A Look Back at How Influencer Marketing Has Changed Over the Years 

It might feel like influencer marketing has been around forever, but the reality is that in its current form, it’s only been around for around 10 years. But those 10 years have been filled with changes and growth that no one would have predicted at the outset! Let’s take a look at how Influencer Marketing has changed over the years!

The Social Media Landscape Has Changed for Influencers

In the beginning, blogs and YouTube were the main sources of Influencer style content as we know it today. It was fresh, brand new and barely felt like an industry. Brands started to realise the power of influencers and their platforms, especially when driving sales and brand awareness. Rather than finding an audience to sell to, they could capitalise on the relevant audience that influencers had built.

Now, influencers are on every channel – and they’re expected to be, too. From podcasts to YouTube, TikTok to Instagram and Clubhouse to Pinterest, they need to diversify to reach new audiences, create new content and stay relevant.

Different Types of Influencers

In the beginning, it was more about numbers and less about niches and engagement. Followers and likes were all that really mattered (which led to some influencers sometimes faking it). Now, you can be considered an influencer even if your follower numbers are in the low thousands rather than the millions. If you’re influential in your niche, or you have expertise that followers trust, then you’re an influencer.

Influencer Marketing Has Become The Norm

In some industries, it’s now the norm to work with influencers, particularly if you’re launching a new product. Some brands have literally started with nothing but influencer marketing. It’s rare to see a brand start without influencer marketing as part of its marketing strategy. And it makes sense. You get user-generated content, brand awareness and reviews of your product without the pressure of having to do it yourself.

Bigger Budgets

As influencer marketing has grown, brand budgets for it have done so too. 18% of brands are regularly spending $100-500,000 per year on influencer marketing. We’ve all seen the evolution from PR parcels to huge, immersive brand trips and events. These have been on ice for the last 18 months, but they look set to start up again as we all start moving back into the world.

More Focus on Authenticity

As people become more familiar with influencer marketing, they’ve sought to align themselves with influencers that really resonate. They understand that a lot of the time, influencer marketing is a business decision and want to look a little deeper than that to find influencers whose opinion they can trust.

It’s Now a Career Option

Before influencer marketing was defined, it wasn’t really an option to be a full-time content creator. But now people really understand the opportunities that come with being an influencer, and more people are considering it as a full-time career option from the start.

Content Quality (and expectations) Are Higher

As technology, skills and budgets have improved, so has the content out there. Early influencer content looked low-quality and homemade, but now the stakes are so much higher, and people have been doing it longer. The quality of content across all channels is slick, professional and tailored to their audience.

Influencer Marketing is an ever-evolving landscape, we have highlighted just some of a few ways in which has Influencer Marketing Changed over the past 10 years, and we expect many more to come!

Get in touch to find out more about how we can use Influencers to elevate your brand!