Top Five Influencer Marketing Trends in 2022

It’s been five years since L’Oréal’s Confidence Training Programme campaign and although influencer marketing shows little sign of slowing, there has been considerable change over the past few years.

As we move through 2022 and the market matures, it’s clear that more change is coming. So here are the specific trends we predict for influencer marketing over the next 12 months.

1. Increasing use of nano-influencers

Nano-influencers are defined as social media users with 1,000-5,000 followers. While they may have a small reach, they often boast high engagement rates and high levels of trust and relatability. In an era of fake news and social media bots, audiences are craving authenticity.

In 2022, we predict that businesses will focus on working with influencers with a smaller following but engaged audience, rather than those with a large following but little connection to their audience.

2. Brand ambassadors

We are seeing brands developing more long-term partnerships with influencers, and influencers becoming ambassadors for brands. This is often proving to be more successful than short-term campaign-based partnerships as it appears more genuine, and enables the brand to receive qualitative insight to their audience.

Influencers are on the ‘front-line’ interacting daily with the customers, the feedback and insights that they gather on products and campaigns can be passed straight back to the brand.

We will see brand ambassador responsibilities grow to include content creation, PR, livestream shopping, product launches, and even product design/collaboration.

3. More regulation

Due to many incidents of bad practice, as well as a general heightened awareness of the power of influencers, it’s likely that we’ll see more in the coming 12 months. As a result, brands and influencers will need to be more careful than ever about disclosures and making sure that sponsored content is clearly labelled. We may also see platforms like Instagram introducing new features to help users identify sponsored posts.

In 2021 the Influencer Marketing Trade Body was officially launched with bye-laws and a code of conduct to protect the industry and its reputation. These are, however, only applicable to its members.

4. Focus on TikTok

With over 1.5 billion active users, and being the undisputed home of Gen Z, TikTok is the platform that companies are thinking about, talking about, and in many cases worrying about. Brands haven’t been so apprehensive about a platform in some time, with many simply not knowing how to approach it and others getting very little traction.

Another issue is the TikTok’s algorithm, which is more focussed on content than creator, meaning it is more difficult for brands to reach even die hard fans without creative and original content.

For these reasons, brands are using influencers to reach this audience. It’s likely that within the next year TikTok will become the most important channel for influencer marketing for many brands.

5. Increasing fees

Due to three main factors, the rates that influencers are charging is increasing at a rate of 45% per year. Firstly of course is demand, as influencer marketing becomes mainstream more brands are seeking partnerships with influencers.

Another factor is the diversified income streams influencers now have. With Patreon, affiliate marketing and opportunities to launch their own brands, influencers are less reliant on brand deals. Lastly, influencers are educating each other on ways to increase their fees to reflect their value in the modern marketing industry.

If you’re interested in running an influencer marketing campaign, or simply learning more about it, book a call with a member of the team today.