By now, you must have also heard about influencer marketing. This industry is not only grabbing headlines; it is estimated that soon it will be worth $10bn.
But despite its popularity, people are talking about how they can improve on it. Often it is hard to keep with the same pace, and you feel like an obsolete personality getting acquainted with something new. As influencer marketing plays a vital role in any marketing campaign, you cannot just leave it out of that innovation bug. This is like a good omen for those who quickly adapt to changes. But those who can’t keep up with new phrases and terms find it tough to cope up.
If you are among the second category, you will be stunned by this new term‘ micro influencer.’ If yes, here we are to help you understand what a micro-influencer is and its benefits in the long run.
Why Micro-Influencers Are In Demand Despite Having A Low Number Of Followers
Association with Micro-influencers is like doing influencer marketing on a limited scale. In micro-influencer marketing, the brands will partner with people who have around 1000 to 10000 followers. These influencers are well known in their niche. Plus, they get high engagement for the audiences. Even brands can increase their reach by associating with these micro-influencers.
But micro-influencers are social media users only. They are not celebrities, experts, or public figures. These people operate in a particular niche and often share content about that niche on social media. As opposed to the traditional influencers, these micro-influencers have a low number of followers- like in thousands or tens of thousands-but they have high engagement audiences.
For example, a fitness influencer will have millions of followers and have several fitness centers. A fitness micro-influencer will have only a few thousand of followers and will occasionally post instruction videos for the followers to practice at home. But any of their posts will get a massive engagement in comparison to their follower base size.
Micro And Macro Influencers
Influencer marketing is when the companies tie-up with top content creators-i.e. people who have millions of followers- and use them to promote their products in front of the influencer’s audience. When such brands associate with the influencers, the companies can establish trust in the mind of the influencer’s audience.
Consumers prefer buying from a trustworthy company. Hence the efficacy of influencers is very high as they use strategies like word of mouth marketing and social proof. Brands usually pat the influencers to post the content related to their product or sponsor the events organized, thus reaching out to the audiences.
A perfect example of influencer marketing is the association between Diageo, a company of whiskey brands Lagavulin and Oban, and actor Nick Offerman. The latter is known for his role as a government official on Parks and recreation. In a 45-minute parody video, you can see Offerman drinking a single malt whiskey right next to a holiday Yule log. This video soon turned viral and got many awards while an older brand was totally sidelined post this.
On the other hand, a micro-influencer has less than average backing in comparison. They usually have less than a lakh follower. But the rate of engagement with the audiences is around 1000 followers. This means that the partnership with a micro-influencer is more valuable for companies who want to increase brand awareness. Micro-influencers will create loads of content that their audience likes, and they are well established in their niche. Companies could partner with them to write posts on product offers, publish reviews or share the product on their social media.
Disadvantages Of Working With Macro Influencers
Many brands have a large number of followers and think that this would help them achieve their goals. But despite this, there are still a few issues to think of.
Cost: As the number of followers increase, the cost of working with an influencer will also rise. This creates a situation where the brands should share all their information in a single piece of content. Though many people see a brand’s sponsored content with the influencer, the number of people who purchase the item is less.
Availability: As they have a large following, macro-influencers remain in high demand. This increased demand means you might get a complicated arrangement that would not yield as quick results as you want.
Authenticity: When the influencer becomes more popular, more brands will want to work with him. But being trustworthy is very important for a micro-influencer. The more sponsored content an influencer posts, the more the followers will dislike it. Brands must research that the influencers are good enough. Find out how often they post any sponsored content and what the followers feel. The influencer’s content can be knowledgeable and tell the companies what kind of brands the influencer is working with.
Working With Micro-Influencers May Give You Better Result
As the name itself conveys, the micro-influencer will have lesser followers. But they have a strong relationship with these followers. The micro-influencer deals with niche audiences. He can be helpful to the brand by letting them reach out to a smaller subset of audiences.
Mentioned below are some advantages of working with these micro-influencers.
Cost: How much the brand will pay an influencer depends on their following. Since micro-influencers have fewer followers, they prove to be affordable. The influencers want to grow their following. They will try their best to provide extra service to the brands as that leads to a long-term relationship.
Authenticity: Being honest and authentic is very important for an influencer. Because their following is less, the demand to work with them is also less. Often it is the micro-influencers who reach out to the brands they admire and want to share with their followers.
Engagement: A common issue raised with micro-influencers is their low follower count. This means the number of people seeing the content is also less. But, the conversion rate and engagement of his followers remain high because the audience trusts what the influencer says. Their chances of buying your product would be hence much higher. Micro-influencers have a 20% higher conversion rate. Even though the following is less, the sales value received is much higher.
Multi-Market Reach: As micro-influencers are cheap to work with, a brand gets to expand its reach if it works with many influencers. If they focus on influencers of different races, ages, and demographics, they can reach out to an audience of varied types.
Niche Markets: Micro-influencers get the chance to engage the audience with topics related to a particular niche. The micro-influencer is an expert in his field and gets followers with similar interests. Brands can therefore contact these untapped customers also.
Final Thought
As social media grows, the days in which brands target follower counts to decide the partnership are gone. They are exploring more options. Influencer programs entail the companies to find micro-influencers related to their brand’s niche.
