I just lately bought an lovable cable-knit sweater on TikTok Store merely as a result of I noticed an influencer post about it.
The pull influencers of all followings have on social media customers at present is robust.
In any case, 63% of consumers will doubtless purchase merchandise promoted by an influencer they belief.
In my position at Nickelodeon, I work in worldwide influencer advertising and marketing, so I understand how essential an influencer technique is to manufacturers of all sizes.
Nevertheless, we don’t at all times have the funds to rent the largest influencers within the recreation. Enter micro-influencers.
On this information, I’ll inform you every thing it’s good to find out about micro-influencers, together with manufacturers which are utilizing them efficiently and how one can join with these people to advertise your model.
Desk of Contents
What’s a micro-influencer?
Micro-influencers are social media content material creators with a mean of 10,000 to 100,000 followers who sometimes publish about area of interest subjects. Manufacturers companion with these people on social media to advertise merchandise with genuine, visible posts as a substitute of sponsored adverts. Whereas they could have a smaller viewers than bigger influencers, their audiences will be extra engaged.
Micro-influencers are social media customers, in contrast to typical celebrities, consultants, or public figures. They’re people who work or specialise in a specific vertical and ceaselessly share social media content material about their pursuits.
Not like conventional “influencers,” micro-influencers have a extra modest variety of followers, however they boast of hyper-engaged audiences.
What’s influencer advertising and marketing?
Influencer marketing happens when organizations companion with content material creators — customers with hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of followers — to advertise their services or products to the content material creator’s viewers.
When manufacturers companion with influencers, they will leverage the established belief amongst the influencer’s viewers. Shoppers usually tend to purchase from somebody they know, so influencers are extraordinarily efficient relating to methods like word-of-mouth advertising and marketing or rising social proof.
Manufacturers typically pay influencers to both publish content material that includes their merchandise or sponsor their occasions, capturing the influencers’ giant attain. Nevertheless, natural content material will also be achieved with some influencers in the event you set up a barter deal that doesn’t contain financial cost.
Forms of Influencers
Influencers are usually categorized into 4 teams based mostly on their variety of followers.
Nano-influencers
1,000 to 10,000 followers
Typically, they’re common individuals who have just lately developed the next following.
They’re nonetheless on the smaller finish and will not have the attain a model is in search of, however their followers are devoted and engaged within the influencer’s area of interest, genuine content material.
Micro-influencers
10,000 to 100,000 followers
They’re stronger than nano-influencers when it comes to following whereas nonetheless sustaining a extremely engaged viewers.
Their content material should be area of interest, however they could be extra prone to department out to attempt new ideas and work on focused advertising and marketing campaigns.
Macro-influencers
100,000 to 1,000,000 followers
These influencers are doubtless well-known by social media customers and types and will already obtain a number of model partnership requests.
Whereas they’ve better attain than nano- and micro-influencers, their content material might have much less engagement and personalization.
Mega-influencers
Greater than 1,000,000 followers
They’re doubtless celebrities or large personalities with big charges to work with.
Whereas an endorsement from one in all these influencers can be big for a model, it might not be as worthwhile in the event that they’re selling many different manufacturers or if their content material is total much less real.
I feel micro-influencers will be the proper center floor for manufacturers starting their influencer advertising and marketing technique. Since they’ve smaller followings, their charges could also be decrease and availability better. Nevertheless, they nonetheless have a bigger attain than nano-influencers, making micro-influencer advertising and marketing a strong possibility.
The Worth of Micro-Influencers
A micro-influencer advertising and marketing technique could appear counterintuitive. Why would I hunt down somebody with a smaller following to advertise my model? Check out the next record of causes micro-influencers may get higher outcomes.
Micro-influencers have higher engagement charges.
In my expertise, the variety of followers doesn’t at all times equate to how effectively content material resonates with these followers.
A good way to trace how participating an influencer’s content material is by the variety of likes, feedback, shares, and saves it receives. This exhibits that customers are going out of their method to work together with the influencer and the publish.
Micro-influencers can produce up to 60% more engagement than different kinds of influencers.
For example, the average engagement rate on TikTok for micro-influencers ranges from 8.37% to 17.96%, in comparison with simply 4.96% for mega-influencers.
Micro-influencers have extra focused audiences.
