Influencer Marketing is A‑Changing

Influencer mar­ket­ing is evolving — are you ready to compete?

As the num­ber of approach­able journ­al­ists seems to dwindle, the import­ance of influ­en­cer mar­ket­ing has increased — espe­cially over the last 3 – 4 years.”

And influ­en­cer mar­ket­ing is excit­ing to explore. 

So, I’ve talked about cat­egor­ising influ­en­cers, why tar­get­ing the magic middle for ambas­sad­or­ship is cru­cial, and why you should always do a hon­ey­moon outreach.

But wait. What about the influ­en­cers them­selves?
Well, they don’t seem to be entirely done just yet.

Late Bloomers of Monetisation

Online influ­en­cers aren’t a new phe­nomen­on by any stretch of the ima­gin­a­tion. The top plat­forms have shif­ted over the last dec­ades, but new influ­en­cers emerge wherever there’s an audience.

But while influ­en­cers have been early to crash every new online party, they’ve been rather late bloom­ers regard­ing monetisation. 

As the Hippie Web died in 2012 and got replaced by the Money Web, few influ­en­cers made it work for them­selves. Working with influ­en­cers was often pain­ful; many were still unfa­mil­i­ar with busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als. ¹There were excep­tions, primar­ily blog­gers, who suc­cess­fully closed advert­ising deals but were also fight­ing against being replaced by YouTubers and Instagrammers.

However, around 2017, many influ­en­cers quickly star­ted to get the hang of monetisation.

Besides ad rev­en­ue from social net­works, influ­en­cers star­ted doing big­ger and bet­ter things, espe­cially with brands. Brand col­lab­or­a­tions quickly became a mark­er of online status.

Read also: How To Categorise Influencers: Nano, Micro, Macro, Mega

Why did this hap­pen in 2017 and not sooner?

This leap into mon­et­isa­tion seems to have been driv­en primar­ily by new technology.

Examples: Influencer Monetisation Technology

Influencers are now movers and shakers in the mar­ket­place; they get record deals, luc­rat­ive tele­vi­sion con­tracts, and typ­ic­ally a volume of free pub­li­city that most brands would kill for.

However, it’s not just about ad rev­en­ue and brand col­lab­or­a­tions anymore.

Influencers have a com­pre­hens­ive under­stand­ing of their audi­ences, con­tent pref­er­ences, and buy­ing powers.

Many ser­vices (like Patreon, OnlyFans, etc.) allow influ­en­cers to set up their premi­um com­munity of sub­scribers. Influencers can quickly sell their products via their web­sites (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.) with integ­rated pay­ment methods. 

Also, tons of spe­cial­ised ser­vices allow influ­en­cers to sell everything from merch to prints.

An influ­en­cer today often has many dif­fer­ent streams of income. Still, less than eight years ago, when the web shif­ted into a haven of cap­it­al­ist dynam­ics, no one didn’t even invent most of these mon­et­isa­tion technologies.

Will these emer­ging influ­en­cer-driv­en brands stop at FMCG (fast-mov­ing con­sumer goods)? Or will this phe­nomen­on start to become more notice­able also in oth­er industries?

Influencer Marketing is Changing

Since the advent of fash­ion blog­ging, influ­en­cer mar­ket­ing has been a fas­cin­at­ing oppor­tun­ity for FMCG brands to explore.

However, I don’t think many oth­er types of busi­nesses are wait­ing in line to exper­i­ence what it is like to see your products or ser­vices swoosh off the “shelves” after an influ­en­cer collaboration.

Because influ­en­cer mar­ket­ing is up for its next phase, it seems to be com­ing fast.

What’s quickly hap­pen­ing is that influ­en­cers are learn­ing about busi­ness. And they’re learn­ing that selling their products is bet­ter than someone else’s.

Influencers are learn­ing that they prefer to pro­mote their brands. Not only because they can get a more sig­ni­fic­ant piece of the cake but because it’s easi­er for them to make con­tent nat­ur­ally around their merch.

In short: Influencers are now launch­ing their busi­nesses and their brands.

And they’ve already begun to turn down third-party col­lab­or­a­tions to focus on their busi­ness ventures.

Imagine a mar­ket­place where some brands pay top dol­lar for mar­ket­ing — no one cares. 

While some brands, brought to life by influ­en­cers, are get­ting tons of recog­ni­tion for everything they do or say — and they’re not even pay­ing for exposure.

As a brand needs to reach cus­tom­ers some­how, it begs the ques­tion, will this matter?

Could an Influencer Put You Out of Business?

When we talk about influ­en­cer mar­ket­ing — do we mean:

a) busi­nesses col­lab­or­at­ing with influ­en­cers to mar­ket products and ser­vices, or
b) influ­en­cers’ vari­ous meth­ods to mar­ket their products and services?

See the shift right there?
Then, which one are we talk­ing about?

I ought to know. But I’m not sure anymore.

In the next couple of years, many heads of mar­ket­ing- and com­mu­nic­a­tions, I think, will struggle to find ways of actu­ally reach­ing their cus­tom­ers. Not due to lack of mar­ket­ing budgets, but due to lack of sol­id options:

Short-term, many brands will have a hard time sens­ibly reach­ing their cus­tom­ers. Long-term, many brands might encounter fierce com­pet­i­tion from influ­en­cer brands with massive audi­ences that are highly engaged and forceful.

Influencer-Driven Competition

What can we expect as influ­en­cers move into more and more fields of commerce? 

With online mar­ket­ing becom­ing increas­ingly import­ant daily, many brands might soon find them­selves squeezed between influ­en­cer brands on one side and tech giants, who are too big to fail on the other. 

One side dom­in­ates the algorithms.
The oth­er side owns the algorithms.

And neither of these two sides is on your side.

Moving for­ward, busi­nesses should con­sider what it means to com­pete with influ­en­cers that don’t have to pay for their reach.

PR Resource: Different Types of Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing vs Influencer Relations

There are three main types of influ­en­cer mar­ket­ing (digit­al mar­ket­ing) and one primary type of influ­en­cer rela­tions (digit­al PR):

Influencer Relations (Part of Digital PR)

Influencer out­reach (earned media) = the influ­en­cer receives invit­a­tions, demos, or exclus­ive mater­i­al without strings attached.

Influencer Marketing (Part of Digital Marketing)

Influencer advert­ising (paid media) = the influ­en­cer will pub­lish the brand’s pre-made con­tent in their channels.

Influencer spon­sor­ship (paid media) = the influ­en­cer will read a script to con­vey an offer­ing fol­low­ing the brand’s instructions.

Influencer col­lab­or­a­tion (paid media) = the influ­en­cer show­cases the brand’s offer­ing by cre­at­ing con­tent sim­il­ar to the influ­en­cer­’s reg­u­lar content.

Advertising, spon­sor­ships, and col­lab­or­a­tions are typ­ic­ally referred to as influ­en­cer mar­ket­ing, and out­reach is typ­ic­ally referred to as influ­en­cer rela­tions.

Organisations look­ing to util­ise the poten­tial reach of rel­ev­ant influ­en­cers will be wise to pay atten­tion to these dis­tinc­tions. ²Silfwer, J. (2020, January 15). The Influencers in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​i​n​f​l​u​e​n​c​e​r​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Learn more: Influencer Relations vs Influencer Marketing