Top 10 Influencer Marketing Trends That We’ll See in 2023

On March 8, 2017, Microsoft launched its Make What’s Next campaign to encourage young girls to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), and offer patent support to female inventors. The company collaborated with National Geographic and featured 30 images by well-known female wildlife photographers on Instagram. These images were taken by women photographers, explorers, and scientists in a bid to inspire other girls to make a go of it in such professions. The program became so popular that it generated over 3.5 million likes in a day. As influencer marketing goes, this one grabbed eyeballs and much interest. In essence, this kind of marketing is here to stay, and the best way to leverage it is to stay updated with the latest influencer marketing trends. That’s where this article comes in, to give you a sneak peek into the influencer marketing trends for 2023. 

Influencer Marketing Examples

But before we get into that, let’s look at some successful influencer marketing strategies adopted by famous brands that made them even more famous! 

Dunkin’ Donuts: National Donut Day

For the Dunkin’ Donuts National Donut Day Snapchat campaign in 2022, the brand brought on board eight influencers on its Snapchat channel. The campaign proved to be so successful that Dunkin’ Donuts gained 10x more than their average monthly followers on the day in question. The story itself has been the most-viewed Snapchat story for the brand to date.

Dior #Buttermilk/ 67 Shades of Skin

The Gold winner of the Best Beauty Campaign at the 2020 Influencer Marketing Awards, Dior’s influencer marketing campaign created awareness around its new product. The Forever Foundation has a range of 67 unique shades, which became the focal point of the strategy. The campaign saw the participation of 67 influencers—each matching one of the foundation’s 67 shades—and reached 2.66 million viewers globally.

How Does Influencer Marketing Work

Influencer marketing is an effective way to boost a brand’s online presence and connect with its target audience. Anyone can be an influencer—an individual, a group, or an agency. Advertising a product through these influencers allows the brands to reach a large audience, build awareness, and generate new leads. 

Brands look for individuals who are popular on social media platforms with a large number of followers. These influencers are then approached to create engaging content around the brand’s products. The idea is to get their followers interested in the said brand and encourage them to make a purchase. 

However, for this strategy to work, brands need to find the best-suited influencer to promote their product. For instance, a beauty brand would, of course, need to reach out to an influencer in the same space.  

ALSO READ: How to Measure the Success of Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

Influencer Marketing Trends in 2023 

1. Employees Will Get Recognized as the New Influencers

Brands often use their staff members to promote their products or services on their personal social media accounts. It stands to reason that an employee endorsing the company’s product can help reinforce its legitimacy. Amazon’s recruitment drives frequently include employees who enjoy their work in their hiring ads.  

2. Acquiring First-Party Data for Greater Influencer Marketing ROI Will Gain Importance

Influencers can now use approved Application Programming Interface (API) partners to authenticate their profiles on many of the major social networks, including Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, for enhanced access to data (TikTok, too, if creators have signed up for the TikTok Creator Marketplace). 

Instead of relying solely on the information provided by influencers, brands who engage in influencer marketing may now get analytics data straight from social media platforms. This type of data is referred to as ‘first-party data’, and it describes the information that is obtained directly from the platform with the influencer’s consent.

3. The Emphasis Will be on Long-Term Influencer Partnerships (as Opposed to One-Off Campaigns)

Long-term influencer partnerships will become commonplace in 2023 as marketers seek to forge closer ties with influencers. While one-off collaborations continue to exist, brands are increasingly aware of the need to take the sale time into account. Short promotional campaigns cannot always be as successful as a sustained collaboration with an influencer.

4. Live Shopping Will Emerge as a Major Influencer Marketing Campaign Strategy

Live shopping is gaining purchase among audiences as the way to shop on social media, and brands have been quick to embrace this as well. For instance, Amazon emphasizes live shopping on its site to attract large audiences. They hire social media influencers to host an Amazon event for their fans, create brand awareness, and inform them about the company’s products and services. 

