Gone are the days when celebrities and royalty were the sole trendsetters. Now those shoes are being filled by influencers. They have become the primary drivers of new trends. From clothes to eating habits, people follow what a lifestyle influencer does and promotes.
79% of consumers favor influencer content over celebrity advertisements because they see influencers as more authentic.
Want to know what makes lifestyle influencers so convincing?
63% of these consumers value the transparency and honesty in influencer content, 57% appreciate that influencers are more relatable, and 53% are drawn to the personal stories shared by influencers.
In this article, we’ll study the reasons why lifestyle influencers have such a strong hold on trends and show you how brands can find lifestyle influencers within their niche. We’ll also share some influencer marketing examples that brands can take inspiration from.
What is a Lifestyle Influencer?
Lifestyle influencers share their routine, daily lives, interests, and opinions on social media with their followers. The key difference between lifestyle influencers and other influencers is that lifestyle influencers cover a broad range of topics related to everyday life. They promote their lifestyle through content they share about their routine.
When lifestyle influencers collaborate with various brands for sponsored posts, they tend to partner with a wide range of brands. This is because their content covers multiple aspects of daily life.
Followers follow them religiously for advice and look to them for purchase decisions.
The ability to set and impact trends mostly depends on how many followers a lifestyle influencer has. For example, with nano and micro lifestyle influencers you get limited reach but a dedicated (and highly targeted) audience as well as high chances of engagement, which is not the case with macro and mega lifestyle influencers. With the latter, you gain a broad reach and more awareness but that may not necessarily translate to engagement or sales.
Benefits of Working with Lifestyle Influencers
So now we know that influencers have a strong connection with their followers. This connection is based on relatability, mutual interests, and authentic expression of opinions.
But why do people take up things promoted by influencers? It is because of the candid nature of the content. Followers see them as more genuine—when they promote a product, as opposed to brushed-up celebrity content that seems insincere and commercially driven.
Clearly, brands gain many advantages working with lifestyle influencers, let’s discuss a few major ones:
- Lifestyle influencers are very particular about the content they share because they want to create a uniform lifestyle perception. This enhances the authenticity of the brands they represent.
- As lifestyle content creators mostly have a specific audience demographic, this allows brands opportunities for more targeted marketing efforts.
- Their personal connection with followers, allows lifestyle influencers to achieve higher engagement rates.
- Lifestyle influencers, especially if they’re nano and micro have a die-hard following—so to speak. This deep loyalty among their followers can be extended to brands that partner with them.
- Influencers are known for knowing their followers inside out, so they also know what their followers like, love, and hate. This helps them bring in better market insights and allows companies to create targeted content which in turn translates to higher sales.
Top Five Lifestyle Influencers to Follow in 2024
Take a peep at our pick of the top five lifestyle influencers to follow in 2024. These top influencer brands are ruling social media with their creative content that highlights their unique lifestyles.
1. Zach King
Zach is an artist renowned for his “magic vines”—six-second videos digitally edited to create the illusion of magic. He describes them as “digital sleight of hand.” Zack’s videos truly give a magical viewing experience.
Due to Zach’s innovative content, he has earned over 90 million followers on TikTok. This makes him one of the platform’s most-followed individuals. His creativity and engaging content, along with achievements like winning the Hewlett-Packard commercial contest and participating in ‘The Amazing Race’, make him a must-follow figure.
2. Lauren Singer
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Lauren Singer is an American environmental activist and entrepreneur deeply embedded in the zero waste movement. She gained attention for her unique approach of keeping all her waste since 2012 in a 16oz mason jar.
Lauren’s blog, Trash Is for Tossers, chronicles her zero-waste journey. She founded Package Free and The Simply Co., innovating in sustainable consumer products. Lauren’s activism and career, including a Ted Talk and her role as Managing Partner at Overview Capital, focus on environmental sustainability. Her platforms, including Package Free and Trash Is for Tossers, offer valuable insights and tools for those looking to reduce waste and align with environmental values.
3. Chris Burkard
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If you love photography, you must follow Chris Burkard. He is a genius photgrapher known for his exceptional photography and artistic talent. He specializes in capturing landscapes, lifestyle, surf, outdoor, and travel subjects. What makes Chris’ photography unique is that he employs a photojournalistic approach to his photography along with natural light to humanize moments.
Raised in San Luis Obispo, California, and influenced by the ocean and water sports, Burkard developed a unique photographic style to express the movement of water and life’s dynamic moments. His early career involved working as a freelance photographer, contributing to numerous magazines like Surfer Magazine and National Geographic Adventure, and collaborating with brands like Patagonia. Burkard’s journey from self-taught beginnings to a top travel influencer highlights his significant impact in the lifestyle and travel influencer space.
4. Negin Mirsalehi
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Negin has a remarkable journey that began unexpectedly. She stepped into social media influencing on the advice of a friend and is considered to be one of the top lifestyle Instagram influencers alongside of being the CEO of a multi-million dollar company. She started her Instagram in 2012 and quickly became a central figure in the beauty and fashion industry gathering over 4 million followers.
