Why Your Small Business Needs Micro-influencer Marketing in 2021

When online ads replaced the traditional newspaper and television ads, it was believed to be the ultimate revolution in the world of advertisement. And rightly so.

However, we are heading towards 2021, and the initial charm and reach of digital ads seem to fade away. Marketers are now facing a lot of difficulties reaching a targeted audience through digital ads.

Mainly because:

• There is an overwhelming amount of content in varied mediums. Breaking through the noise and sending across a point is more difficult than ever.

• Social media is all about paid promotions now. The rapid decline of organic reach, especially in mediums like Facebook is a huge blow on ROI.

• Ad blockers and skip buttons have drastically reduced the reach of online ads

• With so much noise and paid promotions all around, humans long for and trust recommendations from real people.

While you cannot reduce the massive amount of content being produced or increase the organic reach of Facebook, what you can do is to give a real human touch to your ad campaign.

And that is what makes influencer marketing such a hit among masses as they connect with the human face behind the campaign and take his/her words at face value (literally!)

In fact, influencer marketing is one of the most effective forms of marketing delivering 11 times higher ROI than other forms of digital ads.

However, it is not as simple as it sounds. Not all influencers can make the same kind of impact, especially when it comes to promoting small businesses. Why is that, you may ask. Well, that is because customers do not trust all the influencers equally.

Micro-influencers Making Big Marks

30% of consumers are more likely to trust a product recommended by someone simple and non-celebrity. This is because it is too obvious that a celebrity is promoting a product for the money and that is why people do not trust his/her words.

They rather want to see a simple and honest review coming from a person they can really trust.

Some micro-influencers use personalized websites that capture followers attention and increase conversion for the brand they promote.

Let us find out how micro-influencers can help grow your small business

Who Are Micro-Influencers?

Influencers are people who have a large number of followers on their social media accounts. The important point here is that to become a social media influencer you need not have any special talent.

There are many everyday people who have millions of followers due to their charisma, good looks, consistency, and expertise on a given subject. While this is a good way to describe influencers, when talking about micro-influencers, we must focus on the term ‘micro’.

Micro-influencers are those who do not try to reach a global audience but build a small army of loyal followers by regularly engaging with them and posting quality content. These loyal followers trust influencer’s recommendations and might show a willingness to buy something they suggest.

There is no exact follower count that separates a micro-influencer from a macro one, but usually, individuals with up to 10 thousand followers are considered as micro-influencers.

How Come 10k Followers Are Better than 10 Million Followers?

What differentiates a micro-influencer from a macro is user engagement. While it is true that macro-influencers can increase brand visibility and awareness, they cannot match the engagement rate a micro-influencer offers.

As the follower count for an influencer rises, the rate of engagement decreases proportionally. Quite naturally, a social media account with around 1000 followers will see way more engagement rate than one with a million followers.

The number of people who comment, like, or ask something from a follower count of a million will obviously be too high to reply to. On the other hand, micro-influencers can personally connect with most of their followers resulting in high content quality and human touch.

And that is exactly the reason why it is a great idea for small businesses to use micro-influencers when promoting their products as it allows them to address a specific niche of the audience, who are more likely to be their potential customers.

For example,

Audible, Amazon’s audiobook and podcast division, partnered with many micro-influencers to promote it. One such influencer was photographer Jesse Driftwood (@jessedriftwood) with less than 100,000 followers at that time.

He posted a photo of himself using Audible and explained how it is useful in learning about business management and productivity while involved in other activities.

The simple way he explained the product made the followers feel as if they’re receiving a genuine suggestion from a friend and the campaign was a huge success.

The Benefits of Micro-influencer Marketing for Small Businesses

Several pieces of research have confirmed that using micro-influencers are highly beneficial for customer acquisition. But there are many more things than an engagement with small influencers can offer. Here is why it makes sense to invest in micro-influencers:

Cost-effectiveness

This goes without saying. These micro-influencers charge a small fraction of what a celebrity would charge. While most celebrities would charge anything beginning from several thousand dollars, 84% of micro-influencer would do an Instagram post for less than $250. Thus, for the same budget, you will be able to have multiple influencer posts, that too to a more specific audience.

Scaling

By using micro-influencers companies can scale on a level they can handle. They can start modestly and then expand their reach gradually by adding one micro-influencer at a time.

Content Quality

Micro-influencers usually work on one or two projects at a time and give their best effort to keep the content quality high. Unlike in the case of celebrities, they do not have a social media team. They handle their account by themselves and invest some serious effort in content creation because it is the only thing that’s keeping them alive and kicking online.

Easy Cooperation

Most micro-influencers are friendly and cooperative. You have to just propose a price and partnership details and they usually take care of everything from there. If there is something you wish to include or modify in the post, they are adaptable to it.

Professional Authority

Micro-influencers do not reach masses. However, their authority and respect allow them to strongly influence the opinion of small groups they reach. This influence goes a long way in promoting your business.

Finding the Right Micro-influencer for Your Campaign

Now that we are aware of the benefits of hiring a micro-influencer in promoting the small business, the next important thing is to know who to invest in. With plenty of options to choose from, you need to be careful enough to find the right person who can promote your product to the right audience.

A good idea is to search for hashtags in your niche to find suitable influencers. Also, there are several tools and platforms that are designed to help you find the right influencer to promote your product.

Here are a few points you need to consider when selecting an influencer:

• Ensure that your company and targeted influencer share the same value. What is even better is to find someone who is already interested and engaging with your brand.

• He should resemble an average buyer-persona i.e. age group, background, and overall appearance

• He should be using the marketing channels that are right to promote your product.

• If you are running a local business, find an influencer from the same geographical location

Conclusion

When it comes to influencer marketing, the number of followers does not matter. What matters is how well the influencer aligns with your marketing goals. Also, as a small business, it is important to ensure that the money you spend on influencer marketing gives you good ROI.

Hence the influencer you choose, the content they post, and the length of the partnership should work together to achieve your brand’s goal.