Influencer marketing is here to stay. From a survey carried out by Influencer Marketing Hub, it is estimated that influencer marketing is a trend that is expected to grow and be worth $13.8 billion in 2021.

This shows that influencer marketing done right can result in a substantial return on investment. For a successful influencer marketing strategy, the influencer marketing campaign has to be well executed.

How Influencer Marketing Works

Influencer marketing is a strategy in which brands use well-known individuals on social media to promote their product or services to the following that the influencer has amassed.

Finding the best-suited influencer for your brand is not all about finding the most famous individual. You have to find someone that has built trust with their audience and leverage that to advertise your brand.

This kind of marketing is ever-evolving and one has to keep up with the trends at the time to get the best outcome from it.

Top Influencer Marketing Trends To Look Out For in 2021

• Video content will still be on the rise.

Social media sites allow the creation of short-form video content. With people’s attention span decreasing over time, an influencer is expected to create a short video that will convey the message in the shortest time and still be engaging and entertaining.

Content such as makeup tutorials, before and after, recipes, DIYs, behind the scenes, and hashtag challenges have seen many brands being promoted in the past year.

Video format allows influencers to connect better with their audience. An influencer who can create engaging videos in addition to photos and text will be more useful to a brand than one who just posts photos and text.

It is expected that influencers will increase their video creativity to promote content for their clients throughout 2021.

• Authenticity is key.

Consumers are now more than ever keen to see how authentic a brand is. What values they stand for and how they express it.

As an influencer promotes a product or service, it is required of them to speak of its advantages. But now consumers also want to hear about some negatives or what they didn’t like about the brand.

It is proven that consumers are willing to pay a premium price for products that provide value. The focus is now more on quality than quantity.

Brands should also be transparent with their stand on social issues to connect more with their consumers.

• Live streams will keep skyrocketing.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and there was less and less real-life interaction, influencers found a channel where they could interact with their audience. With Instagram’s lives gaining popularity, brands got a chance to promote their products/services.

With live streaming, consumers get an opportunity to ask questions and get real-time responses.

A survey carried out on the state of live streaming showed that 73% of respondents increased their ROI by streaming live in 2020 alone.

This trend is expected to be around even long after the pandemic.

• Growth of nano and micro-influencers.

These are influencers who have followers ranging in the thousands as opposed to the well-known influencers who have followers ranging in the millions. Having a smaller following, they get to engage better with their followers, they can answer almost all of the inquiries and comments about the brand they promote.

A celebrity/well-known influencer may have a huge following but little engagement and no conversion. They may also promote a brand that is not aligned to them, and the lack of authenticity may easily be spotted by the consumers.

Since the nano and micro-influencers are mostly niched based, more brands are looking to work with them due to the increased engagement which leads to more conversions.

This is a trend that will definitely pick up pace throughout 2021.

• Long-term partnerships preference.

Most brands now prefer to work with one influencer for several projects as opposed to having a one-off campaign with several influencers.

When one influencer marketing campaign is a success, a brand will most probably work on strengthening the collaboration. This is also a plus to the influencer since they get a better understanding of what the brand is about, the brand grows to trust them and gives them creative freedom with their content.

More brands are realizing this and working to get an influencer that is aligned with their values.

How To Develop An Effective Influencer Marketing Strategy In 2021

• Figure out your target audience.

You can choose to either reach out to a broad audience or a specific audience. To reach a wider market, a brand may choose to work with different influencers to reach various audiences. This may require a bigger budget.

For niche-based products, it would be better to work with nano or micro-influencers who have less following and most probably more engagement.

• Choose the most suited influencer.

Choosing the most suitable influencer for your brand will determine how effective your influencer marketing strategy will be. Since you have figured out the audience you’re aiming to target, now it’s time to research and find the influencers who are popular with that type of audience.

As shown above, a brand should aim to get an influencer who is authentic with their content and has built trust with their followers. Your values should also align with those of the influencer.

Check on how much engagement an influencer gets on their posts or stories. The number of followers doesn’t really matter compared to the engagement.

• Prepare your offer.

Once you have identified the right influencers to work with, it’s time to approach them with an offer. Some influencers will ask for payment while some will be okay with free product/service promotion.

As a brand, you should always have an influencer brief ready to ensure a smooth strategy. The influencer brief should include, the campaign deliverables, your goals, the deadlines, how many posts are expected over a period of time, call to action to be used, payment method, and contact information.

• Analyze performance.

This is what will help you know if your influencer marketing strategy is working. Some of the metrics you should check on are;

Clicks. Analyze the click-through rate of links posted by the influencer about your product/service.

Engagement. This is the number of likes and comments made from an influencer post. Also, the following you get after the influencer promotes your product/service.

Impression. This is the number of times an influencer’s post has been seen. Also the number of views a video gets.

Sales made. This is the ultimate measure. The number of people turned to customers.

Measure performance depending on the goals you set.

Future Of Influencer Marketing

The future of business growth is online. Influencer marketing is and will continue to be one of the most effective marketing strategies for brands to find new consumers and retain previous ones.

Influencers are beginning to know the value they bring to the table. It is no longer an exchange of exposure or free products. Brands are also now willing to invest fully in influencer marketing, having seen the return of investment it brings.

Going forward, the ultimate measure of successful influencer marketing campaigns is no longer the number of clicks and likes. It’s now based on performance i.e sales. The future of influencer marketing will no longer be based on popularity alone but also on authenticity and relationships built.

This is a marketing trend that will be around for a long time even way after the pandemic.

Summary

Influencer marketing is an evolving marketing strategy that is working in 2021 and has the potential of growing even further. It is an economical marketing trend applicable to small, medium-sized, and large companies.

Both the brands and the influencers will have to keep adapting to the changes in trends and strategies in the future to remain relevant in the influencer marketing industry.