By now you would be familiar with the term influencer marketing. Whether you are amongst the 75 % of marketers who use some form of influencer marketing or are new to the word micro influencer marketing, this article is for you.
Irrespective of your interaction with the ever-expanding phenomenon, influencer marketing especially micro influencer is not going anywhere anytime soon. Influencer marketing has rapidly increased over the past 10 years and marketers collaborate with famous influencers to increase their brand awareness. But, if you think influencers like Kim Kardashian is your only option, it’s time to know a little more about micro-influencers. When it comes to influencers, number of followers isn’t the best metric to determine the influence. For today’s customers, authenticity and reliability and the connection with the brand is the most important factor. Although micro-influencers have a low follower base, they are more loyal and highly engaged.
What are micro influencers and do they matter for brands?
Mirco influencers are not your “regular Joes”. They are not the usual public figures. However they are the experts around a specific topic or brand. They are not only experts but are popular online, they have an engaged community surrounding them. Unlike popular celebrities people can relate to them. They are real life people, maybe your neighbor or your old friend who have built a community around their interests and passions. They have followers between 1,000 and 90,000. Those who have influencers in the hundreds of thousands are known as macro-influencers. And, mega influencers are those who have more than a million followers. Micro-influencers despite having low follower count are the biggest assets for a firm.
Instagram is the social networking site where you will find popular micro-influencers that make up for a considerable portion of its user base. If you want to promote your brand on the social media platform, you will need the help of micro-influencers.
9 Reasons Why Firms Should Use Micro Influencer Marketing
1. Brand Awareness: If you are new in the market, your logo, tagline and brand name will not be recognizable to your target. However when you collaborate with popular influencers you add meaning, message and promise to your brand. If your target audience finds your product in their favorite micro influencer’s blog of vlog they are more likely to purchase your products. Through micro-influencers, the target audience becomes aware of your brand. More the people hear about your brand from popular influencers, the more they will identify your brand. For instance people associate with Nike shows more than any other basketball shoes.
2. Trustworthy: If you talk about connection with fans and followers. Micro influencers come first in the list. If your brand collaborates with them, there are more chances of gaining trust of customers. Customers trust micro influencers; influencers trust your brand it’s a simple math. Also, this form of advertising is more natural-looking than any other form of advertising. Influencers can organically integrate brands within their stories instead of just shouting. Although banner ads and other forms of advertising are still necessary, to attract a wider variety of audience, influencer marketing is what brands should include in their promotion strategy.
3. High Engagement Rates: If you want to increase your brand visibility, it’s time to collaborate with Instagram micro-influencers. From the following figures, you will be aware of the engagement rate of micro-influencers.
Influencers with around 10,000 followers have 3.6 % engagement rate.
Influencers with followers between 5000 to 1000 have a 6.3 % engagement rate.
Influencers with followers between 100 to 5000 followers have 8.8 % engagement.
4. You can Humanize your Brand: We know people buy from people. Although celebrities attract global attention, people believe neighbors who recommend a product because they know they are genuine. And, this neighbor is no other than micro-influencers. They personalize brand experiences which brands can attain through highway billboards and television commercials. Personalizing brand experiences leads to trust and loyalty. Loyal customers will stick with your brand and recommend it to their friends circle.
5. Better Interaction with the Targeted Audience: What’s the one thing that sets apart micro-influencers from the rest of the influencers? Micro-influencers have the ability to target specific niche groups. Thinking why this is beneficial for your brand, the answer is simple. The smaller the audience, they will be more passionate about your products and it will be easy to deal with them. If you have more viewers, there are fewer chances all of them will be interested in your products. For instance if you sell cosmetics and collaborate with an influencer with 500,000 followers. All of them will not be interested in y6our product. On the other hand if you work with a micro-influencer with 10,000 followers there are more chances all of them like using cosmetics.
6. Easy to Work with: More popular and the higher level of influencer, more difficult it’s to work with them. Unlike macro –influencers who are swamped by inquiries from brands and are more selective to work with, micro influencers don’t have such issues. Micro-influencers are ecstatic to work with. There is more room for negotiation and collaboration in case of micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are more friendly and easy to work with.
7. Creative Content: Creative content is one of the most important tool for attracting audience. Micro-influencers have string eye for photography or video content. So, by collaborating with micro-influencers you don’t have to sacrifice quality while on a tight budget. Micro-influencers know how to attract audience through creative content. They work hard to build viewer which is what brands are counting on.
8. You can Experiment: The best thing about micro-influencer is that they come with low risk. Even if their post doesn’t yield much engagement, it’s worth all the money you spend on them. And, the best thing about micro-influencer marketing is that it provides room for experimentation. Firms can think of ways to optimize Instagram marketing to achieve better results.
9. Higher Online Visibility: It's a bitter truth that it’s harder to spread awareness for your brand online. Since many users install adblock plugins for their browsers, relying only on ads will reap no benefits to firms. This is the reason brands look for creative ways to interact with their audience. This is where micro-influencers come in the picture. They diffuse a brand’s presence throughout the online ecosystem. Firms will gain more visibility through integration and customers prefer this as compared to pushy sales people.
After reading the benefits of micro-influencer marketing, if you are ready to kick-start your micro-influencer campaign, get in touch with professionals. There are many influencer marketing agencies that take your brand to the zenith by collaborating with famous influencers.