Micro-influencer marketing

The Digital Marketing Podcast with Mandar Marathe

What is micro-influencer marketing?

A newer concept known as micro-influencer marketing recently joined the social media scene. It’s the same concept as influencer marketing, but on a smaller scale: Brands partner with individuals with smaller followings on social media, typically 1k to 10k followers, to promote products with authentic, visual posts instead of sponsored ads.

Influencer vs Micro-influencer

• Influencers are celebrities. Micro-influencers are not known by many
• Influencers get a lot of public attention, whereas micro-influencers do niche work in their industry.
• Influencers have a huge social media following, typically more than a million. Micro-influencers have 1k to 10k followers.
• It is expensive to work with an influencers. Most would charge an arm and a leg. Micro-influencers come at a relatively lower cost
• Influencers are less authentic as they receive public scrutiny. Micro-influencers are more authentic and portray their real lives online.
• Influencers receive low engagement rate whereas micro-influencers get more % of likes / shares / comments on their posts

Markerly studied Instagram engagement and found a surprising trend: As an influencer's number of followers increases, their number of likes and comments from followers decreases.

In its analysis, Markerly determined the following:

• Instagram users with fewer than 1,000 followers generated likes 8% of the time
• Users with 1,000-10,000 followers earned likes at a 4% rate
• Users with 10,000-100,000 followers achieved a 2.4% like rate
• Users with 1-10 million followers earned likes only 1.7% of the time.

In a recent study, Experticity learned micro-influencers have 22.2X more conversations than the typical Instagram users -- largely because they're passionate and knowledgeable about their particular interest area.

How to work with Micro-influencers 1. Identify the right fit micro-influencers for your brand

Use platforms such as URpopular, Winkl, Pulpkey or blogger networks such as BlogAdda, Indiblogger to identify the right micro-influencers for your brand.

2. Metrics

Collect relevant metrics such as Engagement Rate: https://phlanx.com/engagement-calculator or Audience Quality Score - HypeAuditor.com

3. Establish a connect

Send out an email to schedule a call. Ask questions. Ask for past case studies & numbers. See what is their working model. Check for exclusivity in your niche (have you worked with any of our competitors)

4. Send a Influencer brief

• Make sure you put down the brand objectives or a campaign briefWhat you want the influencer to do?
• Detail it down - Blog / Posts on social networks.
• How will you pay ? Fixed fee vs Pay for Performance. Sales / Leads etc.
• Look to build a long-term association

5. Track RoI

• Affiliate link / Discount coupon code for specific influencer
• Organic Growth in followers
• Growth in common followers (InstaMutual / MutualFriends)