Is Influencer Marketing Getting Outdated?

Influencer marketing bloomed and became an integral part of marketing following the influx of social media around 2002-4. In this type of marketing, customers are reached by a marketer through a third person’s account who already has a large following which somehow matches the seller’s buyer persona.

Unlike celebrities, influencers can be anywhere. What makes them influencers is their large number of followers. Influencers can be anyone, like a photographer, a model, a foodie, a dancer, a skin specialist, an accountant, or anyone. Every niche has influencers. You just have to find them on Social Media.

They are known to know about a specific topic, and they become the go-to person for their followers. They can have hundreds of thousands of followers (if not Millions). Influencer marketing peaked in recent years due to the excessive use of social media, although it has been around for a long period.

When a marketing tactic becomes popular and peaks, people start to wonder if it is going to end soon. Is it going to lose its effectiveness? It’s a fair question to ask. After all, you need to know all about a marketing strategy before you decide. Is it worth all the hype? So, a simple answer to the question, is influencer marketing getting outdated? No, it is not getting outdated anytime soon.

Influencer marketing has peaked over the last couple of decades as people believe in word of mouth more than any other tactic. Influencers reach thousands of people through just one post.

During COVID-19, people were locked inside their homes and spent most of their time on social media. Influencer marketing flourished like never before. Trillions of dollars were spent on online purchases in just a couple of years. Marketers saw this opportunity and started investing in influencer marketing, and Brands profited off of it.

Let’s have a look at the statistics:

During 2022 influencer marketing has grown to 16.8 Billion dollars.

Businesses make an average of 6$ ROI on every dollar spent on Influencer marketing.

The search for the word influencer marketing has increased by 456% since 2016. It shows the massive awareness and public interest in influencer marketing.

Surveys have shown that over 90% of respondents believe influencer marketing to be an effective strategy.

More than 50% of brands use Instagram for influencer marketing.

But just like any other marketing strategy, influencer marketing also depends mainly on how it is being carried out. To ensure that your influencer marketing approach does not fail, you must follow the few guidelines below.

Carefully consider your approach to influencer marketing. Think and write anything that comes to mind. That is just like a brainstorming session.

Write down your expectations, but make sure they are realistic.

Devise a strategy.

Plan a budget.

Search for influencers in that particular niche. It’s better to find those influencers through organic search or by asking someone interested in that niche.

Be patient and be human. Think of it as people talking to people, not companies talking to companies.

In influencer marketing, you have to keep in mind that you have to have patience. Money is not going to roll in overnight (but it does happen occasionally).

Develop A Schedule:

Does the influencer prefer weekly/monthly/quarterly calls?

Make a PR schedule.

Plan traveling for the influencer or executives of the brand in case you need a face-to-face meeting.

And lastly, hope for the best.

Most businesses or brands want to boost their influencer marketing budgets for 2023 since it offers an ROI of up to $20 for every dollar spent. On average, every dollar spent has an ROI of 6$, which is huge because these numbers are very difficult to achieve using other marketing strategies.

In a survey conducted by influencers marketing hub, they found out that over 70% of companies intend to increase their influencer marketing budget as they see this as a profitable strategy. Only 7% of them said they would cut their spending on that specific marketing strategy or stop using it entirely.

Concluding we can say that, Influencer marketing is not going anywhere anytime soon. And by seeing the upward trend of social media usage, if anything, it is going to be more popular and probably become a mainstream marketing strategy in the future.