Influencers Marketing: The State of the Market in 2021

Influencer marketing was an established growth trend in the past few years. In 2019, the industry size reached $8 billion in advertising revenues, shows a Business Insider report.

The market state in 2021 sits between two opposing pressures. 

One, the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic led to decisions to cut advertising budgets. This, along with travel bans put a dent on the rate of growth. Despite this, industry experts see the size of the market recovering. The projection for 2022 is that revenues would grow to as high as $15 billion. 

This market is still relatively small in comparison to global ad spending in all categories.

However, influencer marketing is taking bigger bites out of an industry with an annual turnover of above $614B in 2020. While both global advertising on all media and influencer marketing slowed their growth in 2020, the share of influencer marketing may continue to grow. 

Influencer marketing has expanded to all social media and streaming platforms. Organized marketing is also boosting engagement, and the sector’s growth may hinge on the business model chosen by newly emerged platforms for influencer marketing. We picked some of the emerging business models attempting to make the most of social media and streaming through content and technology. 

Influencer marketing goes beyond well-established brands, and helps build up new niches and communities.

One of the most challenging niches is cryptocurrency and blockchain-based startups, where the need for a clear message must overcome the generally chaotic communication and occasional scammers masking as influencers.

Quotidian Marketing

Quotidian Marketing is a popular marketing agency with specialization in influencer marketing for blockchain and cryptocurrency start-ups.

Supporting brands seeking to build valuable connections with niche audiences, Quotidian Marketing consistently over-delivers on client expectations by applying flexible solutions to maximize campaign ROI.

“We create long-lasting relationships by first listening to our clients. We open a dialogue, not a monologue, so that we can immerse ourselves in businesses to find creative, effective solutions for realizing goals. Our marketing strategy is determined by the needs and the budget of our client, as well - there is no one-size-fits-all marketing strategy, and every client has a unique company culture. Generally, we integrate both traditional and guerilla marketing tactics into a comprehensive plan focused on deepening customer loyalty and helping our client capitalize on new growth opportunities,” said founder Brian Colwell.

With experience in marketing blockchain start-ups from token sale to mainnet and beyond, Quotidian Marketing repeatedly earns trust by sharing it’s resources, expertise and knowledge with others.

Soul Machines 

Soul Machines aims to harness the chief appeal of influencer marketing, which is the actual interaction with a human being. But Soul Machines goes the extra mile, harnessing modern AI technology. 

Soul Machines has the advantage of always having new influencer faces at hand - by digitally creating them. Using proprietary technology, the company offers packages of appealing, interactive, filly digitally created humans. 

“We aim to reimagine customer engagement, giving brands an actual interactive face,” said Dr. Mark Sagar, CEO of Soul Machines. “Our products are open for commercial or educational communication, and already change multiple industries,” he added. 

Soul Machines for now works at scale, offering brand re-imagining for multiple industries, including finance, real estate, education and others. The disadvantage is that AI-generated persons diverge from influencer marketing, and create a brand image with a different aesthetic in comparison to organic content. 

Hashtag Paid

Hashtag Paid, or #paid as it is also known, takes another angle on influencer marketing. Content is king with this platform, as some influencers are actually talented and involved creators of multiple types of content. 

Hashtag Paid brings both the content and the personality of influencers to businesses.

The startup, around since 2016, also works like an intermediary platform. Businesses can search influencers, while influencers can present their brand, type of content and usual levels of engagement. 

“We offer scalable campaigns for any type of business, through an authentic connection with influencers,” said Bryan Gold, CEO and co-founder of Hashtag Paid.

This model may serve smaller campaigns, depending on the outreach of influencers. However, the outcomes of the campaigns are not centrally tracked. Hashtag Paid has done the work of vetting the influencers for being authentic. The database of influencer names also presents the usual target audience for those social media channels. 

Hashtag Paid offers a bigger choice, but in the end it is the business that selects and takes risk with the real-world influencers. The service is somewhat limited in terms of consulting and hinges on the general state of influencer marketing. 

ExpertVoice

ExpertVoice also offers a database of pre-vetted or volunteer influencers, but with added value in selection and tracking tools.

The goal of ExpertVoice is to help clients track not only generic influencers, but those that are the most potentially impactful to their target audience. 

In addition to vetting content and influencers, ExpertVoice offers tracking tools to make sure the campaign has the intended impact. 

“We are in the midst of a drive that will change retail, consumer behavior and the way brands are made,” said Tom Stockham, CEO of ExpertVoice. “Recommendations, vetting and targeting will help any business find their target audience in a complex online environment,” he said.

The advantage of ExpertVoice is the possibility for a campaign at any stage, from product launch to improving sales or tweaking customer experience. 

In Closing

Influencer marketing has shored up multiple formats, from written content to TikTok dances. Within those formats, there exist multiple aesthetics and forms of communication. Influencer marketing is both potentially highly localized and with a global impact.

The possibility for local, regional or global outreach opens up the space for multiple startups to curate and present the most suitable influencers. 

As the industry matures and the 2020 setback is compensated, new startups will start building up their portfolios, with potential billions of dollars in revenues. In this environment, curation, selection and competent consulting may be key to having the most impact per advertising dollar.

Other complex issues include the timing of the hype cycle for types of digital marketing, as well as content to fit the style and visuals of the latest popular Internet aesthetics.

The year 2021 may also be the time when businesses once and for all leave traditional ads for some forms of Internet or influencer advertising.