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POV: If you are looking for a way to boost your brand awareness, reach new audiences, and increase your conversions, you might want to consider micro-influencer marketing.
It’s not financially feasible for every business to partner with major influencers such as celebrities and professional athletes. This is one of the reasons why more and more brands are integrating micro-influencers into their marketing campaigns.
Micro-influencers are social media users who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers and are well-known in their specific niche. They have high engagement rates, loyal fans, and authentic voices that can help you promote your products or services to a relevant and interested audience.
In this blog post, we will explain what micro-influencer marketing is, what are its benefits, and how you can find and work with micro-influencers for your brand
What is micro-influencer marketing?
Micro-influencer marketing is a type of influencer marketing that involves partnering with micro-influencers to create and share content about your brand on social media platforms. Unlike macro- or mega-influencers who have millions of followers and charge high fees, micro-influencers are more affordable, accessible, and relatable to their followers.
Micro-influencers typically specialize in a certain topic or industry, such as fitness, beauty, travel, gaming, or fashion. They have a strong connection with their followers, who trust their opinions and recommendations. They also tend to produce high-quality content that showcases their personality and expertise.
By collaborating with micro-influencers, you can leverage their influence and credibility to reach a targeted and engaged audience that is likely to be interested in your brand. You can also benefit from their creativity and authenticity, as they can create content that fits your brand image and resonates with their followers.
Source: Hivency
How micro-influencer marketing can benefit your business?
Micro-influencer marketing can offer several advantages for your brand, such as:
Cost-effectiveness:
Micro-influencers charge lower rates than macro- or mega-influencers, so you can work with more influencers for a smaller budget and get a higher return on investment (ROI).
For example, a micro-influencer might charge $250 for a post, whereas a macro-influencer might charge $2,500 for the same post.
Relevance:
Micro-influencers have a more niche and specific audience than macro- or mega-influencers, which means you can reach a more relevant and interested audience for your brand.
This is akin to laser-targeted marketing, where you focus on a small but highly relevant audience for maximum impact, rather than casting a wide net and hoping for a good response.
Engagement:
It means that their followers are more likely to engage with their content and follow their recommendations than macro- or mega-influencers.
Micro-influencers have an engagement rate of 10%, while macro-influencers are lucky to get an engagement rate of 5%.
Source: Marketingcharts
Trust:
Micro-influencers are perceived as more authentic and trustworthy than macro- or mega-influencers, which means their followers are more likely to trust their opinions and suggestions.
For example, a micro-influencer who posts about a new clothing brand is more likely to be seen as credible and genuine than a macro-influencer with millions of followers.
Diversity:
Micro-influencers offer a wide range of options for your brand, as you can find influencers in different niches, platforms, locations, demographics, and styles. It’s like having a potluck, where everyone brings something different to the table, allowing you to have a wide range of choices and flavors to choose from.
For example, you could find a micro-influencer who specializes in beauty products on Instagram, a food blogger on Twitter, or a vlogger on YouTube who can creatively review your product.
The Forbes blog discusses the benefits of micro-influencer marketing in further detail .
How to find and work with micro-influencers
A partnership with a micro-influencer can help brands reach a dedicated subset of their target audience if they can find one whose highly engaged followers align well with the niche market they serve. Even though micro-influencers may offer brands more affordable options, the success of influencer campaigns depends on many factors.
Finding and working with micro-influencers can be challenging, but not impossible. Here are some steps you can follow to make the process easier:
Define your goals and budget:
It is important to know what you want to accomplish and how much you are willing to spend before you start looking for micro-influencers. Your campaign should have a clear goal.
Do you want to increase your brand awareness, generate leads, drive sales, or something else? Having clear goals will help you measure your success and choose the right influencers for your brand.
Identify your target audience:
Next, you need to identify who you want to reach with your campaign. Who are your ideal customers? What are their interests, preferences, needs, and pain points? What social media platforms do they use? Knowing your target audience will help you find micro-influencers who have a similar audience and can influence them effectively.
Search for micro-influencers:
Once you have a clear idea of your goals and target audience, you can start searching for micro-influencers who match your criteria. You can use different methods to find them, such as:
Using hashtags:
You can search for hashtags related to your niche or industry on social media platforms and see who is using them. You can also use hashtags related to your brand or products and see who is mentioning them.
Using tools:
You can use tools like CoCo to find influencers based on keywords, topics, locations, platforms, follower count, engagement rate, etc.
