Here Are 4 Influencer Marketing Trends That Will Explode In 2019

Published in

Octoly Magazine

3 min readJan 23, 2019

Influencer marketing came into its own in 2018, which means things are about to get big for the industry in 2019. Here are four of the biggest trends we anticipate will dominate the influencer marketing space in 2019.

Hello, long term relationships

We expect brands to move away from one-off partnerships and secure six to twelve-month contracts with influencers this year. Brands understand that it takes time to cultivate the type of results they want to see when they work with influencers so one-off projects are no longer strategic for their business nor do they meet campaign objectives.

Brands will expect specific results

We already saw how much brands were investing in influencer marketing in 2018 — that number will only go up this year. However, as an influencer, now is not the time to rest on your laurels. Brands will look for influencers who can deliver on their specific campaign needs. As an influencer, it is important for you to understand your strengths and how to sell them properly. Don’t worry, you absolutely do not need to be good at everything. However, if you are a reach ninja or a conversion queen, don’t be afraid to brag about those strengths.

No more fear

When brands first began dabbling in influencer marketing there was a lot of fear and nervousness. Will influencer campaigns deliver? What will it be like to work with an independent third party vendor? As a result of these fears brands did two things:

They only worked with influencers who had enormous existing followings.
They tried to make influencer marketing fit into the traditional advertising space.

As a result, the first batch of influencer campaigns often felt forced and neither party got exactly what they were looking for. However, brands and influencers alike quickly shifted their strategy and had tremendously improved results. Now, brands aren’t so nervous to take risks. Brands are working with influencers of all sizes and their strategies are updated and fit within the digital space seamlessly.

Video will still reign supreme

YouTubers won’t see any sort of slowdown when it comes to work in 2019. Brands are still smitten by colorful and creative video creators and they are eager to work with them on long-term projects. For those of you who don’t primarily work on YouTube, don’t worry. Short form video formats like Instagram Stories are just as popular among brands especially Stories that can drive traffic and convert sales.

What trends are you most excited about as an influencer in 2019? Let us know in the comments below!

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