Influencer Marketing: 2022’s Top Trends + Design Tips

“Influencer”. There are so many shades to this one word. No matter who you are in the world and what you do, you have heard this word daily for the last couple of years, if not more.

What most people take lightly is actually a marketing growth hack. This fact is now becoming fast knowledge amongst all brands and marketers. 

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing channels in the world right now, and there is no dispute about it. Influencers do it all – driving engagement, securing brand awareness, and even driving sales. A world without them is unimaginable for brands and marketers today. 

But the fact remains that this is a growing marketing tool at quite a nascent stage, and trends keep changing. Since every brand is investing in influencer marketing today, it pays to stay ahead of the game by understanding 2022’s influencer marketing trends. 

In this blog by Kimp, you will not just understand 2022’s leading influencer marketing trends but understand how to ace influencer marketing as well.

Before that, let’s take a quick detour to understand the state of influencer marketing in 2021 and how the future looks for 2022. 

Let’s get into it.

The State of Influencer Marketing: 2021 and 2022 Statistics

Brands today should not have any apprehension about investing in influencer marketing. This marketing tactic has proven itself repeatedly. But, if you still have some, this section is just for you. 

We bring you a roundup of the most convincing statistics about influencer marketing for 2021 and what you can expect in 2022. 

Based on an Influencer Marketing Hub 75% of brands that invest in influencer marketing have seen a positive impact in terms of engagement, revenue, and impressions. 

The rest of the brands seem to have struck out in choosing the right influencer or the content model. The good news is that this is easy to mitigate the problem. 

Over 56% of brands use the same influencer in all their campaigns. This means that one-off partnerships will soon be a thing of history, while long-term associations and ambassadorship will take over.

But where are they all launching these influencer campaigns? 

Well, the crowd favorite, as always, seems to be Instagram. But, the surprise package of 2020 and 2021 seems to be TikTok with a heavy presence of influencers on the network. Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn seem to be the contenders following these two platforms.

Source: Shopify

In terms of growth, influencer marketing has grown to be a 13.8 billion dollar industry in 2021. 

The numbers are quite big, aren’t they? Well, it only makes sense that the competition is going to be even stiffer in this segment as the days pass.

So what should you do to stay ahead?

Designing your Influencer marketing Strategy in 2022 

Design, plan, and strategize – these three actions can save you in all marketing campaigns, and influencer marketing is no exception to this. 

In a world where influencer fraud is real, measuring ROI from influencer campaigns is a growing concern, and marketing budgets have to handle multiple channels. How do you ace influencer marketing?

How can you ensure that your influencer marketing campaign helps you: 

  • Gain access to a new audience 
  • Improve brand awareness
  • Enhance your sales and revenue channels 
Follow these steps, and you will never go wrong again:
  1. Define your goals for the influencer marketing campaign clearly before even choosing an influencer. Is it awareness? Is it direct sales, or is it PR? What do you want?
  2. Define your budget. Influencer marketing has a very wide range, and there is a lot more to it than paying the influencer. You must account for your design team, marketing team, and other personnel costs, too. 
  3. Pick the right influencer. Who is the right influencer, you ask? The right influencer is relevant to your brand, shares a common target audience base, and most importantly, fits your design’s brand identity/voice/language. 
  4. Share your brand style guidelines and a potential mood board with your influencer partner. If you have chosen a micro-influencer and feel that the production value can be better, talk it out and reach a consensus. 
  5. Define the working process from creation to approval to avoid bottlenecks when the campaign goes live.

6 Top Trends in Influencer Marketing 2022 + Design Tips 

When we know little about something, we fear it and stay away. For a long time, this was the case with brands/marketers on influencer campaigns. A non-celebrity with such a big hold on the audience was unheard of. But, slowly, brands engaged in this new form of marketing, and most had some significant results. 

The boom in the creator economy now has coincided with the evolution of influencer marketing as well. This unorganized industry has sprouted new feathers and transformed into a professional and standardized business world.

This section by Kimp aims to familiarize everyone with the most happening trends in Influencer marketing for 2022. By the end, you will have a clear sense of what to do with your influencer marketing budget this year. 

So with no further delay, let’s dive right into it. 

1) Supremacy of Audio and Video content 

We have said this a lot of times, but here we go again. Audio and video content will rule the content marketing space for many years. Its growing dominance in influencer marketing is also noteworthy. Consumers are engaging with video content and podcasts more, so obviously, influencers working these channels have higher success rates. 

Consumers are now opting for immersive and engaging experiences instead of typical sales campaigns. They are turning to educational podcasts and engaging videos from their favorite influencers for that. 

This is great news for brands because an increase in video view rates translates into higher sales. But, we also know that social media platforms have seen an explosion in video content rates and 2022 is the year to focus on standing out. How do you do that? 

Before we answer that, check this video.

This is an influencer marketing campaign by Fiji Water created with fitness influencers working on the angle of hydration. The key to note is the production value, adherence to brand style guidelines, and being a great video to view overall. 

That is what you must aim for. 

And if your influencer needs guidance or help on this, ensure you extend it: you will immensely benefit from it. 

Kimp Tip: Work with your design team to include captions, text overlays, and transition effects to your influencer video. Share a clear set of guidelines on what you expect. You can also create a mockup so that there is no confusion. 

If you worry that this will increase costs, Kimp Video offers animated videos and video editing within its monthly subscription itself at no additional cost. Book a call now to know more! 

2) Micro Influencers FTW 

Everyone who can drive a sales decision is an influencer. But there is more to it when you enter the world professionally. From nano influencers (less than 10k followers) to celebrities (>1 million followers), this world is quite big. So, how do you choose for your influencer marketing campaigns in 2022?