Sometimes, micro-influencers have extra focused audiences since their content material is extra area of interest. Folks comply with them not as a result of they’re a well-liked identify however as a result of they’re tuned into the influencer’s content material or fashion.
If I’m a style model constructing my influencer technique, I can both companion with one mega-influencer or a number of micro-influencers. A mega-influencer with 1 million followers has an average engagement rate of 1.21%. That’s roughly 12,100 engagements per publish.
Nevertheless, since mega-influencers have such broad audiences, these 12,100 engagements are doubtless not all from followers excited by style.
Now, if I companion with seven style micro-influencers with 50,000 followers every and an average engagement rate of 3.86%, that’s a complete of 13,510 engagements.
This methodology leads to extra engagements and targets followers excited by style who usually tend to change into consumers.
Micro-influencers are extra reasonably priced.
The best-paid mega-influencer on the earth is Cristiano Ronaldo, who makes a whopping $3.2 million per sponsored post. I’d say most manufacturers can’t afford such a staggering value for a single publish with an influencer.
Micro-influencers are sometimes way more reasonably priced. Their charges can vary from $100 to $1,000 per post, which can assist manufacturers afford a breadth of content material spanning a complete marketing campaign, relatively than a single publish.
To perform a little extra math, you’d must work with 6,400 micro-influencers at a charge of $500 per publish to succeed in the price of one sponsored publish with Ronaldo. Whereas Ronaldo is clearly an outlier, it’s an excellent lesson on how manufacturers can higher allocate their funds.
At Nickelodeon, we generally even work with micro-influencers freed from cost as a part of a barter deal. For example, we are going to produce a customized press mailer selling a brand new collection and ship it to the influencer, who will publish in regards to the mailer in trade for preserving the superior new merchandise.
Micro-influencers are extra genuine.
Micro-influencers are actual folks, so their Instagram content material is actual, too.
Instagram customers with a couple of thousand followers doubtless publish their very own content material, reply to feedback, and behave extra authentically than a model or a celeb with a social media supervisor may.
If a micro-influencer creates a promotional publish on Instagram, their followers is perhaps extra inclined to click on to be taught extra in regards to the model they’re posting about.
Instagram’s algorithm additionally prioritizes posts in customers’ feeds from profiles they comply with and work together with, in addition to genuine, high quality content material. Which means content material from micro-influencers will be proven larger than that of mega-influencers since their content material is taken into account extra trustworthy.
TikTok’s algorithm prioritizes content material that’s numerous and attention-grabbing and doesn’t essentially prioritize content material from creators with larger followings. Subsequently, micro-influencers nonetheless have the prospect to be seen extra ceaselessly in a person’s FYP (For You web page).
Now that I’ve efficiently satisfied you of the worth of micro-influencer advertising and marketing, learn on for a information to discovering micro-influencers to work with.
Find out how to Discover Micro-Influencers
1. Use influencer discovery instruments.
That is my most well-liked methodology of discovering influencers. Many influencer discovery tools, similar to Traackr and Tagger by Sprout Social, have been constructed with capabilities for this precise function.
On the homepage of most influencer advertising and marketing instrument web sites, you will notice a button to Request Demo. This lets you schedule a dwell demo with a specialist to check if the instrument has all of the capabilities you want.
The suitable influencer advertising and marketing instrument ought to have discovery capabilities. This can be a dashboard that permits you to seek for influencers inside the instrument’s database.
For example, I can use a instrument’s Discovery dashboard to find style micro-influencers. I might filter for influencers with 10K to 100K followers.
Then, I might add different filters, similar to “Vogue” for the class or subject and “English” for the language. I also can filter for the influencer’s age, viewers, common engagement charge, and most well-liked social media platforms.
When receiving demos, make certain the influencer discovery course of is as seamless as doable. The instrument must also provide all the knowledge and metrics it’s good to know in regards to the influencers, similar to model affinity, key phrases, common charges, and get in touch with data.
2. Use the search characteristic on social media platforms.
One other nice possibility for manufacturers beginning out who could also be cautious of investing in an influencer administration instrument is discovering influencers the place they’re: social media.
I exploit this methodology typically because it’s fast and natural. Moderately than coming into numerous data and filters, I can merely scroll via numerous accounts and see who resonates.
