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Influencer marketing has launched to prominence in the last 10-years, partially thanks to Instagram and its growing presence among all age brackets. As more businesses have become open to working with individuals that command a significant following on social media platforms, influencer marketing has accumulated power that is simply hard to ignore today. Beyond the desire to work with individuals with a 10-million-strong-network, so many brands often overlook one opportunity: the ability to partner with niche micro-influencers.
What is a Micro Influencer?
A micro influencer is an influencer with a smaller network than the bigger players in the game, typically coming in between 1,000 and 40,000 followers. At first, a brand might think they are losing money by paying a person with a smaller following to promote their product – but studies have shown influencers with 1,000 followers generate 85% higher engagement than those with 100,000 followers.
According to eCommerce and Amazon sales expert Akemi Sue Fisher, the rate of engagement with a brand tends to decrease as the follower count increases. Staying in that 1,000 to 40,000 follower realm is, in fact, the sweet spot.
“It just makes sense – a smaller audience means the interaction is more direct and personal,” said Fisher. “Followers feel they have more of a chance of being recognized by the person or brand, which is why they are more willing to share their thoughts, feedback, and comments. When commenting on an account with 20 million followers, we all know we are not going to hear back from that person.”
Additional studies have found that with a smaller number of followers, micro-influencers tend to see themselves as equals to their followers, as opposed to people with influence and power over their followers. Since 84% of consumers say they trust recommendations from peers over advertising, it’s no wonder this form of marketing is picking up some serious momentum in today’s market.
How Can I Best Approach Micro-Influencers?
Micro-influencers are in hot demand, but Akemi Sue Fisher argues that with the right Direct Messaging strategy, partnering off with these individuals can be easy.
“Open rates are highest in DMs, which is why brands should be taking time to personally reach out to these people and present a surprise coupon code,” said Fisher. “This will catch anyone’s attention and make them more willing to listen to your offer. Since these individuals have smaller audiences, they won’t demand bigger payoffs or perks, either.”
For the eCommerce and business clients that Akemi Sue Fisher advises, she recommends following very niche bloggers in the industry. Consuming this form of content will help brands understand what it is that industry followers want to see, learn more about, and invest their money into today.
Using bloggers as inspiration, brands can start to reach out to social media users with the same kind of content and followers. In order to get the best bang for your buck, Fisher recommends looking for users with 50,000 followers or less.
“Especially in a COVID-19 world, our interaction is entirely digital,” said Fisher. “These influencers are going to become more important than ever before. It’s time for brands to jump on the bandwagon.”
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