What Are Micro-Influencers and Why Businesses Should Care

For years large corporations have thrown millions at celebrity endorsements from actors to athletes and why do they do it? Because frankly, it works, these celebrities have carved out a following, they speak to a certain part of the population and have a certain amount of influence over their purchase behaviour. But not all of us are Nike, Coke or Samsung with huge marketing budgets to create branding campaigns with the power of celebrity endorsements.

Taking a step down from that would be the social media star, the rise of social media has given birth to a host of social media stars who has carved out a niche for themselves and gained a following that they speak to regularly. While this social media stardom has gone to their heads and charging absurd amounts of money for relevantly low or no return on investment its best to steer clear of these kinds of influencers unless you do have money to burn.

Then we have the micro influencer, the person may only have a few thousand followers, but what they lack in numbers they make up for in their ability to maintain authenticity. They engage with their audience with honest product reviews and purchase recommendations. So, if you intend to boost your content marketing efforts you may want to consider reaching out to these guys.

What micro influencers have to offer

• Already established audience These guys and girls have put in the hours to attract and shape an audience that is willing to hear what they have to say
• A set of expertise in a field of interest The reason they have an audience is because they are seen as an authority on a certain topic and users look to them for advice and about what's trending.
• High engagement rates You simply cannot grow your audience and stay relevant without high engagement rates, while their following may not be large, they are passionate and willing to engage with the content micro influencers push out
• Creative freedom You can't always expect your marketing team to churn out great campaigns month after month, sometimes an outside influence can give a new take on an old concept and bring in a completely new angle.

What you can get out of micro-influencers

Extend your reach

The most important characteristic to look for in a micro-influencer is their relevance to your target audience. Make sure the micro-influencer you choose has a name and a voice in the relevant industry so when they do speak about your product or service on their channels you're leveraging an audience you may not have targetted before but one that should be interested in what you have to offer.

Link building

If the influencer has their own blog, which they should, any self-respecting influencer should have a home from which they build their personal brand. Get them to write or syndicate reviews, articles, list-cles, infographics, any sort of content that can be contextually linked back to your site, product or service. Building high-quality links like these will do wonders for your rankings.

Content marketing

Co-creating content is mutually beneficial for increasing your audience size and driving more traffic to your site. For example, you may interview a micro-influencer for a podcast or a blog post, encourage them to write a guest post for your blog, or create a video testimonial about your company. When you publish guest content on your site, the author is more likely to share it with her followers.

Social media marketing

Get them to take over your social media account for a day or two and share their opinions, engage with your users and cause a stir on your account. This could be through QandA's live video, tutorials and more.

Spice up something bland

Micro influencers can also bring in their sense of creativity to what would have normally been a lacklustre sales campaign and it may do you some good getting a fresh perspective on your marketing.

Influence your reach

Influencer marketing can be a hit or miss game and consumers do tend to question the authenticity of influencer marketing at times but that doesn't mean you should shy away from the tactic completely.

Instead, carefully consider the role micro-influencers may play in your content marketing strategy and how you can benefit from reaching a new audience, consider your bottom line and finally think of the long-term effects post campaign.

If you can find the right micro-influencers for your brand that meet your standards of relevance, engagement rate, values, and publication frequency keep them close and rope them in strategically.

Contact us

If you want to know more about marketing strategies don’t be shy we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us

Tags: Content Marketing, SEO, Social Media, freelance