Suppose you look at where the most significant move in influencer marketing has been in the last few years. In that case, celebrity endorsements like Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Dwayne Johnson or David Beckham are passe—so 2010's
The real action these days is with micro-influencers or even nano-influencers.
What Is a Micro-Influencer?
A micro-influencer has 1,000 to 100,000
followers who focus on a specific niche or area and is generally regarded as
an industry expert or topic specialist.
Micro-influencers have stronger relationships than typical
influencers. This is often driven by their perception as an opinion leader of
[a] subject matter. Unlike a celebrity or regular influencer, a micro-influencer frequently has a very uniform audience. They are usually far more
knowledgeable about the companies they talk about and more relatable to the
regular consumer.
Everyone says that to succeed in business, you need an authentic brand. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made. But joking aside, Consumers crave authenticity these days.
Some large brands have even had to scrap high-quality and expensive videos because they appear too commercial. Imagine a ludicrous situation where a giant brand is paying big bucks to make its videos look like they were taken by a regular person on their Apple phone. I kid you not - this is happening right now!
Authenticity is the quality of being true to oneself and
one’s beliefs. Branding means presenting an honest representation of what your
business stands for and how you want customers to perceive it. This includes
conveying clear values and messaging and building trust with audiences through
consistent communication and interactions.
When businesses are authentic, customers feel they can trust
that their products and services are genuine. This helps you, as the business
owner, build authentic relationships with your audience, which can lead to
increased sales and customer loyalty.
Additionally, authenticity helps brands stand out from the competition by allowing them to show their unique characteristics. When you're true to yourself, you trust your judgments and decisions, and others also trust you. They'll respect you for standing by your values and beliefs.
And let’s face it – who do you really believe uses and loves l’Oreal shampoo, a celebrity who is paid millions of dollars for saying that and will probably be advertising another shampoo brand next year?
Or a beauty influencer who has been raving about how much she loves L’Oreal products for years without being paid for that? And whose blog or TikTok channel is devoted to that one topic (Beauty or even shampoos).
I talked about branding with Henny Frazer, the ex-head brand at Hyatt Hotels. She impressed upon me the idea that branding is not purely about a ‘logo’ or a company's image or colour palette. That is actually just a tiny part of the picture.
A brand is embedded in your employees and your culture—how they work and interact. Secondly, it is highlighted by your most passionate customers—the
ones who evangelize your company and often tell others exactly why they love
your brand. And if you have those types of customers, surely your company
should help them get their message out?
From my experiences working in marketing, I know nothing is
more potent than a delighted customer—no ad campaign, powerful celebrity endorsement,
or even a mesmerising brand or silver-tongued salesperson.
But don’t just listen to me: Tech companies, including Adobe, Monday.com, SAP, and Squarespace, among many others, are well known to engage in micro-influencer marketing campaigns.
Dunkin' Brand (Dunkin' even named a new drink, 'the Charli' after a Microinfluencer) has been doing this for years, as have many sports brands like Nike, which, for example, sponsors thousands of college athlete micro-influencers.
Airbnb, Shopify, HelloFresh, Warby Parker & Audible are other well-known brands that are currently investing in micro-influencers.
Below: The return on investment is almost three times higher for brands that invest in micro-influencers than those that pay for celebrity endorsements.
Micro-influencers can help a business grow by:
> Targeting a specific audience
Micro-influencers often have a niche audience, so they can
help brands reach the people most likely to be interested in their products.
For example, a brand could work with a cake-decorating influencer to promote a
new line of piping tips.
> Building trust
Micro-influencers often have a deeper relationship with
their audience, which can lead to more effective endorsements and higher
call-to-action rates. When influencers are accurate and transparent about
products or services, their followers are more likely to purchase.
> Make Genuine Connections
Do you think there’s no such thing as the wrong client? If
you’ve ever had a client who was a lovely person but just totally not aligned
with you, you’ll know that there is! Not every client is the right client. If
you’re not being authentic in your business, you’re not going to attract the
people (clients, team members, partners) you’ll thrive with.
Authenticity builds strong connections with the right people
who will become life-long customers and sing your praises to others. Micro-influencers
can help potential customers determine if your brand is right for them.
One major issue most brands face right now is a
decline in loyalty. With that comes the dreaded customer churn issue: companies lose long-term customers.
But suppose you build authentic relationships with customers who start out with shared values, goals, and aspirations. In that case, you will likely retain those customers and grow your business faster and more
straightforwardly. Micro-influencers are your bridge to that end goal.
> Increasing brand visibility
Micro-influencers can help increase brand visibility by
retaining followers and hooking them with their content.
> Boosting credibility
Working with popular influencers can help a brand's
credibility within an industry. This can help the brand land new partnerships,
attract talent, and develop meaningful industry relationships.
> Creating dynamic, and exciting new content
Influencers know how to create content that stands out on
social media. Some of the hands-down best brand content I’ve seen over the last
five years has come from small-time influencers (take Lauren Cella*, a
schoolteacher influencer who works with Adobe and Dunkin’).
Monitoring content performance can help a brand determine
what's working and what's not. This can help a brand adjust its strategy and
decide whether to continue working with specific influencers or partner with new
ones.
Should Your Brand Leverage Micro-Influencer Marketing?
Micro-influencers have a comparatively smaller following and don’t often boast celebrity status. Because of that, brands can bank on their followers' interest in whatever made the micro-influencer "internet famous.”
In addition, smaller influencers tend to be more grateful for a brand's attention, produce far better results (in terms of actual sales revenue per spend), and are more cost-effective, on average, than celebrity endorsers.
Some well-known micro-influencers include:
- Alina Gavrilov, a fashion micro-influencer with 99,800 followers
- Lauren Cella*, education micro-influencer (Millennial teacher who talks about her Gen Z and Gen Alpha students, who now partners with Adobe), 140,000 followers
- Anndrea Celleste, 198,000 followers, travel and culture micro-influencer
- Francesca Newman-Young, a travel micro-influencer with 84,900 followers
- Lonni Smith, a beauty micro-influencer with 64,000 followers
- Russ Crandall, a food micro-influencer with 40,400 followers
- Francesca Newman-Young, travel micro-influencer with 120,000 followers
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