Influ­encer mar­ket­ing has been around for over a decade, becom­ing a pow­er­ful force in the social media land­scape dur­ing that time. But will it still be rel­e­vant in 2024?

What is influencer marketing?

Influ­encer mar­ket­ing lever­ages the rep­u­ta­tions of indi­vid­u­als on social media. These ‘influ­encers’ have the pow­er to affect the pur­chas­ing deci­sions of their fol­low­ers due to their posi­tion and author­i­ty on a giv­en platform.

Influ­encers are trust­ed voic­es and trend­set­ters, which is why they have become such impor­tant fig­ures in mod­ern adver­tis­ing techniques.

Influ­encer mar­ket­ing involves busi­ness­es part­ner­ing with these pop­u­lar indi­vid­u­als, result­ing in the pro­mo­tion of prod­ucts or ser­vices. Rather than sim­ply find­ing some­one with an audi­ence and pay­ing them to say good things about you, influ­encer mar­ket­ing is about rela­tion­ships and authenticity.

Strong and trust­ing rela­tion­ships between an influ­encer and their fol­low­ers are a cru­cial ingre­di­ent to this process, as well as a strong col­lab­o­ra­tive rela­tion­ship between the influ­encer and the busi­ness they promote.

Influ­encers typ­i­cal­ly look to work for busi­ness­es they can trust, so that the rec­om­men­da­tions they make to fol­low­ers are gen­uine. Not only is it impor­tant that the influ­encer is gen­uine, but the pro­mot­ed prod­ucts or ser­vices must be rel­e­vant. Influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paigns must, there­fore, add val­ue to the follower’s/target audi­ence’s online expe­ri­ence, to be effective.

The prac­tice can range from a sim­ple prod­uct men­tion or endorse­ment to a full-blown mar­ket­ing cam­paign involv­ing a series of posts. The key ele­ments that define influ­encer mar­ket­ing include:

• Influ­encers typ­i­cal­ly have cul­ti­vat­ed a rela­tion­ship with their audi­ence that is based on trust and authen­tic­i­ty, giv­ing any endorse­ment extra weight.
• Influ­encers are often cho­sen for their rel­e­vance to the brand’s tar­get audi­ence.
• The reach of an influ­encer is mea­sured not just by the num­ber of fol­low­ers they have, but also by how engaged their audi­ence is.
• Suc­cess­ful influ­encer mar­ket­ing cam­paigns hinge on the abil­i­ty of influ­encers to engage with their audi­ence and gen­er­ate mean­ing­ful inter­ac­tions around the brand’s message.
• One of the strengths of influ­encer mar­ket­ing is the abil­i­ty to tar­get nich­es where the influ­encer has estab­lished author­i­ty, which can lead to high­er con­ver­sion rates com­pared to broad-spec­trum advertising.

Why influencer marketing may be challenging

Influ­encer mar­ket­ing is the mod­ern-day ver­sion of word-of-mouth mar­ket­ing. Some busi­ness­es will shy away from it, though, and believe its effi­ca­cy to be threat­ened by new challenges.

These per­ceived chal­lenges are valid – the ever-chang­ing algo­rithms of social media plat­forms do make it dif­fi­cult to stay engag­ing and some mar­ket sec­tors are over-sat­u­rat­ed with influ­encers. In addi­tion, mod­ern con­sumers are tech-savvy – high­ly aware of when they’re being tar­get­ed by mar­ket­ing cam­paigns. This can put busi­ness­es to the test and force them to come up with new ways of engag­ing audiences.

As busi­ness­es strive for the atten­tion of con­sumers who are already over­whelmed by the amount of con­tent they see dai­ly, they must adopt clever strate­gies and think hard about what mar­ket­ing tools will work for them.

Though influ­encer mar­ket­ing has its chal­lenges, we think it will still be rel­e­vant in 2024. Let’s exam­ine the cur­rent state of affairs to find out why:

The social media landscape in 2024

At the moment, Face­book, Insta­gram, Twit­ter, and LinkedIn con­tin­ue to dom­i­nate in terms of user num­bers. Plus, they have become huge sys­tems that inte­grate e‑commerce, live stream­ing, and enhanced inter­ac­tiv­i­ty through sto­ries and reels.

