Did you know that currently 93% of marketers have influencer marketing as part of their overall marketing strategy and the global influencer market is projected to grow to $22.2 billion by 2025?
In today’s world, one of the essential ways to drive customer engagement and sales is through influencer marketing. This strategy a powerful marketing approach that allows brands to reach their target audience in a unique and authentic way.
One route to take in this strategy is working with Micro Influencers. What’s a Mircro Influencer you may ask? Well, we’ve you covered.
A Micro Influencer tends to have an audience reach of 10,000 to 50,000 and are normally experts in their respective niches.Â
To get an expert opinion on the topic, we spoke with Lenovo’s Hollyn Phelps - an Influencer Marketing Connoisseur who assists the brand with governance guidelines and best practices when working with influencers on a global scale. Phelps stressed the value of Mirco-Influencers and their genuine following. “If you go to a micro influencers Instagram page for example, you'll notice that they might have a decent following, but more so than that, typically they're posts are just loaded with likes with comments. The comments are clearly not paid for stage. They're very authentic,” said Phelps.
She went on to note that, “Micro influencers are on the rise. More and more brands are starting to work with them over celebrity-type influencers because of that [authentic fandom] and they still have a following to tackle that brand awareness. If we're really trying to push brand sentiment and reputation, I would say partnering with micro influencers is where we see our biggest value.”
A benefit of working with Micro Influencers is that their engagement rate with their audience tends to be a lot higher than Mega or Macro Influencers. Some are also more likely to receive payment in products instead of compensation, which is extremely helpful if you’re just getting started in your influencer marketing strategy.
A drawback on working with a micro influencer is honestly finding the right one to work with. There are so many content creators that fall into this category so picking the ideal partnership can sometimes be overwhelming. Another issue you may run into is that they are less experienced in working with brands, so they may need more guidance in delivering assets correctly.
Phelps recommends all business beginning their influencer marketing journey to ensure that the micro influencer they chose are a natural fit with the brand.
“Don't jump the gun, take a step back and make sure your strategy is in place. You know exactly what it is you're trying to achieve. You set measurable and specific KPIs and objectives and know who your target audience is,” said Phelps.
Another tip she has for business entering the space is know which platforms best serve your business or brand. Phelps said, “know which social platform resonates with your target audience, right. So if you're a video game company or a gaming company, obviously you would choose YouTube or Twitch over Instagram or Tik Tok. Understanding your objectives, the KPI is what you're trying to measure, the audience, the platform that would make the most sense.”
A final recommendation from Hollyn: when choosing the best influencer to partner with, see what brands they’ve worked with in the past. What does their engagement look like on those sponsored posts? Understanding past engagement can help you weigh if the influencer campaign or activity will be worth your investment.
When working in the influencer marketing space, make sure you cross all your ts and dot all of your Is to ensure you are doing things legally and adhering to all FTC guidelines. Consulting influencer marketing agencies or doing your research before is essential to make sure you are doing everything correctly.
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Have you ever run a micro influencer campaign? Do you have any recommendations or learnings from that experience? What other questions do you have about working with a micro influencer? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!