We’ve all seen the exponential rise of the influencer marketing industry grow from strength to strength in recent years.

From beauty gurus to lifestyle bloggers, influencers have taken over social media platforms, and businesses have rushed to capitalise on their power to promote their products and services.

However, as we move into 2023, there's a shift in the influencer landscape, and it's called the de-influencer.

Here’s everything you need to know 💁🏼‍♀️

Things You’ve Missed 🚨

• Tom celebrated his one-year anniversary at V21 with champagne, snacks, and princess balloons.

• The team travelled to Manchester to film with another very exciting new client (More soon!).

• Jack released the dates for his audio event called The Founders Chat. He’s hosting a founder-only event that opens up the floor to discuss the challenges and solutions to founder-wide problems. Check it out, and it would be great to see you there!

• Our CanO Water shoot is coming up next week, and we’ve been getting everything ready for it (We’ll update you with BTS soon!).

• We attended IFE 2023, with hundreds of FMCG brands sharing their food and drink innovations. It was great to meet some of you there! Shout out to KISSD, OGGS and Shicken.

❌ Rise Of The De-Influencer

“I know what an influencer is, but what the heck is a de-influencer?”.

A de-influencer is an influencer who, instead of presenting a highly curated, aspirational lifestyle, shares their unfiltered, imperfect reality.

They're relatable, down-to-earth, and their content feels like a breath of fresh air in a world of perfectly posed Instagram feeds. They're not trying to sell you anything, and they're not pretending to be someone they're not. Instead, they're focused on building a genuine connection with their audience and working with brands that align with their morals, values, and beliefs.

This is the year when the de-influencer takes charge, and businesses need to pay attention. Here's why ⤵

🙇🏼‍♀️ Being Human Is Relatable

Consumers are increasingly cautious of traditional marketing tactics.

They know when they're being sold to, and they're not interested in being bombarded with ads. Instead, they want to feel like they're connecting with a real person who understands their needs and shares their values.

That's where the de-influencer comes in! By sharing their unfiltered experiences, they're showing their audience that they're human. This makes them relatable, and that makes their endorsements feel more authentic. Of course, that’s great for business!

(Our founder, Jack, shares his unfiltered experience of day-to-day business. Sharing his behind-the-scenes photos, low moments, and exciting news - Check him out on LinkedIn).

👑 Micro-Influencers Are Rising

You may have noticed that the influencer market is becoming increasingly saturated. I mean, we’ve all seen the Raid Shadow Legends influencer shout-outs, and even they’re becoming quite tiring.

An emerging trend is the rise of micro-influencers, who have smaller, but significantly higher engaged audiences.

Rather than working with Joe Wicks or Joe Sugg, approach the micro-influencers! They’ll cost you less, reach a more engaged audience, and have an already established fan base that trusts their recommendation.

🎥 What This Means For Your Content

With the rise of the de-influencer, and micro-influencers being the popular choice over 2023, here are a few things that will help to improve your own marketing and overall content online:

• Be Yourself. Don’t try to compete with the biggest businesses, and share the fully transparent journey of your company. The team, the culture, the highs and the lows. Consumers will connect with the honesty and relatability of your marketing!

• Build Relationships. It goes without saying that you should start to connect with small influencers, and not seek out those who have the most followers. Find influencers with genuine, highly engaged audiences that are aligned with your brand values.

• Be A Micro-Influencer. Yes, even you can become one. By sharing the same message day in, and day out, over time you’ll become known for a specific subject matter. Leadership, marketing, you name it. This will allow you to build a much more trustworthy relationship with your audience and could offer potential business opportunities in the future.

• Done Is Better Than Perfect. Spending days creating the perfect video of yourself just isn’t needed anymore. Consumers prefer the uncut, honest, transparent you. Don’t like the way you sound on camera? Who cares. It’s natural, and it’s you!

• Document, Don’t Create. In the famous words of Gary Vaynerchuk, simply put, don’t plan too much. Sure, planning is great for big brand-focused content. But the general day-to-day, culture, team, celebrations, news, and experiences, document them as and when they happen for a true, honest approach.

2023 is the year of the relatable influencer, and if you’re not being the honest, transparent, truthful version of yourself online, you’ll get caught out quickly 👊🏻

See you in next week’s newsletter!

Quick Mention ⭐️

If you want to learn how to create videos that grab attention and convert your highly engaged audience into paying customers, you’ll want to check out our course, Converted.

For the next 48 hours, we're giving 20% off with the code ‘GLITCHED20’ at checkout. Check it out for yourself, and take your videos to the next level.