Influencer Marketing in 2020 and Beyond

Influencer Marketing in 2020 and Beyond

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a social-media based type of marketing, which engages individuals to promote a product or service. Influencers can be divided by the number of followers, industry, and content type.

By Followers

  • Mega-Influencer: Usually celebrities, like singers, actors, journalists; great audiences, but low engagement.
  • Macro-Influencer: Content creators that have built a strong brand name; followers are high (1M+), engagement depends on the type of content.
  • Micro-Influencer: They have a specific type of content and are experts in their field; mediocre following base (1K-100K), but engagement is higher, due to authenticity and relatability.
  • Nano-Influencer: Common, next-door people with great engagement rates with their about 1K followers; very trust-worthy, but limited outreach.

This is the main influencer division we need to know, as industry and content type depends on the aim of your company and your marketing strategy.


Statistics of Influencer Marketing

Looking at the statistics of influencer marketing, we can see the importance of this strategy for the future of marketing.

  • 70% of teens trust influencers.
  • The influencer marketing industry will reach $10bn in 2020.
  • 86% of women rely on influencer purchasing advice, and 57% of the fashion industry relies on influencers.

Has Influencer Marketing Changed?

Influencer marketing started as something that involved celebrities, stars, and people that were famous offline as well. A business would cooperate with a celebrity, who would make a simple social media post, recommending a specific product or service.

However, influencer marketing has evolved a lot lately, including a variety of content, influencers, and businesses. Micro-influencer marketing has emerged and is getting more and more attention. Micro-influencers might have a more limited following base but share more with their audience.


Why Micro-Influencer Marketing?

The future of influencer marketing for 2020 and the years to come is micro-influencer marketing. Consumers are emotional human beings that decide rationally, but sentimentally as well. Trusting celebrities and stars is not that easy, as they are not that relatable and most people know that their paid advertisements/posts provide great profit to them.

However, micro-influencers are common people, just like you and me, and we feel way more related and trust their point of view. The engagement rates of micro-influencers are through the roof compared to celebrities and stars.


How To Engage Micro-Influencers

This might seem complicated, but it’s not that much really. There are some simple steps to take in order to find your influencers, communicate with them, collaborate, and see positive results.

First of all, you need to decide your influencer marketing strategy and the goals you have. It would be wise to start moderately, evaluate your techniques, redesign your strategy, and continue.

Secondly, find the influencers you want, based on simple hashtag research on Instagram or TikTok. Search for the hashtags that would describe your brand, your company, your values, and find people that have posted pictures with these hashtags. As soon as you have found users who are a match with you, make a list with their accounts.

Then, you should use an email marketing service to create a nice email outreach template to communicate with the people you want to cooperate with. Make it as personal as possible, explain your brand, why you chose “them” specifically, and the benefits provided to them if they cooperate with you. Also, you should set a reminder to send one or two follow-up emails to people that haven’t responded to your first pitch.


Benefits Of Micro-Influencer Strategy

Forming an influencer marketing plan based on micro-influencers provides many benefits.

High Engagement

As it was mentioned earlier, engagement rates are higher. Not having a great number of followers allows them to remain friendly, relatable, and maintain personal relationships with their audience.

Specific Audience

Every person has some interests, a specific field of expertise. If you find and target the right micro-influencers, then their audience will be craving for a product or service that you offer. Their followers know that this person is genuinely interested in providing beneficial offers to them and trust his/her words.

Better Audience Insights

Based on the conversation and negotiation you’ll have with the influencers, you’ll be able to receive better insights on this specific audience. Even if the final negotiation reaches a negative result for you, this will give you feedback on how to redesign your offer or your product.

Easier To Adapt

If you have found people that you share common values, ideals, principles, it will not be hard to reach a consensus on the identity of the cooperation and the content type. It can be easier for both of you to adapt to the cooperation and benefit from it.

Cost-Effective

Micro-influencers are not asking for thousands of dollars, as celebrities usually ask. Their prices range based on their following base, but it will barely reach a 5-digit number. This gives you the opportunity to reach more micro-influencers, gain a human face with people suggesting your products, and promoting your brand.

Better Content Creation

Most celebrities have been engaged with influencer marketing for a while, and those who haven’t, are probably not interested. These celebrities are not producing exciting, captivating content, but usually simple posts to show your product and tag your brand.

But, micro-influencers have a lot to gain by promoting your products, as this can be a great income for them. As such, most micro-influencers create and share unique content about your product, promote it more, and engage in personal discussions to “persuade” their followers.

Also, if you “monitor” these public discussions, you’ll be able to get more insights and new ideas about your products and your marketing strategy.


Final Thoughts

Influencer marketing is constantly changing and adapting to the new reality and standards. As celebrities have lost their “influencer grace”, micro-influencers are emerging. Businesses, regardless of their size and audience, should consider trusting this trend and go all in.

Let me know your thoughts on the matter, what have you done differently and what are you thinking to implement.


AUTHOR BIO

Christoforos Zafeiris works as the SEO Copywriter for the email marketing software company Moosend. He has always been eager to change the narrative and influence trends with his words; thus, copywriting is the only natural choice for him. Besides that, he has been an enthusiast of human communication, long walks, and emotional storytelling.