The pandemic[1] has changed the way we buy products, and the traditional model of influencer marketing will have to change too in 2021 to make sure that it keeps customers engaged.
Influence marketing has matured over the last few years and has reached a critical point in its delivery of results resulting in an uptick by businesses who recognize how valuable influencers are to the enterprise.
San Francisco, CA-based Inpulsus[2] recently announced a new consultancy designed to empower enterprise marketers to self-diagnose their current or forthcoming Influencer Marketing (IM) programs to improve and advance future marketing campaigns.
Its Influence Maturity Quotient (IMQ)[3] looks at categories such as program scope, influencer relations and ability to execute to place influence at the center to unlock growth opportunities that a mature IM strategy can deliver.
A recent report, "Into the Mainstream: Influencer Marketing in Society 2020[4]" from Takumi, quotes that 73% of brands have upped their influence marketing spend this year despite the pandemic.
Additional validation comes from Gartner, where in their latest 2020 CMO Spend Survey[5], which reports that globally CMOs looking to optimize costs have shifted almost 32% of agency work to their own in-house teams, 53% of which was social marketing.
With IM proving itself to be critical for many CMOs, it is tempting to move straight to campaign execution at the expense of a unified IM strategy.
Inpulsus sees untapped potential for many marketers to more fully optimize and scale IM, growing audience engagement and gaining positive results for their businesses.
Inpulsus believes that new ideas in how marketing and business organize around IM internally can unlock vast growth potential. It predicts the following changes will happen