Best Practices for Influencer Marketing in 2022

Key Takeaways

• Brand ambassadors and nano-influencers are becoming increasingly popular among consumers and brand collaborations.
• Demand for video content will continue to grow: get ready to push your video to the top!
• Strategies for your e-commerce should be oriented toward mobile optimization.

As we know, influencers are key opinion leaders who have a huge impact on the opinion and consumption of their followers. In addition, products are generally searched for in a completely different way now, which is why brands and companies have to reinvent their communication strategies to some extent in 2022.

Sidewalker Daily also addresses trends for influencer marketing in 2022. Among other things, they mentioned that influencers will experiment more with NFTs, which is an excellent opportunity to monetize creative content online. Moreover, the channel predicts that brands will heavily focus on TikTok and will develop their understanding of the platform.

Turn Your Influencers Into Brand Ambassadors

The math is simple, what used to be promoted by influential celebrities is now marketed by influencers who speak to their community. Celebrities are too far from ordinary people when it comes to their daily life, therefore, their brand is unlikely to appeal to the average customer. They are unapproachable and their opinion is not trusted, since it is clear that they have received a lot of money for the campaign anyway. Therefore, resort to influencers who convince their followers with credibility and authenticity. Bear in mind that these influencers (of the “first generation”) are possibly just as famous and untouchable as top celebrities were a few years ago. Even nano-influencers have a celebrity level now.

Thus, even savvier marketers have to see these considerations in light of the general developments of consumers. They are no longer easily fooled and are generally more critical of consumer behaviors.

Read all about influencer marketing for Gen Z on the Kolsquare blog, where we discuss their strong environmental awareness along with other important aspects.

But let’s get to the point: The new opinion leaders who are the so-called nano-influencers or micro-bloggers and can also be described as brand ambassadors, are not only personalities who have a small number of followers online, but they are the fans of your brand or company itself. The enthusiasm for your product is the reason why you should work with them despite their small reach. Additionally, note that nano-influencers are a lot cheaper compared to their big siblings.

You can turn influencers into your brand ambassadors in three steps: Communication, contact and co-branding.

Video First Is the Strategy for 2022

It is well known that video content is gaining the upper hand. Since the great success of TikTok, many other platforms have tried to leverage that success. Instagram launched Instagram Reels, which became the main focus of the former picture app, and YouTube tried to copy TikTok with YouTube Shorts. While the inclination toward videos has long been apparent, the 18-34 age group is no longer just buying sneakers and other small gadgets. Instead, Millennials are investing in homes, families and B2B softwares.

Learn all about influencer marketing strategies for Millennials on the Kolsquare blog.

Overall, 58% of users prefer videos over other content. When creating content, the most important thing is to prioritize quality over quantity, even though posting frequently on TikTok and Instagram sounds tempting, your brand’s reputation is at stake here. Furthermore, we recommend that you describe videos in a relevant way, for example, use hashtags and keywords to increase the visibility rate.

Graphic via HubSpot

Consequently, videos increase your conversion rate, can improve your SEO and thus, boost your online reputation. Along with the rise of short videos, the popularity of live streams is also on the rise. You should think about the possibility of integrating e-commerce to your bussiness live streams, as it is going to be the next big trend in 2022 and will carry on in 2023.

Integrated Shopping: New Ways of Doing E-commerce

While you didn’t want to just think about omni- or multichannel distribution of your content, buying decisions are also made across multiple channels. These include the store, your website and social media. Online shopping is becoming increasingly important, this is mainly because the experience of shopping online can be quite different compared to offline shopping. In the EU, almost three-quarters of the total internet users between the age of 16 and 74 shopped online in 2021. First place in the European statistics goes to the Netherlands (94%), followed by Denmark (92%) and Sweden (89%). Germany is taking the seventh place in the European ranking (82%).

According to this, it’s important to point out the different senses of the users in many ways and on different channels. We recommend that you present your product range on Pinterest boards and integrate the products in the stores on Instagram and Facebook. Interested people should undoubtedly find you through Google Shopping listings, while promo codes for online payments will boost the mood for impulse buys.

Lastly, e-commerce is no longer limited to the online world of the computer. Consumers will shop everything from anywhere in 2022, so you should work on optimizing your mobile versions. In France, 48% of shoppers buy products online and note that 34% do so at least once a month via their cell phones. Tools such as PayPal, Google or Apple Pay also make it easier to store via cell phones and tablets.

With the steady growth of the industry, you can expect to see more and more circulations of working with influencers and advertising on social media in general.