Influencer marketing has accumulated much attention over the last decade. Recently, the amount of Google searches for “influencer marketing” increased by more than 1500%. Influencer marketing is a rising strategy that can help bring success to brands and marketing campaigns.

 

Influencer Marketing Hub’s survey shows that 63 percent of marketers will invest more in influencer marketing this year. Marketers are optimizing on influencers’ fan base with whom they have built trust and relationship. The credibility of influencers with their followers means whatever they promote, it would be well-received, even if the brand may be new or unknown. It is how influencers help improve brand awareness.

 

Influencer marketing also effectively reaches your target audience and can help increase your engagements. There are many ways of providing value to your audience and enrich the content you are producing, and influencer marketing is one of them.

 

Let us take a look at influencer marketing trends to look out for beginning this year:

 

7 Trends in Influencer Marketing

1. Long-term partnerships between brands and creators

In 2020, customers will become more and more attentive to a brand’s marketing tactics. They will not tolerate creators who promote products that are not aligned with their ethos or do not seem to be authentic to the creator.

 

Customers are looking for genuine, authentic content. Because of this, brands are wary of content creators promoting multiple brands at one time.

 

In a time when the world is still recovering from a devastating pandemic, consumers’ search for authentic experiences, real and reliable connections will drive brands to opt for long-term partnerships with creators. It allows creators to have greater creative freedom, resulting in more effective and genuine campaigns.

 

2.  Video Content Will Continue to Dominate Other Content

 

This year, the rising of video content continues to be a popular trend in influencer marketing. Video content boosts audience engagement, website traffic, and conversion rates. Websites outrank the competition when they use video content. In fact, 54 percent of consumers demand more video content from brands they follow.

 

It is expected that video content in influencer marketing will be more collaborative, engaging, and creative than ever. People are looking for authentic content that has a natural flow and feels to it than curated content. Content like this helps translate viewers to what the content is about as if they are part of the action.

 

Influencers are seeing more results when they integrate video content and are focusing on their specific niche, so they hit as many viewers as possible. IGTV, for instance, is a great avenue to engage your niche on a deeper level and provide value. It is resulting in increased conversions, and so influencers will only keep honing their video content in the years to come.

 

3.  Micro-Influencers will be More In-Demand

If you have 1,000 to 100,000 followers, then you are a micro-influencer. Micro-influencers focus on a specific niche and are considered as an expert or specialist in their field. They have stronger relationships with audiences than typical, even global influencers. More importantly, micro-influencers have a more uniform audience that brands find reliable.

 

Collaborating with micro-influencers is typically not as costly as working with macro-influencers.

 

4.  The Rise of Influencer Networks

Marketers are beginning to group influencers based on whom they are associated with. After all, influencer marketing is all about associating with the right people.

 

Partnering with the right influencers can help your reputation grow parallel to how much authority and credibility the micro-influencer has in a particular niche. In the same manner, influencers need to choose wisely what brands to promote. Some brands can solidify an influencer’s authority, and while some brands may damage the reputation, they have built.

 

Again, people look for authenticity from influencers they follow. If they wanted an advertisement, they would not have to go to an influencer’s site. Audiences are saturated with ads and have produced ad-fatigue through the years. It is for this very reason that influencers became in demand. An influencer can cross that line and lose their hard-built reputation.

 

But for influencers who stay true to whom they ought to be, they can be interconnected with other influencers in the same niche. Similar or complementing niches can also overlap, like fashion and beauty, technology and cybersecurity, hospitality and travel, and the like.

 

Brands will continue to optimize these influencer networks for multiplied results in their marketing campaigns.

 

5.  More Focus on Authentic Connections, Not Just Likes

Instagram likes are no longer available publicly but will only be open to those who follow a user. The removal of likes drives influencers to produce content that engages the audience through comments to register on SMO (Social Media Optimization) metrics.

 

Brands looking for influencers to collaborate with should make sure the comments are from authentic users. They look at actual impressions on the influencer’s analytics. Some influencers you may already have a partnership with may readily share this data as well.

 

Impressions show how many views a post was seen compared to how many followers it has. Whenever an influencer trends, an influencer can get above 100 percent impressions versus its followers.

 

6.  Reusing and Repurposing Created Content

Brands will begin to optimize the potential and usability of a creator’s content to reach wider audiences in an organic, genuine way.

 

Content can be reused across different marketing channels like social media campaigns, videos, print, TV, billboards, and the like.

 

Since 40 percent of marketing budgets typically go to content creation, this strategy will maximize the investment for higher ROI.

 

7.  Community-Driven Selling

H2H (human to human) selling is another natural extension of community-driven marketing that will continue to trend. Its success also rests on building real relationships.

 

Brands no longer control the message. The narrative now rests primarily in the hand of consumers. Brands need to listen, stay updated, and be ready to adapt their marketing strategies to the current narrative.

 

Micro and nano Influencers can excel in the H2H approach and have a remarkable impact on a brand’s marketing campaign.

 

Conclusion: Prepare for the Future of Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing has significantly advanced over the years. But brands need to be in the know about influencers who are trending, what marketing strategies are working, and what consumers are looking for.

 

Brands need to adapt well and adapt quickly to changes in the trends and the narrative. Be prepared by starting to identify your brand’s niche, the influencers that are making waves, and how collaborations can happen successfully with your next micro-influencers.