Community preferences, as well as legal requirements, are continuously shaping the influencer marketing. Consequently, it’s getting more difficult to watch the numerous changes, which take place in the industry.
Experts state that some trends from the past years will continue in 2019, and some of them will fade away. If you want to build an effective influencer marketing strategy, you should be aware of all the upcoming changes. Keep reading to learn more about the latest trends.
Trend #1 – High demand for authentic content
More than a hundred million posts are published on social media every day. So, it’s not a surprise that internet users are spoilt for choice. They have too many options to choose from – too many influencers to follow.
For this reason, competition among the influencers will increase in 2019. Only those digital celebrities, who produce one-of-a-kind content, will survive. The point is that every new post should create wow-effect for internet users. Otherwise, followers will click the “unfollow” button.
Take a look at Neyu Ma profile. Every post she creates looks like a real masterpiece. Every photo is unique, authentic and has high quality. Digital celebrities, who have a similar approach to content production, have all chances to beat the competition.
Therefore, influencer marketing works only when every sponsored post is crafted with attention to details. The digital celebrities should also apply appropriate filters to every sponsored photo. It’s important to edit an image using Lightroom or any other similar service to make sure that it will match the color scheme of the profile.
The caption of the post also matters. It shouldn’t sound too promotional. If a company trusts an influencer fully, an influencer can write text on his/her own. Otherwise, it is better to create content in-house and send it out to your partners.
Trend #2 – High-quality content is a must
Obviously, low-resolution photos and text with typos will not help to capture and retain the followers’ attention. If you want to build an effective influence marketing strategy in 2019, you should use high-quality content only.
Modern users are still “hungry” for high-quality content, and they keep “hunting” on influencers, whose profiles look stylish. For this reason, digital celebrities like Ashley Rose, who understand that quality is the only thing which matters, will boost their revenues.
Take a glance at Ashley’s profile: whether she takes a photo of her baby, her house, or food, she utilizes professional photo equipment and edits every image scrupulously. Ashley never posts random pictures taken on her smartphone. Moreover, she plans every post and its placement in a gallery in advance.
What about text quality? It can’t be compromised in 2019. A few years ago, it was Okay to say: “please excuse any typos as it was sent from my iPhone”. Now everything has changed.
There are dozens of proofreading tools available in the palm of your hand, so old excuses don’t work any longer. To ensure the high quality of every caption, you can use one of the many online paper writing services or proofreading tools.
Trend #3 – Disclosure of sponsored content
Influencer marketing campaigns must comply with national and international regulation. There is no exception.
Some brands and influencers still ignore requirements for the disclosure of sponsored content. However, new stricter laws will force them to start the creation of healthier and more honest relationships with their followers in 2019.
It’s important to understand that disclosure of sponsored content will not scare the target audience away. Vice versa, it will help to improve communication and increase brand loyalty.
Posts on Instagram and Facebook should contain hashtags #ad or #sponsored, or mentioning “paid partnership”. YouTubers should affirm that “the video includes a commercial message”. Other bloggers should ensure that their blog posts contain the keywords “sponsored” and “partnership”.
Trend #4 – Rise of micro-influencers
The number of social media users around the globe is growing. So, it’s not a surprise that the amount of new influencers is rising as well. Fortunately, brands can benefit from this trend in 2019.
First of all, micro-influencers engage the audience much better than macro-influencers do. For instance, Rosanna and Winston, style and family bloggers with 498,000 followers, demonstrate pretty low engagement rate, which is equal to 0.93%. While Galina Thomas, a niche blogger with 25,500 followers, has a much higher engagement – 5.37%. The key difference is that micro-bloggers interact with the community more actively: always reply to comments, answer private messages, etc.
Secondly, new micro-influencers may become ambassadors of new brands. This is another great way to develop a remarkable brand identity. In 2019, companies will find it easier to choose the ideal digital celebrities for long-term collaboration.
Trend #5 – User-generated content is a king
Some social media users remain skeptical about sponsored posts, but they trust user-generated content fully. For this reason, more and more brands collaborate with influencers to deliver the brand message to the target audience and generate user-generated content (UGC) at scale.
UGC is the most powerful marketing tool, which currently exists. It helps to influence buying decisions without heavy spending on advertising. So, the value of content generated by brand advocates is hard to overestimate.
Influencers and UGC can help not only to hit financial goals but also to accomplish a noble mission. For instance, Leonardo DiCaprio invited his followers to support the World Health Organization’s initiative and to share their posts with hashtag #everybreathmatters. In this way, a famous actor attempted to raise awareness about air pollution issues.
Bottom line
Obviously, all these influencer marketing trends are not brand new. However, all of them will have a significant impact on the effectiveness of collaboration between brands and digital celebrities in 2019.
The point is that when you know the trends and clearly understand where the industry is heading, you will be able to craft an excellent branding strategy. Watch the future changes attentively, and you will benefit from influencer marketing a lot.