Jumping on random trends suggested by “social media gurus” can make you lose your hard-earned dollars and your target audience.

While not all influencer marketing trends are worth following you still need the right ones to stay relevant in the dynamic landscape of social media.

Instead of completely dismissing the importance of trends, why not simply discover the right trends that'll work for your brand?

Statistics show that 64% of consumers make a purchase based on an influencer’s recommendation or review at least some of the time. That shows how powerful influencer marketing is.

With its numerous benefits, how do you make the most of influencer marketing?

By leveraging the most important trends and that’s what you’ll find in this article.

Here you go.

Discover Top Influencer Marketing Trends to Optimize Your Strategy in 2024

Before you jump on any trend, you have to consider your niche, audience type, cost of implementing the trend, and your business resources.

Although influencer marketing trends will help you remain innovative and relevant, it will be a waste if you fail to consider these cogent factors.

Here are some influencer marketing trends you should follow in 2024.

1.  Rising Use of Artificial Intelligence

According to a recent survey, over 40% of respondents believe AI will transform the influencer marketing industry.

From the use of virtual influencers to the integration of ChatGPT into existing software, AI has become a force within the influencer marketing niche.

Artificial intelligence amplifies human effort in influencer marketing, reduces the time spent on redundant tasks, and helps you make better decisions.

Maximize these practical ways of using AI in influencer marketing:

  • Create optimized campaign strategies by using AI to brainstorm ideas, draft content and generate images for influencers.
  • Find the right influencers that align with your brand’s image by leveraging AI-powered influencer marketing platforms.
  • Predict influencer fraud by identifying fake followers and false engagement rates that can affect your brand’s ROI.
  • Analyze campaign performance by tracking brand mentions, traffic, and conversions based on a specific influencer’s efforts.
  • Work with influencers and enhance the negotiation process by checking their data beforehand.
  • Use virtual influencers to promote your brand’s products and gain better control over messaging.

Noonoonri is a popular example of a virtual influencer, with over 400,000 followers on Instagram. This digital character has secured partnerships with Dior, Balenciaga, and Warner Music.

Here is an image of her digital fashion collection named after her debut song “Dominoes.” The post is a collaboration between the virtual influencer and DRESSX.

Noonoouri Virtual Influencer

Image via Instagram

2. Increasing Focus on Diversity and Representation

So many brands used to be focused on serving an elite few and representing them through their choice of influencers. However, that’s becoming a thing of the past.

Customers are more inclined to devote their loyalty to brands that are inclusive and support diversity. That’s why you’ll see more diverse influencer campaigns from an increasing number of brands

Here are some tips for you to leverage this trend:

  • Ask them to share their perspectives and experiences to create genuine sponsored content.
  • Build authentic marketing campaigns that celebrate inclusiveness and empower underrepresented groups.
  • Pay attention to cultural and diverse concepts through your imagery, messaging, and strategy.
  • Create inclusive collections that make products accessible to a large audience beyond the natural confines of your brand.
  • Contribute to matters concerning social justice and encourage your influencers to make an impact on their social platforms.

For example, Fenty Beauty works with influencers with diverse skin tones, genders, and races to create more inclusive campaigns. This image shows a dark-skinned influencer using an eyeshadow with a shade that suits their skin tone.

Blackskinned Inflencer for Fenty Beauty

Image via TikTok

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3. Greater Emphasis on Authenticity

Authenticity is the most popular mantra for creating successful influencer marketing campaigns. Most brands’ success stories on social platforms stem from real, down-to-earth, and subtle approaches to promoting products.

Customers no longer want to have paid ads shoved down their throats forcefully. Instead, they want more brands to create engaging, relatable content.

Here are some tips to help you gain audience trust by creating authentic influencer campaigns for the social media landscape:

  • Build ongoing partnerships with existing customers who can be nano-influencers and micro-influencers to reach an engaged audience.
  • Give influencers creative freedom to produce engaging content while including specific points you would love them to highlight in their posts.
  • Ask influencers to share their real-life experiences of how your products integrate into their lives.
  • Gather user-generated content through challenges, contests, events, or giveaways to appeal to the average social media user.
  • Feature employee stories sharing their experiences of working in your company, interacting with customers, and using your products even as brand ambassadors.

