Creating multi-purpose content and returning to long-form video content are the best ways to get the most out of your influencer partnerships in 2024, according to a new report.
Influencer marketing is forecast to be valued at $22.2bn by 2025, according to the report by influencer marketing data tool Influencer Intelligence, and many businesses will be looking to increase spend in the area to take advantage of strategies that have performed best.
Tiktok and Instagram are still the best-performing platforms when it comes to influencer partnerships, while brands are recognising the value and importance of choosing the right influencers for their business.
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Influencer Intelligence identified nine key trends which it says will shape influencer marketing in 2024:
Influencer marketing trends 2024
1. Integrating AI into the influencer marketing process
So far, a lot of the conversation regarding artificial intelligence (AI) has focused on generative AI and content creation.
Businesses have been using programmes like ChatGPT to create templates for content which humans can then edit and personalise for their brand.
The report predicts that businesses will start to use AI to improve efficiency, evaluate potential partnerships and drive activations on a bigger scale.
This includes streamlining tasks such as evaluating the quality of an influencer’s audience, managing the onboarding of influencers through bespoke communications, and helping businesses to understand the emotional response that their marketing campaigns are having on customers.
This technology is already in use but as AI continues to develop, it will be capable of more informed, data-driven decisions, which will improve accuracy and efficacy.
Find out how to use AI in your salon here.
2. Considering Gen Alpha in influencer marketing strategies
Although some businesses might still be working on attracting the Gen Z demographic (people born between 1997 and 2010), the report predicts that attention will turn to Gen Alpha as the next group to be receptive to influencer marketing.
Gen Alpha refers to people born from 2010 onwards – and they’ll be the first generation to have all been born after the advent of social media.
Currently only 7% of marketers consider this demographic within their strategy but, according to Ofcom, 96% of children aged three to 17 have already watched content on a video-sharing platform.
Ofcom also cited that among three-to-17-year-olds, YouTube was the most popular, with 88% viewing video via the platform, followed by Tiktok (53%), Snapchat (46%), Instagram (41%) and Facebook (34%).
This demonstrates that there are already significant volumes of Gen Alpha consuming content on key platforms that work with influencer marketing, presenting a substantial opportunity within this demographic, which is likely to be the biggest generational cohort by 2025.
However, it’s important for marketers to exercise necessary caution and duty of care to protect children who are consuming content on video-sharing platforms, following ethical practice and appropriate regulation.
3. Harnessing subcultures for more accurate audience targeting
Businesses are moving away from prioritising follower count when choosing which influencers to work with.
Instead, more emphasis is now being placed on audience alignment – ensuring that chosen influencers speak directly to businesses’ relevant consumers in a meaningful way.
This usually involves looking at demographic qualities such as age group, gender and location, which are base indicators of an individual’s interests and potential purchase motivations.
However, businesses shouldn’t assume that all consumers who sit within the same age group or location have the same preferences, views or values.
Businesses should take sentiment and behaviours into account in order to understand whether an audience will be receptive of content delivered, and therefore if a campaign is likely to deliver the desired objectives.
This means exploring subcultures and niche conversations which are most likely to resonate with your target audience.
For example, this could include specifically targeting Skintok – the niche group on Tiktok in which consumers share skincare-related video content.
A report recently showed that beauty content is receiving more engagement on social media.
4. Reacting quickly to content trends
Tiktok has changed the behaviours of audience and the speed at which content trends, memes and movements can become popular.
Businesses that can keep an eye on the constantly changing viral trends will likely experience the best results.
By tapping into trending discussions with influencer strategy and relating to clients taking part in shared activities, businesses can increase their reach and relevancy.
5. Start using B2B influencer marketing and Linkedin
Influencer marketing has been very effective for B2C businesses, but it’s been slower to transfer to B2B businesses.
While the type of influencer will be different for B2B business, companies are starting to recognise the opportunity for promoting business products and services.
Brands are leaning increasingly into industry experts to build credibility and respect amongst businesses.
Raising an online reputation via expertise will be imperative in 2024, whether it’s via authored posts, events or testimonials.
Previously, Instagram has been a B2B focus for solutions for small businesses but targeting larger businesses has yet to really take off.
Now momentum for B2B is growing, marketers are naturally navigating towards LinkedIn due to the nature of its content.
Recognising recent growth in the sector, Linkedin introduced a Brand Partnership labelling tool in September 2023 for use on paid posts.
6. Using multipurpose and multi-channel campaigns
While using influencers to boost business awareness and exposure is valuable, there is more that can be achieved.
As platform algorithms become more difficult to overcome, businesses should be using their influencer partnerships to get results across retail, bookings and traffic as well as awareness.
This follows a study which reported that influencer marketing is the best way to generate sales.
This trend is also shown in the increase in businesses utilising affiliate models with creators to make campaign results mutually beneficial.
Alongside this multi-purpose movement is an increase in multi-channel campaigns; businesses are using influencers not only to produce social posts but also to create content across email marketing, newsletters, podcasts, out-of-home advertising, photoshoots, long-form content and more.
7. Using influencers to create communities
The report says that a tactic likely to be increasingly utilised in 2024 will be using influencers to build communities.
Influencer marketing is built on the belief that clients trust their peers more than brands, and communities take existing authenticity further.
While influencer marketing used to be about purchasing an individual’s influence for a one-off occasion, businesses should be realising the benefit of making it a longer-term commitment to collective influence, which has the potential for far greater reach than working with a single influencer on a one-off paid collaboration.
8. Influencer authenticity is key
In the past the influencer marketing industry has seen trust eroded by follower fraud and lack of disclosure, and 2023 events have only elevated audience distrust overall.
Increased examples of fake news and generative AI making headlines will inevitably enhance audience caution and suspicion.
For influencers, this will mean there will be a continued emphasis on needing to be genuinely trustworthy, providing an antidote to the negativity that audiences are experiencing in the current climate.
Finding partners who are genuine, organic and truthful has never been more important and is why some businesses are finding greater success when working with a higher volume of niche influencers.
These individuals often have a profession or day job that isn’t primarily focused on brand endorsements and earn trust by being relatable voices or creators over promoters, a quality that will be key to securing audience attention in 2024.
9. Use long-form content
In the past, social platforms were competing to offer short-form content options, with Reels and Tiktoks propelling snappy, short-form video into the mainstream.
However, by late 2023 these platforms were offering extended content formats – TikTok increased the maximum length of posts from 15 seconds to 10 minutes, while Facebook expanded its Reels limit from 60 to 90 seconds.
There has also been a significant uptake in podcast adverts and sponsorship, as well as channels for long-form written content, such as Substack.
Influencer Intelligence reports that because this is a trend that is gaining momentum, it’s likely that throughout 2024, more creators will be adopting these mediums, resulting in an industry U-turn back towards this format.
Read Influencer Intelligence’s full 9 Influencer Marketing Trends for 2024 report here.
