How micro-influencers are changing the game!

Last week I shared my Top 5 tips on how to work with Influencers. The tips I shared a valuable for anyone wanting to trial influencer marketing for their business, but so often business owners will reach out to mega social media stars and be deterred by the large fees that come with having your product appear in their beautifully curated feeds.

This week - I have your golden ticket!

Let me introduce you to the term 'micro-influencer' and explain how these amazing individuals are changing the marketing landscape in a very powerful way.

Let me unpack the term.

'Micro-influencer' first appeared late 2016, then gained momentum in 2017 before completely exploding in 2018.

Influencer marketing is still fairly new and so a strict definition on this relatively new term is unavailable, however, the term is generally used to described someone with a small but highly engaged following - usually, less than 20,000 followers, sometimes as low as 2,000, on either Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.

To date, micro-influencers make up THE LARGEST PORTION of digital influencers, AND, while they have a small audience, their influence is large!

Here's why...

How Micro-Influencers are changing the game!

1. Super engaged audiences

Micro-influencers (generally) have extremely high levels of engagement from their audiences. Their audience is still growing and they are working hard in the background to build their brand, create more great content, and extend their network. Often, a micro-influencer audience consists of people they know personally. Friends, family, colleagues, professional networks, real-life acquaintances.

I don't know about you, but when someone I know personally says "heh, check out this great thing..." I will go ahead and check it out.

So you can see how beneficial this can be for a brand + micro-influencer collaboration?

Super engaged audience = higher chance of conversion!

For those of us who love our numbers - here are some fast facts!

Influencers who have over 100,000 followers generally average a 1% engagement rate. This equates to 1000 people.

Micro-influencers on the other hand, who may have 10,000 followers, average around 6%. This equates to 600 people.

The cost difference between the two can be extreme, so the additional 400 people you might reach with an influencer, could be 10x the cost.

Which leads me to my next point.

2. Cost-effective

Micro-influencers are HIGHLY cost effective. Their rates are generally much much lower or sometimes are even an exchange of goods.

A Macro-Influencer can charge upwards of $10,000 for branded collaborations. With such large upfront fees, it's fairly rare for this to demonstrate return on investment or be a sustainable marketing strategy for an online business.

An alternate option to consider is investing the same $10,000 and working with potentially 20 different micro-influencers who will collectively reach a wider audience that is highly engaged and on target.

If you are building brand awareness and looking to create a strong presence in the social media space, and a tribe of loyal followers, the micro-influencer path is perfect for you!

3. Great content

Another advantage of working with micro-influencers is they generally create fantastic content.

Consider them the 'kings and queens' of content creation! They are working hard to build their audience, build engagement and to do this, they focus on delivering consistently great content over and over again. Often super creative, innovative and very polished. The perfect playing field for a new brand to enter the arena!

So before you disregard micro-influencers thinking the content will not be up to scratch, think again!

4. Authentic

As an online business owner, you know the value of creating a lasting relationship with your consumer.

With the advancements in technology, consumers now have the world at their fingertips and brands are forced to keep up.

Not only does a business need to remain accessible, but it needs to remain human.

This presents an interesting opportunity, especially for online and small businesses - who have the ability to move and adapt quickly - an advantage over their larger competitors.

Consumers want to get to know a brand. They want to feel a personal connection with a brand and they want to feel valued.

Serving traditional 'push' content can still be effective, but brands who have the most success incorporate this with behind the scenes footage, consumer generated content, and other non-traditional channels like live videos. They take their viewers on a journey, sharing the inside story. They make you feel part of their inner circle. They make you feel valued.

Why is this important? Because micro-influencers are ALL about authenticity.

Often raw, candid, and openly honest - they share authentically with their audience to build connection and a sense of community. This is a powerful tool when harnessed for a brand collaboration, plus, their audience trusts them.

This level of trust is often something a macro-influencer is not able to provide as their audience is too large, and because they often work on a variety of brands.

A micro-influencer is very protective and invested in their community so if they agree to a collaboration, it will be because they genuinely feel your brand is aligned with their audience which in turn, generates a great response for you.

5. Flexible

Macro-influencers can have very rigid T&Cs. Often a brand will have zero input into the content or how the product is displayed. The post goes live and the job is done.

Micro-influencers, however, are much more open to brands being involved in the planning process AND some even provide image proofs in advance for the brand's feedback - before the posts are live.

Platforms like Tribe, aimed at bringing brands and micro influencers together, can even go as far as giving brands approval rights on the posts prior to publishing. If the brand is unhappy with a post, they don't approve it and they don't pay.

If you are looking to have some control over the use of your product in an Influencer post or you would like the relationship to be more collaborative, then micro-influencers is the way to go!

As you can see, there are many strong advantages of working with micro-influencers and if you are new to the influencer game, this is a great low-risk space to start.

Micro-influencers are here to stay!

Hot tip: Look for opportunities to partner with multiple micro-influencers as a potential alternative to spending lots of cash on a macro-influencer.

Like always, remember to monitor and measure your influencer marketing activities and take note of what works well, and what doesn't. Over time you will build up a strong understanding of what your audience loves to see and you can begin incorporating those elements into your strategy, as well as finding more aligned influencers to partner with in the future.

Happy collaborating!