The power of micro influencers is not really a new trend. Micro influencers – experts in their field with follower counts anywhere between 1,000 and 1,000,000 – can help brands reach more affordable, effective audiences. Most brands and agencies know it’s often more efficient to work with micro influencers rather than massive celebrity influencers, whose cost can outweigh their benefit in many campaigns, for many reasons!
Micro Influencer Audiences are Hypertargeted
Someone like Kim Kardashian promoting your brand sounds like a slam dunk idea; she’s got tons of followers who pay attention to her every word. However, what might work in theory doesn’t always work in reality. Why? Think about how many people follow Kim Kardashian on Instagram – a lot. But how many of those actually interested in a product like yours?
Looking for Influencers in Your Niche?
If your brand sells luggage made from 100% recycled materials (good for you, if that really is the case!), shelling out thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars or more to massive influencers like Kim Kardashian won’t be very effective. Her audience is so massive and so diverse that you’d be forking over millions of dollars only to reach the very small portion of her audience who is interested in sustainable luggage rather than shapewear and her controversial appetite suppressant lollipops.
A dozen sustainable travel influencers who each have ~20,000 followers, however? It’s likely that every single one of their followers would be interested in your product giving you way more bang for your buck.
Micro influencers are masters of their field, whether that’s beauty, travel, or even more specific interests like small dogs, which means your brand’s services get viewed by people who really want what you’ve got.
People Trust Micro Influencers
While mega influencers like the Kardashians have armies of followers, many members of their audience are more casual than serious followers.
Meanwhile, micro influencers intimately know their audience – it’s a big part of their job! – what they want to see and how to provide real value.
They know they have to deliver value if they want to build their audience and keep them happy, so they’ll work harder to create content that truly motivates audiences to invest in your brand.
The audience of a mega influencer or celebrity might be loyal, but there’s a difference between a loyal follower and a trusting one. Followers of micro influencers follow based on trust – you wouldn’t follow a food blogger whose recipes you disliked – which means if micro influencers endorse your product or service, their audience is far more likely to be interested.
Micro Influencers Take Word-of-Mouth to the Next Level
Influencer marketing works because it’s as close to word-of-mouth marketing as the internet can get, which is one of the best ways for your brand to grow. Micro influencers engage more effectively with their audiences on social media channels, taking time to respond to comments on blogs or make follow-up videos on YouTube.
In a sense, their audience views micro influencers as friends, creating a bond of strong trust between parties. Viewing someone you follow as your friend means that when they recommend something, you’re way more likely to learn more about it. Followers feel closer to micro influencers than they do big celebrities.
So What’s The Downside?
The only problem when it comes to micro influencers is that it can be hard to scale, and not because of any inherent flaw with brands or influencers!
It’s just that to really work with multiple micro influencers in a successful, efficient way takes work without the right tools.
Think about it: with a mega influencer, you make one decision for one project with one check, and you’re done!
That sounds great, and it can be a faster process. But as we know, it doesn’t necessarily produce the highest ROI.
In the world of micro influencers, though, your campaigns will include finding 50 influencers, with 50 decisions, managing 50 projects, and 50 checks (or even more than 50!)
All of that is hard, and can get complicated and messy really quickly. With spreadsheets, emails, and DMs, influencer marketing can be tough to keep track of. And contacts can be extremely tough to organize and manage.
Luckily, we have a solution: a platform that helps you quickly get advice on creating awesome campaigns, find and qualify perfect partners, communicate project needs, manage workflow and work products, and handle payments. Perlu offers all of these things and more. That way, you can get all the ROI micro influencers have to offer without completely losing your head!