According to the influencer marketing hub, micro-influencers or those with less than 25 000 followers are the sweet spots. They have a highly engaged and personal audience so that the message is genuine and not sales-y. Their engagement rates are some of the best you will see in the industry and are a vast improvement on the mega influencer or celebrity influencer number. 

These influencers also are very niche-specific, and the target audience you get is more or less what you look for in a customer.

Finding these influencers can be a challenge, though. One fix is to directly understand from your audience who their favorite influencers are. You can host a LinkedIn Poll, Instagram Stories AMA, or a Twitter poll, too. Chances are they will quote micro-influencers, and the best one will lead by a huge margin. 

Kimp Tip: Even though the micro-influencers are niche-specific, it bodes well to show them how to represent your products and brand the right way. More often than not, this content can go on your feed too, so pay attention to the quality.

Looking to edit an influencer’s post or video for your brand? Book a call with the Kimp Graphics+ Video team to understand our range of services.

Above Ralph Lauren features a Paralympic athlete/influencer as part of their latest campaign.

3) Demand for Real Content is on the rise 

Given how social media is the biggest channel for influencer marketing, it is not surprising that a major social media trend is making its way here, too. The need for brands to get real is quite real right now. Customers, especially Gen Z and Millennials, no longer want to see manicured ads and polished words. In fact, most of them have blocked ads from appearing and/or regularly report them. Influencer marketing and organic reach are your only hope here.

And even in those, they expect a real connection with the brand, unpolished stories, and genuinely helpful content. As a brand, it is your responsibility to find an influencer team that can deliver this. 

Encourage your influencers to be authentic and share information outside of the one single post about your product. 

But for this, you must do a little background work too. Prepare catalogs, FAQ guides, landing pages, and datasets that the influencer can leverage in their outreach campaigns. You can also generate web traffic via this if your partner goes online on Instagram Stories or Snapchat with the links. 

Check out the video above for Hydroflask by the Instagram influencer Andrea Hannemann. This shows an unedited version of their life and how the products help them in that lifestyle. Andrea has a highly engaged audience, and you can see how the comments are all genuine questions about the product. 

This is how Influencer marketing will evolve, so equip your Influencers with the material to answer your audience’s questions honestly. 

Influencer marketing is a long-term partnership, and brands must also be willing to put in the work. Need help in getting ready for your influencer marketing campaign? 

Consider a flat fee Kimp Graphics or Kimp Video subscription! Or get a Kimp Graphics + Video subscription for even more savings. 

4) Shoppable content 

Social commerce is here and how. With just a tap, your customers can now buy your products even without visiting your ecommerce store. But what do you do when most of your social media sales come from influencers? 

As it so happens this is a concern for many growing businesses on social media. That is why the next influencer marketing trend of 2022 is shoppable content in influencer marketing. 

Having shoppable videos and shoppable content from influencer channels can also improve the authenticity of the content. Looking for credits on styling, clothes, accessories, and more on these posts is a common trend now. Customers are more likely to tap on influencer posts than branded page posts. 

However, in this case, the influencer’s post becomes your de facto product catalog, so ensure that they stick to the brand’s style guideline. 

Kimp Tip: If you are an influencer marketing agency, work with a design team for professional editing services for your content. Especially for shoppable content where the delivering metric is usually sales and revenue. The better your video looks, the more clicks you get. 

By signing up for the Kimp Graphics and Kimp Video unlimited design subscriptions, you can get your influencer videos edited by a professional design team. And get a ton of other designs done for your campaigns too!

Above you’ll see how YouTube rolled out Google shopping links for paid partnerships. Shoppable content will only grow from here. 

5) AR in Influencer Marketing 

AR is heavily popular for trying out products, virtual challenges, filters, and more. Brands have leveraged this by creating custom experiences for their audiences.So why should influencers be behind? 

Influencers, too, can bring your brand to the forefront by promoting your latest AR campaign on social media. Since these influencers have a higher reach and engagement rate, you will see a higher ROI than running the campaign alone. 

In the content that the influencer delivers, you can either edit your AR branding or share the tools with them directly. You can also combine AR with shoppable content and more for the best results. 

One example to bring the magic of AR to your influencer marketing is to get the influencer to interact with your brand’s mascot (you really should have one) for an immersive experience. With these design strategies, you can elevate your influencer marketing and stand out amidst the crowd.

6) Cross-Channel Influencer Marketing 

Did you think the Influencer market will be all about Instagram in 2022 too? Well, as you can see from our statistics, recap itself other platforms are fast catching up. Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and LinkedIn will be the platforms where influencer marketing comes out of its shell and shines. 

How does the 2022 Influencer marketing year impact you? Well, you can no longer expect to activate just one channel for your marketing campaigns and see results. The time is here to have a cross-channel influencer marketing strategy in place for a better customer experience. 

If possible, you can work with the same influencer across all platforms, so pick the right influencer. But that said, the content itself will need some modifications to suit the needs of each channel.

Wondering what cross-channel marketing is? Check out our guide

Ace Influencer Marketing in 2022 with Kimp 

Are you looking to step up your investment in influencer marketing in 2022? Wondering how to make the most of it and get the best possible ROI for your business? We strongly feel that a cohesive branding and marketing design strategy is the secret to success. 

And with Kimp Graphics and Kimp Video subscriptions, you do not have to pay anything extra for all that. Within your subscriptions, you can edit, revamp, and enhance your influencer content. 

So why wait? Sign up for the free trial.