On Instagram, I can seek for a subject I’m excited by. For instance, I searched “style fashion.” Then, I toggled over to Accounts, so I solely acquired outcomes of profiles associated to this subject, relatively than precise posts or areas.
The primary a number of outcomes are often huge, expensive personalities and publications, so I scrolled down for a bit till I began viewing influencers with followers within the micro-influencer vary.
The above screenshot exhibits an account with 66.2K followers.
Subsequent, I clicked on accounts that me, similar to @just_trish_style, and seen their profiles. This provides me a good suggestion of the kinds of content material they publish, in addition to any model partnerships they’ve just lately carried out. This data will assist me determine if the influencers are an excellent match.
If I’d like to succeed in out to an influencer I found on social media, I can first test their bio. Many influencers share an e-mail for his or her administration instantly of their bio, as seen within the instance above. If there isn’t an e-mail listed, I can ship a direct message and categorical my curiosity in working with them.
An identical tactic includes looking for hashtags relatively than key phrases. Use the identical search bar and kind in a related hashtag. For example, I searched #nycfashion within the Tags tab and bought dozens of outcomes for associated hashtags.
I need to keep away from any hashtags with hundreds of thousands or a whole bunch of hundreds of posts as this can make it tougher to sift via the gang of each influencers and common customers utilizing these hashtags.
So, I scrolled down till I discovered #nycfashioninfluencer which had 1,000+ posts. I clicked on the hashtag, which routinely looked for it within the For you tab.
I clicked on a publish that me, which navigated me to that influencer’s profile.
The account has 49.1K followers, so it falls within the micro-influencer vary. I like the remainder of @bria__bryant’s profile, so I can then attain out to the e-mail listed in her bio.
3. See who comparable manufacturers are partnering with.
An alternative choice that additionally includes utilizing social media is trying out the competitors. When you doubtless don’t need to rent the identical influencers opponents use, it’s useful to get a way of the kinds of influencers which have labored for comparable manufacturers.
Most manufacturers will both incorporate the influencer instantly right into a publish on their profile or create a collab publish with an influencer. In any other case, they could have re-shared an influencer’s publish onto their Story or in-feed. Regardless, you need to be capable of view a few of their influencer content material on their account.
Get began by looking for associated model accounts on Instagram. For example, if I work for a ladies’s style model, I can seek for Lisa Says Gah, a woman-run, moral, unbiased boutique. Scrolling via their profile, I found a publish wherein the model tagged numerous micro-influencers modeling its clothes.
I just like the vibe of @vivianyrl, so I navigated to her profile. Right here, I clicked the Observe button. Instagram then auto-populates a row of Instructed for you accounts. These are profiles just like or adopted by the account I simply adopted.
I made a decision to take a look at @aishafarida’s profile. Right here, I can see that she’s additionally a micro-influencer with 25.7K followers.
I just like the kinds of posts Aïsha posts, that are fashion-forward and aesthetically-curated. For one final test, I clicked on among the posts in her picture gallery to see if she sometimes tags manufacturers.
I can see that in most of Aïsha’s posts, she tags clothes and jewellery manufacturers, which is an efficient signal. It exhibits that, if I have been to work with Aïsha, it could be in her common social media fashion to tag and showcase my style model.
I can now attain out to Aïsha through the contact e-mail listed in her Instagram bio and see if a partnership is feasible.
4. Use a search engine.
If conducting this investigative work on social media feels daunting, concern not! You are able to do very comparable analysis on a search engine.
Seek for the form of influencer you’re in search of. For instance, I searched “style fashion micro-influencers” on Google and acquired a number of outcomes surrounding my search question.
Upon clicking this link, I scrolled via the record of 10 choices. Since this text is from February 2023, among the influencers have grown in measurement and are now not micro-influencers. Nevertheless, I found a number of nice choices for fashion-niche micro-influencers, similar to @heyimlindz.
I preferred the sound of her fashion, so I navigated to her Instagram account. I choose scrolling on social media on my telephone relatively than on my laptop computer, so I manually searched her account there. Nevertheless, many articles like this have direct hyperlinks to social media profiles, which saves time.
Lindsey’s profile matches the character of my style model and has 31K followers, falling within the micro-influencer vary. I then checked out a few of her posts as I did for Aisha’s Instagram.
I can see that Lindsey tags style manufacturers and promotes their merchandise instantly.
