The projections are officially set for influencer marketing in 2023. *Drum roll, please!* The influencer marketing industry is set to reach $21.1 billion in 2023, and that’s up from a $16.4 billion projection in 2022. 

As a recap, influencer marketing is a form of marketing on social media in which businesses and brands partner with influencers of various impact levels to promote their brand, products, and services. This can be an effective way to market to a niche or broad audience.

To provide a sense of the current state of influencer marketing, we’re going to cover the highlights of Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2023 report and then give you our hot tips for making influencer marketing work for you and your biz in 2023.

Here are some of the key takeaways from this year’s research:

• More than 83% believe influencer marketing is effective.
• 67% of those with an influencer-marketing budget plan to increase it in 2023.
• Almost a quarter (23%) of respondents plan to spend 40% or more of their marketing budget on influencer-marketing campaigns.
• More businesses prefer to work with nano (39%) and micro (30%) influencers compared to macro influencers (19%) and celebrities (12%).
• 42% of businesses pay influencers, while 30% exchange a free product instead.
• TikTok has surpassed Instagram as the top channel for influencer marketing.

Top 3 Tips for Your 2023 Influencer-Marketing Strategy

At NEAT, we leverage relationships with influencers for our clients’ marketing and PR purposes all.the.time. Here are the top three things we want you to keep in mind as you plan and execute on your influencer-marketing strategy for 2023:

1. Both sides want a fair deal. Brands are disappointed when influencer posts don’t translate into results, and influencers are looking for a fair value exchange. Whether you’re the business or the influencer, you should be playing fair and doing what you can to hold up your end of the deal. If there’s an imbalance in value exchange, the relationship will suffer and the collab won’t last.
2. Set reasonable goals and expectations around content creation and the outcome of the partnership. Businesses—don’t think a $100 product entitles you to 30 pieces of original content. Be clear upfront what you expect from the influencer! Influencers—don’t be afraid to ask exactly what the expectation is so that you can know how to hold up your end of the deal. Consider signing a contract so everything’s laid out for both parties.
3. Does the influencer’s audience align with the brand? Both parties should be considering whether the collaboration is truly a good fit before working together. For example, imagine a perfume brand hiring a bikini model to promote a new fragrance, but the model’s audience is 90% men who are there for bikini pics and bikini pics only. Will her audience REALLY buy the perfume? Probably not. If it’s not a good fit, nobody really wins. 

Influencer marketing is a growing market, and if you’re a business whose ideal clients spend time on social media, then there’s a good chance this strategy could be a win for your brand. Give it a try and give us a shout if you need help!
If you’re ready to take action in your next level of business, book a call with us!