The rise of influencer marketing has been building for years, as has their presence and importance in the social strategy for brands. However, recent research shows its effectiveness and perhaps the underrated power of engaging with an authentic and highly relevant micro influencer for a brand’s performance on social.

According to Sprout Social, a micro influencer is defined as a content creator with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers

• Nano-influencers: 1K–10K followers
• Micro-influencers: 10K–100K followers
• Macro-influencers: 100K–1M followers
• Mega or celebrity influencers: 1M+ followers

Focusing on micro influencers, these can provide smaller, highly motivated audiences which consistently deliver up to 60% higher engagement rates than with larger influencers, making them ideal for brands seeking meaningful and specialist interactions. The smaller, more focused audiences are generally more supportive and will actually engage, i.e. comment, share and like the content which can really boost a brands presence on social.

Before influencers hit the hundreds of thousands, or even millions of followers and become less relatable, the sweet spot of the micro influencer seems to be the power of the authenticity and connection they provide. According to Forbes, “micro influencers have stronger relationships built on expertise and trust with their followers. They serve more niche audiences and can be beneficial to a brand because they provide access to a small subset of a targeted demographic interested in your business”. For example, home & DIY, beauty, wellness and fashion sectors have seen huge value in using micro influencers to reach highly engaged audiences who are generally more loyal and can add greater range in the types of content created. From a budget perspective, using micro influencers can be a cost-effective move, with 44% of marketers citing them a great option for driving brand visibility on a budget.

5 reasons to add micro influencers to your social media strategy:

1. 1. Micro-influencers often yield higher engagement rates than larger influencers, making their impact disproportionately powerful. Typically, micro influencers get 3.86% engagement versus mega influencers at 1.2%. This is all about a more tailored follower group with a much deeper sense of influence or authority on a subject.
   2. Building long-term connections, micro-influencers convert their engaged followers into loyal customers as their audience trust them and will value their opinions.
   3. With their focused reach, micro-influencers can spark authentic buzz among niche audiences, and can create real excitement for a brand or product.
   4. They offer brands cost-effective reach, driving results without the hefty price tag of celebrity influencers.
   5. Micro-influencers’ close connection with their followers fosters trust, making brand messages feel personal and authentic.

With our own clients at Originate, we use micro influencers as part of our overall digital and social strategies with various clients and have seen the success they can deliver. For example, with a recent launch we used one ‘hero’ macro influencer to build awareness and get the word out about our new product launch. We then enlisted the help of 5 micro influencers who were respected and trusted voices in the sector with engaged communities to drive engagement and start a conversation. Tiering the use of influencers, and assigning different objectives to each tier created a comprehensive social strategy which saw fantastic results for our client.

Some examples of effective brand micro influencer campaigns:

• Aerie, the clothing brand from the US, used the TikTok ‘fit check’ trend with micro influencers to build awareness of their full range by celebrating Mothers Day. Different influencers showed themselves with their mothers posing and showing their outfits (all Aerie, of course) to their audiences. This successfully showcased the breadth of the Aerie range and was a simple way to piggy back on a holiday such as Mothers Day, but in an authentic way for the individual content creator.
• Similarly, the D2C eyewear brand Warby Parker is a micro influencer stalwart, as they showcase their ‘try on at home’ benefit by getting influencers to try on and show off the range in a fun and engaging way. To date Warby Parker has over 250,000 posts on Instagram alone from influencers promoting not only their products, but a key customer service benefit too.
• Airalo is a marketplace that gives travellers access to affordable eSIMs in 190+ countries and regions. They needed to boost awareness of their products and so turned to micro influencers to target this specific audience in an affordable way. They used TikTok where they could tap into the world of travel hacks and money saving tips with an engaged market of 18 -35 year old travellers. By using a carefully selected group of 10 micro influencers, they collectively generated 2.1 millions views which boasted an above-average engagement rate of 12.3%.

References:

• Forbes
• HubSpot
• Linqia
• Sprout Social