With social media becoming such a prominent part of our daily lives, it’s no surprise we’ve seen a significant rise in influencer marketing in recent years, and it’s set to continue to increase in 2023. Influencer and Celebrity association should not be an option. It should be part of every company’s marketing plan. In today’s world celebrities and influencers dominate social media, news headlines, TV channels and people’s conversations, with influencers and celebrities gracing the web and getting a stronger online presence than ever through their social media following. Using social media as their online currency, brands can be made or broken through as little as a tweet or a social media post. Here are tips on how to contact celebrities and influencers.
Influencer Marketing Trends You Should Know for 2023
1 ) An Increase In The Use Of Audience Insights
First things first, it’s hugely important to understand what audience insights are and how they work. Audience Insights allow brands and marketers to view information, demographics, audience engagement, and learn how to target audiences for the optimal result. Elly Stancliffe, CEO of The Handbook, commented “Through our site we’ve seen a huge increase in brands coming to our site and searching for influencers depending on their audience engagement and insights.”
With the emergence of this new type of marketing, technology has been developed by The Handbook’s Celebrity and Influencer Platform to improve the effectiveness and reach of influencers. The Handbook is incredibly sophisticated in matching brands to influencers, and also in using advanced technology and algorithms to match brands and celebrities and to give detailed audience insights including audience interests, size, engagement rate and social activity. People come to our site for influencers’ insights now almost as much as celebrities. As well as providing the influencers’ contact details, users are now equally interested in the demographic data which allows companies to determine the influencers that are right for their brand. You might think a set influencer is perfectly suited to your business, but actually what is key is how relevant their audience is to you, so, providing the user with clear data on the interests of the audience, their location, their spending habits and social status is of equal importance.
It isn’t just brands and marketers who are looking into audience insights either. Influencers are spending more time examining their own audience insights and are looking more closely at brands that fit with their ideals and audience. Influencers interested in finding out about their competitors and which brands they should be working with, take a look at our Influencer Marketing Platform for more information.
2) Instagram Will Continue To Shine As The Favoured Influencer Platform
With reports showing that the Instagram industry is now at least worth a staggering 38.5 billion dollars and that it’s still dramatically rising, there’s no denying Instagram will continue to strive as the most successful social media platform for influencer marketing and that it will remain the leading platform to showcase brand partnerships with influencers and micro-influencers. Since launching in 2010, its rapid growth is showing no sign of slowing down anytime soon with this year’s data showing the platform to have over 500M daily users. It’s still by far the greatest platform to showcase partnerships between brands and influencers.
3) Branching Into New Social Media Platforms
Of course, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be ever prevalent in the coming years, but in 2019 we started to see the rise of a couple of new social networking platforms. Similar to YouTube at first glance, Twitch is a platform that allows influencers to live stream videos. The overall aim appears to be helping to bring a sense of community among its audiences and users. Like any social platform, it’s a great place to venture into influencer marketing for brands and express your values in a more community-focused sense.
A small social network called Supernova that launched in 2020 is very similar to Instagram where users can share photographs and videos and interact with followers. Supernova claims to be a site that gives back. The company pledged to donate 60% of its advertising revenue to user-chosen global charities. Supernova aims to be a kinder and more inclusive community for users and could be the next big thing for influencers looking to give back.
4) The Continuous Rise Of TikTok
While Instagram remains the most prevalent social media platform, there is no discounting the power of TikTok. In 2019 we saw the rise of the new social media platform, and it is certainly here to stay and has become its own platform which allows brands to work with influencers.
When scrolling on their mobile phones, users are ultimately searching for bite-size content that’s easy to watch, consume and accessible to share with friends, and that’s exactly where TikTok comes in. The video-sharing platform’s popularity has increased astronomically since its inception and it’s an incredibly easy way for brands to showcase their brands values and message in a simple matter of seconds. Huge brands and organisations have seen their hashtags used by millions of individuals and influencers, like the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ #ForClimate hashtag, helping to draw attention surrounding climate change issues.
5) Understanding Brand Awareness Is Integral For Targeting Influencers
This one seems obvious but brands and marketers are still continuing to get it wrong. With The Handbook’s Celebrity and Influencer platform, brands and marketers can easily search celebrities with regards to their interests and social media presence, whether it’s their passion for food and drink, or their health and wellbeing influences. Through this, brands can understand which influencers are best fit to their brand values and identity.
6) Understanding Brand Loyalty
Following on from understanding brand awareness, it’s important to learn the ins and outs of brand loyalty and authenticity, a key influencer marketing trend for this year. Researching the right influencer or micro-celebrity for your brand is hugely important in communicating your brand values through the content being produced. It’s also hugely important for those consuming the advertising. Consumers are quick-witted and know when a partnership isn’t genuine so it’s integral to understand what both you as a brand and the influencer want from the partnership, and to choose wisely when sourcing and building these partnerships.
