With the rise of social media and its prevalence in our lives, influencer marketing has gained increasing popularity. If you’re thinking about running an influencer marketing campaign yourself, there are a few things to consider, including what type of influencer provides the most benefit to your brand. In this post, we’ll take a look at everything there’s to know about micro-influencers, why they’re so influential and how you can draw on that influence to meet your marketing goals! As the number of social media platforms increases, influencer marketing has become one of the fastest ways to acquire new customers.
According to the Influencer Marketing Hub, there has been a 325% increase in Google searches for the term “Influencer Marketing” over the past 12 months alone. 37 per cent of digital marketers now dedicate part of their resources to influencer partnerships and collaborations.
Source: Influencer MarketingHub
Influencer marketing has become so hugely successful over the past decade, that we now differentiate between different types of influencers, including micro, macro and mega influencers. What ‘box’ an influencer falls into, makes a huge difference in how they can be of use to you. It also affects how affordable a partnership with them is for your brand.
What is a Micro-Influencer?
Micro-influencers are individuals with a following anywhere between 1,000 and 100,000 people on their Instagram, Twitter or other social media platforms. They operate in a certain niche, are specialists and opinion leaders in an area of their interest, which means they have a highly engaged audience that relies on their content being authentic and trustworthy. Using a micro-influencer in your marketing campaigns may seem a little counterintuitive. After all, why would you use an influencer with a smaller following to meet your marketing goals? Here’s why it’s a smart idea!
Why Choose Micro-Influencers Over Macro-Influencers?
- Micro-influencers have a highly targeted audience
Whilst they may not have as many followers as some well-known mega influencers, what they lack in size they make up for in quality, particularly the quality of their audience. Because having more followers doesn’t always result in higher engagement. Authenticity and relevance are what we’re really after. And micro-influencers can offer both, a highly-targeted audience that trusts the authenticity of their recommendations. That means in the right niche, influencer collaborations can draw a huge amount of attention.
A sustainable fashion brand based in Byron Bay, Indigo Luna draws on a network of local micro-influencers to promote their products on Instagram. Source: @mikaela.alice
- Micro-influencers have their followers' trust
Micro-influencers are often people like “you and me” and that is their strength! Not unlike close friends and family members, we trust their personal recommendations - even if we’ve never met them in ‘real life’. The size of their audience makes them appear more approachable and highly relatable, which gives them greater credibility. Micro-influencers often know their audience on a personal level and as such have their trust when it comes to product recommendations and decision-making. For example, if your brand sells yoga mats, it makes sense to work with a yogi influencer who has a decent following of 6.000 people and regularly shares insights with their community of like-minded yoga fans, as opposed to a fitness influencer with a million fans who’s more into running than practising on a yoga mat. The yogi’s audience is a lot more likely to trust their recommendation and take action, knowing that they are members of the same community.
- Micro-influencers are more affordable
When you first start working with influencers, you might be surprised by just how much some charge for a single promotional post. If this has happened to you before, you probably didn’t pick the right influencer for your brand. Macro influencers can charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for their services, whereas 97 per cent of micro-influencers charge less than $500 for a post.
- Micro-influencers are more likely to achieve conversions
The tight-knit relationships micro-influencers have with their audience, give them a great deal of influence over their followers. Their fans are often a lot more invested in the influencer’s life, too, keeping up with what they’re doing on a day to day basis, and what products they’re using and recommending. Because they don’t have “celebrity status”, their followers are more likely to see their recommendations as genuine. This gives their recommendations much more weight and is more likely to result in conversions.
How Do You Choose The Right Micro-Influencer?
First ask: What are your marketing goals?
Depending on what goal you are pursuing with your campaign, you should pick your cooperation partner wisely. Influencers are a brand of their own and picking the right one for the job is your first step to success. Start with choosing between types of influencers depending on your marketing goal, before you go on to narrow down your search parameters.
Then pick an influencer that’s aligned with your brand
Once you know what type of influencer, micro or macro, matches your campaign goal best, proceed to hand-select a small group of influencers whose followers closely match your target audience. The influencers themselves should be aligned with your brand’s mission and message. If you choose an influencer that does not accurately represent your brand, you risk misrepresentation and damaging the reputation you have worked so hard to build.
Achieve a successful micro-influencer cooperation
The relationship between influencers and their audience is based on authenticity and trust. As a brand, you can take advantage of the tight-night bond between influencer and social media user, to advertise and promote your product. Done right, micro-influencers can become a vital part of your social media marketing efforts. If you want to learn more about influencer marketing, continue reading our latest guide on the topic. Should you have any questions or concerns about applying influencer marketing strategies, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us! We’re looking forward to hearing from you.
