Businesses rely on marketing to sell their products or services, so marketing is considered the backbone of a business. Designing a good marketing strategy requires thorough market research to understand customer needs and pinpoint the target audience. The research data provides you with insights into how to best market your brand and sell your product or service to the target audience.
There are various benefits of marketing your business. Marketing helps build a positive reputation for your business. It helps you gain the trust of the target audience and grow your business’s sales. Moreover, marketing helps you understand your industry and provides you with a chance to design better marketing strategies for the future.
Various marketing strategies have been used by different industries over the decades. However, influencer marketing has become one of the most popular ways of marketing in the last few years. What started with a few celebrities and popular bloggers turned into a billion-dollar industry as social media, technology, and equipment became more accessible to the masses. Nowadays, brands primarily advertise their products or services through influencer marketing. Influencers use various digital tools to effectively market their content to millions of people and grow their digital presence, however, finding the best tool can be tricky. Whether you’re new to this industry or already operating in it, use DigitalSupermarket to find tools that can help you grow and make an impact.
It’s not surprising that influencer marketing is evolving and is here to stay, but does it have a future?
In this article, we will look at the future of influencer marketing.
Micro-influencers will receive more love
Brands don’t go after celebrities or influencers with millions of followers anymore for advertising their content. They have realized that micro-influencers with fewer but engaged followers are a better option for marketing specific products and services that appeal to that niche.
Many influencers increase the number of their followers by buying fake followers, so their engagement remains low. Brands now focus on your engagement with your followers instead of the number of your followers. According to a report from Later and Fohr published in 2019, influencers with 25,000 followers have the highest engagement rate of around 7%. Therefore, micro-influencers are the future of influencer marketing.
Another reason that businesses will keep choosing micro-influencers is the low-cost associated with marketing on small accounts.
Performance-based deals will increase
Influencers and brands prefer long-term partnerships that give rise to performance-based influencer marketing. In this marketing model, companies specify the number of sales they want, and influencers are paid after making the specified number of sales.
It is recommended to carefully go through the contract of a performance-based deal to make sure that you know what you are getting into. Performance-based campaigns can be tracked and ensure better performance outcomes.
Diversity and representation will be emphasized
In the past few years, fashion, beauty, film, and other industries have actively recruited people from diverse backgrounds to appeal to a wider audience. Representation in the mainstream media influences small communities, turning them into loyal customers. People also support and love more diverse and inclusive businesses.
Diversity and representation are also emphasized in influencer marketing. Influencer agencies are committed to hiring influencers from different backgrounds. Shade is an agency with over 1000 content creators, dedicated to helping creators of color. Representation and diversity will be promoted in the influencer marketing industry even more.
Audio and video content will be preferred
Video has always been a popular tool for marketing. Vertical video is the most popular format for marketing these days because of TikTok and Instagram reels. The popularity of short video-based platforms like TikTok predicts that video content will be even more popular in the future.
Audio content like podcasts has also gained popularity in recent years. Even popular Youtubers make and release podcasts actively. People are waiting for ads to go live on IGTV so they can monetize them, and brands can reach more audiences. Overall, the popularity of audio and video content made by influencers will be preferred over other forms of content.
Influencer marketing will depend on the platform
Influencers on platforms like YouTube or Facebook are seeing a decline in their popularity because advertising on these websites doesn’t feel natural. However, influencer marketing is growing on Instagram. The authentic and personalized experience created by micro influences for a specific audience will cause influencer marketing on this platform to grow even more.
Brands aware of their target audience can contact micro-influencers catering to their target audience and market their brand through them. They take advantage of lower rates and increase their return on investment.
CGI influencers will become common
CGI influencers are not real and are created through computer-generated imagery. Programmers carefully create each scene from a CGI influencer’s life. Brands are already collaborating with the current CGI influencers—for example, Lil Miquela is a CGI influencer who has collaborated with Calvin Klein, Prada, and Diesel. Brands love CGI influencers as they get to control how their product will be advertised.
CGI influencers will become more common in the future, but they will not be a threat to real-life influencers. In fact, influencers will also start using CGI technology to create their digital avatars. People will also associate and connect with an avatar of a real-life person more than a robot influencer.
The Bottom Line
Influencer marketing is a billion-dollar industry. It is a relatively newer way of marketing, but it has proven to be really effective. Influencers use various digital tools to build an online presence and get paid by brands to advertise their products and services to the audience.
Influencer marketing will continue to grow with some changes. Micro-influencers will be preferred over those with millions of followers. Audio and video content will be liked more than other forms of content, performance-based deals will increase, and diversity and representation will be emphasized in the influencer industry. Influencer marketing on platforms like Facebook will decrease, but it will continue to rise on Instagram. Lastly, CGI influencers will become common. However, influencers will be able to compete with them with their own digital avatars.