7) Influencer Platforms Will Be The Main Tool For Running Brand Campaigns
Influencer platforms help to encourage engagement in influencer marketing. The Handbook’s Celebrity and Influencer Marketing Platform provides an easy tool for brands and marketers to find the right influencers that will help elevate their brand values, as well as help brands to understand individual influencers and their audience engagements and relationships.
8) Increase In Video Content And Mobile Accessible Channels For Marketing
Audiences engage with influencers largely through their mobile phones and social media, and it’s becoming more and more popular for influencers to create video content and podcasts. These channels form a new way of storytelling and help to engage on a deeper level with audiences, and it’s said that these channels will become a new way to encourage influencer marketing, whether that’s through sponsorships, partnerships, or celebrity gifting.
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9) CGI Influencers Will Become More Popular
Believe it or not, there’s a new type of influencer on the rise and they’re in the form of CGI influencers (computer-generated influencers). While it might sound a little strange, and back in 2018 Time Magazine named @lilmiquela as one of the most influential people on the internet. Which is also a little strange because after all, she’s just a digital figure. Either way, her engagement rate is through the roof and both herself and other CGI influencers are on the rise and it’s opening up new possibilities in terms of marketing and brand partnerships.
10) Public Relations Set To Drive Influencer Marketing Strategies
The role of public relations will increase and help drive those managing influencers to meet the reality and expectations of potential brands and clients looking to promote and work with influencers via social media. They’re also hugely important in helping to establish and reaffirm the brand’s reputation, helping to promote an ideal portrayal of their client on social media sites.
11) The increase Of Influencers Over Celebrities In Smaller Influencer Marketing Campaigns
The line between a celebrity and an influencer is continually being blurred, but when it comes to influencer marketing campaigns it’s important to know who to target. While a celebrity like Kylie Jenner may have over 150 million followers, brands pay thousands of pounds in the hope of getting just a standard Instagram post. So if you’re starting out in influencer marketing, targeting these bigger celebrities is slightly ambitious and not always worthwhile. In 2023, we’ll start to see brands targeting micro-influencers with a smaller following, but one that’s authentic and dedicated, as it’s more beneficial in terms of marketing and budget. Here are tips on how to contact celebrities and influencers.
12) The Rise Of The Micro-Influencer
Rise of micro-influencers: Micro-influencers, who typically have a smaller but highly engaged following, have been growing in popularity in recent years. In 2023, we can expect to see more brands working with micro-influencers as they seek to build more authentic relationships with their target audience.In a lot of cases, micro-influencers have a higher response and engagement rate than macro-influencers and major celebrities, as well as the cost of working with the individual being considerably lower as both the brand and influencer is trying to gain more traction in their personal brands. 2023 will see a rise in brands and marketers volumising on this trend. Smaller brands attempt to target influencers via influencer gifting which is on the up.
13) Increased Emphasis On Diversity And Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are extremely important in our society and should be just as important to influencer marketing. Many influencer agencies are now devoted to increasing the representation of POC. The company SHADE noticed a lack of diversity in the influencer world and works solely to ensure creators of color find work doing and using the things they love.
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14) Employees Are Being Encouraged To Become Influencers
Another influencer marketing trend we didn’t see coming was the introduction of businesses encouraging their employees to become influencers, and it’s become an easy way for brands to promote their brand values and products. The employees will already understand the brands values, ideals and practices so it’s an authentic way to promote these to audiences on social media. Brands such as Modcloth and Macys.com are great examples of this. Modcloth has a series under the #modclothsquad hashtag in which staff model their products and it ultimately allows their consumers to see a ‘real’ view of what their product range looks like. Meanwhile, Macys.com has employees have self-promoted themselves as influencers or brand ambassadors in order to promote the brand.
15) In-store Influencers Return
As the effects of Covid19 wind-down, consumers are beginning to shop in stores again. Over 60-70% of shoppers prefer to shop both in and out of stores. Due to this uprise in in-person shopping, many brands are beginning to train their employees on specific products to increase their knowledge and help them give in store customers better recommendations.
16) The Rise Of Pet Influencers
The influencer space is huge, and pet influencers are becoming big business (yes, really!), our four-legged friends aren’t just cute to look at in the local park – they have taken over our social media feeds too. Becoming a pet influencer can be a lucrative business, as brands have noticed that pet-focused social media accounts gain a lot of traction for their feel-good nature, and have decided to use this cuteness to their advantage. Globally, the pet economy has never been higher. According to the American Pet Products Association, there are over 90.5 million households in the United States that own pets, and 3.2 million pet owners in the United Kingdom. What began as pet owners posting cute videos of their animals has evolved into a chance for big brands and creators to break into a new market. Creators who are able to blend their passion for animals and social media have turned their beloved cats, dogs or even foxes into social media icons, rivalling the earning power and reach of some leading human creators. Because of this, fashion and beauty brands are now taking the opportunity to appeal to highly engaged consumers who want to dress and pamper their pets in a way that expresses their style and needs.
