How Working with Micro-Influencers Can Help Your Small Business

While influencer marketing has recently taken the front seat in the online space today, it is by no means just making its debut. It has been continuously growing for the last decade and is set to be worth $13.8 billion in 2021.

The content creators that make up this industry are real people who have built a strong following online within a niche. They have a certain influence over the views, brand preferences and purchasing decisions of their audience. Celebrities and athletes are among the most well-known influencers, but they aren’t the only types of influencers.

Cue micro-influencers.

What are micro-influencers?

According to Obviously, “micro-influencers are individuals who have follower counts between 10-75k and they’re nearly always a perfect fit for brands of every kind and size.” They’re known for their knowledge, expertise and experience about a specific niche. Think home DIY or affordable boho home décor over interior design as a whole. Not everyone has this specific design style and therefore, won’t be interested in the content these individuals share.

While their followers aren’t in the millions, they bring a lot of value to the table that a mega-influencer or celebrity can’t. Let’s jump into some of the benefits micro-influencers provide.

Benefits of Working With Micro-Influencers

Micro-influencers have a tight-knit community made up of your targeted audience

Micro-influencers have smaller audiences because of the niche categories and topics they cover and in turn, this makes their audience very targeted. They’re picky about the brands they work with but that’s because they want to stay true to their audience and only share products/services they believe in and use.

Micro-influencers have more impressive engagement rates

True trust = high engagement. Even though they have a smaller reach, they have a real relationship with the people that follow them and the time to engage with them. They share more than just products and services they love (and work with) but their everyday life and their audience feels connected to them as if they were real friends. Their audience trusts them and because of that, they’re more inclined to like and comment on their posts, and also purchase the products they recommend.

Micro-influencers are more cost effective

I’m sure you can imagine that working with celebrities like Kourtney Kardashian or Megan Fox isn’t cheap. Aside from a smaller reach, micro-influencers also don’t have agencies, photographers or even people working under them to pay so their costs are lower but the quality of their content is still high and even more authentic! You can expect these gals and guys to charge anywhere from $100-$1000 per post.

Micro-influencers create high-quality, re-shareable content

As a business owner, you know it takes a great deal of time and effort to create content for your social channels, website, etc. Micro-influencers are content creators at their core and they’re happy to share the photos, videos and content they create for your campaigns to share on your own channels (sometimes for an additional price).

How To Start Working With Micro-Influencers

There are a number of tools available to help you scout and connect with influencers. Before tapping these tools, take a step back and see if you’re already connected with them within your network, or do a little searching. Micro-influencers are already creating content for their followers (your targeted audience) every day so using keywords and phrases on Google will help you find them.

Remember, micro-influencers are an extension of your business and you may not find the perfect fit (or fits) right away so don’t get discouraged if it takes a little time. When you do find the right fit, you’ll want to invest in long-term relationships with these individuals because it allows them to continue building trust with their audience and shows that they really do use and love your products/services.

Have you already found an influencer or two you’d like to work with? One simple way to start this new relationship off on the right foot is to send them logo stickers of your brand that they can display proudly.

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