An influencer is a term that is becoming more common in the world of marketing and can create some questions for business owners. What are influencers? Should my business be utilizing influencers? How do I use influencers?
An influencer is someone who has the potential to influence potential buyers’ or clients’ decisions because of their relationship with their audience, boosting your growth. Influencers occur at different levels, such as micro-influencers. Learn what micro-influencers are and how they can impact your business.
What Are Micro-influencers?
As mentioned previously, influencers can be broken into different tiers based on factors such as potential reach. Micro-influencers typically have between 10k to 100k followers, allowing them to have a significant presence on social media while still staying relatable and approachable to their followers. Relatability is an essential aspect of micro-influencers because the content they create is more authentic and feels like a friend recommending a business rather than a celebrity endorsement.
Using micro-influencers is typically more cost-effective while reaching a target audience. Micro-influencers connect with their audience, building communities around one or two main topics, which allows you to reach the right people for your brand.
Aligning Micro-influencers with your brand
When searching for micro-influencers, choosing people who align with your brand is important to ensure that you’re reaching the right audience for your business. Start by looking at your business’s following to see if any micro-influencers are already interested in your brand. There may be a micro-influencer who already believes in your brand as much as you do, which makes them an easy fit to create organic content.
Use hashtags on your posts to attract and find micro-influencers who are already sharing content related to your brand. If you use a micro-influencer whose audience doesn’t align with your brand, then the value of the posts is diminished. Their audience is then less likely to engage with your brand apart from the influencer.
Finding micro-influencers to fit your brand
Before you begin searching for micro-influencers, it’s important to consider your goals and what you want to get out of this partnership. This can give you a better understanding of what content you want to see from the micro-influencer, such as Instagram stories or blogs, and narrow down who you want to work with.
When searching for micro-influencers, ideally, you want to find someone with high engagement rates, who has a distinct voice, and who posts regularly while still maintaining an organic presence with their followers. Take it a step further by asking the influencer to provide a verified performance report to ensure you understand their reach and potential impact on your brand.
It’s also not uncommon for micro-influencers to provide a media kit with their rates based on deliverables such as unboxing videos or blogs. This is where your goals from earlier come into play. It’s important to outline expectations such as due dates, the approval process for content, what you want them to highlight about your brand, and other important information before posting. The more you communicate your expectations, the better your brand is represented, and you can get the most out of your contract.
Tracking Success
Like any marketing campaign, it’s important to track and measure the success of using a micro-influencer to refer to in the future with new micro-influencers or to adjust as you grow. Take advantage of platform performance trackers such as Instagram’s branded content tools that disclose the collaboration while allowing you to track the reach and engagement.
Another way to track success is by sharing trackable links with your micro-influencers that you can curate to different products, landing pages, and more. This way, you can easily track clicks and engagements at the end of the campaign, allowing you to measure growth.
Looking to take your marketing to the next level? Reach out to the GROWL team today.