How to Make the Most of Global Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has become a phenomenon that has grown at a surprising rate, evolving from a $1.7 billion industry in 2016 to a $16.4 billion industry in 2022. A driving force of this monstrous growth is a clear demand for influencer content, with 72% of Gen Z and Millennials following social media influencers. But successful influencer campaigns involve thoughtfully aligning your goals with target audience, influencer, and other factors, an art form that takes plenty of learning to master. Here’s the ultimate recipe to guide your most standout influencer campaign yet.
At times, a one-off or short term partnership may be necessary for the sake of mass content delivery, but influencer marketing trends lean toward maintaining an ongoing relationship with a trusted influencer. One factor is simply the time it takes to make a sale. Purchases are rarely made based on a short sponsored post, so a long-term partnership with a brand tends to be more effective in building up loyalty and authenticity.
Longer partnerships also ensure that you’ve had plenty of time to align with each other. Knowing your influencer’s style and audience will help plan influencer campaigns that are natural to the influencer’s lifestyle, tone of voice, captions, thumbnail, aesthetics, and more. These considerations will all factor into how the content performs.
In addition, influencers that align on your values not only boosts your brand, but it also increases the likelihood of them showing authentic support. In the long-run, such a deep-seated trust in your brand means higher chances of them using your products or services on a daily basis, leading to non-paid and organic posting.
Clio’s partnership with Jooshica represents a perfect example. As a Clio devotee, Jooshica’s partnership with Clio was a shrewd move that felt natural to her audience. Because the target audience for both the brand and influencer were K-beauty fanatics in their teens and 20s, Jooshica’s K-pop inspired look aligned perfectly and boasted great engagement and reach. With approachable dialogue and real reviews, her videos inspire the audience to create everything from simple to dramatic look, a style that worked for Clio’s brand.
With increased access to faster internet virtually everywhere, the world has become increasingly addicted to video content. Although photos and text still continue to play a major role on platforms like Instagram, video is the dominating content type on platforms like TikTok and YouTube. Not only is video an important outlet for influencers, but it also continues to play a major role in social media trends at large.
Hayley Bui’s partnership with Medicube represented the power of video coupled with a strong, distinct fan base. The content played to her strengths and positioning as a transformative beauty influencer playing to a Western audience. She also played to global influencer marketing trends like using a green screen effect to visually showcase the Korean glass skin to which her audience aspires. With a concise demonstration of the Age-R Booster H along with an accessible and concise voiceover, her content boasted a 4.35% engagement rate, evidencing why video is the reigning format in influencer marketing.
Social media platforms differ in their target audiences, purpose, content types, trends, and features. Certain platform features, such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts boosting accounts utilizing their video feature, lead to the continued growth in short-form videos. Due to the distinctions, each platform represents a unique community with distinct fans for each.
In order to reach the unique audiences in each of these many platforms, cross-posting provides a helpful boost for influencer campaigns. Because the influencer fan base may be spread out among many platforms, cross-posting ensures that the content reaches the audience one way or another. But for best performance, it’s savvy to take a moment to make sure that whatever is posted, it aligns with the platform and the targets for each of those platforms.
Medicube teamed up with Laura Lee for content on the Age-R Booster H, cross-posting across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube and ultimately expanding follower reach across platforms. Although the benefits and key points were similar, she catered to the distinct styles of each platform, differentiating her video length, captions, voiceover/narrations, and more.
Global influencer marketing trends dictate that niche is in. As lifestyle content continues to grow in popularity, it becomes even more crucial to specify your niche. In the beauty industry alone, influencers define themselves as skinfluencers, dermatologists, beauty bloggers, skintellectuals, and more. Finding an influencer with a well-defined niche not only brings you the support of that unique community, but it helps shape influencer campaigns that are the best fit for your target audience and goals.
Medicube’s partnership with Lesly Gomez on the Age-R Derma EMS Shot takes advantage of her informative approach. Not only does she approach the subject from an expert perspective, but she also shows the immediate effects with a clear before and after, making strong points and adequately supporting them.
Similarly, Clio teamed up with makeup artist Olga Dann for effective niche targeting. With an audience interested in her glamorous and artistic creations, the holiday glam look video played well to the makeup and beauty niche.
With the increase in silent followers and inactive accounts, brands should look for influencers that have active community engagement. Teaming up with such an influencer will increase the chances of spreading brand awareness and sales by way of the audience’s trust in the influencer. Furthermore, influencer campaigns with higher comments, likes, and shares increases the likelihood that the video is boosted to the “for you” page on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, increasing the likelihood of exposing your brand to new followers as well.
For Medicube, the partnership with Tati in promoting their skin devices was a smart move, leading to an engagement rate of 8.5%. As a beauty YouTuber that’s been around for 12 years, she’s built up an authentic community of more than 8 million followers. While mega influencers average an engagement rate of 1% or less, Tati has held on strong to her rate of 5%, making her a smart choice for the partnership.
In the end, none of this information is helpful without culturally-appropriate communication. For example, communication with influencers in the U.S. tend toward a direct approach. Adding additional conditions to a signed contract are likely not received kindly by the agency. The thought process in partnership selection may differ as well, with American influencers tending to be a bit more selective about partnering with brands. They may take into consideration the look of the brand and how it presents itself on social media as well as on the internet as a whole. All in all, effective influencer campaigns depend on being savvy about the cultural context of your influencer.
The backbone of influencer campaigns is trust. Because every group of followers is different, the influencer is the most knowledgeable when it comes to knowing what the people want to see. Do they want to see dedicated or integrated content? What’s the average amount of time that their followers will engage with the content? The influencer will likely have past experiences that inform the best course of action. Turning to your influencer for expertise on global influencer marketing trends and customized guidance will ensure that your joint project reaches the goals you set forth.
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