Influencer Marketing trends for 2019

What does 2019 have in store for influencers? Will these marketing strategies continue to be profitable? In this article, we’re going to take a look at the current state of influencer marketing and discuss the trends we expect to see in 2019.

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Influencer marketing in 2018

In 2018, we saw influencer marketing become an imperative strategy for companies to implement into their marketing plans. In fact, the popularity these influencers have gained, particularly over the last year, has managed to revolutionise predominant communication models and traditional advertising techniques.

Influencer marketing came into our lives a few years ago, and thanks to its effectiveness, it’s quickly become the ideal marketing technique for increasing brand visibility, capturing leads and improving client loyalty. The biggest advantage of influencer marketing, however, is the increase in engagement rates in a subtle and almost unnoticeable way, which strongly influences consumer purchase behaviour.

“In 2018, the typology and diversification of influencers really took off”

In 2018, we saw a drastic increase in influencers, as well as the diversification of the different sectors and typologies. But, what other trends have we seen in Influencer Marketing this year?

• YouTubers gained a lot of ground by diversifying their profiles, sharing advice and creating entertaining content.
• The biggest revolution we’ve seen in influencer marketing over the past year, has been the rise of the micro-influencers (profiles with between 5,000 and 25,000 followers). Social media users have realised that these profiles are much more empathetic with their audience than celebrities. Campaigns with micro-influencers became very popular in 2018, since brands are able to reach a more concrete and loyal audience with these collaborations.
• Another marketing trend we saw this year, was an increase in the generation of audiovisual content.
• Finally, thanks to the increase in audiovisual content, another new trend we saw in 2018 was video marketing, which now makes up 84% of internet traffic. This particular trend has been influenced greatly by the latest technological advances in the audiovisual world, such as 360º videos and streaming.

Influencer Marketing trends for 2019: what to expect

Taking into account the numerous influencer marketing actions that have been successful in 2018, we expect to see the following trends dominate this market in 2019:

• Live content

Creating live content is an influencer marketing trend that will without a doubt be a roaring success in 2019. Several studies show that live videos are 80% more attractive to an audience than a blog article or a post on social media.

• Measuring ROI

Another key influencer marketing trend for 2019 will be measuring ROI via metric monitoring platforms and software, which will provide brands with data, such as the total earned media of a campaign.

“Knowing which type of marketing actions provide more value for your brand is crucial for determining what type of campaigns and which platforms are best for your audience.”

The possibility of integrating market metrics on social networks allows you to see if a campaign is getting a positive return on investment. Knowing which type of marketing actions provide more value for your brand is crucial for determining what type of campaigns and which platforms are best for your audience.

Measuring ROI and data such as earned media, will be a key trend for 2019. Knowing beforehand the benefits of the different metrics before determining your campaign objectives, choosing optimal marketing actions to get the best results and knowing the metrics to follow on each social media platform are just some of the indispensable parameters which will dominate influencer marketing in 2019.

• Micro-influencers

The increasing demand for authenticity has given way to the inevitable demand for micro-influencers, YouTubers and Instagrammers who don’t have millions of followers, but who create quality content for their specific sector (fashion, music, technology, etc) and attract smaller communities of users who are interested in their speciality.

Micro-influencers are said to be more authentic; that’s not to say, however, that influencers with bigger audiences are not.

Their authenticity is related to the closeness with which they communicate with their audience and their knowledge and specialisation in a certain subject, which gives them a degree of credibility.

We think 2019 will be the year of the micro-influencer for the following reasons:

• They’re accessible influencers
• Their content is more valuable
• As experts in their sector, their opinions are reliable resources for users.
• They’re profiles with whom clients can easily identify

These are just some of the characteristics that will make micro-influencers the stars of 2019. Their appeal, however, cannot be compared to that of “big” influencers, who will remain the celebrities of the hour for the time being.

• IGTV

Instagram’s IGTV tool allows users to create audiovisual content with a longer duration than posts or stories. This new feature is another influencer marketing tendency that will become popular amongst influencers 2019.

• This feature was originally only available for profiles with more than 10,000 followers, but is now open to all users.
• IGTV content attracts a lot of attention, thanks to its notification system. When you add a video to your IGTV, your followers will see a notification at the top of their screen.
• It’s an optimal tool for brands to execute influencer marketing campaigns since it gives them the opportunity to cross promote across the various features Instagram has to offer: posting pictures, Instagram Stories and IGTV.

Predictions for the future of influencer marketing

The future of influencer marketing will see the consolidation of two concepts:

• Firstly, the generated content, as well as the brand values transmitted via campaigns, will aim to maximise client commitment.
• Secondly, by using artificial intelligence, we’ll be able to segment influencers based on their key attributes, such as their audience demographic, their metrics, and their relationship with brands, amongst others.

The most important factor of influencer marketing campaigns in the future will be the human element, which will guarantee creative, innovative and quality content.

Want to find out more about the best influencer marketing campaigns from 2018? Download the 5 most successful Instagram campaigns from 2018 and take a look at how these brands achieved success with influencer marketing.