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17) Brands And Influencers Will Begin To Work Together On Longer Partnerships
2019 saw a rise in this with many YouTubers and influencers working with brands largely on a partnership basis, rather than a campaign-by-campaign system. YouTubers like Estée Lalonde and Helen Anderson are other prime examples of this, as they’ve been building these stronger connections and partnerships. Audience engagement exiles rather than diminish as influencers can begin to layer in their authenticity and brand identity more easily. It’s also a lot less hassle in the long run for brands and marketers as they can channel their energy into creating authentic brand values through the longer-term marketing.
18) Advancements In AI And Augmented Reality
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a huge increase in AI and AR advancements and in 2023, this is an influencer marketing trend to watch. These advancements allow brands to understand their customers more thoroughly through the buying process and can target them more effectively.
19) The Use Of Advocates
Only a few brands are already enforcing a customer advocate system, but it’s likely that this customer system will increase in the following months. While it’s great to work with influencers and celebrities who can help promote products and brands on viral scales, a few brands have delved out and have started using their customers as a way of promoting products. Customers largely know about the products and brands on a more in-depth scale and, while they may not have huge followings or even social engagements, having customer advocates helps to create an online presence surrounding the brands identity and will ultimately help promote their products.
20) A Merging Of Content Marketing And Social Media Marketing
Many companies and brands are starting to delve away from the content marketing side of things and have begun largely focusing on social media marketing. Using both of these can help drive the campaign and impact of the engagement and outcome further. Content marketing will, of course, still exist but throughout 2020, we’ll see that it’s being intertwined through promotion on social media accounts to help increase the overall reach.
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21) Driving Organic Engagement
Following on from these longer brand-to-influencer partnerships, these help to drive organic engagement from influencers’ pages to brands’ websites and profiles too. Many brands themselves are starting to pivot their focus to help combat the effects of the housing crisis.
Beauty influencers are adapting their content to become more budget-friendly. Many influencers are now recommending dupe products and cheaper versions of expensive products. A great way to get your product and brand seen is through influencer gifting. Many high-street brands such as Rimmel London, Revolution Beauty, Maybelline and L’Oreal have a high consumer reach on creator and influencer-led platforms like TikTok. A quality brand that won’t break the bank to look out for is Umberto Giannini. Their bestselling scalp scrub is perfect for anyone with troublesome dandruff. Many consumers are looking for good quality products at a low price and it’s a great opportunity to start using influencers to help promote them.
22) GEO Targeting Is Set To Rise
Another influencer marketing trend to consider this year is local targeting. This works well for brands and businesses looking to promote their services on a smaller, more local scale. By geo-tagging in posts and stories, it naturally brings local audiences to the post without you having to do any extra work and helps your brand target the right audiences…
23) Stronger Regulations In Influencer Marketing
Following the social media endorsements issued by the government in early 2019, it was made clear that influencers, bloggers, vloggers and celebrities must state whether a product, brand or service is endorsed or linked in a particular way. This is why influencers nowadays have to quote if the product or brand is gifted or gifting, or if it’s on a sponsored partnership. These regulations are set to increase and must be implemented thoroughly in the future, so it’s important to research the ins and outs of influencer marketing.
24) Sustainability and social responsibility
Consumers are increasingly concerned about sustainability and social responsibility, and this trend is likely to continue in 2023. We can expect to see more brands working with influencers who share their values around sustainability and social responsibility, and incorporating these themes into their marketing campaigns.
25) Authenticity Over Perfection
Being authentic on social media is one of the most effective ways to build a digital community, and it’s become a growing influencer marketing trend too. Creators are shifting away from the perfectly curated feed aesthetic, and choosing to share less filtered and more in-the-moment photos of their lives. Take Emily Mariko whose simple videos frequently get millions of views, they are perfectly imperfect!
26) Brands focus on long-term relationships
In 2023, we can expect to see more brands focusing on building long-term relationships with influencers, rather than one-off campaigns. By building long-term relationships, brands can create more authentic partnerships that resonate with consumers and deliver sustained results.
27) Emphasis on video content Video content will continue to be a favoured tool for influencers, and it is very likely that this trend will continue throughout 2023. We can expect to see more brands investing in video content, including live streaming and short-form video content, to engage with consumers and tell their brand story.
So here you have it, our round up of the top influencer marketing trends to watch in 2023.
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