Influencer marketing no longer applies to working solely with a single influencer in order to promote your product or service. Today, influencer marketing has become much more strategic, multifaceted, and superfluous. With that in mind, it is imperative to pay attention to annual trends so you can mold your strategy in accordance or in contrast with them. To help you out with this, here are 5 influencer marketing trends that are on the rise.
1. One Is Not Enough
In the past most brands have utilized influencers for a single or small number of campaigns. However, in today’s market, one-off campaigns are not enough. Today, many have ambassadorship programs designed to facilitate long-term content output. This provides constant brand exposure and increases the chances of someone taking an action or making a purchase.
2. Produce Episodic Content
When it comes to influencer marketing, authenticity is the name of the game. No matter your product, your influencer’s fans will want to see genuine engagement with your brand, otherwise they may view your campaign as disingenuous. In this regard, it helps if your influencer genuinely loves your product.
If you are looking for proven methods to ascertain how your brand is perceived, you have two options: a technological approach or a content-based approach. In the case of the latter, you can likely shift your output towards a more episodic structure. This will give your influencer a chance to showcase your product in a variety of situations and tell your brand’s story in a way that will allow customers to imagine themselves in the influencer’s place. Speaking of episodic structure…
3. Instagram Is Your Friend
Instagram has consistently experienced considerable growth each year. Last year, the platform topped one billion active users per month and is expected to surpass that this year. This is helpful to your plight because Instagram is the leading platform for influencers. This year, more brands than ever before will yield sizable returns from the platform, so do not hesitate to make it a key part of your influencer strategy.
4. More Brands Will Use Mega and Micro-Influencers
In the old days, businesses used to target influencers with 10,000 followers or more. However, over time people started realizing that this was only capturing a portion of the market. Enter micro-influencers.
While they do not have as many followers, micro-influencers tend to favor one-on-one interactions, which allows your brand to appeal to an entirely separate audience. While this type of engagement is not new per se, it is on the rise just as much as its counterpart.
5. As Competition Increases, Reaching Your Target Audience Will Be More Difficult
With influencer marketing on the rise, more brands are understanding how lucrative organic engagement can truly be. However, as more and more brands enter the field, reaching your target audience will be much tougher. Consequently, you will have to make use of organic, community-centric strategies more than ever. While this may require increasing your annual budget, it will be well worth it in the end.
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