Influencer Marketing is nothing but the old idea of celebrity endorsements placed in modern-content-driven marketing campaigns, wherein the cumulative efforts of both the brand and the influencer can influence the purchasing decision of the audience.
Influencer Marketing has entered the mainstream of Online Marketing and is here to stay for a long time. As an Online Marketing tool, it creates the necessary buzz for the products or services offered by businesses and brands.
For a long time, Influencer Marketing was favored by businesses in Fashion, Beauty, Food, Lifestyle, Travel, and Fitness categories. However, there is a surge of a new breed of influencers in the Finance and Medical categories making marketing these categories more interesting.
Let us look at the facts around Influencer Marketing (Data collected from sites with high domain authority):
- — 93% of marketers believe that influencer marketing is effective.
- — 72% of consumers prefer videos over text content.
- — 82% of consumers trust the opinion they see on social media.
- — 97% of marketers consider Instagram as the most important influencer marketing channel.
- — Influencer Marketing ROI is 11x Greater than Banner Ads.
- — 61% of consumers trust influencer recommendations, compared to 38% who trust brand-produced content.
- — 57% of Fashion & Beauty Brands employ influencer marketing
- — 76% of marketers are more interested in collaborating with micro-influencers as compared to celebrities.
- — Nearly 73% of marketers plan to increase their marketing spend on influencer marketing in 2023.
- — Though Tiktok has the highest engagement rate from influencers, it is officially Banned in India.
Well, the stats look awesome, but one has to look at marketing strategies through all angles, including the challenges. Influencer marketing has its own set of challenges. Some of them are listed below:-
- — Fake Followers: Many influencers use dubious practices like purchasing of followers. A close look at the followers will reveal the bots or fake followers.
- — Changing algorithms: Organic reach/engagement on most social media platforms is losing sheen over paid reach. Influencers find it challenging to play around with constant algorithm changes.
- — Losing Trust: As influencers get paid to endorse, review or promote a brand, consumers are beginning to distrust influencers, albeit they still hear them out.
- — Rising Cost of Influencers: As Influencer Marketing is gaining momentum, influencers are getting more pricey and shifting from product barters to paid posts, stories, or reels. Collaborations are getting expensive as influencers make this their mainstream career to generate income.
- — Brand Alignment: Marketers face challenges in alignment between the influencer and the brand, including brand ethics, brand notoriety, brand culture, or brand values.
- — Finding Influencers: Finding the right influencers can be a significant challenge faced by brands.
Make hay while the sun shines. Make the most of it when Influencer Marketing is at its peak. Here are some trends and Recommendations for 2023 to ensure you carve a great marketing strategy in this domain:-
- Use of videos: Ensure that the influencer uses videos to engage, review or promote your product. This video content can be amplified by publishing it on other social media accounts.
- Micro-Influencers to peak: An ideal engagement rate for influencer marketing is 3%. Micro-Influencers (5k – 10k followers) bring in about 4% of engagement compared to celebrities or mega-influencers with an engagement rate of < 1%. This means you get a higher ROI on a lower investment with micro-influencers.
- Paid over Collab: Marketers are aware that paid ads generate a 200% ROI. When choosing your investments for ads, include paid influencer campaigns where you can control the brand vibe, the messaging, and the format. A paid influencer video can double up as your smart budget ad.
- Long-term trusted partnerships with influencers: Choose your most loyal influencers with a high engagement rate and create a long-term partnership with them. They play the role of brand ambassadors, and you can amplify the content they create on various media platforms. To ensure successful collaboration, share your goals, merge them with trends, produce dynamic content, and nurture the relationship with the influencer to leverage their followers.
- Gen Z Content Creators: Skilled in technology, Gen Z consumers are also great content creators. Many businesses are employing these creators for personalized messaging or storytelling with entertainment, and they are also adept at posting/promoting products in a relatable way. Watch out for this breed and incorporate them into your influencer marketing strategy.
- Adapting User Generated Content (UGC) in a different context: This is gaining popularity with an entertainment quotient blended in. A popular song, music, act, or punch dialogue with a mass appeal, is reused or repurposed by creators/influencers in their posts or reels. An example is various ‘challenges’ being posed and accepted by Instagram users. Such activity is generally trending and an opportunity for creators to use that for messaging about the brand or product.
- B2B also adopts Influencer strategies: Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, & YouTube have traditionally been popular social media platforms for Influencer Marketing. However, other platforms in the mainstream are also following suit. Once a professional networking medium, LinkedIn is now joining hands with creators to create content. When hiring a B2B influencer, ensure they have the right knowledge and commitment to the area of expert.
In conclusion, influencers use various tools to interact with their audience, like call-to-action, contests, questionnaires, surveys, and entertainment, that keeps their fans engaged and interested in their content.
On the one hand, while the influencers are consumers too, giving their opinion on the products they use, they can get biased and opinionated. At the same time, today’s consumers are also highly aware and backed by tech savviness. They can identify honest, authentic reviews and vice versa.
This increases the onus on the brand to reach out to its customers with a defining voice as a brand influencer and create great quality content that is authentic and relatable.
Use our tips on trends to create your content and enjoy unparalleled success in 2023.
If influencer marketing is on top of your mind for 2023, engage with us to create successful campaigns that deliver results.