and placement of products by influential persons, people, and organizations with a large and engaged following on social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and so on.
They are considered “experts” in their niche.
Influential people are mostly considered influencers and divided into several groups. They serve as a tool for brands to convey their message.
Influencers, with their social influence and the trust of their followers, represent the product of a particular brand, which creates an increase in awareness among users, and later turns them into potential customers.
So who are the influencers, what are the consumers’ attitudes towards this way of promoting products, who does successful influencer marketing, and what is the future of it all? We will find out below.
The beginning and today of influencers
The original influencers were famous personalities such as actors and athletes who appeared in advertisements for well-known brands — for example, Nike’s “Dream Crazier” campaign with the favorite tennis player Serena Williams.
The ad was created to support and celebrate women in sports who are breaking down many of the barriers that have existed over the years — and in some cases, continue to — breaking the barriers of double standards. The campaign was a huge success.
With the arrival of social media and networks, the interest of influencers is expanding, and more types, i.e., categories, are appearing.
The categories are divided by the number of followers, what kind of content they create, the level of influence, and niches. Based on the number of followers, they are divided into Mega influencers, famous personalities such as Kylie Jenner, musician Ariana Grande, and actor Brad Pitt, who count several million followers on their profiles.
Macro influencers are users on the way to reach and have great popularity, like Ella Dvornik in our area. Micro-influencers are “ordinary” people from our everyday lives who specialize in a particular niche.
Finally, there are nano influencers who count a slightly smaller number of influencers, only 1000 but are very narrowly specialized in their niche, like Toni Miluna.
An example of the cooperation of the cosmetic brand Three Sheeps Beauty with the American micro-influencer Christina Rodriguez. The attachment shows that promoting their product introduces users to the brand and potentially turns them into customers because it offers them its personalized promo code “CHRISTINA 20”.
Why do brands love influencer marketing?
Because they help them achieve their marketing goals, such as increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, and increasing sales, in this way, they can reach a specific target group or even a particular area.
Some of the ways that brands collaborate with influencers are:
- Giveaway; when a brand, in collaboration with an influencer, gives away a product or service to one or more followers of that influencer.
- Sponsored post/story; when the influencer publishes a post/story on his profile to promote the brand, i.e., the brand’s product or service.
- Product review; is when a user evaluates a particular product in a video or post and shares it with his followers.
- Collaborations; when a brand and an influencer create a product or campaign in cooperation.
Today’s users are more and more demanding and harder to target. They are becoming increasingly “immune” to billboards and video ads.
Instead, customers want to hear about the product and brand from someone they trust. Influencers approach the management as a “mutual friend” who has a particular audience with whom they identify.
Influencers are the link to inbound marketing; they create content that attracts their followers and brings them to the brand’s page.
This is a real opportunity to “grab” and capture users before our competition does.
Future of influencer marketing
It is predicted that influencer marketing and the profession will only continue to rise and grow, so brands should take this type of marketing seriously.
In the past year, influencer marketing had a turnover of $16.4 billion. By 2028, it is assumed to reach as much as $84 billion.
Video content as a new trend
One of the sure trends is video. The video is already popular. Most users prefer platforms that are based on video content, like TikTok. They also find it way more engaging.
Short and long videos dominate influencer marketing campaigns. Text and images are still active but not as popular anymore.
Users expressed their opinions that they want to see more brand video content.
The increase in the consumption of TikTok and Instagram reels leads influencers to use this method to present themselves better, but at the same time to show themselves using a particular brand because users want to see the consumption of the products they sponsor.
Industries like makeup brands, food, beverage, gaming, and fashion have the highest engagement rates in video content creation.
Also, algorithms support this kind of sponsorship.
Example:
Calvin Klein joined the Tiktok community in 2019.
They decided to create a video with celebrity influencers like Kendall Jenner and Shawn Mendes, so they were briefly interviewed. Then, in short, 10-second interviews, they talked about their statements.
Kendall Jenner talked about her usually straight hair, while Shawn talked about how it feels when the audience sings the lyrics to his song.
Also, using the hashtag #MyCalvins, they encouraged users to create UGC.
It is important to exemplify that famous personalities are talking about everyday, simple life things.
Rise of nano-influencers
Users began to lose trust in such celebrity influencers and demanded the “normalization of real” real life. Users don’t want to listen to, learn from, or take advice from someone whose life seems entirely out of reach. Instead, they want to see reality.
They want to see influencers make mistakes, have bad days, bounce back and keep going.
Because of this, influencers began to portray themselves in the right light, strengthening their credibility and trust among followers.
Users trust mega-influencers less but instead turn to micro-influencers. Yes, micro-influencers have a smaller community, but that’s why they interact more with their users. In comparison, mega-influencers have a larger community with less interaction with users.
Micro-influencers interact more with their users, which can result in better marketing campaign results.
Influencers with a smaller audience but a much higher audience interaction rate often specialize in some niche and authenticity.
Micro-influencers are attractive to brands precisely because of lower costs in the sense that micro-influencers charge less for partnerships than bigger influencers.
Example:
In collaboration with the Rhode skincare brand, micro-influencer Alexis Barker promotes their product with a post on Instagram.
Conclusion
Based on the above, the end of influencer marketing is nowhere near. Today’s users are much more demanding.
The influencer marketing industry is seeing massive growth in the coming years, followed by trends like video content and micro-influencers’ rise.
Influencer marketing can achieve much better results than other marketing channels.
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