Influencer marketing is still profitable, despite consumer distrust

In the early 2000s, they got their start with MySpace and blogging. In the 2010s, they used YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram. And within the past five years, TikTok has propelled social media influencers into careers as content collaborators and ambassadors for brands hoping to reach the millions of people who follow them.

In general, influencers work with businesses by creating content for companies through paid partnerships. Initially, this happened on a national level that paired large companies with influencers with followers of a million or more. Now, though, local businesses have hopped on the trend. In Springfield, multiple businesses use locally known influencers and content creators to advertise their products, manage social media accounts and create event awareness.

But as the influencer profession grows in popularity, some experts say the actual influence of the job is dwindling. Due to class action lawsuits filed against brands that used influencers who failed to properly disclose their paid partnerships, a 2025 report from the National Advertising Division found consumers distrust influencer marketing more than advertising. And the concept of “influencer fatigue,” where the oversaturation of paid partnership content overwhelms consumers, has created a negative response to influencer marketing – and the influencers themselves – according to an article published last month from Fast Co.

“I wouldn’t say influencer marketing is gone or ineffective at a broad national level,” Jamie Grigsby, associate professor of marketing at Missouri State University, said. “Obviously, people still follow influencers, they still buy the things they are promoting. But as influencers have gotten bigger audiences, the benefit of working with an influencer diminishes.”

Instead of focusing on a national level, Grigsby said influencer marketing sees the most success with micro-influencers, who are more relatable and exist in local communities. Her students work with local businesses, and when they suggest using influencer marketing, she always encourages them to look locally.

“The micro-influencers are really where the best opportunities are for influencer marketing,” Grigsby said. “They are still going to look to their audience like regular people.”

The pairing of a local influencer with a local business, she says, is more appealing to audiences.

“People in Springfield love to see local businesses succeed,” Grigsby said. “If it were a local business pairing with a local influencer most people know from their local everyday life, people would love that. People in Springfield appreciate how successful our small business community is.”

Keeping it local
For Emily Laurie, owner of Scattered Marketing and founder of jewelry business Onie and Sky, using social media micro-influencers catapulted her small bracelet business into a growing brand now owned and operated by Kala and Tyler Headley after Laurie sold the business to them in 2022. The Headleys also own and operate Lala Links Permanent Jewelry and Headley Hat Co.

For some local business owners, social media is something they avoid because they don’t know how to use it. But with no exposure, Laurie said it’s harder for a business to build its brand and trust. After she started Onie and Sky in 2020, she reached out to multiple influencers in the Springfield area to see if they would be interested in working with her.

“You’re going to have to talk about it, especially with a startup,” Laurie said. “You have to be bold and open to failure. There are people I reached out to who never wrote back.”

Laurie was able to reach Baylee Rayl Christophel, a CrossFit Games athlete with over 160,000 followers on Instagram; Hannah McClelland Ruder, owner of Hannah McClelland Media; and Gabrielle Moses, who relocated to California but gained fame in Springfield through YouTube and has over 1 million followers on TikTok. Through their collaborations, Laurie said she saw sales skyrocket, as well as the number of her own social media followers.

“I still truly don’t believe I understand the power of some of those influencers,” Laurie said. “I would have 100 orders come in on a weekend, easily, and I would just go through them. They wanted Baylee’s bracelet, Gabrielle’s bracelet or whoever. When I sold the company two years later, that was part of the buyout: my followers.”

Micro-influencer Hannah McClelland Ruder now works with businesses such as Springfield Smile Doctor, Alamo Drafthouse, Dillard’s and The Press Coffee & Juice Bar. Through paid partnerships, she creates both user-generated content and paid videos the businesses post to their social media platforms. She also takes on businesses as clients and manages their social media accounts through Hannah McClelland Media – something she says is easier to do in a smaller community such as Springfield.

“You can have a lot more sway in community involvement and things that you couldn’t necessarily have in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles,” McClelland Ruder said. “I feel fortunate that I’m even able to throw my name in the hat with this, because if you look at just analytics alone, it doesn’t seem like this is something I could make a career off of.”

The community aspect plays a large role in consumer trust. Micro-influencers, who usually have followings ranging from around 10,000 to 100,000, are seen as more relatable and genuine, according to Forbes. Even though macro-influencers have a broader reach, micro-influencers seem to have more intimate connections with their followers, potentially having more of a sway on their purchasing behavior. A study from Market.us showed micro-influencers have higher engagement rates, with 7.4% compared to 2.4% for macro-influencers

This higher level of engagement hasn’t gone unnoticed. Wild Animal Safari Zoo Director Pati Blain said this was a big reason why the zoo in Strafford works with Missouri-based influencers such as Springfield’s Jaycee Cabasi, who now has just over 100,000 followers on Instagram and is known for making lifestyle content on YouTube with influencer-turned-businessman Jack Brinkman.

“Breaking into our local market has actually been one of the more difficult markets for us to break into,” Blain said. “We do get a lot of transients – on the way to Branson, to and from Branson – we get a lot of that demographic. But getting locals has been a little bit harder for us.”

Blain said increasing the zoo’s exposure through working with micro-influencers has helped with appealing to the local community.

“You can tell people whatever you want, but they’re not always going to believe you at face value because you’re promoting and selling your own stuff,” Blain said. “So, if we can get someone else who they trust independently to verify that, yeah, we are super cool, I think it lends to more authenticity of the experience they can have here.”

A changing culture
Despite concerns about the impact of influencers, Bloomberg reported last month that the budget for influencer marketing continues to grow. According to Adweek, Unilever Global, an international conglomerate that owns Dove, Lipton and Ben and Jerry’s, announced an “influencer-first” marketing strategy that plans to invest as much as 50% of its $9 billion budget into the industry.

Local businesses have also created budgets prioritizing social media content. Dakota Jones, the social media manager for Wild Animal Safari, has close to 25,000 followers on Instagram through his personal account and uses his social media presence to create online discourse about the zoo. While he was working at Snapchat in California, Jones learned about the Wild Animal Safari and reached out to create video content. Now living in Springfield, while working for the zoo, he uses social media as a marketing tool and a way of educating those on social media about animals through reels.

“I think being able to share and highlight those little stories is helping bring in people,” Jones said. “Having those videos we post, being able to show people those parts – I feel like it’s helped put us on the map.”

Websites pairing businesses with content creators, such as Social Cat, Hummingbirds and LTK Connect, have popped up in recent years, making it easier for businesses to find social media influencers.

As a health coach who had done CrossFit before, Laurie shared similar goals as Christophel, who also loved making jewelry. Their combined interest in the others’ business was what led to a successful partnership, Laurie said.

“You find people you like and admire, and you want them to like your stuff,” she said. “They aligned with my values as a business.”

The relationship extends itself, becoming something that is not just between the influencer and the brand, but also between the influencer and their audience, McClelland Ruder said.

“Influencer marketing as a whole needs to feel like a relationship in order to be effective,” McClelland Ruder said. “You have a parasocial friendship with that person. You have these people that you follow that align with who you are as a person now or align with a goal that you might have or maybe a place you want to be in five or 10 years. So, you see some of yourself in that person.”

As the culture of communication continues to change, Laurie and McClelland Ruder said that influencer marketing has shifted, turning into references, like word-of-mouth recommendations between friends. Laurie said that the size or following of an account doesn’t matter – ultimately, it’s the impact of someone’s life on another person.

“I love working with influencers,” she said, “It’s word of mouth and posting, but it’s whenever people show up for other people – that’s influencer marketing to me.”