Road to 2020: Where is Influencer Marketing heading?

Praanesh Bhuvaneswar shares a low-down on where the industry is headed while sharing Influencer Marketing trends 2020

With the New Year setting in, I am sure you will be getting hit by a ton of articles with titles on the lines of "The NEW trends to look-out for in Digital / Video / Performance Marketing". While the topic of Influencer Marketing trends 2020 has become clichéd, the truth of the matter is, most marketers fail to grasp what it actually translates to, based on the perspective they are looking at.

This is an attempt to give you a direction on where Influencer Marketing is heading and what that means to you if you are working on building a brand leveraging the word of mouth from these online voices.

Increase in Average # of Social Platforms used by a Creator

From Instagram, YouTube and the new kid on the block, TikTok, creators will move on to host content & entertain and amass the audience on more platforms than just one or two platforms. This frenzy is partly triggered by the "Creator-First approach" by the upcoming platforms (Fireworks, Trell, etc.) and also the shift of focus from to creators by elder social platforms (Snap, Pinterest, etc.). The active creator recruitment and partnership programs simulated by these platforms shall attract their respective audiences of the creators as well to signup.

Consolidation of Commerce + Content

With platforms experimenting shoppable content, the rage of commerce will kick-in. Instagram and TikTok with their financial might, shall pave way for the experimentation and the consolidation of Content Commerce. Social commerce has been an experimental affair so far, and brand marketers have been unwilling to take the plunge into experimentation, because of the risk of burning marketing budgets in testing the conversion rates.

But with the advent of Shoppable content, content commerce will actually become a thing, moving the needle to sales-centric Influencer strategies. It is too early to still say that 2020 will be the year of content/social commerce, but this year it will be more than just a 'theory'.

Also read: Road to 2020: Anubhav Sonthalia shares Performance marketing trends

Niche Platforms for Content Creators (Localized / Interest-Based / Activity Based)

While TikTok, Like and Helo app is after the Tier 2 /3 mass audience, the new age platforms like Trell, ShareChat will kick in more interest-based content creation and following.

One of the key triggers the new platforms employ is to appeal the 'upcoming and wannabe' creators to join and create an account onto their platform, promising the same level of playing ground to everyone when it comes to follower/audience growth, unlike the mature platforms like YouTube or Instagram (where the "rich get richer" theory applies when it comes to popularity among creators).

Diluted Definition of "Influencer"

You might have heard these terms enough, "Micro-Influencers" and "Nano Influencers". Basically the influencers who have substantially fewer followers as compared to the ones who are in the spotlight always. The common doubt is "Why should I work with Influencers who have a smaller audience?".

The idea is simple. Despite the growth of Influencer Marketing, the number of "Influencers" who have amassed a significant chunk of audience (well except for TikTokers) has just increased marginally. With almost every marketer bidding for the attention of the usual-suspect-influencers (the well known), the costs of working with them will increase.

Smarter Brand marketers will move to work with potentially upcoming influencers, who could prove to have the potential to be popular in the long run. This way, they hope to win the loyalty of these promising influencers who create great content, ("Catch them young") investing in them (sometimes even cracking exclusive deals) early on.

What do these mean to Digital Marketers?

Digital Media landscape is shifting faster than ever, but the law of the land still remains. "Dare to experiment. Fail fast. Adapt faster".

The opportunity for marketers to quickly latch on to these new platforms and create a strong brand presence tapping the creators on the new platforms and establish authority is strong. Provide, if you leverage the window of opportunity swiftly. Of course, you will not get it right the first go, but that's how it works, ain't it?

This article piece is authored by Praanesh Bhuvaneswar, Chief Executive Officer, Qoruz.