Top 3 influencer marketing trends of 2020

A few years ago it was forgivable not to know some of influencer marketing trends. Today, when more than 93% of companies use this promotion method, every professional marketer must be aware of these trends. That is why we decided to tell you about the trends that will guide this industry in 2020. But first, let's clarify why influencer marketing has become an integral part of any PR campaign.

The main tool of influencer marketing is social networks, which today allow popular people to turn their pages into informative blogs. The fact is that about 92% of consumers trust the opinions of other people (even those whom they do not know) more than to brands or annoying advertising. This is a feature of the human psyche, and it should just be taken for granted.

If you do not trust psychology, then perhaps you will be convinced by the stats. According to Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2020, this industry will grow to almost $10 billion in 2020. And for every $1 spent, companies will receive an average of $5.6 profit. This sounds much more convincing, right?

So, if you, like us, are convinced that it is important to be in the subject of influencer marketing in 2020, then we present to you several main trends that are expected in the industry this year. Let's get started.

Video Content

Influencer marketing, like all other industries, is also affected by the growing popularity of video content. According to statistics, 81% of businesses use video content as their marketing tool. You can find more staggering numbers here.

This trend, of course, has found a special place in influencer marketing. A few years ago, sponsorship posts were the main tool in this industry. But today, more than half of users don’t even read the text to the end, regardless of how much they value the opinion of this influencer. Unfortunately, or fortunately, but it is a fact. Keeping users' attracted is becoming increasingly difficult. They no longer want to linger on the text, or anything else, for too long. This is a natural reaction of users to the amount of annoying advertising that surrounds them everywhere nowadays.

That's why video content is becoming the main type of content in the promotion. In 2020, you can observe a significant increase in video content creation among influencers, including podcasts. Why not, or only Joe Rogan can skim all the cream in this segment? According to statistics, more than 51% of Americans listen to podcasts on an ongoing basis and more than half of them learn about new goods and services from there.

Employees are the new influencers

This is not a secret, modern trends are increasingly leading people to self-organization, remote work, and freelance. The global trend for automation of production and a reduction in the volume of wage labor is obvious. In such a situation, the opinion of employees, their feedback on various sites dedicated to job search and so on, becomes really important.

In these conditions, a new trend is emerging in influencer marketing. The trend is that companies invest in their best employees, turning them into influencers. Instead of contacting third-party platforms and unknown bloggers, work with your own employees is configured. How does it work?

Companies ask their people to become ambassadors in their own social networks, especially Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Companies take several advantages out of here:

First of all, such activity causes trust among users. When employees promote their own brand, it seems much more logical than the obviously paid advertising from outsiders.

Ease of collaboration. It's simple - you do not need to call up ten times, talk about your content plan, discuss goals, set KPIs. Employees are already live and work in this environment and know all the necessary information.

Mutually beneficial cooperation. With the growth of employees' subscribers, the benefits come to both parties - both the company and the employee. Thus, the business helps its workers arrange their lives on social networks and increase their own popularity.

More influencers to appear

Today's last trend that we would like to talk about is that we should expect a large increase in the number of influencers. There are several reasons for this.

First of all, it is fashionable and attractive. Who doesn’t want to give up routine daily work and replace it with blogging?

And although many might think that such activity is not positive for the industry, this is not entirely true. Yes, indeed, there is a problem with scammers with a wound number of subscribers. The task of the business is to be able to distinguish scammers from real high-quality influencers. But listen, in this situation, the advantages outweigh the damage. First of all, we are talking about the fact that those niches in which there were previously no opinion leaders will now be filled with new influencers. And this will allow the business to promote more niche products.

In any case, be careful and always evaluate your every step. Let's summarize our material.

Summing Up

Well, the influencer marketing industry is a very interesting topic. It is impossible to discuss and cover all the trends of 2020 within the framework of one material, so wait for new articles.

What we would like to say in the end is that this marketing area is, perhaps, the most honest and mutually beneficial among all. Judge for yourself, mighty influencers have full power and can only promote products that they really value. Companies are ready to invest in this area because people listen to the opinion of influencers. And the latter know about it, and therefore, use their power carefully. 

Thus, the unique advertising balance is achieved, which is so lacking in other marketing areas. A balance that allows users to calmly click on links placed by the people of their trust. Links to resources that are trusted by influencers themselves. Well, ain't that wonderful?