How­ev­er, there’s a grow­ing trend towards niche plat­forms that cater to spe­cif­ic inter­ests or com­mu­ni­ties. These offer tar­get­ed envi­ron­ments where influ­encer mar­ket­ing can be par­tic­u­lar­ly effec­tive due to the high­ly engaged and focused user base.

Users are becom­ing more selec­tive about the con­tent they con­sume and the time they spend on social media, seen in the con­scious shift toward mean­ing­ful inter­ac­tions over pas­sive scrolling, which means that influ­encers need to cre­ate con­tent that fos­ters gen­uine engagement.

Users are wary of overt adver­tis­ing and are more recep­tive to con­tent that seems gen­uine and trans­par­ent. As a result, influ­encers who can main­tain authen­tic­i­ty while pro­mot­ing brands are prov­ing to be more successful.

Shop­ping fea­tures are becom­ing more preva­lent, allow­ing users to make pur­chas­es with­out leav­ing the plat­form. This seam­less inte­gra­tion of social media and e‑commerce has opened new avenues for influ­encer mar­ket­ing. In addi­tion, social media algo­rithms are always evolv­ing, prompt­ing influ­encers and brands to con­tin­u­ous­ly adapt their strate­gies to ensure vis­i­bil­i­ty and engagement.

New tech­nolo­gies and fea­tures like aug­ment­ed real­i­ty (AR), vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR), music, and fil­ters are reshap­ing how users inter­act with con­tent and cre­at­ing trends that influ­encers can use in their own con­tent.

The cur­rent social media land­scape is char­ac­terised by a con­sis­tent flow of new fea­tures and trends and a demand for authen­tic and engag­ing con­tent. These fac­tors pose sev­er­al chal­lenges for influ­encer mar­ket­ing, but it isn’t impos­si­ble to succeed.

How you can evolve for influencer marketing in 2024

In response to the many fac­tors affect­ing the social media land­scape today, influ­encer mar­ket­ing has had to change. Con­sid­er the fol­low­ing trends and learn how you can evolve for influ­encer mar­ket­ing in 2024:

1. Brands are increasingly partnering with micro and nano-influencers

These indi­vid­u­als have small­er, more niche audi­ences but boast high­er engage­ment rates com­pared to their mega-influ­encer coun­ter­parts. Their rec­om­men­da­tions are often per­ceived as more gen­uine and relatable.

2. Video content, especially short-form, continues to reign supreme

Short-form videos are engag­ing, share­able, and have the abil­i­ty to go viral, mak­ing them a key focus for influ­encer campaigns.

3. There is a stronger emphasis on authenticity

Influ­encers and brands are being more trans­par­ent about their part­ner­ships. Con­sumers expect clear dis­clo­sures when con­tent is spon­sored, and authen­tic­i­ty can sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact the effec­tive­ness of influ­encer mar­ket­ing campaigns.

4. Long-term partnerships

Instead of one-off posts, there is a trend towards build­ing long-term rela­tion­ships between brands and influ­encers. This approach allows for a more inte­grat­ed and cohe­sive brand mes­sage and builds trust with audiences.

5. Audiences are demanding more diversity in influencer marketing

Brands are respond­ing by col­lab­o­rat­ing with influ­encers from var­i­ous back­grounds, ensur­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion across race, gen­der, age, and body type.

6. Platform diversification

Influ­encers are not just focus­ing on one plat­form but are spread­ing their pres­ence across mul­ti­ple chan­nels to max­imise their reach. This also allows them to safe­guard against changes in plat­form pop­u­lar­i­ty and algo­rithm updates.

7. Value-driven campaigns

Influ­encers are align­ing with caus­es and val­ues that are impor­tant to them and their audi­ences. Brands that sup­port soci­etal issues and lever­age influ­encers to cham­pi­on these caus­es can res­onate more deeply with consumers.

Evi­dent­ly, there are inno­v­a­tive ways you can cre­ate an authen­tic influ­encer mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy. But do these real­ly work?

How relevant and effective is influencer marketing in 2024?

To be sure that influ­encer mar­ket­ing is still rel­e­vant in 2024, let’s exam­ine it through the lens of con­sumer pref­er­ences, tech­no­log­i­cal changes, and mar­ket factors:

What do consumers want?

