Every year brings new digital marketing trends. Thus, so have this year. Influencer marketing is becoming exceedingly popular way of business promotion. Wondering what is influencer marketing and how it is going to look like in 2021? We’re here to answer just that today.
First thing first—What is influencer marketing?
In the online world, influencers are basically entities on social media that have a large number of people following them. As the name suggests, in this type of marketing, such influencers promote a brand or a product to their followers on social channels. For the number of conversions that take place through such influencers, businesses pay them a portion of the sale profit or some other form of commission.
This method of marketing is gaining popularity day-by-day. People follow such influencers because they are (well obviously) influenced by them. Therefore, they are likely to get influenced to purchase the products that such influencers market. On top of that, this medium of marketing is cost effective. You have to pay influencers only for those sales that are derived through their channels.
So, if you are seeking to try influencer marketing trends for your business this year, you must be through with these…
5 ruling trends for influencer marketing in 2021
#1. Smaller influencers will yield more results
You may think larger the number of an influencer’s followers, the better. While it has many benefits but if you want to someone to market your brand, it is better to go for smaller influencers this year.
According to stats, micro influencers (those with less than 100 thousand followers) are getting the higher engagement rates. In fact, influencers with less than 25 thousand followings are enjoying the highest engagement rates regardless of their genre. This is because they are better able to connect with their audience than those with a larger following.
Therefore, people are exceedingly collaborating with such micro and nano influencers. And this is one trend that’s only going to grow bigger in 2021.
#2. Video content tops
Content is the base of influencer marketing. It’s for their content that people follow influencers in such a large number. Therefore for influencers, content marketing is essential.
Video is doubtlessly an extremely powerful marketing tool. This type of content appeals to both optic and auditory senses at the same time. Thus, it further creates a unique experience. This is the reason why video content sticks longer in mind.
On the internet, more people spend their time watching videos than reading blogs or engaging with other types of content. This trend is only getting bigger is likely to continue growing in the year 2021. Therefore, if you plan to market your product through influencers, make sure to find influencers who are great with videos.
#3. Diversity and inclusion to gain more prominence
There’s been a rise in activism for racial and gender inclusion. Influencer market (for all the good reasons) has been swayed by this trend. Now, there is a rising concern and outrage for inequality faced by People of Colour and non-binary individuals. As a result, influencers and customers are calling out those businesses that show racial/gender biasness when selecting influencer markets for their brands. Therefore, diversity and inclusion is gaining more prominence.
You may not be doing so on purpose but it is possible that the last of diversity and inclusion may upset your audience. Therefore, when strategizing for influencer marketing, make sure to be inclusive.
#4. “No edit” edit
Since influencers spawn in social media platforms, influencer marketing is largely dependent on visuals. Hence, aesthetic trends play a prominent role in defining trends in this domain.
While carefully curated feed is still good and all, social media users are showing more interest in authenticity. Earlier, influencers used to spend time editing their visual content to beautify it. But now, people have come to expect more natural content. They are more interested in seeing how their influencers’ in-the-moment unedited pictures. However, this does not mean that there’s no editing at all. Hence, there’s been a rise in the use of filters that leave a very subtle effect.
So, one important takeaway for influencers on visual platforms is, use such filters that only define your pictures and not beautify it. Keeping the authenticity is one of the important things to create a digital community for your brand.
#5. Followers want glimpse into their influencers’ lives
Continuing from the point above– influencers are taking a step away from unnatural beautification of their visual content since followers now demand more authentic content.
In this expanding market, driving deeper connections has become important. Followers want to know see their influencers as more than that. They want to see them as people that they are. Thus, they want unedited look into their influencers’ lives. In fact, many leading influencers believe that there’s been a continuous rise in the content that shows influencer’s real life personality. And this is the key to thrive in the influencer market of 2021.
Final word
Companies are increasingly making influencers a part of their digital marketing. And just like every year, 2021 has new trends for this influencer market too. Since influencer marketing and content marketing works closely, most of these trends are content related. This year, followers will be expecting more authentic content which gives an unedited glimpse into the influencers’ lives. And for content, use of video continues to rule. Moreover, there’s going to be a rise in micro influencers since they tend to generate more engagement. Furthermore for all the good reasons, diversity and inclusion is going to gain all the more importance in influencer marketing.
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