Using referrals:
You can ask your existing customers, partners, employees, or other influencers for recommendations of micro-influencers they follow or know.
Reach out and build relationships
Once you have a list of potential micro-influencers, you need to contact them and pitch your collaboration idea. You can send them an email, a direct message or a comment on their posts. Be polite, professional and personalized. Explain who you are, what you do and why you are interested in working with them. Highlight the benefits for them and their followers and be transparent about your expectations and terms.
A Forbes article entitled “Want to partner with micro-influencers?” 14 key considerations” spoke to this topic.
A key point is highlighted by the writer:
Treat It Like A Relationship Rather Than A B2B Contract
Even though many micro-influencers don’t have formal business training, they choose relationships over contracts, authenticity over formality, and loyalty over money. They are driven by an open and honest relationship with their followers.
As a result of this statement, the author concludes:
The ideal relationship manager will know how to establish long-term relationships while setting clear expectations.
This means understanding their needs and values, learning about their passions and interests, and building an authentic connection with them. It is also imperative to be transparent and honest about your expectations and how you intend to use their content. The ideal relationship manager will also be able to provide micro-influencers with value by offering them creative freedom, opportunities to collaborate and grow, and other incentives that will strengthen the relationship. By taking the time to build a genuine connection and providing micro-influencers with value, marketers can create lasting relationships with micro-influencers that will benefit both parties in the long term.
Evaluate micro-influencers:
After you have a list of potential micro-influencers for your campaign, you need evaluate them. To evaluate micro-influencers, you need to consider numerous factors such as their relevance, reach, engagement, and authenticity.
Relevance refers to how well their content matches your brand’s niche and target audience. Their reach is determined by the number of people they can reach through their social media platforms. Likes, comments, shares, and clicks indicate how much interaction they generate from their followers. Authenticity indicates how trustworthy and credible they are as sources of information and recommendations. You can identify micro-influencers who can assist you with your marketing goals and enhance your brand awareness with these factors in mind.
CoCo find influencer feature for best micro-influencer marketing
Make your smart move for finding micro-influencer in 2023!
But how do you find the right micro-influencers for your brand? Here are some tips to help you out:
1. Research And Interact With Them Before Engaging
Before you reach out to a potential micro-influencer, you should research their profile, content, and audience. You can use tools like CoCo to find relevant micro-influencers based on keywords, topics, or hashtags. CoCo can also provide insights into follower growth, engagement rates, and authenticity.
To learn more about their personality, tone, and values, you should interact with their posts and stories. This will help you build rapport and trust with them, and show them that you are genuinely interested in their content.
2. Make Sure They Don’t Pay For Their Followers
One of the biggest challenges in finding micro-influencers is avoiding fake or bought followers. These are accounts created or paid to follow and like certain profiles, without any real interest or engagement.
They can inflate micro-influencers follower count and engagement rate, but they won’t add value to your brand.
To avoid fake followers, you should look for signs like:
- A sudden spike or drop in followers or likes
- A low engagement rate compared to the follower count
- A mismatch between follower demographics and the niche
- A lack of comments or interactions from real people
- A high percentage of suspicious accounts (bots, spam, inactive)
3.Be Mindful Of Their True Reach And Engagement
Another factor to consider when finding micro-influencers is their true reach and engagement. This is the number of people who actually see and interact with their content, not just the number of followers they have.
A micro-influencer with a smaller but more active and loyal audience may have a higher impact than one with a larger but less engaged audience.
To measure the true reach and engagement of a micro-influencer, you should look at metrics such as:
- Impressions: The number of times their content was displayed on a screen
- Reach: The number of unique accounts that saw their content
- Engagement rate: The percentage of people who liked, commented, shared, or saved their content
- Click-through rate: The percentage of people who clicked on a link or call-to-action in their content
- Conversion rate: The percentage of people who performed a desired action after seeing their content (such as buying a product, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading an app).
You can use CoCo to track and analyze metrics like engagement rate, follower growth, etc for different micro-influencers. In addition, you can use CoCo to compare and benchmark micro-influencers within your niche
You can use CoCo to track and analyze metrics like engagement rate, follower growth, etc for different micro-influencers. In addition, you can use CoCo to compare and benchmark micro-influencers within your niche.
Tip for a getaway:
Finding micro-influencers in 2023 can be a smart move for your brand if you do it right. You can find the most appropriate micro-influencers for your budget and goals using these tips and CoCo.
Happy hunting!
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