The Past, Present and Future of Influencer Marketing

The face of digital marketing and social media is continually changing, and influencer marketing is one aspect that's making a true impact on consumers browsing and buying habits.

Although you’d be wrong to think that influencer marketing is a new ‘internet thing’. Think about Coca-Cola, they’ve been using Santa since 1931 to influence their audiences and still do so with their now famous Coca-Cola Christmas Truck Tour!

So, What Is Influencer Marketing?

Today influencers are ‘real’ people who have built a following on social media channels, due to the fact that their followers idolize them or respect their opinions and are ‘influenced’ by them. Many influencers have acquired a loyal following thanks to their lifestyle, job or hobby, the garments they wear or the stories they tell.

The emergence of Instagram influencers opened hugely opportunities for Digital marketing company to authentically market their products to their audience, and thus the ‘paid post’ phenomenon was born. With 93% of influencer marketing administered on Instagram, it’s become the attend social channel for influencers to be seen and heard.

In the youth, it'd are enough for a brand to send an influencer one among their products as a present, reciprocally for them posting about it on their profile. But this changed with the rapid climb of Instagram, as influencers realized, they might not only gain free products but actually charge brands for grid land on their profile.

Present Day Influencer Marketing

In a recent survey of one million Instagram business account users, 39% plan to increase their budget for influencer marketing.

Not all influencers are created equal and knowing the right influencer for your target audience and brand is key to creating engagement and building relationships through Best digital marketing company in Delhi

The highest the growth area is micro-influencers with 84% charging less $250 per post, in fact 97% of micro-influencers charge less than $500. Price isn’t the only advantage of micro-influencers, as consumers are more likely to relate and believe these influencers when they advocate products and consumers rather than mega celebrities.

Zoe Sugg, the face of Zoella is one among the very best paid UK influencers with 8.9 million followers on Instagram. If you would like Zoe to return on board together with your brand, it’s getting to cost $16,000 per post.

At the other end of the scale, you have Mr. Cristiano Ronaldo with 168 million followers on Instagram, although it will cost $750,000 to engage his influencer services.

Influencers also promote their own products, for instance, Ronaldo owns his own clothing company and his own hotel chain and uses his own influence to plug these; well why wouldn’t you!

Influencer Marketing ROI

Engagement rates are crucial in measuring influencer marketing and can be calculated with the simple equation of No. Of Likes & Comments ÷ No. Of Followers. While a recent study by the Influencer Marketing Hub found that for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, businesses are receiving $5.20 in media value.

92% of all businesses who use influencer marketing say it's an efficient use of budget, which they think it works. Creating brand awareness is perhaps the most important element, although 22% of 18-34 year old’s have made large purchase decisions supported an influencer's endorsement or recommendation globally.

The Future of Influencer Marketing

Whilst there are still skeptics out there when it comes to influencer marketing, studies suggest the industry will be worth $10 Billion by 2020 worldwide. Already we’ve seen massive growth from $1.7 billion in 2016 to $3 billion in 2018 and it’s looking to be around $7 billion by end of 2019.

Like Ronaldo, more influencers within the future will see the advantage of launching their own labels, although consumers are getting savvier and can be harder to convince. The influencer the industry will still be plagued by vanity metrics; it's in any case what started it.

Whether today’s influencers stand the test of time like the Coco-Cola / Santa tie-up, businesses will continue to invest in influencer partnerships/campaigns with more marketers seeing its value over time.

Arbab Khan is an Seo Expert and expert blogger working in a digit tech company.