You've heard about influencers or "macro-influencers" — those who can sway a huge audience of hundreds of thousands or even millions of followers on social media. But what about micro-influencers? These people have a smaller audience than influencers, usually between 10,000–100,000 followers. However, they provide your brand with incredible marketing opportunities because of their connection with those who follow them.
Micro-influencer marketing involves working with these content creators to promote your products and services to a wider pool of prospects, helping you increase brand awareness and revenue. Learn more below.
Micro-Influencer Marketing Benefits
Here are some pros of working with micro-influencers:
Cheaper Than Regular Influencer Marketing
Macro-influencers with millions of followers are in high demand by brands like yours, and rightfully so. As a result, expect to pay big bucks for their services. Micro-influencers, on the other hand, are cheaper to work with because they have a smaller audience. That's perfect if you have a limited marketing budget.
Higher Engagement and Conversions
Research shows micro-influencers have up to a 60% increased engagement rate compared to macro-influencers. That can lead to higher conversion rates, allowing you to generate more revenue from the products and services that micro-influencers promote on social media.
Reach More-Specific Audiences
Micro-influencers often have a niche audience that shares similar interests and behaviors compared to macro-influencers who might appeal to a more general group of followers. With micro-influencer marketing, you can target these specific audiences with your offerings.
The Popularity of Micro-Influencers
Social media has already transformed advertising, making it easier for brands to communicate with and sell products to large audiences that can share, like, and comment on their content. Micro-influencers have further disrupted the industry by becoming extremely popular with younger generations and cultivating loyal fan bases who hang onto every word they say. With the right marketing strategy, you can capitalize on the popularity of micro-influencers and redirect your ad budget from more expensive marketing mediums like TV, radio, and print, as well as DTC marketing.
Creating a Micro-Influencer Strategy
Start by defining your advertising goals and target audience. Then identify and select the right micro-influencers for that audience. If you want to sell products to 18–24-year men, work with micro-influencers who resonate with this demographic. The most successful micro-influencer campaigns result in your target audience taking some kind of action, whether signing up for your mailing list or purchasing an item from your online store.
Creating an authentic partnership with micro-influencers is critical. You should understand an influencer's content and audience, and an influencer should know about your brand and its offerings. Base your relationship on trust, transparency, and other shared values. You can improve trust with your audience by disclosing that you are working with a particular influencer.
Finally, you should measure the success of your campaigns regularly by tracking KPIs like audience influence, reach, conversions, and referral traffic. (Though, you'll need the help of the influencers you work with, as mentioned below!)
Challenges and Limitations of Micro-Influencer Marketing
Micro-influencer campaigns don't always go to plan. Influencer fraud, where people pay for fake followers to inflate their audience, can happen. This lack of transparency will jeopardize the reputation of your company.
It can also be difficult to measure the ROI of these campaigns (and regular influencer marketing campaigns) because you need to obtain analytical insights that don't belong to you. A micro-influencer will have to send you screengrabs of their social media analytics so you can determine how audiences reacted to their content.
Final Word
Micro-influencers can be cheaper than regular influencer marketing, generate higher engagement and conversion rates, and help you reach specific target audiences. However, the challenges of this marketing technique include influencer fraud and relying on influencers to help you track your campaigns. One thing's for sure: The future of micro-influencer marketing looks bright, with more brands investing in this method.