She additionally mentions distinctive store low cost codes for her followers. That is somebody I’d be excited by working with to get the phrase out about my model, so I can attain out to the e-mail in her bio or DM her.
I can comply with this similar course of on a search engine to seek out different comparable micro-influencers. If the search outcomes don’t end up satisfactorily or the outcomes are too broad, check out totally different keywords. I counsel utilizing key phrases that greatest characterize your model.
For example, if I needed to be extra particular, I might attempt “moral style fashion micro-influencers” if that worth is essential to my model.
Or if we’re an NYC-based firm trying to work with native influencers, I might search “nyc style micro-influencers.”
5. Rent an influencer advertising and marketing company.
I get it — we don’t at all times have the time to do the boots-on-the-ground work. You might have a complete enterprise to run and might’t repeatedly spend time doing meticulous analysis and outreach to dozens or a whole bunch of micro-influencers.
On this case, it’s sensible to rent an company to deal with the legwork. A number of influencer marketing agencies specialise in numerous points of an influencer marketing campaign, together with outreach, contracts, marketing campaign monitoring, and funds.
When researching companies, remember the next elements:
- Fee. How do their charges examine to opponents? Do they tackle an annual retainer or cost per marketing campaign?
- Influencer Database. What number of influencers have they got entry to? Do they solely deal with home influencers, or can they entry influencers globally? Can they uncover influencers with as few as 10K followers, or is there the next follower minimal to filter into their system?
- Purchasers. Have they labored with shoppers in your business earlier than? Have they got metrics to share on previous marketing campaign efficiency?
As soon as you discover the suitable company, they need to be capable of deal with your complete influencer discovery and outreach course of for you, as long as you temporary them on the marketing campaign abstract and targets.
Now that you know the way to seek out the suitable micro-influencers, I’ll stroll you thru the way to work with these micro-influencers to make sure significant, efficient campaigns.
Find out how to Work With Micro-Influencers
1. Create an influencer temporary for the marketing campaign.
Like with any marketing campaign, one of the best ways to begin is with a short. This can be a doc that explains the marketing campaign abstract and targets to the influencer.
I often prefer to preserve this doc as temporary and easy as doable — in any case, we don’t need to bore or overwhelm influencers with detailed jargon.
If doable, preserve the temporary to a single web page and embrace the next:
- Marketing campaign identify
- Marketing campaign abstract
- Objectives
- Messaging necessities
- Target market
- Deliverables
- Timeline
For instance:
Marketing campaign identify: Black Friday Sale
Marketing campaign abstract: [Fashion brand] is having an enormous Black Friday sale this 12 months, and we want your assist to get the phrase out! We are going to ship you a set of curated items that you could fashion in your social media in your individual distinctive manner. Present your viewers that now’s the time to deal with themselves to moral style excellent for a enterprise lunch, household dinner, ladies’ evening out, and every thing in between.
Objectives:
- Drive folks to our web site to make a brand new buy.
- Develop consciousness of our model and followers of our social media.
- Present your followers that we’re the recent new model for younger, fashionable ladies.
Messaging necessities:
- Use my code [NAME]10 for an extra 10% off your order!
- All garments, footwear, and equipment will probably be/are 30% off!
- Observe [brand handle].
Target market:
- Gen Z and younger Millennials (ages 15-35).
- Females or anybody who appreciates female clothes.
Deliverables:
- 1 long-form Reel/TikTok.
- 2 short-form movies or static Tales.
Timeline:
- Ideas due: November 1.
- First drafts due: November 8.
- Last edited variations due: November 15.
- Story 1 publish: Week of November 18.
- Reel/TikTok publish: Week of November 25.
- Story 2 publish: November 29 (day of).
This temporary exhibits the influencer that I’m taking their work critically whereas giving them the knowledge and instruments they should be profitable.
I attempt to share the temporary no less than one week earlier than the primary due date to offer the influencer with ample time to evaluation and ask questions.
2. Encourage micro-influencers to make use of their very own fashion and voice.
Whereas the temporary is essential to information the sorts of posts the micro-influencer will publish, it’s additionally essential to provide them some inventive liberty. In any case, I chosen them for a purpose — and that purpose is that I already get pleasure from their content material.
