As long as you are even slightly involved with the current world of marketing, even if you aren’t obsessed with it, there is an extremely high probability that you would’ve heard of the term “micro-influencer” or at least “influencer”. Micro-influencers are a very important avenue for marketing your products in this social media obsessed day and age. Even if you haven’t actually tried using micro-influencers to market your product or service, you must’ve definitely thought about using them at some point of time. Most likely, you belong to the 75% of marketeers who utilize some type of micro-influencer marketing in their strategy. Irrespective of your current stance or opinion towards this ever growing phenomenon, influencer marketing isn’t going to go away anytime soon, in fact it’s only going to grow in strength and popularity. So it’s better that you start utilizing them in your marketing strategy.

So, let’s take a look at some of the basics of micro-influencer marketing and discuss the extent of their power and influence over your product’s marketing. Let’s find out what micro-influencer marketing can do for your brand, if it’s done properly.

Who are influencers?

Influencers are respected, trusted individuals who are much sought-after for their opinions about specific lifestyles, ways of thinking, or niche topics. Influencers use platforms such as YouTube, blogs, social media platforms etc. to express their opinions to their audience (or followers). This can be extremely important for your brand. An influencer’s opinion usually includes recommendations for certain products and services they claim to be unable to live without. They also usually talk about products and services which help them achieve a certain level of happiness, success, fitness etc. On many occasions, if an influencer with a lot of followers recommends your brand, that word can actually reach more people than a full fledged television or print media based ad campaign.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is the highly strategic business of connecting brands and corporations with authentic, influential online micro-influencers to help with increasing the  awareness and buzz surrounding the brand. This facet of marketing isn’t just reserved for million dollar brands who can afford to team up with celebrities with millions of followers. Small and medium-sized businesses also possess multiple opportunities to collaborate with experts, authority figures, and also the slightly overlooked, but extremely important micro-influencer.

Who are micro-influencers?

Famous bloggers, vloggers, YouTubers, social media superstars (people with lots of followers online) etc. fall under the category of micro-influencers. While there isn’t an exact number of followers you need to have in order to be a micro-influencer, it generally hovers around the 1,000 to 100,000 followers mark.

But it’s not the general number of followers that matters. It’s the level of engagement you should be keeping an eye out for (likes, re-tweets, comments, shares, etc.) Bigger isn’t always better, so don’t judge influencers by the quantity of their followers, focus more on their quality. A lot of times, micro-influencers try to boost their follower count by buying fake followers and engagements from click farms.

Great micro-influencers have readers, viewers, followers and/or listeners who engage with their content. These followers tend to be truly interested in what topics they discuss and what products and services they place their seal of approval upon. They’ve built a great amount of trust among their fans and now, by forming a relationship with the micro-influencers, you can reach all of their fans with just one campaign.

Using Influencer Marketing with Micro-Influencers to help grow your brand

When it comes to marketing endeavours in general, a good to great return on investment (ROI) is an important goal. However, it’s tough to draw such black and white lines when it comes to influencer marketing. A significant return on investment (ROI) is always a top goal when it comes to any marketing endeavor, but with influencer marketing, the objectives and results aren’t so black and white. This strategy isn’t about generating immediate returns, it usually involves a lot more. And with the proper micro-influencers in your corner, the chances of your brand’s success are endless.

Why you should use micro-influencers for your marketing campaigns

Here’s why you should consider using micro-influencers for your next influencer based marketing campaign:

Brand Awareness

If a stranger sees your company name, is it going to mean anything to him/her at first glance? If you or your brand are new to the scene, your target audience might not be ready and willing to trust or recognize your brand. But once you associate your product or service with a meaning, a message, and a promise via influencer marketing, you become more memorable and more trustworthy.

If a group of people that you want to target, sees your product or service being recommended by a micro influencer that they follow, they’re more likely to identify your brand and associate it with something positive. They’re now, simply put, “aware of your brand.” The more people that hear your business being discussed by their favorite influencers, the more popular and identifiable your brand becomes. How many times have you seen that Nike swoosh? You now associate it with a whole lot more than just basketball shoes. You remember its design, its slogan, and can point it out anywhere at any time.

Trust Building

The followers of micro-influencers have a very strong sense of attachment and trust to them. It increases the chances of your brand gaining some trust by virtue of association. It’s quite simple actually, they trust the influencer and the influencer trusts you. End result, those people trust you and your brand.

Plus, this sort of advertising is, without question, more natural-looking. Especially at the initial glance when compared to other forms. Influencers often integrate brands organically within a story they’re telling rather than just shouting, “Hey! Go buy this thing!” So, while banner ads and other sorts of advertising are still necessary for optimal success, a mixture of both can attract a wider array of interested parties.

Creating a Buzz/Exposure

While you don’t want to team up with just anyone (choose micro-influencers who are a fit for your brand, not just a random person with lots of followers, it’ll be tough for a guitarist with lots of followers to help sell lingerie). The higher the number individuals who join the conversation about your company, the better. The higher the number of people exposed to your brand, the higher are your chances of creating a buzz for your brand in competitive and saturated markets.

Keywords

Get your brand positioned alongside the words and phrases that your prospects and customers are searching for. Influencers in your industry can help associate your company with certain terms – those that you’re trying to rank for- within the SERPs.

Links

Your backlink profile needs a solid mix of follow and no-follow links and influencer marketing is a surefire way to secure no-follow links from credible, respected, high-domain authority sites, which can contribute to your overall SEO value.

Immunity from Ad Blockers

As per a report by PageFair, 615 million devices (as of early 2017) use an ad blocker of some kind. Influencer marketing allows you to advertise your product or service without being prevented to do so by a popular and near ubiquitous ad blocking tool. Micro-influencers ensure that your product or service’s message reaches out to the right audience.

Long-Term Success

A large amount of content which is produced as a result of influencer collaboration, remains live indefinitely or for an extended period of time (as long as the profile or channel stays active). So a campaign that goes live tomorrow can easily have an impact the day after, two weeks down the line, or 2 years from now.

Measurability

These days, just about every aspect of selling is measurable. Thanks to the advent of analytics, custom URLs, tracking services, coupon codes etc. marketing firms don’t have to guess the reach and results, all the numbers are promptly displayed with a high degree of accuracy.

So now that you know who micro-influencers are and what they can do for your brand, don’t hesitate to use them in your next influencer based marketing campaign. Be diligent and careful while choosing your micro-influencers. Place your brand in the right hands, so that they can take it to the right people.