By Chad Harwood-Jones
When it comes to influencer marketing, more and more research is showing that micro-influencers are the most powerful choice. Perceived as more genuine and more trustworthy than the bigger names on YouTube and social media, micro-influencers are simultaneously relatable and believable. That’s exactly why they’re the key to a winning influencer strategy.
Real People, Real Results
Relatability is an important part of any ad campaign. From Aviva’s Drive App Challenge campaign to Tesco’s Food Love Stories, the attraction of “being real” can’t be underestimated. Brands of all shapes, sizes and sectors have found success in this style of campaign, appealing to an equally diverse range of consumers.
The idea of spending vast sums of money on getting one big-name star to endorse your product is becoming old-fashioned. Finding influencers who aren’t quite as high up the food chain doesn’t just save you money on fees, but also grants you access to a more loyal audience. Everybody knows that Zoella gets paid to endorse people’s products, but when someone with a much smaller following does the same thing it feels like a genuine review.
Micro-influencers often have better engagement than those with greater followings, too. HelloSociety, an influencer agency, say they’ve found that micro-influencers can have as much as 60% higher engagement than celebrity accounts.
While the little guys may have 20,000 followers instead of 200,000, those followers are likely to be checking out almost every update – and the accounts are less likely to be run by bots.
Be the Next Success Story
Brands that have already started to focus their energy on micro-influencers are achieving brag-worthy results. All Bar One increased their brunch sales by 28% across 50 venues with a three-month ‘Brunching’ campaign, working with a diverse range of influencers relevant to their desired target audience.
With a focus on professional women aged 25-34, All Bar One picked out 10 micro-influencers to create visual content about their brunch experiences. Aside from the 594% increase in engagement on their Instagram posts and 63% increase in Facebook engagement, All Bar One also racked up an extra 1,800 brunches sold per week. Not bad for a collaboration with 10 micro-influencers, with a combined 200,000 followers between them.
Kyla Brennan, who founded HelloSociety, says that influencer marketing is most effective when the influencer is viewed as the consumer’s peer. “Engagement goes down once you reach a certain threshold of followers,” she stated in a recent interview with AdWeek, “which is almost counterintuitive.” Categorizing micro-influencers as those with less than 30,000 followers, Brennan went on to say of bigger name influencers: “You might get more eyeballs (on the product), but they won’t be eyeballs that care.”
Multi-Faceted Results
Influencer campaigns are far more about brand identity and brand awareness than they are about sales. While the sight of your product in an Insta update or YouTube roundup may well increase sales, what you’re achieving by working with influencers is an increase in exposure, and an understanding of who you are and what you offer. Modern consumers pay very little attention to billboards and TV ads, but get yourself into their social feeds and you’re right in the spotlight.
A sponsored ad, tailored ad or any other generic advertising format gets scrolled past more often than it gets clicked on, but loyal followers pay attention to what their favorite personalities are up to. Even if they don’t immediately see something in their feed, chances are they’re going to go looking for those recent updates.
Micro-influencers give you the opportunity to use influencer marketing tactics more frequently, more affordably and more effectively than their Insta-famous counterparts. They’re also more likely to be open to partnerships in the first place, as their inboxes aren’t as flooded with freebies, free trips and substantial cheques from other marketing agencies.
If you’re in need of some new and exciting, consumer-friendly marketing, look no further than micro-influencers.