Technology

5 Influencer Marketing Trends Leading The Way in 2022

By Shrishti Jain
January 15, 2022

With users worldwide spending more and more hours online, influencer marketing has become an effective method to convey the right message to the right audiences in the most practical manner possible. The good news is that this form of marketing is becoming more data-driven than ever before, giving brands additional measurement capabilities to evaluate their campaign success. So let's dig a little deeper into some of the emerging Influencer Marketing trends for 2022:

Rise of Social Commerce

As social media platforms double down on tools enabling in-app purchasing, business marketers will be taking a closer look at special deals with influencers with committed followers to stand out amongst competitors while driving sales. Only 4% of consumers believe in a brand's marketing tactics, so marrying social commerce and influencer marketing efforts will enable brands to create a successful influencer marketing strategy while hitting their e-commerce goals. Brands will implement influencer marketing as part of their social commerce strategy to expand their social media audiences and deliver authenticity, resulting in tangible ROIs and increased engagement rates. Influencers and content creators will play a key role in social commerce strategies. They present maximum visibility to your brand offerings while serving as a natural route to your virtual storefront. Live-streamed shopping is the perfect avenue to leverage an influencer partnership. It can boost your content's visibility and engagement and generate more sales.

Power of Micro-Influencers

Working with micro and nano influencers will be one of the strongest influencer marketing platforms of the moment as they are much more relatable, trustworthy, and their endorsements seem a lot more genuine and authentic. Moreover, the audience is more dedicated to the identity of micro-influencers, which makes them more attractive to potential sponsors. Therefore, they can significantly affect a brand's lead generation. A recent study indicates that micro-influencers retain 22.2 times more conversations than a distinct user. This is because they are devoted to their niche and can pick the most argumentative topics to engage followers. In addition, micro-influencers present a route to pinpoint highly-targeted audiences and reach them with personalised messaging specific to their needs. When executed correctly, this can lead to a highly-engaged and responsive audience.

Inclusivity Matters

To get your business out there, it's important that it appeals to the greatest audience possible. Therefore, marketers will need a diverse group of creators who represent a diverse target audience to humanise their brands. Research shows that 38% of consumers are more likely to trust businesses that do well with showcasing diversity in their advertisements. Be it via tokenism, perfunctory, or symbolic efforts to be inclusive to give the idea of racial and gender equality. Consumers generally count on diverse influential artists far more than they trust brands, so affiliating with an influencer who aligns with your brand's D&I principles will go a long way in establishing reliability and trustworthiness. While crafting campaigns, imagine how your TG will react to a non-diverse influencer mix. This will allow for a more positive brand sentiment and affinity as you leverage connectivity between community and influencer. In addition, online customers are much more likely to connect and associate themselves with a brand when they feel seen and represented by that business's campaigns and if their personal values align with a brand's efforts.

Think System, Not Silos

Influencer marketing has the power to create a striking halo effect on marketing channels, so by failing to give it a meaningful place in your marketing mix, you will be waving goodbye to some of its greatest benefits. By combining paid and earned influence, brands increase the likelihood for returns on long-term earned campaigns from roughly 50% to nearly 85% and also improve the quality of this earned media. By ensuring that influencer briefs perform well within the wider campaign plan and their content is set up to be trackable, brands can virtually oversee production budgets and assess ROI against actualised business results. In addition, brands must be able to track consumers' journeys across channels through a full marketing and shopping funnel to understand where they convert and why. Influence is usually mistaken as the garnish, but it's the key ingredient to your marketing recipe. By integrating it into all your marketing efforts, you will amplify your brand's credibility and generate solid social proof.

Always-on Marketing Strategy

More and more companies are moving away from campaign-based influencer marketing. However, when talking about measuring and optimising, an always-on strategy will be critical for success and longevity in a rapidly innovating field. With this approach, you create brand ambassadors speaking authentically about your brand/products to their followers. This strategy puts your brand story in the hands of your entrusted influencers for them to add their own spin and find a unique way to connect with their audience. 42% of marketers consider influencer marketing their top revenue-generating marketing tactic, so why not implement this strategy throughout the year to maintain a constant presence in your audience's lives to make them feel valued! Always-on influencer campaigns give you more flexibility with content. For example, always-on campaigns make it easier to adjust your messaging if you want to highlight certain products/product features to align with the time of the year or current trending topics. Unlike separately targeted campaigns, always-on campaigns are established by developing relationships with your relied influencers and their devoted followers. Maximising your always-on strategy can help drive incredible, long-term results for your business.

Winding Up

Influencer marketing is an indispensable tool for increasing the trust in the customers' minds about your business. Therefore, it will be crucial to generate not only brand awareness but facilitate online sales, and influencer marketing agencies can help deliver the right message, at the right time, on the right platform, which will drive further sales. Furthermore, consumers today are drawn to authenticity and realism, so your effective influencer marketing efforts will depend on flexible content stirs rather than branded scripts. Finally, remember this: only when influencers are given flexibility by brands to be their genuine selves can they drive powerful, favourable brand associations.