One of the best ways to ensure that your influencer marketing campaigns are a success is to regularly adapt your strategies to evolving influencer marketing trends. This includes being aware of any new social media platforms, new types of content, and new ways brands can engage with their potential customers. The more in tune you are with these trends, the more appealing your content will be and the more your target audience will engage with your campaigns.
In this post, we are going to look at 10 influencer marketing trends that you need to be aware of, including the impact of the metaverse, the rise of nano- and micro-influencers, and the growing emphasis on genuine and authentic content.
There was a time when, in order to make the biggest impact with your campaign, it was important to collaborate with celebrity influencers or those with extremely high follower counts. However, these days, you are just as likely to succeed by collaborating with nano-influencers (those with fewer than 10,000 followers) or micro-influencers (those with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers). In fact, nano- and micro-influencers tend to elicit much higher rates of engagement, especially if you are targeting a niche market.
For example, Sephora has recently embraced the benefits of collaborating with micro-influencers with its #SephoraSquad beauty influencer program. As a result of its campaign, the company has reported both higher sales and increased engagement.
Another notable influencer marketing trend that we are seeing lately is the increasing focus on diversity, inclusion, and representation of minority groups. For example, a recent study conducted by Marketing Drive reported that “consumer awareness about social injustice has affected the impact of influencers, with 36% of influencer-following consumers saying they follow a more diverse group of influencers than they did before the protests against racial inequality started in the summer of 2020.”
The metaverse – a virtual world where users can work, play and socialize – has become one of the biggest marketing trends this year. Instead of simply reading and interacting with content online, with the metaverse, we are placed in the middle of it in the form of avatars. This has vastly changed the way we consume content.
For example, Fragrance brand Vyrao has created its own virtual influencer that lives specifically in the metaverse. The avatar’s name is Ræ, and it has been designed to fully embody the Vyrao brand: “We see Ræ as a sort of digital energetic healer existing in the metaverse, one who emits good energy just like our fragrances do.”
The rise of the metaverse has led to an increase in virtual influencers, as we just mentioned. This trend was kicked off by the creation of the internet’s first “fictional it girl”, Miquela Sousa, or Lil Miquela.
Lil Miquela is a 19-year-old model “living” in Los Angeles and her Instagram feed is filled with posts highlighting her fashionista outfits. She has also released a number of her own songs on Spotify and has amassed more than 1.5 million followers on Instagram.
If you want your influencer campaign to resonate with your audience, then you need to capture their attention and make your content as compelling as possible. And the best way to do this is by focusing on storytelling. Storytelling helps your audience connect with your brand and makes them more likely to buy your products. They are also likely to pay a higher price if they are seduced by a story.
For example, you could create a mini web series starring social media influencers in your niche or ask blog influencers to create long-form storytelling articles for your brand.
There has also been an increased emphasis on generating genuine, authentic content over the past few years. This trend is likely to have been accelerated as a result of the pandemic, as during the lockdowns people turned to social media for connections with others. And this has had an impact on the content shared by influencers, who are now focusing more on real content that elicits an emotional connection from their followers, rather than mass-produced content that’s overly focused on sales and sponsorships.
For example, Ogilvy UK has recently pledged to refuse to work with any influencers that routinely retouch their appearance. The agency will use technology to detect if images have been edited in this way, with hopes that other agencies will follow suit.
The rise in recent influencer marketing trends has also impacted the relationship between influencers and brands. Many brands are now seeing the benefits of partnering with influencers that can quickly and clearly get their message across to their audience.
As a result of this, brands of all shapes and sizes are investing in influencer marketing campaigns, not just the big players. Because the market is now so saturated, it is much easier for you to find an influencer that fits your specific brand and whose values align with those of your brand and your campaigns.
Another big trend that has been growing since 2021 is the increasing prevalence of creator-focused marketplaces that offer the right tools for influencers and brands to collaborate with each other more easily.
For example, TikTok now has its own dedicated Creator Marketplace API integration that provides deeper campaign insights so that brands can select the right influencers, and drive video views, engagement, and foot traffic.
As we already mentioned above, consumers are becoming increasingly turned off by content that they do not perceive as being genuine and authentic. They want to know if they are being targeted with an ad, or whether an influencer is giving their honest opinion about a product, and this has led to increasing demand for brand transparency. If you are collaborating with an influencer and they are posting paid ads, then you need to make this absolutely clear in all campaign posts so that users don’t feel you are trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
For example, many brands are now using specific hashtags to disclose influencer partnerships, such as #ad, #sponsored or #paidpost.
The last of the 10 influencer marketing trends that we are looking at today has actually been a big trend for a while, but it is not losing any traction.
Short video content has been a popular marketing tool for some time now, especially when it comes to short videos like Instagram reels, TikToks, and live streams. This trend is predicted to continue to rise in popularity over the next year. In fact, studies have shown that Gen Z spends 40% of their time online watching videos instead of reading articles or looking at photos. Furthermore, 84% of overall consumers report that watching a brand’s video is the reason they were convinced to make a purchase or subscribe to a service. And brands of all sizes are incorporating this feedback into their influencer marketing strategies.
For example, to celebrate Mother’s Day, Colgate launched the #MakeMomSmile challenge, which encourages users all around the world to share videos in which they did something special for their mothers. The campaign was a huge success, which goes to show that short video content is here to stay, and it will continue to be a lucrative tool for influencer marketing strategies.