Small Followings, Big Results: Why Micro-Influencers Are the Future

Remember the early days of influencer marketing? Some called it a flash in the pan, others hailed it as the future of marketing. It’s safe to say, history has proven the latter correct—today, influencers are a core component of any effective digital marketing strategy. In fact, 86% of marketers find influencer marketing useful for achieving their brand marketing objectives. This rise is largely due to the dominance of social media, where targeting your audience through influencers is a highly effective way to drive results. After all, people tend to listen to influencers when making purchasing decisions!

Of course, influencer marketing can get rather pricey, which might make some digital marketers wary of going down this route. But does it really have to be? By thinking outside the box and considering the unique niches that micro-influencers can tackle, you’ll discover an untapped treasure trove of influencer marketing opportunities.

But what exactly is a micro-influencer? Are they really worth investing in? And how do you craft a marketing campaign that leverages their unique potential? We’ll discuss all of this in today’s blog post, along with the content marketing strategies we’ve employed to maximize micro-influencer effectiveness.

   

The Rise of Micro-Influencers

What are Micro-Influencers?

Micro-influencers are individuals with 10,000 to 100,000 followers on social media, with a broader definition also including “nano-influencers” whose followings range from 1,000 to 10,000. The main difference between them and “macro-influencers” (people with over 100,000 followers) isn’t just about follower count, though. It’s also about engagement and niche specialization.

But we’ll get into that later. First, let’s discuss how the popularity of small-scale influencers is growing.

The Growing Popularity of Micro-Influencers

For all the Kim Kardashians and Cristiano Ronaldos of the world, there are thousands upon thousands of micro-influencers. They’re actually the largest group in the  industry, comprising about 47.3% of  content creators out there. What’s more, 90% of marketers said they trusted micro-influencers more back in 2021, which was a healthy 10-point bump from the previous year!

Why is this happening? Well, it can partly be attributed to shifting demographics. Younger consumers have come into their own as they started their working lives in the past couple of decades, so giving them what they want is non-negotiable for brands looking to boost sales. Studies show that 90% of millennials highly value authenticity in the brands they buy from. Since 7 out of 10 consumers find micro-influencers more trustworthy and authentic, the value they represent is easily recognizable.

Now, in case you want a more specific rationale for why you should work with them, we’ve got you covered. Let’s talk about the benefits they provide.

Why Brands Should Use Them

High Engagement Rates

Let’s say you won the lottery and managed to hire Selena Gomez to market your line of beauty products on Instagram. What sort of engagement do you think you’ll get? The truth is, you’d be lucky to get 2% engagement with mega influencers like her. Micro-influencers, on the other hand, get a 6% engagement rate on that platform, and they show consistently high metrics across any social media site you’d want a presence on.

Mind you, this 6% figure is actually pretty conservative. Some micro-influencers have absolutely ridiculous engagement rates that go into the double digits! Here are some examples:

With numbers like these, micro-influencers can effectively give you the reach of a macro-influencer at a fraction of the cost! Speaking of which, that’s another important aspect of why they’re great for brands.

Cost-Effectiveness

Let’s face it, we’re in the middle of an economic crisis, and marketing tends to be less of a priority during times like these. That’s not to say that it’s any less important, of course. It’s just that there’s less money floating around, so it’s no surprise that marketing budgets have fallen by 15% year over year. As a result, 3 out of every 4 CMOs say that they don’t have the budget to fulfill all their marketing requirements.

This is where micro-influencers come in.

You see, where a macro-influencer would charge thousands of dollars for a single post, a micro-influencer’s fee would be in the hundreds. And remember, thanks to the exceptionally high engagement rate, you’re basically getting the same reach as long as you pick the right influencer. Brands get as much as $4.12 ROI for every dollar spent on micro-influencers!

At the same time, these influencers won’t have quite as much bargaining power owing to their relatively small followings. This grants you some flexibility to haggle on the price for more savings, and you’ll get a much more committed marketing partner in the bargain.

Besides, micro-influencers have those high engagement rates for a reason, namely the authenticity and trust we mentioned previously. But even if we ignore that, even if we assume that all other things are equal, there’s one more aspect of the micro-influencer economy that makes it worth your while.

Niche Targeting and Specialization

Generally speaking, micro-influencers tend to focus on highly specialized, targeted niches. For example, a macro-influencer in the fitness niche mostly prioritizes broad appeal, but a micro-influencer might zero in on more specific sub-niches like workout periodization or keto diets.

There are a lot of advantages to niche market penetration, not the least of which is reduced competition. This gives you more of an opportunity to get noticed, and helps foster greater loyalty among customers. You also have a much narrower audience, and if you do your research, you can find a micro-influencer with a following that closely aligns with your target market. Factor in the high engagement rates and you’ve potentially got thousands of valuable, eager customers suddenly interested in your products and services.

With all of that said, if you want to utilize micro-influencers in your next social media campaign, it’s important to know how to incorporate them into a digital marketing strategy. This is what we’ll discuss next.

Creating Effective Campaigns with Micro-Influencers

Define Campaign Goals and Objectives

First things first, you must outline a set of success metrics for your campaign. Focus on more quantitative metrics first like clickthrough, conversion, and customer engagement rates, as well as ROI. Don’t forget less numbers-based but equally important metrics like brand awareness, though. Make these goals quantitative by analyzing mentions of your brand on social media. Hiring a digital agency can definitely help with this as well as finding the right objectives for your campaign!

Develop an Impactful Campaign Brief

There’s only so much a micro-influencer can do on their own. Giving them a detailed campaign brief can help align their posts with your brand’s stylistic guidelines and voice, along with emphasizing key messages you want to provide. Getting expert input here can help you make much more compelling briefs that reduce friction between you and your hired influencer.

Create Engaging Content

It’s no secret. Creating stellar content is the key to getting a return on your investment, which is why 92% of marketers consider it a valuable asset. But what constitutes good content exactly? Well, in this context, it has to align with your campaign’s goals. Content should be optimized to generate leads, drive conversions, or any other metric you’ve set your sights on.

How can you accomplish this? Your first option is to do it yourself, but that requires a lot of time commitment. Creating a slate of Instagram posts for micro-influencers can take hours, and unless you’re a content specialist, you might not be able to create content of a high enough quality. Once again, partnering with a digital agency can work wonders for your content strategy.

Make Micro-Influencers Your Secret Weapon with CDP

It’s not enough to just hire a micro-influencer and hope for the best. What you need is a multi-pronged digital marketing strategy that incorporates a variety of posts across multiple platforms, many of which will be boosted by recognizable faces on those platforms.

At Content Development Pros, we know that your marketing campaign relies heavily on an engaging, well executed content strategy. That’s why our content marketing team works overtime to make sure that our clients have just the type of content they need to see the results they desire, whether that’s lead generation, a boost in conversion rates, or increasing brand awareness.

Here are just some of the services we provide:

• Content Strategy Development
• Campaign Management
• Content Optimization
• Analytics and Reporting

Partner with us to create a robust, highly effective content marketing plan that maximizes results.