Kelli is one of the top influencers for Crocs who makes fun, entertaining, and authentic videos that never sell the product directly.

Instead, she creates fun and insightful influencer content and simply wears Crocs in her videos. This example gained over 18 million views on Instagram.

Authentic Content Example

Image via Instagram

4. More Live Shopping Integrations

Live shopping takes your influencer marketing strategy to the next level by directly impacting sales.

Influencers can recommend products, showcase them in action, and encourage their audience to purchase by infusing FOMO during livestream shopping.

Having your influencers provide recommendations on live videos creates a sense of urgency that gets your audience swiping their cards. Mckinsey predicts live shopping will account for up to 20% of all ecommerce sales by 2026.

Partner with influencers to create real-time interactive content with these tips:

  • Identify suitable livestream shopping tools like YouTube shopping, Instagram shopping, and Amazon Live.
  • Ensure social media influencers have used the products personally so they'll provide honest recommendations.
  • Create unique influencer discount codes and tracked referral links for the influencer’s audience as 35% of people consider exclusive discounts to be one of the biggest benefits of live shopping.
  • Extend the lifecycle of your influencer’s live shopping session by reposting the content on your website and other platforms.
  • Track the performance of live streams to identify the best-selling products, conversion rates, and views.
  • Provide a more immersive experience using virtual and augmented reality to display products.  

A good example is this live video from Dr. Elena Jones and co-founder Rachael Muscat offering beauty tips and skin care products by Humanrace.

Even after the livestream, the video is still available on YouTube with a link to buy all the recommended products.

Live Shopping Example

Image via YouTube 

Pro Tip: Choose influencers who are comfortable going live to retain a natural connection with viewers.

5. Growing Popularity of Short Videos

If you've ever thought short videos were popular, then you're not ready for how it's about to blow up in 2024. TikTok as a social media platform helps in creating high-ROI campaigns since it dominates the short video content space.

Other social media channels have followed suit with YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and even Facebook Reels. Most social media algorithms favor short videos as they provide more reach beyond how many followers you currently have.

Leverage this trend by incorporating short-form videos into your influencer marketing campaigns. Here are some tips:

  • Ensure influencers use an attention-grabbing hook in the first few seconds to keep your target audiences watching.
  • Ask influencers to create vertical videos that can be easily viewed on mobile devices.
  • Create a comprehensive content brief highlighting the objectives of your short videos to keep your influencers informed.
  • Review the performance of every short video your influencer creates to understand what’s working.

Here is a short video collaboration between Tinder and TV host, Jonathan Bennett. This ad centered on creating awareness about romance scams and it gained over 2 million views.

Short Video Sample

Image via Instagram

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FAQs

Q1. What is the future of influencer marketing? 

A. The influencer marketing landscape will witness rapid changes that prioritize authenticity and attending to customer preferences throughout the entire sales funnel.

Q2. How powerful is influencer marketing? 

A. Influencer marketing helps you gain visibility, increase sales, and build stronger relationships with your potential customers. As long as you partner with influencers who understand your brand, you can get your products to more users faster.

Q3. How do you know if influencer marketing is successful? 

A. Metrics like an increase in the number of followers, impressions, comments, likes, reach, and engagement, can help you measure the performance of your impactful campaigns.

Q4. How will influencer marketing evolve?

A. As influencer marketing continues to grow, it will prioritize more long-term brand-influencer partnerships. There will also be a greater emphasis on building genuine customer connections and influencer collaborations for cross-channel campaigns.

Q5. Is influencer marketing the next big thing? 

A. Influencer marketing remains profitable for most brands who have learned to harness its power. It’s a cost-effective marketing tactic and is here to stay.

Take Your Influencer Marketing Strategy to the Next Level

Since influencer marketing is constantly evolving, staying updated on current trends is important to stay relevant. Leverage the five most important influencer marketing trends listed in this post to gain a competitive edge in 2024.

When leveraged properly, these trends can help you build stronger relationships with your audience and increase customer loyalty.

Need help with your influencer marketing efforts? Use Attrock’s influencer marketing services to run high-converting campaigns that deliver real results.