How should you go about developping an influencer marketing strategy? Should you rely on micro-influencers? We answer all your questions on the subject!
March 22, 2023
With the explosion of social media and its influence on how consumers search for products, discovering which micro-influencers will relay your message to the right communities is more important than ever. Micro-influencers play a crucial role in marketing because they are in direct contact with their audience and can deliver authentic compelling messages to consumers.
Before outlining why influencer marketing is key to your business, it is important to define exactly what it is. Influencer marketing is simply the marketing strategy that will be implemented by a company in order to promote its service/product by using the reputation of various people: influencers; experts; opinion leaders; etc. It is this marketing strategy that will allow the distribution of the brand's content to the influencer’s communities.
Today, 92% of marketers have used influencer marketing and found it effective. Moreover, in 2021, more than 50% of the world's population will be on social networks on a daily basis, with 4.2 billion people spending an average of two and a half hours per day on social networks. It is therefore unthinkable for a company that wishes to develop its influence and deploy its community to not leverage influencer marketing. In a very short time, it has become a staple in marketing strategies to improve brand notoriety and increase reach. According to a study conducted by HubSpot on influencer marketing figures in 2021, the practice has surpassed traditional advertising by a large margin with an ROI that can be 11 times higher.
The age old question for marketers: Leveraging social networks is becoming crucial, but through which channels? Influencers? Advertising? What if we used micro-influencers instead?
A micro-influencer is simply defined as someone who does not necessarily seek to obtain a large community but rather to really share what he likes. That's why their audience will be smaller on the influencer pyramid scale, estimated at between 2,000 and 20,000 followers. Micro-influencers, like influencers, can be part of various fields: foodie; dancer; painter; sportsman; etc. They will put forward their passion, generally in a field where they are an expert. But if influencers have a larger community, why should you choose micro-influencers instead for your influencer marketing?
Today, the engagement rate for micro-influencers is 60% higher when compared to that of influencers (macro and top influencer categories). The importance of the “type” of influencers has been put aside for a long time, with marketers generally opting for macro and top influencers by using vanity selection criteria such as the number of followers. Brands had a total lack of interest in "small influencers", not knowing all the possibilities this route had to offer. The engagement rate typically indicates if a person's followers interact with them. It is mainly determined by the number of likes and comments on the influencer’s posts. Contrary to what one might think, the number of followers does not influence this rate. Indeed, a top influencer with more than a million people following him will not necessarily create a large number of reactions on his posts. And even if the audience of micro-influencers is much smaller than that of top and macro-influencers, the rate of engagement is much higher. In fact, according to a study conducted by Digiday on the subject, micro-influencers generate an engagement rate of up to 8%, while for top influencers, it goes down to 2.4% and drops to 1.7% for top celebrities.
What the customer is looking for today is authenticity, and that's usually conveyed by micro-influencers through total transparency towards their community. The micro-influencer will test the product not for profit but because he wants to and for his audience. The audience will also typically have more trust in micro-influencers and their recommendations as opposed to influencers with a larger number of followers.
Betting on micro-influencers is also choosing to pay less, as working with influencers will usually require a higher upfront investment.
With the explosion of social media and its influence on how consumers search for products, discovering which micro-influencer will relay the right message to the right audience is more important than ever. Micro-influencers play a crucial role in marketing because they are in direct contact with their audience and can deliver compelling messages to consumers. So how do you find the best micro-influencer for your influencer marketing campaign? It's very important to take the time to research the best micro-influencers with criteria that fits your purpose and brand. The first thing to do is to determine your target audience and the social networks they are on. Once you have a clear idea of the platform you want to use, you can start looking for micro-influencers who are active on them. You'll want to consider their follower count, engagement rate and history of working with brands. Once you've identified several micro-influencers that fit your campaign's needs, you can reach out to them to discuss further and possibly arrange a collaboration.
In order to save time on that process, there are several solutions available on the market. Wiink will allow you to have all your micro-influence strategy centralised and managed on one influencer marketing platform: You will be able to identify the best profiles for your brand and entrust them with different missions in order to turn them into loyal ambassadors.
While using micro-influencers can be very beneficial for your business, there are also some drawbacks. It is important to note that some of the micro-influencers' followers may be inactive and part of their audience may not receive your message. They may also have a limited impact on a brand or company's overall audience. Additionally, it's important to keep in mind that working with influencers can have a negative impact on the brand image if not done correctly. For example, an influencer can poorly convey a brand’s message which can be detrimental to the brand's credibility and put its reputation at risk.
Micro-influencers are a great opportunity for companies looking to promote their products or services with authenticity and reach a wider audience. This is because micro-influencers are able to build trusting relationships with their followers and help increase engagement and traffic to a website or mobile app. Choosing the right micro-influencer for your campaign is key to success, so it's essential to take the time to research those that fit your goals and brand. If you want to get the most out of micro-influencers, it's important to invest time and money in researching and selecting the right influencer partners for your marketing strategy.