GreenRope Blog

Title search:

5 Killer Benefits of Micro-Influencers for Your Small Business.png

5 Killer Benefits of Micro-Influencers for Your Small Business

Written by: Shane Barker

 

Although it is counter-intuitive, a study by Markerly found that the engagement rates on Instagram are inversely proportional to the number of followers that an influencer has. As the number of followers increases, the engagement rate in terms of likes and comments decreases. 

 

 

Image via Markerly

Not surprisingly, marketers have realized that brand-mentions by micro-influencers drive huge benefits, both in terms of engagement and brand awareness.

Unlike celebrity influencers (mega-influencers) who have millions of followers to flaunt, micro-influencers have a follower base between 1,000 to 100,000 and operate in a specific niche. 

The number of followers may not be impressive, but the kind of strong relationships they enjoy with their followers is something celebrity influencers can’t match. 

When micro-influencers mention your brand to their followers, the impact is akin to a recommendation by a trusted friend. This helps small businesses reach new audiences quickly and with a minimal budget.

Here are five ways micro-influencers can boost your digital marketing efforts and benefit your small business:

  1. Better and higher engagement rates

  2. Target highly relevant audiences

  3. Builds trust among consumers

  4. Affordable and Deliver a Better ROI

  5. Higher conversion rates

1. Better and Higher Engagement Rates

Micro-influencers have 60% higher engagement rates as compared to macro-influencers with larger audiences. Why?

Because they enjoy strong communities of highly engaged followers.

As compared to macro-influencers, their social media engagement is more “quality driven” and includes in-depth relationships with a niche audience. Their followers are more active and more likely to respond to questions, comments, or opinions. 

Micro-influencers are also more relatable and talk about common problems that their audiences face.

Realizing the impact of micro-influencers, Amazon’s company, Audible, partnered with Driftwood (with fewer than 100,000 followers at that time). His content, shared with his closed community of loyal and engaged fans, attracted phenomenal engagement.

 

 

Image via Instagram

Better quality interactions between influencers and their audiences mean that there are higher chances for brands to establish connections quickly with their target audiences. When an influencer shows how a product or brand is helping them solve their problem, their audience can quickly relate.

Better and higher engagement rates also suggest that micro-influencers are much better at being advocates for a brand. In contrast to celebrity influencers, they are more active in their communities and their posts about a brand or product don’t easily disappear into their feeds.

That means every dollar spent on influencers marketing with micro-influencers can take your small business much further towards reaching your goals. 

2. Target Highly Relevant Audiences

Micro-influencers are known for their specialties or expertise. It could be in fashion, travel, lifestyle, entertainment, or something else.

Successful influencers who understand their role, don’t spread themselves too thin into too many subjects. Instead, they focus on just one or two closely related niches where their strengths are.

 

 

Image via Instagram

In the above example, Brianna Dawes has managed her whole instagram profile across the niche of travel with a subtle mention of marketing in her bio.

Micro-influencers like her are reputable experts in their niches and center their entire social media presences around those topics. In return, they have very specific audience bases, whose interests may have strong relevance to your brand.

Such focused targeting will lead to high-quality leads and create brand awareness among people who are already interested in the solution you are offering. 

3. Builds Trust Among Consumers

Micro-influencers are personally invested in their crafts.

Driven by a strong “Why?” they build communities where people interested in a common subject come together. People look for ideas and inspiration from these micro-influencers. And they interact with each other across social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

The algorithms of these platforms prioritize posts from profiles which users follow over the promoted content of big brands. Which means that authentic and quality content from micro-influencers gains more visibility then content from celebrities or from brands.

People don’t consider micro-influencers to be celebrities since they have smaller followings. They connect with their followers comfortably in closed communities. And that is why they become trusted sources of recommendations for their followers.

4. Affordable and Deliver a Better ROI

Collaborating with micro-influencers is more cost-effective when compared to macro-influencer and celebrities.

influence.co studied the profiles of 2,885 influencers and found that their charges for social media posts vary dramatically as the number of follower count increases. In fact, businesses have to pay 5.5 times more money when dealing with influencers that have 100,000 followers or more. 

 

 

In another study by Markerly, it was observed that the rate of engagement such as likes and comments decreases as the number of followers grows. 

 

 

Image via Markerly

If we look at both studies together, it is clear that small businesses will not only enjoy better engagement when they hire micro-Influencers, but they will also pay significantly less.  

Rather than working with one celebrity influencer with a huge follower base, it is often better to work with several micro-influencers. They may have less followers, but those followers are more engaged. And micro-influencers are 6.7x more cost-effective than mega-influencers.

5. Higher Conversion Rates

A detailed and valuable conversation leads is more likely to lead to a conversion, right?

Micro-influencers generate 22.2 times more buying conversations across social media as compared to a normal user. Since most of the time influencers are seen sharing their personal experiences, people easily construe brand recommendations as part of their experience sharing. 

According to research done by Klear's data science team, micro-influencers drive higher ROI than mega-influencers. Sponsored posts by micro-influencers perform much better with an average increase of 40% in engagement.

 

 

Image via Klear Takeaways

Micro-influencer marketing is a great opportunity to connect with early-adopters of your product.

Micro-influencers can humanize your brand to their closed communities. They can evangelize your product and share your story. Because of their specific areas of expertise, each micro-influencer appeals to a particular type of audience.

If you carefully consider your buyer personas, you can easily drill down to specific micro-influencers who create content that appeals to the personas of your target audience. That kind of exposure becomes very powerful and can help you build trust with consumers. It can also help you scale and grow your business.

If big brands like Amazon (as mentioned above) believe in micro-influencers, then small businesses can surely benefit from working with them as well.

Are you ready to grow your small business? Get started and find your micro-influencers now.

Share: https://www.greenrope.com/blog/Blog588/5-Killer-Benefits-of-Micro-Influencers-for-Your-Small-Business

Share Category "Everything Small Business":
https://www.greenrope.com/blog/BlogCategory19/Everything-Small-Business

Share Category "Marketing":
https://www.greenrope.com/blog/BlogCategory1/Marketing

Share Category "SMB":
https://www.greenrope.com/blog/BlogCategory10/SMB

Share Category "Tidbits for You":
https://www.greenrope.com/blog/BlogCategory9/Tidbits-for-You

Modern Postcard