Mirsalehi chooses only about 1% of the offers she receives, which reflects her authenticity and dedication to maintaining a genuine connection with her audience. This strategy has not only earned her partnerships with high-profile brands but also led to her launching Gisou, a successful hair care line, in 2015.
Her story illustrates the power of leveraging social media influence to build a successful brand and the importance of authenticity in the influencer industry.
5. Jess Conte
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Jess Conte is a multifaceted talent known for her eponymous YouTube channel, previously called BauerBirds. She has captivated over 2.3 million subscribers on YT. Her content ranges from engaging get-ready-with-me videos and captivating song covers to entertaining challenges. She started her YouTube journey in December 2011 and quickly made her mark with her debut cover video in January 2012.
Jess’s versatility is further highlighted by her covers of artists like Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber, making her a must-watch influencer for 2024.
How to Find Lifestyle Influencers That Fit Your Niche
Considering the time and resources you spend on an influencer marketing campaign, partnering with the right influencer is absolutely crucial. A wrong partnership can not only cost you time and money but may also damage your brand image and reputation.
This is why finding a lifestyle influencer whose style aligns with your brand identity, values, and messaging is an absolute must. So check all the boxes and do your homework before you set out to find the perfect influencer.
Here, we have a list of steps to ensure you cover all the necessary bases before you start searching. Additionally, we have put together tried and tested methods that brands use to find influencers for free and with paid tools.
1. Identify Your Niche
Before looking for the perfect lifestyle influencer, thoroughly identify and define your target market and niche.
Start by asking yourself, “Who benefits most from your product?”
Take the time to visualize and understand your target market’s buying behavior, emotional drivers, and motivations. This approach helps you pinpoint your target customer and choose a lifestyle influencer who aligns with your consumer’s persona, further defining your niche
To gain a deep understanding of your niche, look into your brand identity, check out what makes your product special, and concentrate on your ideal customer.
2. Set Your Goals
Set clear goals so they guide and help you determine if an influencer aligns with your requirements.
Imagine this, if one of your goals is to increase brand awareness and reach, ideally, you should look for an influencer with a large and engaged following. Setting a clear goal will help you identify a similar lifestyle influencer quickly.
Once you’ve set your goals, define metrics and benchmarks to measure the success of the campaign. Metrics could include engagement rate, conversion rate, or reach, depending on your goals.
Benchmarks are equally important, as they provide a standard for comparison for your campaign. This could be industry averages or your own past campaign performances. By comparing your campaign’s performance against set benchmarks, you can assess its effectiveness and make informed decisions for future collaborations.
3. Start Searching
Once you have your ideal customer and have clear goals, now it’s time to start searching for a lifestyle influencer who meets all the set criteria.
There are many ways you can search and find influencers for free.
- Search manually using popular hashtags related to lifestyle and use social platform search filters.
- Go through your followers and search for lifestyle influencers already interested in or using your products. Maybe they mentioned your product on their social media page.
- Use social listening tools, search location tags, and explore similar creators to find suitable influencers.
- Use an influencer marketing management platform like Glewee (which has over 10,000 pre-vetted influencers) to find the perfect influencer for your brand.
4. Do Your Due Diligence
Always remember to differentiate between vanity metrics and meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) while selecting an influencer. “Vanity metrics, such as impressions, can be misleading and don’t necessarily lead to a loyal customer base. Therefore, it’s wise to prioritize engagement rate over follower count.”
Also, try going for nano and micro-influencers if you want to reach a highly targeted and engaged audience.
Once you’ve a shortlist of potential influencers (that match your brand identity and values), reach out to them with a personalized message. Take the time out to research them and highlight how and why your collaboration is mutually beneficial.
Glewee can help with that. Glewee’s influencer marketing software handles your influencer campaigns from start to finish. Plus, you can use it to easily search for, identify, and connect with pre-vetted influencers in your niche. Pretty cool, right?
Identify the ideal lifestyle influencer to represent your brand.
People religiously look towards lifestyle beauty, and fitness influencers for advice on lifestyle, fashion, and fitness. These influencers have a strong hold on their followers due to the trust and authenticity they are perceived to offer, making them indispensable in their respective fields. As a result, these influencers offer numerous marketing opportunities for brands.
Brands gain reach and awareness, otherwise impossible, by working with the right influencer. Although finding influencers can be quite time-consuming and strenuous, Glewee simplifies the process and saves you time.
By partnering with a content creator marketplace like Glewee, you can efficiently penetrate your ideal customer base, as our roster of influencers covers a wide range of audiences and market areas.
So, sign up today and take advantage of Glewee’s new Audience Insights tool. It provides details (you want to know) about an influencer’s audience, including demographics, location, and interests, making your marketing efforts more targeted and effective.
