What are the underlying trends shaping the future of influencer marketing? What type of impact will these developments have on marketing strategies in the coming months? Some thoughts.
Brands / influencers collaborations are increasingly common and (relatively) well integrated with businesses’ marketing strategies. Some evolution in the design of an influencer marketing strategy are nevertheless to be foreseen in the months / years to come.
Brands and marketers will gradually turn to mid-tail influencers
When they plan to launch an influencer marketing campaign, brands spontaneously think of “star” profiles, those with the biggest communities.
Yet, there are other types of interesting influencers: the middle tail influencers. With communities that are more confidential than that of star influencers, but very reactive nevertheless, they are able to generate high rates of engagement. Moreover, they are close to their communities and therefore have a real power of influence coming with it. Finally, they are more readily available to partner with brands.
With a more ROI inclined vision than before, brands are now turning to them for their influencer marketing campaigns, and this will certainly increase in the future. Instead of working with a single star influencer, they are now focusing on partnerships with somewhat less monitored influencers. But they are deciding to work with more of them that will eventually reach a (or an even more) significant audience with a much higher engagement rate!
Without strategic adjustment, self-service influencer marketing platforms will collapse
The emergence of self-service marketing platforms suggests that influencer marketing campaigns are open to everyone. However, brands that are not operationally supported are struggling to build lasting and quality partnerships with influencers.
In the United States, there are even some talks of a bubble concerning these platforms, also known as influencer marketing marketplace: because the quantity of these solutions explodes, without responding to a real demand. The platforms are not very differentiated, and the ROI of the campaigns carried out is often left out of the equation.
Our vision at Pample is that technology is one of the pillars of an influencer marketing strategy. To leverage the underpriced middle-tail influencers, we provide a tool that allows marketers and brands to scale their influencer marketing campaign to tens or even hundreds of influencers and get live insights on campaign.
The second pillar is the advice and creativity of experts. It is an art to transmit the message of a brand through the lens of an influencer persona. Authenticity is key to a successful campaign that resonates with the influencer’s audience. Pample supports brands and marketers in all the steps of this process.
Influencers will professionalize and will expect to be paid
Influencers are still too often seen by brands as earned medias, but they will quickly switch to being seen as paid media.
From what we see on our market, influencers mostly work on product placement and are often paid in products.
With brands and marketers moving their dollars to influencer marketing, we foresee a professionalization of influencers as jobs opportunities will grow.
Also, brands will want to leverage influencers for branding purposes. Participating to an event, creating branded content and engaging in multi post campaigns. Such services naturally lead to cash payment.
For these reasons we decided at Pample to support and advice influencers on their content and communication strategy.
We also want to make interactions between marketers and influencers smooth. We support direct payment to influencers’ bank account through the platform. Brand can pay by credit card and wire transfer once satisfied with the campaign deliverables.
Influencer marketing will be big in Southeast Asia
The future of influencer marketing is promising in Southeast Asia. It is just the beginning but we observe that brands are now familiar with its high ROI from mature markets like the U.S. We see impressive daily engagement on social media in these countries and a large number of brands not yet all-in in digital and influencer marketing.
We decided to build Pample as an hybrid tech platform / agency to support the market in its maturation. It is an incredibly exciting time for influencer marketing in Southeast Asia.
Signup for free to our Influencer Marketing Platform that matches Brands and Influencers at www.pample.co
