2021 Influencer Marketing Trends

Considering influencer marketing? Even if you aren’t, it would be a mistake to ignore influencer marketing trends. Beyond their role as effective brand ambassadors, influencers are now the new weapon of choice by advertisers.

Influencer marketing offers excellent numbers – a lot higher than traditional marketing methods. According to a report, the market is ready to almost double from $8 billion in 2019 to $15 billion by 2022.

To help brands design their strategies and get ahead of the curve, we have covered some influencer marketing trends for 2021.

These tips will help you create a strategy that can record big numbers in 2021 and beyond.

Brands Will Look for Ongoing Partnerships Instead of One-Off Projects

Throughout 2021, expect brands and influencers to join together for long-term, ongoing projects rather than one-off sponsored posts. There can be multiple reasons for this shift, ultimately, it comes down to this: it takes time to make a sale. Even influencers with the most engaged audiences are going to have trouble making any real contribution when they are brought on for a single sponsored post. If you want to capitalize on this influencer marketing trend, create packages that you can sell to brands seeking your services that include several sponsored posts over a period, very similar to the technique that you see running on Facebook ads or other ad platforms.

Performance-Based Deals Will Increase

As brands and influencers are looking for long-term partnerships, performance-based influencer marketing is likely to increase. This means that brands expect influencers to deliver on promises such as a specific number of sales or clicks. If you are an influencer advocating for a performance-based contract, you might want to consider turning it into ongoing royalties instead of accepting a single payment. As a rule of thumb, when dealing with contracts, it is always good to consider getting a lawyer to help.

Planning and Data will rule

As we mentioned earlier, performance-based contracts and deals are on the rise. This means that planning and data will play a significant role in marketing this year. Now that brands and influencers are more comfortable working together, you are going to see more collaboration between brands and influencers in the planning of campaigns! This will heighten brands’ attention to influencer marketing metrics. While influencer networks already have some analytics and reporting; individual influencers need to understand which social media metrics are important to deliver on their promises.

More Real Content

Today’s customers are smart. They can differentiate between paid and real reviews.

Many influencers in the past have been criticized for posting cinematic reviews that look fake and fail to bring the desired numbers.

Companies are now interested in working with influencers who are not just amplifiers but communicators.

The new influencer marketing trend is to create authentic content that keeps users engaged without looking too filmy or sponsored. This can be a little tricky because most platforms like YouTube require content creators to include a message if they post a sponsored video.

Video Content Will Increase (Even More) In Popularity

For at least seven years, video content has been on everyone’s list of not just influencer marketing trends but marketing trends in general. And there’s a good reason for that: People just love videos. With the increasing popularity of TikTok and the introduction of Instagram Reels, we are seeing more video content than ever. Plus, IGTV is just sitting there, waiting for Instagram to let loose the rain of ad revenue that is sure to come once they stop testing and let ads go live on the platform.

The point is, even with platforms like YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram Reels, IGTV, and many more, consumers are barely getting their itch for video scratched. On Facebook alone, the number of users watching live videos increased by 50% in early 2020. Of course, there was a global pandemic and a lockdown, but the 50% increase is still huge.

There’s no doubt we can expect to see more exciting new things in the influencer space in 2021! If you have any influencer marketing trend predictions of your own this year, let us know!