Influencer Marketing 2019

Widely understood as marketing with the use of influencers ⁠— this is what influencer marketing entails.

Influencers can be broadly defined as social media users who have the ability to shape the perceptions and influence the decisions of others on social media.

While influencer marketing has only been put in the spotlight in recent years, it is an industry that is constantly evolving. After all, it is built on the basis of social media, where things are never the same. With new features, updates comes new methods to approach this form of marketing.

Today, we would like to look at influencer marketing in the context of 2019. How has it changed, what are some common trends and how we can maximize influencer marketing in 2019.

Context of influencer marketing

 

You might have only heard of influencer marketing in recent years. However, influencer marketing has always been a part of the marketing process.

Its earliest form can be seen when celebrity endorsements were gaining popularity in the 1900s. Subsequently, there came the rise of the use of bloggers, in the early 2000s.

As of 2019, influencer marketing has taken on its own unique form. Influencer marketing in 2019 involves the use of everyday social media users. Influencers are content creators themselves, interacting with followers online on a constant basis.

2019 Influencer marketing trends

Influencer marketing 2019 trend #1: More investments in influencer marketing

Investments in the influencer marketing has taken an upward trend in recent years. In 2017, it was reported that marketers spent $570 million (Emarketer, 2017) on influencer marketing globally. The following year, the number had increased exponentially, with 1.6 billion invested in influencer marketing on Instagram alone.

As of 2019, the latest figures show that 93% of marketers indicated a budget of more than $10,000 on influencer marketing campaigns.

Does this mean that influencers are going to get increasingly expensive due to the increase in demand for influencer marketing campaigns? Well, that is not the case.

While the trend of increasing budgets for influencer marketing is likely to stay, influencer content still remains affordable. This is largely due to the increasing number of influencers as social media becomes more accessible throughout the world.

Influencer marketing 2019 trend #2: easy to measure ROI

Marketers have raised the issue of ROI (return of investment) as one of the biggest concerns in influencer marketing. Surveys have shown that 76% of marketers indicated the measure of ROI as a major challenge for influencer marketing for 2018.

However, influencer marketing 2019 has quite the change in terms of measuring ROI.

New ways of measuring the impact of an influencer marketing campaign have been adopted as of late. Apart from the traditional engagement rates and reach, new ROI metrics such as affiliate links tracking, consumer sentiment have enabled marketers to better track the ROIs of campaigns.

Influencer marketing 2019 trend #3: Creative and high-quality content

The key to influencer marketing is quality, not quantity. A single impactful post would do much better than a series of average postings. This is the beauty of social media. The ease of sharing ensures high quality and engaging content will be disseminated quickly.

Therefore, influencer marketing campaigns are changing their direction to focus on creative and high-quality content.

As a result, influencers are raising the bar, and creator content is evolving to be more creative, innovative and high-quality than ever before.

An example of such a campaign would include Circles Life’s influencer marketing campaign. By getting influencers to post pictures with a mysterious vending machine that dispenses cash, the internet was instantly intrigued.

Creative methods like such has been proven to be a hit on social media. Therefore, explaining the maneuver into creative and high-quality content over traditional sponsored posts. (where influencer hold and pose with a product)

Influencer marketing 2019 trend #4: The use of Instagram

While Instagram has always been popular for influencer marketing, 2019 is the year where this popularity reaches new highs.

At the end of last year, the number of active Instagram users hit a high of 1 billion (from just 800 million in 2017). This 25% increase seems to be pointing at an increase in the amount of attention Instagram is receiving.

Besides, some experts have predicted that Facebook (Instagram’s close ‘competitor’)’ recent scandals could lead to a plateauing of number of Facebook users. Therefore, it is no surprise that many marketers have taken on Instagram for their influencer marketing campaigns.

In a survey by Activate, 91% of marketers reported that Instagram is their favourite platform for posting influencer-generated content.

Instagram has created an ideal platform for influencer marketing, with Instagram live, Instagram TV and Instagram stories and its many other functions. Be it a 24-hour story or a 2-minute video, Instagram’s features have enabled marketers to carry out different forms of influencer marketing campaigns.

Influencer marketing 2019 trend #5: The importance of authenticity

One of the driving forces behind the popularity of influencer marketing is the trust social media users have in influencers.

This is why authenticity is increasingly valued in influencer marketing.  Consumers deem authentic postings as more trustworthy. Thus, social media users are more likely to pay attention to it.

Think of it this way; would you be convinced by a product review if the review does not seem genuine? The answer would likely be a no.

This, therefore, explains why influencer marketing 2019 has seen a spike in the number of campaigns that aim for authenticity.

Examples of these campaigns include local apparel brand, Saturday Club. Their campaign allowed female influencers the freedom of choice to pick the item they genuinely liked, to ensure that the postings are genuine.

Now that we have a better understanding of the context of influencer marketing in 2019, let us look at how we can use this knowledge to ace influencer marketing for this coming year.

How we can ace influencer marketing in 2019

Ace influencer marketing: tip #1

The quality of any influencer marketing campaign is crucial. With the amount of content on social media, only quality campaigns will stand out. Focus on making original, innovate and interesting influencer marketing campaigns.

Ace influencer marketing: tip #2

With the number of measurable ROI in influencer marketing, make use of them to help properly measure the results of a campaign. This will, therefore, aid in improving future campaigns.

Ace influencer marketing: tip #3

While other platforms such as Facebook remain important, Instagram is for sure the next big thing. Therefore, influencer marketing campaigns should not forget to include Instagram.

Ace influencer marketing: tip #4

Authenticity is the basis of any campaign. This is because it helps to garner trust and build long term relationships.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, influencer marketing seems to be an industry holding a lot of potentials.

Therefore, it is important that we keep up with the latest trends and news of this industry. We hope this article provided you with a deeper and more insightful understanding of the state of influencer marketing in 2019.

Sources

Smartinsights, /influencer-marketing/6-influencer-marketing-predictions-2019/
Inc.com, /heres-how-much-microinfluencers-really-get-paid.html
Talkwalker, top-7-influencer-campaigns-2018                                                                                                                                                                                  tribegroup.co, the-stats-driving-influencer-marketing-in-2019?