5. Video Content Will be Bigger Than Ever

As video marketing is gaining more traction, brands are using short clips to engage their audience through influencer marketing. There are several influencers who work on video-based social networks and on video formats in mixed-media networks like Facebook and Instagram. This year could see a surge in video tutorials that show how to use products. Even the short-form videos on TikTok have a lot of how-to content. And what’s not to like about those?

6. Nano and Micro-Influencers Will Come to the Forefront

A small but powerful group, nano, and micro-influencers often have a higher capacity to connect with the people in their community, which can lend them a large amount of sway. Followers for nano and micro-influencers fall in the range of 1,000 and 100,000 (less than 10,000 for nano and under 100,000 for the latter). They are loyal followers who put their faith in such influencers because of their expertise, genuine product review, or service recommendations.  

Marketers will concentrate on nano- and micro-influencer collaborations to ensure they reach their target audience with more authentic and relevant content, thus enhancing brand awareness and sales. 

7. Authenticity Will be Key

Stay authentic. That will be a key message for brands in the coming year. For content to feel real, it needs to align with the influencer’s other posted content and personality. Influencers have a significant impact on the buying decisions of their followers, so genuine and honest content is very important. For brands, it’s important to know how influencers interact with their followers. For influencers, there needs to be a genuine connection with the product they endorse to have any impact on their followers. 

8. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Will Become More Important

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are widely associated with marketing trends. Today, there is greater awareness among consumers about how socially committed businesses are. Companies aim to convey an equitable image, whether it is in regard to racial justice, LGBTQ rights, or gender equality. Brands can express their inclusiveness by cultivating a diverse pool of influencers. 

9. Affiliate-Like Payment Model for Influencer Marketing

This is a form of performance-based influencer marketing strategy in which affiliates earn a commission for each website visit, sign-up, or product sale they generate for a company. Simply put, this is an online marketing tactic that encompasses referring a product or service to customers by sharing it on social media platforms, blogs, etc.

An affiliate link also means that brands compensate influencers according to the result of their marketing endeavors. As a result, influencers tend to put in more effort at endorsing the product, and those who have more followers can generate more money. Brands have discovered that paying influencers through affiliate links helps them to improve their Return on Investment (ROI); they don’t need to pay influencers inflated rates frequently as influencers don’t increase their charges frequently. 

Affiliate links also help customers find what they need without having to search. This strategy is a win-win for all parties, including brands, influencers, and customers.

10. TikTok Will Rival Instagram for Influencer Marketing Budgets

Instagram has long been the leader in influencer marketing, but TikTok is quickly catching up and may even overtake it in 2023. One reason for this is that youngsters aged between 10 and 29 years, who are more video and social-media-focused, love TikTok. The social media platform has also drawn a lot of attention from both customers and advertisers. Its drawback is the inability to use still photos. So take heart, Instagrammers, the platform isn’t going to become redundant anytime soon!  

What Can Brands Achieve with Influencer Marketing?

• Improve brand awareness
• Ensure greater visibility and reach
• Build trust and showcase brand leadership 
• Increase the chance of more people buying the product or services 
• Connect the brand to millennial and Gen Z consumers

The Future of Influencer Marketing 

According to a report by Markets and Markets, the global influencer marketing platform is expected to reach $24.1 billion by 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 32%. Therefore, the projection that marketers will collectively spend more than $4.5 billion on influencers in 2023 should not come as a surprise. With the constant and ever-growing use of social media platforms as avenues for chatting, communicating, socializing, and exchanging views and information, influencer marketing has been revolutionizing the digital marketing space. 

However, there are other reasons behind the growing popularity of influencer marketing. Several OTT channels, such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, are also giving platforms to influencer marketers to promote brands’ products and services. 

Learn Influencer Marketing Strategies with Emeritus

Influencer marketing trends attest to the importance of this marketing strategy, at least in the near future. If you want to understand influencer marketing and its significance in the digital marketing landscape, then Emeritus’ online digital marketing courses will provide you with comprehensive insight into this field.