Pengwin: Influencer Marketing Trends for 2021

Seeing What the New Year Has in Store

Throughout 2020, businesses have had to change how they interact with consumers. With less foot traffic, many marketers went online to find people they could rely on to market products. The result is a new generation of influencers, each doing their best to promote business interests. However, as Open Influence mentions, there are still a few problems to work out for small business influencer marketing, like locating the right personnel and calculating the ROI for the campaign. Despite this, many companies of differing sizes are looking into leveraging social media attention-getters to promote their products. In the coming year, we’re likely to see a few significant trends emerge.

An Increase in Micro-Influencers

Large influencers have already gotten traction with audiences, but the larger the follower count, the less individual attention each follower gets. Micro-influencers are those who have less than 10,000 followers. The smaller follower counts help them connect with their follower bases more effectively, making them more into the consumer’s friends rather than another star influencer. Buffer mentions that 70% of millennials get product recommendations from their friends. Micro-influencers are strategically placed to capitalize on this fact since their relationships are what fuel their marketing.

A Focus on Relationship-Based Marketing

Even larger influencers are fighting an uphill battle since their focus on brand promotion impacts their authenticity. That’s not always the case, though. A perfect example of an authentic influencer is Ilpengwin. Based in Italy, Kristian Tumidajewicz is a sports analyst and trader. His community numbers are massive, with over 450,000 followers on Instagram. Yet, his premise is that he doesn’t charge consumers for using his services. Instead, he leverages things like free content shares and exchanges with other soccer-based influencers to grow his community. His massive growth is partially based on the deep trust he generates with his social media followers. He uniquely connects with his followers, and they come back because of his style and passion when it comes to discussing his niche. It’s likely that in 2021, we’ll be seeing more influencers leaning toward relationship-based marketing, with a focus on trust between the influencer and the audience.

Long-Term Relationships Incoming

Over the last year, several businesses focused on setting up long-term relationships with certain advertisers. Contracts already exist for influencers to sign with a brand, but dedicated long-term support has always been on the fringes. However, as influencers’ popularity continues to increase, marketing departments realize that this trend is more than just a fad. Many brands are now trying to lock these personalities into long-term contracts to secure their exclusivity with some professionals. The year 2021 is likely to see many more of these.

A Dynamic Marketing Field

Influencer marketing is a field that can lead to massive returns for a company if they manage to jump on trends early enough. Unfortunately, it’s not that well understood by many marketing professionals. The dynamics of influencer marketing are different from traditional marketing in significant ways, and these trends are likely to increase those differences. The companies lucky enough to spot these trends early stand to benefit from their popularity.

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