Influencers rely on the credibility of product recommendations from good friends. Because that’s exactly how they try to get across to their followers. But with the big ones, the trustworthiness of influencer marketing is beginning to crumble. Users know that the recommendations are advertising measures – the ‘friend status’ is no longer as credible as it used to be. Micro-influencers take advantage of this. While mega-influencers are increasingly perceived as savvy marketing professionals, the little ones seem a lot more likable. They score with authenticity, and real proximity to specific target groups and depict a limited subject area that reaches exactly this group of people.
Working with micro-influencers can therefore be worthwhile. What do you have to pay attention to, how do you find the right partner? We want to answer these questions for you now.
Who is Micro-Influencer?
The term ‘influencer’ comes from English. ‘to influence’ – means translated as ‘to influence’. So influencers exert influence. Mainly on advertisers by recommending certain products against payment.
If an influencer wears clothes from a certain brand, their followers will also want to buy these jackets, jeans, or shirts. The community is under the influencer’s influence and follows his example in terms of buying behavior. For influencer marketing to work, this community needs to fit the target audience of your campaign. However, when choosing a suitable partner, it is also about the range, although a larger range does not necessarily have to be more effective for your goals. Rather, it must fit the niche.
Measured by their followers, influencers are divided into four different categories:
| Category | follower count |
|---|---|
| Nano-Influencer | 1.000 bis 10.000 |
| Micro-Influencer | 10.000 bis 100.000 |
| Macro Influencer | 100.000 bis 1.000.000 |
| Mega Influencer | over 1,000,000 |
However, the number of followers does not say everything about the individual influencer. Because there are other key figures that are important when choosing the right partner. KPIs that aren’t as easy to manipulate as follower counts. Because followers can be bought.
Influencer Marketing: These metrics are important
Engagement Rate
This metric represents the efficiency of content. How many users are active and interacting? Relevant factors influencing the engagement rate are, for example, the number of visitors, comments, likes, and shares. The wastage of influencers with a large number of followers also plays a role, because the probability of inactive accounts is much higher there.
The engagement rate provides information on how relevant a contribution is for the community. In niches with a limited target group, this aspect is of particular importance, so that micro-influencers can score here.
Range
When it comes to quantitative reach, micro-influencers can of course not keep up with the well-known big names in the scene. Your reach is more specific and focused on very specific target groups. So when it comes to goals like brand awareness, micro-influencers are not the right partners.
Trustworthiness
In this area, micro-influencers are once again in the lead. It is easier for consumers to identify with a lesser-known influencer in their community than with a celebrity promoting a product. The US market research institute Nielsen Company found out that only 3 percent would trust the star; 30 percent consider influencer recommendations to be credible.
Cost
Influencer marketing can get really expensive. Roughly speaking, you can expect around 100 euros per 10,000 followers for a post. The well-known stars of the scene are well-paid for their services, while smaller influencers are sometimes satisfied with a free product. The range is huge, so an important part of influencer marketing is choosing the perfect partner. Tarek Müller from ABOUT YOU aptly summed it up in our interview with him: “80 percent of all budgets that go into influencer marketing are completely wasted”.
The more famous an influencer is, the further away they are from the individual customer. Micro-influencers with fewer followers score points, among other things, with their close proximity to the community. They are mostly unknown to the general public but represent an established and credible brand in their industry. Smaller influencers are also often perceived as experts in their field.
Influencers are active on all social media channels, but Instagram is considered the most important channel for influencer marketing. In addition to Facebook and Twitter, our own blogs and YouTube are also relevant platforms. Depending on the target group, business networks such as Xing or LinkedIn can also be considered. Any type of content is used for influencer marketing, the type of post depends on the target group to be addressed.
Benefits of working with micro-influencers
While the advantages of large and well-known influencers with millions of followers mainly lie in their reach, micro-influencers are more concerned with the engagement rate. The Benchmark Report 2021 gives the average value at 2.4 to 4 percent. On Instagram, for example, influencers with between 5,000 and 10,000 followers achieve an average engagement rate of 4 percent.
In a study by Markerly, it was found that influencers achieve the highest interaction rate among 1,000 followers on the same platform. No wonder, then, that micro-influencers have seen continuous growth in their business. The Benchmark Report 2020 documented an increase of 300 percent since 2016. Apparently, many companies have recognized the evident advantages of micro-influencers over followers-strong celebrities.
Advantages of smaller influencers:
- The engagement rate is around 60 percent higher than macro-influencers
- Higher trustworthiness
- Significantly lower costs
- Expert status within the community
- Great proximity to the target group, as they are part of the community themselves
- Authentic content with high target group relevance
- Many are not full-time influencers but have a genuine personal interest in products, making them credible brand ambassadors
- Usually value long-term cooperation
- High word-of-mouth effect
- Great ROI potential
Micro-influencers are usually very familiar with their industry. Their activities, therefore, go beyond posting photos with brand placement. They talk authentically and from real, personal experience about the product benefits and do not recommend anything without detailed reasons. For example, micro-influencers explain how to use a product and explain how it works. These explanations are often supported by videos showing the influencer using the product himself. This makes the recommendation appear authentic and credible. Just like from a good friend.
Interesting: big influencers crash
The credibility of well-known social media stars among influencers is on the wane. Because the big names in the industry with more than 100,000 followers constantly recommend a wide variety of products. This professional influencer marketing is becoming less and less convincing to consumers. Fake followers and bots do the rest to minimize the visibility of such purely profit-oriented marketing activities. So while the little ones are gaining in trustworthiness, the trend for celebrity influencers is going in the opposite direction.
How to work effectively with micro-influencers
The success of a campaign with a micro-influencer stands and falls with the quality of the briefing. The more meticulously you carry out the influencer briefing, the more precisely your cooperation partner will know what is important to you when working together.
Before you contact the influencer, you should be clear about the following points:
- Which KPIs do you want to use to measure the success of your campaign?
- Which target group do you want to address?
- What messages do you want to convey with your campaign?
- Which content, formats, and channels are suitable for this?
- Set a time frame and budget.
The briefing includes the following five points:
- Visual elements: Pictures and/or videos bring your brand or product closer to the cooperation partner.
- Creativity: Together with the influencer, determine the creative freedom that you want to give them and that they need for their work.
- Cooperation: Working in partnership with your brand ambassador will make his recommendations even more authentic.
- Conditions: Deadlines and the budget also belong in the briefing.
- Legal: You absolutely have to point out to the influencer in the briefing that he has to mark his posts as advertising.
When working with a micro-influencer, the follow-up work is just as important as the pre-work. You can only objectively evaluate the success of your campaign if you collect and document the relevant key figures. The detailed reporting afterward is just as important as the meticulous briefing beforehand.
Key metrics of a social media campaign:
- Postings
- Follower
- Likes
- Range
- Comments
- Shares
- Views
- Clicks on links
Which numbers you collect for which campaign depends on the objective. Either way, it’s all about identifying the top-performing posts and why they’re so successful.
Conclusion on micro-influencers
There is a lot to be said about integrating micro-influencers into your marketing strategy. The advantages of this group over its major competitors are steadily increasing. Especially if you are interested in a limited group of interested parties or a very specific niche, micro-influencers are the cooperation partners of choice.
The biggest plus points of the little ones are their personal proximity to the community and the resulting credibility. Micro-influencers are not perceived by their followers as purely profit-oriented marketers, their recommendations seem more like word of mouth among friends. This gives your campaign an enormous leap of faith, which is also cheaper than cooperating with an influencer with a lot of followers. You should use these advantages for yourself. If you place them in a targeted manner, micro-influencers can become a valuable part of your marketing strategy.