Influencer Marketing Trends for 2023: What the Industry Experts Are Saying

2023 is promising to be a year of rise and fortune for the influencer marketing industry. The industry grows year by year: from 2016 to 2022, its average annual growth rate was 46.9%. In 2023, the industry is predicted to reach $17.4B. You can compare it to $15.2B in 2022.

So, what exactly will be happening in the influencer marketing field? What should brands consider to build successful strategies? How will consumers and influencers behave and act? What will be trending? The experts in the industry give the answers.

AI And Machine Learning

This is the biggest and most expected (and most frequently predicted) trend of 2023 for the influencer market industry.

Tech developments are already a big part of the influencer marketing landscape. In 2023, they will get even more space and attention as they are going to have an even bigger impact on influencer marketing.

Technological innovations grow faster and faster each year, and with that, AI affects traditional methods of influencer marketing more and more.

Businesses that still haven’t adopted AI and machine learning eventually will be forced to do so: the market doesn’t tolerate laggards.

The earlier a brand adopts technologies that help make its influencer marketing efforts more efficient, the more likely it will be to get ahead of competitors.

This is what Pavel Beinia, CEO & co-founder of BuzzGuru, predicts:

“The demand in high-tech in the influencer market industry is going to increase. Brands and marketers need more transparency and data to rely on, they need figures that don’t lie and can be trusted and estimated. AI and influencer marketing software such as the BuzzGuru platform are going to become irreplaceable automated marketing assistants, gathering and arranging information about influencers and their performance, their audiences and the audiences’ behavior; making all the calculations and designing reports at the snap of a finger; helping research markets, analyze competitors, and manage ad campaigns with social media influencers.”

Feross Bessadeg, travel expert and the founder of Travelness, agrees that high-tech will become even more important for marketers:

“I'm expecting that Influencer Marketing will become even more powerful in 2023, as new technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) start to appear. AR and VR will be used to create immersive experiences that can be shared with a wide audience, allowing influencers to get their message across in a much more effective way.

As for marketers, they will need to have a better understanding of how to leverage influencers and their messages in order to reach the right audience. This means that marketers will need to be smarter about targeting campaigns and optimizing content accordingly. They’ll also need to invest in new technologies such as AI and machine learning in order to gather more data about their customer base in order to deliver better results for their campaigns.”

Ryan Bolling, Behavior Analyst & CEO of Bolling Behavioral Consulting, adds that existing influencer marketing platforms are going to improve:

“Influencer marketing tools and platforms will continue to evolve in 2023. We can expect new ways of tracking performance, creating content, and managing collaborations with influencers. These tools will make the process of influencer marketing easier and more efficient for both marketers and influencers.”

Ronald Ander, the CEO of SEOAnt, expects more influencer marketing tools to appear as the market needs more data and transparency than ever:

“Brands will be demanding more analytical power that enables them to track performance better. In this regard, we should expect to see more analytical tools and features being introduced in 2023.”

Cross-Channel And Combined Marketing

Usually, influencer marketing is seen as a separate independent channel. Moreover, promotion on each social media platform can be considered independent.

But as time goes by, more and more brands start to understand that the real power is always in unity, and this case is not an exception.

Integrating influencer marketing with other marketing methods and channels, and building an all-encompassing comprehensive strategy brings the best results.

Understanding this, in 2023, more marketers and brands will use cross-channel marketing and combine, even merge, influencer marketing with other marketing activities, such as performance marketing.

Nadia Bubennikova, Influencer Marketing Leader at Famesters, explains it and gives an example:

“In 2023, more and more brands will tend to get away from the regular ad format with influencers that includes a single post on their channel/account. The new trend will be testing a format that combines the publication of a creator’s content and a performance component.

For example, the new combined TikTok ads launch can be divided into two parts. The first part is a publication of a TikTok video with ads with a guarantee of a particular number of views gathered in two weeks. At the same time, the influencer places a link to the product in their profile. The second part starts after these two weeks: it’s the promotion of the same influencer’s video through Spark Ads managed via a TikTok advertising account.

This way you can target the influencer’s video (and not just some content created by a brand, as in regular cases) to the target audience you need, increase the coverage of the published video and get a direct link in the video itself, and not in the influencer’s profile. Consumers trust influencers more than brands – 61% vs 38%, so this kind of targeted ads is more effective.”

Jessica Kats, e-commerce and retail expert at Soxy, adds more on the topic:

“On average, a social media user engages with six to seven social media platforms. As businesses are starting to consider this factor, it is becoming unavoidable to shake off the use of cross-channel campaigns. It is why, from 2023 on, we will see a rise in these campaigns from influencers in order to reach a larger audience for the brands and increase their revenue stream.”

Rodney Warner, CEO of Connective, agrees:

“In 2023, a rise in cross-channel marketing is expected. In today’s world, users easily get bored, which is why they engage with multiple platforms back and forth. This behavior pattern has opened up opportunities for cross-channel platforms. Brands would collaborate with influencers across various platforms to help boost engagement levels.”

Micro-Influencers Remain in High Demand

A year ago, experts declared 2022 to be the year of the rise of micro-influencers. This time, they say, in 2023, micro-influencers will strengthen their position even more. The figures speak for themselves.

Pavel Beinia, CEO & co-founder of BuzzGuru, sees the situation like this:

“Brands and marketers have already had a taste of how effective and profitable working with influencers can be. It especially concerns micro-influencers: they have been on the rise for a while, and in 2023, their relevance is not going to decrease: 77% of brands want to engage them in ad campaigns. On the contrary, micro-influencers’ popularity among advertisers will increase even more, as well as their number.”

The opportunities that working with micro-influencers opens for brands attract more small businesses that may have been uncertain about influencer marketing and collaborating with big names.

Trevor Sookraj, CEO of Divisional, sees the direct correlation between more small businesses engaging in influencer marketing and micro-influencers being in demand:

“We’ll see a lot more small businesses get involved with influencer marketing. Businesses are starting to realize that influencer marketing doesn’t mean you have to partner with the most well-known, high-follower-count influencers, rather you just have to partner with people who share the same audience. So, we’ll likely see an increase in the use of micro-influencer partnerships with small businesses.”