Cooperation with influencers has begun to play an important role in building an effective marketing strategy. Influence marketing is something that business of any size can afford, and more importantly, get visible results.
How affordable is it? Talking about macro-influencers with millions of followers — the price is rather high. Though, the cooperation with micro-influencers having from 10,000 to 500,000 followers is rather affordable.
Several quick statistical facts:
- 67% of marketers state that social media campaigns involving influencers help them target the right audience better.
- The volume of influence marketing is estimated to reach $10 billion by 2024.
While influence marketing is getting more and more demanded, it is vital to know the main trends to be able to leverage the power of this channel to its fullest.
What are the trends for 2024?
Let’s consider the main influence marketing trends that wait for us in the following year.
1. Regulations are coming
Consumers must be able to identify sponsored posts. Consequently, the cooperation between brands and influencers should be as transparent as possible.
Native advertising is a good thought but do not overdo with it. The post sponsored by the company should be marked by a dedicated hashtag (e.g. #sponsored, #ad) or with the help of particular means of a social network.
For example, it has been a while since Instagram rolled out a feature allowing influencers mark sponsored posts and stories in a more user-friendly and natural way compared to adding hashtags.
2. Explore new platforms
Instagram is the favorite platform of influencers. But it does not mean that you should find influencers to cooperate with only on Instagram. In many cases, one and the same influencer is active across several social networks at once.
The price of promotion typically depends on the number of followers an influencer has on their social media page. Additional factors influencing the cost might be engagement rate of the followers and the number of brands willing to cooperate with the influencer.
A high price on advertising posts is certainly not a good news for those who are on a tight budget. So try to consider another social network (but not the main one) that is used by a particular influencer and you will have an opportunity to lower your expenses.
Bear in mind that the number of followers is not such a vital factor as their quality. This way, you can get a decent return on investments (ROI) even if the advertising campaign took place on one of the influencer’s social networks with fewer subscribers.
3. Software-centric approach to influence marketing
In the era when it is enough to hire iOS developers for building and releasing your own app, it is pretty inefficient not to use at least one of a plethora of ready-made platforms designed to simplify the influence marketing process.
Such platforms as Tapinfluence and Upfluence are designed to help businesses find the perfect influencers to collaborate with.
4. Campaign monitoring becomes even more vital
In fact, this point is not only about influence marketing but marketing in general. You will not be able to understand how well or bad the campaign is going unless you track its results.
Many influence marketing platforms offer their users all-in-one tools and help them how one or another campaign is going. If you have not used any platforms, the simplest way to track the campaign’s performance is to add UTM link to the post that with an advertising purpose. This link will help you see how many customers have come to your website, app or whatever from the influencer.
Promo codes can be your another option. Since a promo code is unique, you can easily figure out how many users have entered it, and correspondingly, come from the influencer you are cooperating with. But it is completely up to your goals whether using promo codes or not.
5. Quality content is the essence
The better the post has been written or the video filmed, the more customers will be attracted. What does it mean? Consumers hate ads and love useful content. Correspondingly, the content has to be engaging and should not be stacked with cliche phrases from low-budget commercials.
If you are selling gyro scooters, ask the influencer tell their audience how to set it up and use it. If it is cosmetics, ask the influencer show how to makeup with its help.
Examples of influencer marketing campaigns from well-known brands
Let me walk you through some successful use cases of influencer marketing and show their results.
Airbnb
The company’s strategy of collaborating with influencers is simple and elegant. They offer to pay for their stay in return for the post where their official page would be tagged.
