Is Influencer Marketing Still Kicking?
In marketing, everything is changing at a quicker pace than ever before. Just as we start to get comfortable with the idea of influencer marketing, we’re asking whether it still works. Let’s not waste any time, influencer marketing is still effective when employed in a marketing strategy. However, 2019 is a very different place to 2018 and the years before it. Therefore, we’re going to break down these differences and offer some advice today.
Here are the 2019 trends for influencer marketing!
1. Higher Budgets
According to eMarketer, companies spent less than $580 million on influencer marketing back in 2017. At this stage, the idea was only really coming to the fore and we were starting to see the value of advertising with people who had a presence on social media platforms and other areas of the internet. Just one year later, the figure for 2018 rose to $1.6 billion. Even within the marketing niche, this is a huge jump.
In 2019, experts predict that this number will rise again as more and more companies jump on the bandwagon. Towards the end of 2018, a Linqia study showed that nearly four in ten marketers wanted to boost their budgets in this area in the next year.
Of course, the question is whether or not this trend is coming to the end of its life. Well, it’s thought that 65% of marketers want to increase their influencer marketing budget in 2019. With this, we can see that this is still very much alive.
2. Video Marketing
For marketers, this next trend shouldn’t come as a surprise since video content is dominating nearly every platform online. Thanks to an infographic produced by Visme, we can see the most effective types of content when it comes to influencer marketing. Here are the top five:
• Instagram Post
• Instagram Story
• Instagram Video
• YouTube Video
• Blog Post
We’ll deal with the fact that Instagram is ruling this niche in just a moment; for now, three from this list involve video content in some way, and this shows what consumers are looking for and reacting to most effectively.
Not only is video the most powerful type of content, we’re also seeing a move towards more creative editing and recording techniques. With more tools on our smartphones, influencers are continually getting more creative with content. For example, last year saw the rise of motion content. This includes boomerangs, cinemagraphs, GIFs, stop motion, AR filters, and more.
This year and beyond, it’s important to continue this trend. With companies spending more money on influencer marketing, it’s getting harder to make an impact. If you can partner with an influencer who gets creative with their content, you’ll stand a better chance at making a fantastic first impression.
3. Instagram is King
If you’re working with an influencer who doesn’t have a presence on Instagram, you’re doing it wrong. As we’ve just seen, the top three most effective content types for influencer marketing are ALL on this platform. Especially for younger generations, Instagram is the place to be and it’s also where customers are starting to make purchasing decisions.
After the success of the platform, Instagram is even making it easier for companies to find success. As you may have seen, they’ve introduced ‘shoppable posts’ which means that viewers of a post can click a button that shows the name of a product, manufacturer, price, and more. After deciding they want to purchase the item in the image, they simply click another button and they can check out without even leaving Instagram.
4. Different Tiers of Influencer
When influencers started to get paid to work with brands, the companies had control because it was a new idea. Now, the influencers have control, and this means that small businesses aren’t always able to work with the higher-tier influencers. Instead, businesses need to decide on an influencer based on their audience and budget. We now have five main tiers (the number in brackets denotes their outreach);
• Celebrities (Over 1m)
• Macro (Between 500k and 1m)
• Mid (Between 50k and 500k)
• Micro (Between 10k and 50k)
• Nano (Under 10k)
If you’re just starting with influencer marketing, you might find it difficult to work with celebrities. Instead, it’s probably better to start with one of the lower tiers, build the brand, and work towards the higher tiers.
5. Authenticity is Key
Could we soon reach the end of brand-generated content? Well, one thing is for certain; more consumers are getting frustrated by it and they’re seeking more reliable information. In a recent Hashoff study, we can see that more than eight in every ten will listen and trust the reviews of influencers they follow online. Therefore, as a business, you need to stop shouting about your own service and have others do it on your behalf.
At first, there was a huge debate as to whether influencers advertising products was disingenuous. Soon enough, the relevant authorities stepped in and said that influencers had to clearly state when posts were sponsored. However, this hasn’t affected the rise of influencer marketing. In fact, most consumers ignore the fact that a post is sponsored so long as the influencer in question is being honest and genuinely recommend a product or service.
This year, influencers have recognized the need for genuine, authentic content and this is evolving the way that they work. As we continue forward, authenticity will retain its value, so bear this in mind.
Read More: Does Influencer Marketing Actually Work?
6. Controversial is Good?
Interestingly, another trend we’re starting to see is a move away from the safer influencers. We could put our money into a safe influencer who will mention our product and get a few sales, or we could take a risk with a controversial influencer. Research suggests that more companies are inclined to take the latter approach because of the potential of higher engagement.
7. Long-Term Relationships
As another trend, businesses are starting to team up with influencers rather than just paying them once and never working with them again. If you’re considering a one-off promotion, we highly advise reevaluating to see if you can work on something with the future in mind. While some brands have worked with influencers on a social cause, others have co-created product lines.
When influencers are associated with a particular brand, the results are much stronger so long as the influencer remains popular and has similar goals and values as the company itself.
8. Difficulty in Finding the Right Influencer
With more companies searching for an influencer, and the introduction of tiers, six in every ten marketers have admitted to struggling to find the right influencer. At first, we would simply work with those who had the largest outreach. Now that consumers demand authenticity, the brand and values of the influencer are worth more. Ultimately, it’s about finding the balance between;
• Outreach
• Innovative content
• Thinking outside the box
• Building a long-term relationship
• Remaining authentic
• Staying within a budget
If you manage to get this balance right, influencer marketing will reward your brand and you’ll get more new customers than you ever expected. We mentioned climbing through the ranks, but it might actually be that the two of you grow together.
9. Fake Followers and Fraudulence
We’ve been very positive about influencer marketing so far, but there is some bad news and it comes as a result of fake followers and other fraudulent activities. When we invest in an influencer, we expect follower counts to be genuine because we rely upon this number of people seeing our brand. Unfortunately, some Instagram profiles will have inflated follow counts where the owner simply paid for the followers.
Elsewhere, others are using automated tools to follow people and then unfollow them, comment on posts, and perform tasks with the sole purpose of growing a follower base. The problem with fake followers and inflated profiles is that they don’t have an engaged audience (i.e. people who will actively look at the profile’s posts and engage with them). We should also note that some people have an inactive audience which will have the same outcome.
Before working with an influencer, look at their profile, their recent posts, and engagement on said posts. If they have thousands of followers but only one like per post, this suggests a problem.
10. Measurement is Improving
The final trend we want to discuss is the improvement in determining ROI. Rather than just looking at engagement rates, we can consider the success of influencer marketing by reviewing sentiment, word of mouth, affiliate link tracking, operational ROI, and plenty more. As time goes on, we’re only going to get more insights into this type of marketing, and it allows us to delve into whether the influencer is really pulling their weight.
Is influencer marketing still kicking? Yes, but you need to pay attention to the trends in this guide. As long as you do this, and be careful of fake followers and fraudulence, this marketing strategy will work for you in 2019 and beyond!
Bonus! Marketing Tools:
2. Bilbi AI: Daily Marketing Campaign Insights
