Strategy

8 trends for influence marketing in 2023

Influence marketing is constantly changing, adapting to the market and trends that arise with the advancement of technology and social networks. What can't be denied is that influencers dominate the digital, and the company or business that close their eyes to this, may be losing space and [...]

June 23, 2023 · Gustavo Trentini · 10 min read

8 trends for influence marketing in 2023

Influence marketing is constantly changing, adapting to the market and trends that arise with the advancement of technology and social networks. What you can't deny is that influencers dominate the digital, and the company or business that closes their eyes to that, may be losing space and sales.

In this article I gathered eight expert tips to help you plan or even apply to your brand the strategies that are working.

Contents

Toggle

What is influence marketing

Influence marketing is a form of digital marketing that allows companies to collaborate with individuals who have followers to increase brand exposure across multiple channels. Brands can, for example, ask a person with a large number of followers to publish content on social networks and promote their products or services in exchange for some kind of payment.

Network users usually follow individuals and profiles they trust, so if you see someone who admires advertising your business or brand, there is an existing trust factor, in which you can bet to increase your conversions and sales.

An important part of any strategy of influence is to find out which influencers can suit your company. For example, if you sell floors for sports courts, you may want to work with an influencer who is a futsal player, basketball or volleyball.

In this scenario, it is better to partner with people who meet these criteria because those who follow this specific influencer, will be interested in what they have to say.

After you find an influencer who has the profile of your business, contact and see if you can close a partnership. For this transaction, it is suggested to close a payment by “public” (as is known the paid partnership in social media posts) or to pepmit them to receive a commission on all products and services they sell.

As an example, you can give them 10% of the revenue generated from the products and services they sell on your behalf. You will need to analyze the numbers to see if this agreement is financially viable and test to see if there will be a return.

The influencer can be anyone

We are seeing more and more different types of influencers emerge overnight. You don't need to be a celebrity, model or someone who works in fashion or travel to have some time of influence.

Influence marketing is being developed by ordinary people who have influence over a community or have access to the right audience: basically taking their influence from the “real life” and bringing it online. And that choice needs to have a lot to do with your business model. It's no use putting a financial influence on selling pet shops products.

Brands are gaining value in collaborating with people who have different types of niches and this allows ordinary people to develop their influence because:

- we know, we like and trust them;

- there's no need to learn from celebrities in niches who don't need them.

That said, let's see the main trends for you to guide yourself in your influence marketing strategy:

Videos? Yes, and of course!

The videos are everywhere. It is the most dominant content and media format, as it provides more information in less time. So, taking advantage of all the features of videos on social networks, email and even on the site, will increase your ability to influence.

The main platforms, such as TikTok, Instagram and Youtube, have already implemented short videos for marketing purposes. It is expected that influencers will make the most of these resources, forcing their public to buy sponsored products. It's where your "publis" can do the most attraction effect.

So if you are a growing brand, partner with influencers for product launches and increase your sales.

Sephora, e-commerce of beauty products, uses influencer marketing techniques to sell its products. Singer Selena Gomez promoted on video the makeup products of Rare Beauty available in the stores Sephora. She did a quick and light touch-up tutorial and just hit the jackpot. The brand also responded to comments that raised doubts and valued emotion.

Stories will always be a success

Many brands have intertwined stories around their products. These products are designed as part of people's lives and influence the public. A major change in audience has been noticed on Instagram and TikTok in recent times. The brands seek to show moments of celebrity life and build stories to influence people to buy products.

Find influencers who have something to tell, who are engaged in actions with the niche in which you operate, creating and combining scripts that can format attractive storytellings.

Focus on the minor influencers

When he was in his early stages, influence marketing efforts revolved around influencers with hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers. But in the last two years, brands have become more interested in working with micro or nano influencers.

Nano and micro influencers tend to have a much smaller audience, but more engaged in their social networks compared to mega influencers. Micro influencers also seem to have a better connection with their followers than celebrity influencers.

Micro influencers also tend to have a very specific niche, offering companies the opportunity to reach target audiences with specific interests. It also helps them adjust a campaign by working with a specific target audience. And compared to the main influencers, micro and nano influencers charge less for posts (publis), helping brands to better manage their spending on influencer marketing.

Long-term collaborations bring more results

Long-term collaborations are a prominent trend of influence marketing in 2023. In the past, most of the influence marketing relationships or brand creators were only in one-off projects or campaigns.

But in recent years, marketers have realized that working with influencers will affect your brand for a long time and therefore brands are exploring continuous partnerships. Although there is no trend of retention agreements in the creator's economy, brands are trying to keep their influencers up to date on their activities or new products.

Brands can try to build long-term partnerships by offering product samples and VIP passes for events and, of course, long-term promotion campaigns. We are also seeing more collaborations of brand influencers during product development.

Promote diversity and inclusion

Every day we are seeing more brands encouraging several influencers in the networks to promote their brand. Research has shown that many influencers of marginalized communities face bullying and harassment on the internet. They faced a difficult battle to find a space between influencers and creators.

But in 2023, more companies are putting emphasis on DEI (Diversity – Equity – Inclusion) programs and we are also seeing creators of LGBTQIA+ communities and ethnic minorities representing major brands and companies.

Influencer marketing platforms will continue to grow

Influencer marketing tools and platforms have grown along with the rise of the content creator's economy. The platforms were limited only to tools for discovering creators, but now they have evolved to manage entire campaigns of influencers.

Some platforms even offer to handle the entire marketing campaign with little brand contribution. In the last two years, we have seen a lot of innovation in this area of professional activity, with different tools creating niches for themselves. In 2023, we can expect to see more innovation and much more competition between these tools while trying to capture the market to promote sales and products.

Shorter attention time

People's attention capacity has decreased and they need to be passionately influenced to perceive products and or services. People seem to be deaf to radio and TV commercials and ignore billboards. There has to be something important that encourages them to recognize the marks.

That is why brands and influencers need to develop useful, relevant and clear content to eliminate the lack of interest. You can employ AI-based tools like ChatGPT to browse and search experiments. Your goal should be to keep content short, bold, effective and obviously intelligent.

The growing popularity of AR/VR will also become more evident in the coming years. These media formats have already established their deep roots as facial filters, but all their potential has not yet been realized. It is natural for companies to create immersive shopping experiences for their customers and raise their brand. Depending on the investment, try integrating these technologies into your marketing strategy.

User-generated content integrated the influence marketing

There is a higher value in leverage influencers for their content rather than their amplification, especially when you reach the nano level or even micro influencer. When we look at a model of influencer brand affinity that is not based on the following count, every company has a potential army of influencers who are its customers.

The brand-specific content created by customers in the form of unboxing videos or hashtags of releases and events continues as a strong trend. User-generated content is more likely to be reliable for potential buyers, brands should take advantage to influence their target user base. Moreover, this tactic offers the unique style of each creator. Even if the brand is incorporated, variety and creativity can be invigorating.

See also:

Conclusion

As we have seen so far, influence marketing has already become popular for several reasons. In addition to increasing brand exposure quickly, it is also an economical way to put your business ahead of consumers who will likely be interested in your product. However, you must identify influencers who are suitable for the success of your campaigns. Otherwise, it could damage your company's reputation.

Gustavo Trentini · Nacionalvox

Let's talk