How Is Influencer Marketing Landscape Changing
During the coronavirus outbreak, we can observe that consumer behavior is changing. Some trends emerge, other trends become more obvious, like the rise of popularity of online shopping and contact-free services.
Influencer marketing is becoming popular even for industries and businesses that haven’t previously used it. More businesses and companies are reaching out to influencers to promote their products. For example, if previously we saw a lot of cosmetic and beauty products being promoted on social media, now we can also see businesses that sell household items use this tactic as a part of their digital brand management.
Some industries that previously relied a lot on physical presence also are very active on this front now. Restaurant businesses and companies that offer services (like fitness classes) are also starting to use this channel more and more actively. Food delivery services, fitness apps, hand sanitizers, you might have seen that in some of them in your IG Stories.
Toy sellers that previously depended on fairs and physical shops a lot now also trying to get the most of the influencer marketing to boost sales.
Right now is a pretty peculiar situation. On one hand, some businesses basically stopped operating or taking actions to advertise and promote themselves. On the other hand, there are companies that are seeing extremely high conversions and sales and are actively adapting to the new climate, for example, by reaching out to influencers more.
Not everything is too bright for influencers during the pandemic. Even though they enjoy an increased interest from particular companies, almost 1/3 of influencers in the United States are seeing the decreased number of partnerships. That is based on the stats in the survey by Mavrck.
While some industries seem to be waking up from hibernation and start reaching out to influencers, others are still on pause. The travel industry is still suffering because of the massive coronavirus concerns, so no exposure can really convince a lot of people to start traveling.
Some of the advertising channels are temporarily not really effective, that’s why more marketers turn to influencers. They mostly rely on performance marketing. Companies that offer self-care and app developers are expecting attributability from activity of the content creators.
However, some of the companies are using the help of influencers to build brand awareness and make it more visible. Brand marketing is also emphasized by some of the businesses. It is especially so for companies offering financial services. It is not surprising that most of them try to focus their advertising efforts to promote products and services relevant during the lockdowns.
According to Talkwalker, looking at engagement rates and reach is the best way of measuring the success of the campaign.
But it looks like that more marketers will stick to performance-based marketing. The financial implication of COVID-19 will probably make companies more careful with budgets and reduce spending.
Anyway, it is quite obvious that more businesses are turning to influencers as other channels have very limited capacity. But the period of quarantine and social-isolation cannot last forever, neither does this shift in marketing approach.
It may be the case for many brands that during the period when the budget is restricted they might not invest too much in collaborations with influencers because their effectiveness is hard to measure. So it may look like a risky tactic to them. Instead, they lean more on the marketing methods that provide clearer ways to evaluate the performance.
Another trend that becomes obvious these days is that businesses that previously did not reach out to influencers have started to do it now, during the pandemic. Physical stores and other locations are not really effective when people are afraid and even prescribed not to leave their houses. So many sellers who could previously afford just being visible on the shelf to see sales, now have to employ new methods, including collaborating with influencers. That could mean that they will learn how to work with influencers and save what they have learned for the future. So we could see more industries navigate this new territory in the coming years.
If you have been looking forward to diving into influencer marketing, this is a perfect time. A collaboration with a content creator or influencer can be very beneficial for marketing your brand on social media. Even when the lockdowns will be over, people are still spending most of their free time on social media nowadays, so it’s the tactic that can do you a lot of good both now and in the future.