Con­sumers today are inun­dat­ed with con­tent, mak­ing them more dis­cern­ing about what they choose to engage with. As a result, influ­encer mar­ket­ing is an ide­al way to reach out to customers.

This is because it cuts through the noise and pro­vides per­son­alised con­tent that res­onates with spe­cif­ic audi­ence seg­ments. Influ­encers who have built strong rap­ports with their fol­low­ers can cre­ate a sense of com­mu­ni­ty and trust that is hard to repli­cate with oth­er forms of advertising.

The data on influ­encer mar­ket­ing sug­gests it does align with con­sumer pref­er­ences because 71% of dig­i­tal mar­keters say that the cus­tomers attract­ed by influ­encer mar­ket­ing are of high­er qual­i­ty than those attract­ed by oth­er mar­ket­ing tools.

Can influencer marketing adapt?

Every mar­ket­ing tool is sub­ject­ed to sud­den changes and chal­lenges. Over­all, influ­encer mar­ket­ing appears to be remark­ably able to adapt to the changes that occur on social media platforms.

Whether it’s the decline of organ­ic reach due to algo­rithm changes or the intro­duc­tion of new con­tent for­mats, influ­encers have been agile in adjust­ing their strate­gies to main­tain vis­i­bil­i­ty and engage­ment. As a result, this form of mar­ket­ing appears to be resilient when it faces this par­tic­u­lar challenge.

Is influencer marketing measurable?

Mea­sur­ing mar­ket­ing efforts is a con­sis­tent require­ment. For­tu­nate­ly, the tools for track­ing the per­for­mance of influ­encer cam­paigns have become more sophis­ti­cat­ed, enabling brands to mea­sure the impact of their efforts with greater accuracy.

Met­rics such as engage­ment rates, click-through rates, and con­ver­sion rates pro­vide tan­gi­ble evi­dence of the effec­tive­ness of influ­encer mar­ket­ing strategies.

Is the market too saturated?

One of the chal­lenges fac­ing influ­encer mar­ket­ing is the sat­u­ra­tion of the space, which can make it hard­er for mes­sages to stand out. How­ev­er, influ­encers who can dif­fer­en­ti­ate them­selves through unique con­tent and authen­tic engage­ment con­tin­ue to dri­ve suc­cess­ful campaigns.

On the oth­er hand, busi­ness­es that oper­ate with­in these over­ly sat­u­rat­ed mar­kets may be bet­ter off adver­tis­ing in oth­er ways – which we’ll dis­cuss lat­er in this blog.

Can users trust influencers?

This is a valid query giv­en the con­text of tech-savvy and over­whelmed consumers.

How­ev­er, we’ve found that influ­encer mar­ket­ing can over­come the issue of trust. In par­tic­u­lar, micro-influ­encers have proven their worth by engag­ing niche audi­ences at a deep­er level.

Their rec­om­men­da­tions often car­ry the weight of peer advice, which can be more influ­en­tial in dri­ving pur­chase deci­sions than celebri­ty endorse­ments. As a result, you may decide to col­lab­o­rate with sev­er­al micro-influ­encers instead of one celebrity.

Can brands stay relevant?

Brands always want to stay rel­e­vant. Influ­encer mar­ket­ing may or may not help them with this, depend­ing on the qual­i­ty of the strat­e­gy used.

For instance, brands that col­lab­o­rate with the right influ­encer will cre­ate a syn­er­gy with their audi­ence that feels nat­ur­al, gen­uine, and use­ful. On the oth­er hand, brands may fail to be rel­e­vant if they tar­get the wrong audiences.

Despite these oppos­ing out­comes, influ­encer mar­ket­ing has a unique qual­i­ty of being human­ised. Since influ­encers can deliv­er mes­sages in relat­able ways, the prod­ucts or ser­vices they pro­mote can seem less out of place than oth­er types of adverts. So, the issue of rel­e­vance can be over­come by this for­mat, even if the col­lab­o­ra­tion itself is clunky.

Despite the many dif­fi­cul­ties we’ve men­tioned, 80% of mar­keters say influ­encer mar­ket­ing is effec­tive. So, we can safe­ly say we think it will remain a use­ful tool in 2024, as long as busi­ness­es evolve their strate­gies to be authentic.

