What will Influencer Marketing look like in 2020?

No one can escape it anymore. Influencer marketing has now become an obligation for advertisers. More and more brands are highlighting campaigns with influencers, who compete in the creativity and engagement of the audience. 

Individual recommendations are helping in uplifting brand image and sales across categories worldwide. Globally, Influencer marketing is a billion-dollar business. It has taken off already and India does not stand far from her western counterparts. In addition to Instagram & Twitter, the rise of TikTok (200 mn users from India, of which 120mn are monthly active users) is fueling the ‘influencer marketing’ growth. 2020 will see major brands adopting a multi-platform ‘influencer marketing strategy’ to drive a better share of voice digitally. 

Source: https://qz.com/india/1720880/instagram-youtube-tiktok-stars-are-clicking-with-indian-brands/ 

Influencer marketing will become mainstream. Particularly – micro-influencers. 

One of the biggest contributors in creating an open, trustworthy digital marketing landscape is the rise of Influencers. Influencers contribute great content, keep conversations alive and most importantly, guide their followers in choosing the right products. In fact, the numbers suggest that 92% of buyers trust peer recommendations over advertisements.

 A graph here showing # of users on various social media platforms Add – tiktok – 200 mn active users -source: https://napoleoncat.com/stats/social-media-users-in-india/2019/11

Tiktok source: https://musically.com/2019/06/11/tiktok-now-has-120-million-monthly-active-users-in-india/ 

Macro trend 

Influencer marketing will continue to grow. Brands will hire celebrities & subject matter experts to endorse their products digitally. 

Microtrends 

Influencers with millions of followers will continue to gain the benefits of ‘influencer marketing’. However, the biggest shift will happen in the rise of ‘micro-influencers’ – i.e. influencers with a few thousand to lac followers. 

Micro-influencers will be able to create a larger impact, considering their ‘trustworthiness’. Brands will attempt hiring a larger number of micro-influencers in order to create buzz. An exemplary case in this particular trend is – Lay’s. 

These content creators with a slightly less visible profile but much more flexibility and with a more receptive audience will be the game-changers. The lever of influencer marketing in 2020 will turn to even smaller but more engaged communities. Brands will be more and more interested in these micro profiles having a sphere of influence which is no longer limited only to their family, friends, and colleagues. 

6 trends in Influencer Marketing for 2020 

Individual branding will grow its importance over the brand itself. People trust individuals more than brands and hence, a message from an influencing individual will precede in importance over a message from the brand itself. Be prepared to see higher investments in ‘influencer marketing’ over ‘advertisements’. 

The convergence of influencer marketing and social media 

The convergence of activities is beginning to be noticed, especially through what is called the content studio. For brands, it is about entrusting the production of content on social networks to those who know them best – the influencers. To go further in this convergence, some brands leave these influencers in charge of managing their social accounts – from the definition of an editorial line to interactions with the audience. 

Other emerging networks 

It has been inked this year – Tiktok will be at the forefront of the influence scene. If brands have been reluctant to activate campaigns on this platform until today, the migration of many influencers from other networks to TikTok is a game-changer. Among the other emerging influencer marketing networks, Pinterest is gaining ground. The creativity and efficiency of the discovery engine in terms of social shopping will make it an important platform for influencer marketing in 2020.   

Relatable and credible content 

2019 has started it, 2020 will confirm it – that content will be more and more meaningful. Individuals are looking for intellectualization and the podcast’s success is the perfect example. Internet users will be much more on the lookout and attentive to the commitment on the part of brands and the way they display it on networks. 

Influencers will become ambassadors 

We will see more and more lasting partnerships between brands and influencers versus ‘one-shot’ campaigns. The objective will be to promote a common thread throughout the year so that the message can be repeated. The advantage of a long-term campaign is to install repetition without the risk of tiring its audience because the content is always different, unlike repeating the same message.

Sponsorship 

Today, an influencer is a creator and distributor of content. It is obvious that the more the content is disseminated, the more we capitalize on the cost of its creation. Sponsoring is a trend already well underway which boosts impressions of content. But do you create sponsored content for the brand or sponsor the influencer’s content? That’s a strategic call, influencer marketing agencies or brands will need to take.   

Extended focus on the KPI’s of Influencer Marketing

Qualifying KPIs for influencer marketing, we already know how to do it. In 2020, the subject of KPIs will focus more on the ability to assess the qualitative impact of an influence campaign. The question is whether a post gets engagement because it is produced by an influencer or for the product or service that is promoted. 

To conclude, we would point out that brands will have an interest in developing a diversified strategy in order to give more weight to actions carried out with influencers. The platforms invested in will have to be judiciously selected according to the initial objectives and the target. The types of partnerships and content produced by influencers will be in huge numbers and varied. 

Campaign performance will be directly linked to the creativity and talent of influencers. The choice of solutions and specialized agencies will be decisive for the success of a campaign. Brands that have fully outsourced influencer marketing or those that manage everything in-house will have to bet on a hybrid model in order to perform. In summary, influencer marketing will be more targeted, more transparent, more measurable, and more effective.