We’ve talked about influencer marketing before and why it can be useful for a brand. Companies like Calvin Klein and H&M wouldn’t spend big money to work with influencers like Kendall Jenner if it weren’t!
But if you’re a small business owner or marketer, you’re probably wondering if it’s even relevant to you. (You don’t have the marketing budget that these big brands do!) How can you possibly leverage influencer marketing for your brand?
Micro or even nano influencers offer the answer. Tapping these types of key opinion leaders, also known as KOLs, is a viable strategy for SMEs for several reasons. We’ll discuss these and even give you more tips on how to do small business influencer marketing below!
What are micro and nano influencers and what are the benefits of using them?
Micro influencers are often defined as influencers who have 10,000 to 100,000 followers on a social media platform like TikTok, IG, YouTube, and so on. Nano influencers usually have around 1,000 to 100,000 followers on these same platforms.
If you want to learn more about the different types of influencers by follower count, you can check the table in one of our previous articles. For now, though, it should be enough to compare them to macro influencers (100,000 to 1,000,000 followers).
That gives you an idea of the gap between micro and macro influencers. But now you’re probably wondering why you shouldn’t aim to work with the latter instead!
After all, a bigger following logically means bigger reach – and that’s true. But there are still strong reasons to work with micro influencers instead if you’re an SME:
1. They have more genuine connections with audiences
We’re generalising, of course, but there’s some truth to this nonetheless. Micro influencers may have a smaller following but they also tend to have even higher trust from their audiences.
This may be due to their audiences being both more niche and smaller, which means they’re more manageable for them to personally connect with. Indeed, 70% of people say they trust micro influencers more than bigger KOLs like celebrities.
This could work in your favour, as it will make content created for you by that influencer appear more genuine and trustworthy.
2. They have higher engagement from followers
This probably ties into the first benefit of working with micro or nano influencers. When audiences trust a KOL more, they’re also more likely to answer the latter’s call to action.
The numbers bear this out. Interestingly, micro influencers even outdo mega influencers (those with follower counts over 1,000,000) in this area. One global report even shows them beating the latter in average engagement rates on three platforms:
This means they may actually give you more chances for interaction and conversion than larger influencers!
3. They’re more cost-effective for SMEs
It’s a given that influencers with fewer followers will cost less than macro influencers (and we’ll even dig deeper into this later), but it’s also true in terms of more than partnership rates.
Most are open to things like barter trades instead of paid collaborations. Many Singapore SME influencer collaborations work through brands sending influencers products for testing, actually.
Think of beauty brands sending people trial samples or publishers sending streamers early access game keys so they’ll play the games. Given your budget limitations as a small business, this sort of compensation can serve you very well.
4. They’re often more scalable
Micro and nano influencers usually have lower rates, which means they’re more scalable.
Let’s take an example. Shopify estimates the rate per post for micro influencers to be $100-$500, going up to $500-$5,000 if the influencer has at least 50,000 followers.
Compare that to its estimate for macro influencers: $5,000-$10,000, going up to $10,000+ per post if the influencer has at least 500,000 followers.
That’s a big rate difference. For the price of just one macro influencer post, you can technically engage up to 50 influencers to each create posts for their audiences. The latter not only prevents you from putting all of your eggs in one basket but can even help you reach more niche audiences!
Plus, this makes doing long-term collaborations more viable – which is something you should consider if you find micro influencers who are both effective and ideal for your brand.
Tips for amplifying campaign impact with micro or nano influencers
So now you know why these influencers are worth working with. But how do you make the most of such collaborations? These tips can help you there!
1. Find relevant influencers
Don’t just work with the first influencer you find who has enough followers. Look for ones who meet these criteria:
Relevance to your niche in their content
An identity and lifestyle that matches your brand values
Followers who fall in your target audience/customer demographic
This is pretty simple. If you’re a skincare brand targeting young women seeking a fresh-faced look, you probably want a young woman who has that look and regularly does content about achieving it.
2. Collaborate on authentic, relatable content
Among other things, this means letting your influencer have most of the creative control.
Why? Because it’s your influencer’s unique voice and style that makes them resonate with their audience. “Dubbing over that voice” with ham-fisted direction will ruin the point of working with them in the first place.
Let them create the content and just exercise some gentle guidance on it from your end. That’s more likely to produce content audiences will consider authentic and likely to convert.
3. Set up deliverables for maximum impact
There are many ways to do this, and you can even talk to your influencer about things like when their audiences are most active to maximise your strategy here.
Essentially, the idea is to set up a deliverable schedule with your influencer that maximises both reach and engagement. That may mean setting up multiple staggered posts throughout a campaign. Or, since most influencers will be on multiple platforms, posting on one, then on others halfway through the campaign to give it a bump.
4. Track and measure results
We’re always talking about this but it’s so important that it’s worth repeating: monitor your campaign’s performance! This can admittedly be a challenge in social media, but it’s far from impossible.
For one thing, you can use a trackable personalised promo code for influencers if you’re after conversions. Or you can negotiate with your influencer to share reach and engagement with you for the campaign.
Keeping an eye on metrics tells you whether or not a campaign is working in your favour or otherwise, so you can either sustain/scale it or switch to different tactics.
Get started with your micro influencer marketing now
Ultimately, micro or nano influencer marketing is just one of the many tools SMEs have at their disposal for promotion and exposure. It’s easily one of the most important now, thanks to people’s increasing interest in authentic content they can trust.
If you need help launching influencer marketing for your business, talk to us. Whether it’s about influencer outreach tactics or campaign reporting, we can guide you through the whole process and find the best results for your brand.
Contact us for a chat on your digital marketing needs now!
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