A recent study shows just how much the influencer marketing industry has grown over the last few years, with agency Matter Communications reporting that 81% of consumers reporting that social media posts from influencers, friends or family members drove interest in an item or service within the past year.
Among the categories of content that played a role in the growth, food and beverage lead the way in terms of interest and converting to action. Not far behind were the categories health and wellness, and beauty and personal care, which supplanted technology, who held the spot back in 2020.
With a number of platforms creating viable pathways for influencer marketing campaigns, 36% of consumers placed YouTube at the top of the list.
Some more interesting takeaways:
- 69% of consumers trust influencers, friends and family over information coming directly from a brand
- Insider Intelligence projects that advertiser spend on influencers will top $6 billion in the year 2023
- tutorials being most preferred (42%) forms of content
- stories with digestible bits of information is behind that at 35%
- photo or image-based posts with information in the caption is behind that at 33%
In regard to the creators that consumers connected with, familiarity is paramount, as 61% of those surveyed find relatable personalities most appealing, followed by expert personalities (43%), just-for-fun personalities (32%) and aspirational personalities (28%).
However, in an interesting twist preference for celebrity influencers is at a mere 11%, down from 17-22% from the same report back in 2020.
The report certainly illustrates the growing success of influencer marketing, and why we are seeing content creator marketplace as well as influencer marketplace brands pop up in recent years, along with talent agencies specifically geared for content creators