I let the influencer know I would like them to stay genuine to their model and magnificence whereas nonetheless following the temporary. In my expertise, this results in a robust, trusting partnership, which leads to high-quality posts that mirror each the model and the influencer.
3. Evaluation the proposed content material earlier than finalizing.
Whereas I already included this within the temporary, I can’t emphasize this sufficient: At all times evaluation the influencer’s content material and supply suggestions earlier than finalization.
I initially apprehensive this may take away the inventive freedom and authenticity I simply talked about. Nevertheless, a model’s authenticity is equally as essential as that of the micro-influencer. Even armed with a short, the influencer gained’t essentially know the way greatest to seize a model’s voice in its content material.
Because the skilled in your model, you need to at all times be the ultimate eyes on the content material to make sure it’s applicable, will get the right message throughout, and is in keeping with your company values.
4. Determine how the model will get entangled with the micro-influencer.
When you’ve efficiently secured a micro-influencer partnership, it’s essential to plan how greatest to work together with the influencer’s social publish to develop your model’s social media presence. Trip the coattails of the influencer’s platform and use it to your benefit.
Manufacturers can take part within the influencer’s publish past simply liking it. Check out @melissasonico’s sponsored publish under.
The model @mate_the_label commented on the publish to have interaction. This helps enhance model visibility with Melissa’s followers and might encourage them to comply with the model, too.
Manufacturers also can ask to publish a collaboration publish with the influencer. An Instagram collab publish is co-created by a number of accounts and seems on all their feeds.
One person creates the publish and invitations others to collaborate. All collaborators’ usernames seem on the prime of the publish, as seen within the under collab publish between @michelledugor and @vespucciconsignment.
Manufacturers also can publish the influencer’s content material instantly onto their very own profile and tag them to provide credit score, as seen under in @girlfriend’s publish that includes @alissa.iris.
Manufacturers also can re-share an influencer’s publish onto their Story, like @womensbest did with micro-influencer @exercisingwitheleanor’s Reel.
There are many methods to have interaction with an influencer’s publish, so work with the influencer to determine which possibility works greatest for you each.
5. Ask for suggestions.
On the finish of the marketing campaign, I naturally observe the outcomes utilizing my firm’s most well-liked analytics and influencer advertising and marketing instruments. Whereas these marketing campaign outcomes are crucial, so is the connection with the micro-influencer.
That’s why I like to recommend asking them for suggestions on the marketing campaign’s completion.
What labored effectively, and what didn’t? Did the content material and messaging really feel genuine to their social media presence? Did they obtain optimistic sentiment from the partnership? What would the influencer change in the event that they have been to work along with your model once more?
These learnings will probably be important if you wish to companion with the identical influencer once more, however they’re additionally essential for different future influencer partnerships. Protecting the influencer’s area of interest and model on the forefront of the marketing campaign will guarantee favorable, profitable, and painless collaborations.
Now that you simply’re armed with the guidelines and methods to deal with these micro-influencer partnerships, learn on for examples of actual manufacturers already utilizing these processes efficiently.
4 Manufacturers Utilizing Micro-Influencers Efficiently
1. Mejuri
Mejuri is a luxurious, on a regular basis jewellery model that prioritizes creating high-quality, sustainable merchandise.
An enormous a part of the model is exhibiting that advantageous jewellery can nonetheless be accessible and relatable. Subsequently, it is sensible that Mejuri companions with micro-influencers who can construct off of that message of authenticity and relatability.
Mejuri works with micro-influencers to showcase its merchandise worn in on a regular basis settings by actual people.
I really like two current posts the model did with @cheftarathomas which present the micro-influencer sporting her favourite items whereas in her pure ingredient.
This can be a excellent instance of how micro-influencers can enhance a model marketing campaign. With 18.1K followers, Tara has some attain but in addition the belief and loyalty of her few however mighty followers. Her inclusion on this marketing campaign brings emotion, relatability, and credibility to Mejuri’s model and merchandise.
A number of of Mejuri’s posts characteristic micro-influencers. Some, like Tara, might seem to be an unconventional alternative, however this unconventionality is what works so effectively. Mejuri positions itself as greater than only a style and beauty-adjacent model — it’s a way of life model for everybody.
2. LaCroix Glowing Water
LaCroix Glowing Water makes use of micro-influencers to advertise its model in a aggressive market. The model’s social media presence is shiny, colourful, and effervescent — identical to its iconic glowing water packaging.
