Influencer Marketing Trends

Influencer marketing, also known as multiplier marketing , is an area of ​​online marketing in which people (so-called influencers , i.e. opinion leaders) with a certain degree of influence, reach, reputation and awareness market companies and their portfolio in a targeted manner . The aim of influencer marketing is to increase the value of brand messages and to positively influence the target groups and their buying behavior . In the early days, influencer marketing was still a trend that was sometimes ridiculed . In the meantime, however, this has developed into an established form of marketing . The constantly multiplying social media platforms are increasingly generating more and more influencers and their followers (subscribers to an opinion leader in a social network). The constantly changing content forms of the platforms and the needs of the consumers offer the market an almost insatiable field of marketing and thus also a tough competition between corporate interests.

Many established social media platforms recognized the value of influencers early on and support them, sometimes with enormous financial sums . Facebook and TikTok themselves pay billions to influencers , who are also called creators there. Twitch and Twitter , on the other hand , are driving a model in which fans can support their favorite influencers with so-called donations (voluntary payments). On Instagram , on the other hand, paid subscription to the channels is being considered. On YouTube, the partner program and advertising are decisive for payment and with "YouTube Shorts Fund" payments to channels and their influencers are also possible. Patreon should also be briefly mentioned here as a reward platform . Since there are now so many influential opinion leaders and channels covering almost all sectors of global trade and their products , it is not surprising that companies are increasingly jumping on the influencer marketing bandwagon and promoting their brands and products through influencers permit.

1. Affiliate marketing and influencer marketing are merging more and more
   1. Until recently, influencer marketing and affiliate marketing were distinguished as two different areas . However, these are strongly connected to each other . In both areas, an outsider must encourage the potential customer to focus on the products from a specific manufacturer. Originally, most affiliates (advertising partners) were traditional bloggers (someone who writes on a blog) or publishers (publishers) who featured product demonstrations, walkthroughs, and reviews on their websites and blogs.

   2. However, this has now changed to the extent that influencers recommend products to their followers – but typically only those that they trust or use themselves . Influencers don't want to alienate their followers by promoting products they don't believe in. As a result, companies quickly realized that influencers promote products better than any other medium , especially through their authentic and personal way of introducing products and beliefs.

      The affiliates quickly realized that they did not have the audience of influencers and have therefore started to work more and more with influencers to jointly promote their affiliate products

2. Video and audio content are significantly more popular than text content
   1. Supported by fiber optic and 5G rollout, the popular streaming, podcast and video content is becoming increasingly popular . The tendency to read content is declining and will be increasingly replaced by video and audio in the future. However, this trend is primarily driven by influencers . Many of you prepare content very accurately and sometimes scientifically . The platforms YouTube and Twitch should be mentioned here, on which all categories of content are mostly available in video and audio format and live streams also allow direct interaction with the influencers.
3. Increased performance-based influencer marketing
   1. The search for partnerships between influencers and brands will increase. However, this in turn also means that the pressure on the influencers increases to sell products or generate relevant clicks.
4. Specialized Influencers
   1. Niche carving is an influencer marketing trend . Due to a further intensive expansion of these niche or industry interests and the associated expertise, the influencers are increasingly in demand for the brands they are promoting. Certain sectors are more lucrative in monetary terms , but in this respect they are usually much more competitive.
5. Micro and nano influencers are becoming more popular
   1. A nano-influencer, unlike a celebrity influencer, only has a few thousand followers . However, micro-influencers with fewer than 25,000 followers have the highest engagement (interaction) rates . Nano or micro influencers, in particular, usually analyze products and companies much more precisely and are increasingly working together with other like-minded influencers . This has enormous advantages for companies, since the followers of these micro and nano influencers are informed much better about the products and have strong purchasing power here.
6. Influencers will act more across platforms in the future
   1. Prominent influencers in particular conduct and interact with their followers on various channels . This has the advantage of reaching even more potential followers, but also of promoting content in different formats.

In this short excerpt of the trends in influencer marketing, we wanted to show what potential this holds. It is very reasonable and good for a company to take a close look at the influencers and win them over to your own company. It should be said, however, that influencers are now very selective when it comes to choosing their cooperation partners . From our point of view, a company is well advised to also support the nano and micro influencers in their division and to convince them of their own company at an early stage. Our marketing experts are happy to help when it comes to building a good influencer marketing strategy.