Should businesses use influencer marketing?

Though we think influ­encer mar­ket­ing will still be rel­e­vant in 2024, it’s not suit­ed to all busi­ness­es. Whether com­pa­nies should embark on this type of mar­ket­ing depends on var­i­ous fac­tors includ­ing busi­ness goals, tar­get audi­ence, bud­get, and the capac­i­ty to craft authen­tic brand stories.

Yes

For busi­ness­es aim­ing to increase brand aware­ness, reach spe­cif­ic audi­ence seg­ments, and add a lay­er of trust to their mar­ket­ing mes­sages, influ­encer mar­ket­ing can be an ide­al strategy.

This is par­tic­u­lar­ly true for con­sumer-focused brands in indus­tries such as fash­ion, beau­ty, lifestyle, and well­ness, where influ­encers can pro­vide relat­able endorse­ments that res­onate with their fol­low­ers. In addi­tion, brands with younger tar­get audi­ences will find that influ­encer mar­ket­ing is effec­tive for these demographics.

No

Con­verse­ly, busi­ness­es that oper­ate in high­ly spe­cialised or B2B indus­tries, or those with lim­it­ed bud­gets may not find much use in influ­encer marketing.

Influencer marketing for different business types

A wide range of busi­ness­es can cre­ate influ­encer mar­ket­ing strate­gies that suit their par­tic­u­lar cir­cum­stances. Con­sid­er the following:

Consumer goods businesses

Busi­ness­es sell­ing con­sumer goods, espe­cial­ly those with visu­al appeal such as cloth­ing or beau­ty prod­ucts, can ben­e­fit great­ly from influ­encer mar­ket­ing. They should focus on influ­encers whose aes­thet­ics and audi­ence align with their brand image and values.

Service-oriented businesses

For ser­vice-ori­ent­ed busi­ness­es, such as those in the hos­pi­tal­i­ty or edu­ca­tion sec­tors, influ­encer mar­ket­ing can be used to show­case expe­ri­ences. Part­ner­ing with influ­encers who can authen­ti­cal­ly doc­u­ment and share their expe­ri­ences with the ser­vice can be a pow­er­ful endorsement.

Tech and gadget businesses

Tech com­pa­nies can lever­age influ­encers to pro­vide hands-on reviews and tuto­ri­als. It’s about demon­strat­ing the pro­duc­t’s val­ue and util­i­ty, which can sway tech-savvy con­sumers who rely on expert opin­ions before mak­ing a purchase.

Fitness and health businesses

In the fit­ness and health indus­try, influ­encers can play a cru­cial role in inspir­ing and moti­vat­ing their audi­ence. Busi­ness­es should look for influ­encers who embody the lifestyle and val­ues that their prod­ucts or ser­vices promote.

B2B and specialised businesses

Though audi­ence sizes will be small­er for these kinds of busi­ness­es, they may ben­e­fit from col­lab­o­rat­ing with thought lead­ers and indus­try experts. In addi­tion, LinkedIn may be the ide­al plat­form for campaigns.

In this case, the focus should be on shar­ing in-depth knowl­edge and net­work­ing with­in niche pro­fes­sion­al com­mu­ni­ties rather than mass-mar­ket appeal.

Small businesses and start-ups

Small­er busi­ness­es and start-ups can ben­e­fit from micro-influ­encer part­ner­ships to reach local or high­ly engaged niche audi­ences. These influ­encers can offer cost-effec­tive ways to build brand cred­i­bil­i­ty and loyalty.

Luxury brands

For lux­u­ry brands, it’s all about pres­tige and exclu­siv­i­ty. Influ­encers for such brands should radi­ate sophis­ti­ca­tion and have a fol­low­er base that aligns with the high-end mar­ket the brand is targeting.

Brands for young people

Across dif­fer­ent age groups, Gen‑Z has been found to trust influ­encers the most. As a result, most busi­ness­es tar­get­ing young peo­ple will be able to find influ­encers with rel­e­vant audiences.

Final thoughts

Influ­encer mar­ket­ing in 2024 will retain its use­ful­ness, though not for every busi­ness. Over­all, it’s cru­cial that brands find influ­encers whose audi­ences are well-matched with their own and that they aim for authen­tic­i­ty in their strategy.