LaCroix identifies micro-influencers on Instagram and asks them to share product consciousness posts. It finds micro-influencers by looking out branded hashtags, similar to #LiveLaCroix, and when customers tag the model on Instagram, as seen in @rachelmuse’s publish under.
The model feedback and asks to repost the posts or provide product vouchers in trade.
Whereas LaCroix works with personalities as huge as Katie Ledecky, it additionally targets profiles with decrease follower counts to keep up a sense of genuine “realness” that appeals to millennial and Gen Z Instagram customers.
LaCroix additionally deeply understands its model and finds micro-influencers who match its vibrant, energetic, optimistic tone, like @kaylakane.
By tapping into smaller, extra focused networks of micro-influencers, LaCroix cultivates an genuine, enjoyable social media presence and ensures its product is in entrance of the eyes of comparable customers.
You probably have a bodily product that appears nice on digital camera (like an eye-popping can of LaCroix), attempt participating with micro-influencers by sending free merchandise for Instagram promotions.
3. ASOS
Vogue and cosmetics retailer ASOS collaborates with micro-influencers on Instagram to showcase new merchandise. ASOS’s social media presence is fashionable, moody, and aspirational, and the model effortlessly incorporates micro-influencers with comparable vibes, as seen on this instance with @hannahkennie.
What I respect about ASOS’s technique is that the micro-influencers chosen are indistinguishable from ASOS’s precise fashions.
This reveals precision within the influencer choice course of and a dedication to defending and representing the model.
Past this, in February 2024, ASOS relaunched its ASOS Insiders program, which had been discontinued in 2020 in the course of the pandemic. This system contains 36 workers throughout numerous departments who have been chosen as model influencers.
These ambassadors curate style picks, present fashion inspiration, and are featured faces on ASOS’s social channels.
The style-forward workers got new social handles with which they supplied insider views on the model.
Whereas these workers, like @asseenonmini, are nonetheless rising their new accounts, they sometimes fall within the nano- or micro-influencer vary on their private socials.
ASOS prioritizes amplifying existing content, in addition to creating new content material.
This ties into its technique of constructing real connections with prospects — ASOS capitalizes on the belief and engagement micro-influencers have constructed with their audiences and makes use of it to amplify model messaging and not using a want for fixed content material creation.
4. Samsung
Samsung has tapped into the ability of micro-influencers for a number of campaigns to advertise totally different merchandise, from smartphones to sensible TVs, in addition to a lifestyle. Most influencers are chosen from particular niches associated to the Samsung model, together with tech, images, gaming, music, and common life-style.
I really like how Samsung exhibits actual folks utilizing its merchandise in actual methods. For example, the model showcased award-winning artist influencer @aerosynlex creating all new artworks dwell, alongside a showcase of Samsung Body TVs, which transforms TVs into artworks.
The partnership makes whole sense and allowed Aerosyn-Lex to stay genuine to his model and craft whereas benefiting from Samsung’s platform and the chance to take part on the earth’s largest electronics present.
Equally, journey and life-style micro-influencer @lauramourinhobelbut captured her summer season journey reminiscences on a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 telephone. Once more, the content material was trustworthy to her typical fashion and effortlessly included the model’s new product.
Suppose Micro
There’s typically pushback from management to drag within the greatest influencers within the recreation, however I hope this publish highlights the worth of micro-influencer advertising and marketing.
Success on social media doesn’t at all times imply accessing essentially the most doable folks with every publish. It’s about focusing on the suitable folks in the suitable manner.
The hot button is selecting micro-influencers whose niches align along with your model’s area of interest and trusting them to create content material that authentically conveys the message.
There’s additionally the bonus that choosing an influencer with a smaller viewers might imply they’re loyal to your model in a manner that higher-profile influencers aren’t assured to be.
You possibly can really feel assured that the influencer will doubtless work with you on a number of campaigns and gained’t instantly be snatched up by a competitor.
My greatest piece of recommendation is to be open to micro-influencers who uncover you, together with these you hunt down. Look out for social media customers tagging your model or utilizing branded hashtags, as they may simply change into your subsequent huge ambassador.
Editor’s notice: This publish was initially revealed in March 2017 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.
