With brands investing more time and money into earned content, marketers embrace new strategies to stay ahead of competitors in an evolving marketplace. So as we kick off a new year, it’s time to look at some of the influencer marketing trends we expect to see over the next 12 months.
We know the world of influencer marketing is very fast-paced and unpredictable, but brands need to make some guesses about what's in store for the industry.
Here are five influencer marketing trends that brands should pay attention to and embrace this year.
1. Data-Driven Influencer Marketing Will Be Key
As more brands are realising the extraordinary results that influencer marketing campaigns can produce, marketers have increased their spending each year.
According to a study by Influencer Marketing hub, 68% of marketers who budget for influencer marketing intend to increase their spending in 2022. As a result of this increased spending, it’s become increasingly important to ensure that you are working with the right influencers and tracking the right metrics to show their success.
So with the industry evolving in terms of spending, it is becoming more data-driven in both the influencer selection and reporting stage to ensure all campaigns are being successfully optimised.
With strong competition from different platforms and the vast amount of influencers to choose from, it can be hard to know who is right for your brand. This year, we will see more people choosing influencers over specific data rather than solely on the number of followers and the aesthetics of their feed.
At The Room, we provide comprehensive audience data to help brands decide which influencers are right for them. It gives information on interests, engagement rates, and whether they are a fast responder. All this information can help you select the right people for your campaign.
Once a campaign is completed, our reporting system provides extensive insights into content performance and the calculation of ROI and EMV so that brands can see the impact of their influencer collaborations.
As we see the industry becoming more and more saturated and navigating it has become increasingly complex, data will be crucial to success for brands in 2022.
2. Nano and Micro-Influencers Will Continue To Rise
As we saw in 2021, micro-influencers were rising amongst emerging industries due to their ability to reach a small but engaged audience, which will continue with nano influencers at the forefront. These influencers are specific about their niche and content and have a highly loyal following. This is a great opportunity for brands to reach an untapped market and get these influencers to convey their brand messaging in the right way.
Whilst they might be low in the number of followers, they make up for it in high levels of trust amongst their specific community. With 92% of consumers trusting micro-influencers more than endorsements from celebrities, it's a no brainer that more brands are planning to take advantage of them.
As these influencers tend to be more relatable to the average consumer, it allows them to connect and create a strong rapport with their audience. With often higher engagement rates, they strongly influence their communities, which is why we will see more brands tapping into their unique abilities this year.
3. Greater Power to Influencers
Creators will show more and more authenticity. There will be fewer filters, less airbrushing, and more ‘rawness’. Authenticity over perfection is a growing trend and will be shown across influencers' social accounts. Fewer influencers will have perfectly curated feeds and more in the moment pictures that capture their real lives.
Brands should work with influencers who create branded content that doesn’t look like ads and foster genuine relationships whilst offering authentic content to their following.
As more authenticity transfers into influencer content, they will increasingly be more or solely involved in the creative process when collaborating with a brand. As the influencer marketing industry stands strong, influencers now know their worth.
Brands can now give influencers the power to be creative with their content to produce authentic and engaging stories they know their audience will trust. Consumers over the past year have been demanding more real and honest content from influencers, which is what they will get. No longer with fake ads fly with users; the only thing on the horizon for 2022 is authenticity.
4. Cross Channel Campaigns Will Be Critical
With the landscape expanding and the number of users on multiple platforms increasing, cross channel campaigns for brands and influencers will be non-negotiable in 2022. It’s time to ensure you target a wider audience from both a demographic point of view and a content perspective. Lucky enough, there is an ever-growing amount of social media platforms to choose from; however, the challenging thing is understanding how you can make them work for you and your audience.
You aren't expected to understand every platform and use them all, but it is essential to find out where your audiences are and target all areas. Once you've recognised the unique benefits of each platform, you can use them to complement one another by adding something new and different to each platform.
For instance, TikTok and Instagram Reels have similar content formats with their 15-second videos, but each platform's audience reacts differently to the types of content. TikTok is rawer and there to entertain its audience. It keeps you up to date with trends and brings people together. It is particularly popular amongst Gen Z, who form half of TikTok’s audience.
Meanwhile, Instagram is for more behind the scenes content and letting people know what’s new. It allows interaction from followers more accessibly and has shifted more towards an e-commerce hub with its new shopping features. Similar to TikTok, Instagram still remains a firm hold on Gen Z, but its largest demographic group is among Millennials (31.2%).
As new formats and platforms arise, it can be slightly daunting for brands to know how to accommodate them all. That's why the beauty of working with influencers is that they already have experience in knowing where their audiences are and what works best for them.
As we mentioned in trend 3, by putting the power and trust in influencers, they can ensure the success of each campaign. Their knowledge and experience on their audience's likes make them the best people to translate your brand messaging.
5. Long-term partnerships & collaborations
Working longer-term with influencers has been increasingly apparent in the influencer space over the past year, and we predict it’ll continue into 2022. And honestly, it makes a lot of sense.
When a brand discovers an influencer who shares the same values, has your ideal audience base, likes your product(s), and has a great working relationship, why wouldn't you want to collaborate with them long-term?
Not only does it save your brand time trying to find new advocates, but single one-off posts have increasing declined as even influencers with dedicated followers cannot achieve the same impact and results.
Creating relationships with influencers and nurturing them into brand ambassadors can allow you to build trust with both the influencer and their audience, leading to greater brand loyalty. This will, too, have a positive impact and improvement on performance and efficiency on execution as the influencer will know what resonates with their audience over time.
Gaining greater trust amongst consumers can significantly impact conversion rates and, ultimately, ROI. That’s why it’s time to ditch one-off campaigns and spend time finding and building relationships with the right brand ambassadors to maximise the benefits. If you need a helping hand, our influencer marketing platform streamlines the process for brands to find and engage with people who truly love their brand.
Conclusion
Now we’ve looked at what the influencer marketing industry might hold over the next 12 months; brands can adapt as trends develop and evolve. Ensuring your marketing strategies align with current trends can help ensure you as a brand stay in the minds of consumers and ahead of competitors.
If you need help finding the right influencers to collaborate with, take a no-obligation demo to see how we can help.
