Influencer marketing has been a mainstay in many marketing strategies, allowing brands to connect with their target audience and stand out among the competition.
However macro-influencers (influencers with 30K followers and above) are often associated with sponsored posts. As audiences evolve to become more discerning in differentiating, this may result in them paying less attention to such paid posts from these influencers.
On the other hand, micro-influencers (influencers with 5K to ~30K followers) are usually popular within their niche communities. Their content is more personable, making them appear more genuine and authentic, with a lower proportion of sponsored content. This is perhaps why there is a growing preference for micro-influencers.
Why should your brand engage micro-influencers?
With audience’s preferences evolving towards authentic and unfiltered content, micro-influencers start to rise up from being underdogs to today’s biggest market movers, shaking up the influencer marketing arena to shift consumer preferences.
● Authentic and Relatable
88% of people surveyed in a study say that it is “important for influencers to be authentic and genuinely care
about their interests.”1 Authenticity helps to build trust between the influencer and their audience. Micro-influencers’ content tends to be more unfiltered and less polished, but this has now worked out towards their benefit. This gives their content a sense of authenticity and relatability.
● Niche Markets
Micro-influencers produce content that is more niche. Their followers follow their content precisely because of these specific interests. Hence if brands can find a mico-influencer that is a good fit with these niche topics, it’s a huge opportunity to connect with a more engaged audience.
● Engagement
Micro-influencers by definition have a smaller and more intimate following, and that translates to a deeper
and stronger relationship with their followers. This closer relationship paves the way for more conversations,
which increases the frequency and depth of engagement. The engagement can even be potentially higher than
macro-influencers because of the intrinsic trust their followers have in them, and can reach up to 60% more
engagement rates2 over macro-influencers.
● Costs
One of the primary concerns for brands is how they can stretch their marketing dollar. With limited budgets, they are always looking for ways to get the most bang for their buck and micro-influencers can be a more cost-effective option to work with, especially if the KPI for the campaign is engagement.
What's the catch?
While engaging micro-influencers has its advantages, it can also be a double-edged sword. The hallmark of a good micro-influencer is the ability to constantly stay true to their niche, and remain authentic in their social media personality. This means that they prefer to exercise creative freedom to produce content, and retain their tone of voice even when they are representing a brand.
Additionally, a challenge that brands may face when working with micro-influencers is a possible lack of experience working with the marketing teams in brands or agencies. Tasks that are familiar to macro-influencers in the industry, such as understanding key messages, creative concepts or performance reporting, may require more coaching and guidance when engaging micro-influencers.
Lastly, if your campaign KPIs are to maximise Reach, utilising macro-influencers may still be the way to go for you.
Start exploring!
These days, it is no longer just about the number of followers. As the audience on social media evolves, brands need to pivot and figure out a strategy to engage the audience to relate to them better - and it may just be the right time to consider micro-influencers.
If you’d like to find out more on how you can integrate micro-influencers into your social media strategy, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]!
Jolyn Soo
Associate Account Director
Header Image: Photo from Rawpixel
Sources:
1The Influencer Report: Engaging Gen-Zs and Millennials, Morning Consult
2The Rise of Micro-Influencers: Should Your Brand Be Influenced?, Galactic Fed, 2021