Marketing with micro-influencers has become quite popular in the past year mainly because of their ability to engage. Two separate studies by HelloSociety and Markerly even found that influencers with smaller followings tend to have much higher engagement rates than influencers with tens of thousands of followers.
Combined with the fact that micro-influencers are much less expensive to work with, this has compelled some brands and startups to find niche influencers with a smaller, but highly engaged audience.
Who are micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers are people who has a significant number of followers on social media in a specific niche. Generally speaking, they have anywhere between 1,000 and 100,000 followers on social media.
I have been helping businesses and entrepreneurs create influencer marketing strategies involving micro-influencers. Since micro-influencers offer limited reach, I make sure the campaign reaches an audience that enthusiastically receives their messaging. I try to ensure that each micro-influencer can tell a story that resonates with the audience and compels them to make a purchase.
Here's what I did to help others increase sales with the help of micro-influencers:
Micro-influencers tell a personal story around your brand/product.
I've come to realize that micro-influencers are just like everyday consumers, but with a more significant reach and in many cases, more authority. Experticity even found that micro-influencers are considered more credible, believable, and knowledgeable than an average person. Since consumers can relate to them, their opinions and experiences can impact people's opinions and purchase decisions.
So when micro-influencers share their experience using a certain product, their followers will judge the product based on that experience.
I've partnered with micro-influencers for campaigns in which they tell a unique and positive story about certain products or services. They talked about how the product has helped them or which features they benefited from. This has been able to drive sales much more effectively than when they simply share a photo of a product.
The post by Natalie Kay (sustainablychic) of Sustainably Chic is a good example. She promotes a hand soap from Enviroklenz and talks about the benefits of the product, how it specifically benefits her since she has an autoimmune disease, etc.
Micro-influencers promote discount codes/links.
In my experience, offering the target audience with a discount or a deal has been an excellent motivator to drive sales. We got micro-influencers to promote discount codes and links to compel many of their followers to try your product.
Valassis even found that 86 percent of consumers would try a new product if they have a coupon for it. And more than two-thirds of consumers will only purchase a product if they have a coupon for it.
I've personally found that the most effective tactic is having micro-influencers promote discounts in addition to sharing their stories. The stories they share about a product can instill a desire in the audience to try the product. And a discount code or link can strengthen people's desire to buy the product.
Micro-influencer Jordan Taylor (petitemodern) of Petite Modern, for instance, promotes a discount code for 16 percent off on VERB products.
They can promote a giveaway.
During the first few campaigns I've helped execute, I noticed that a lot of people were skeptical about buying from a brand or business they've never heard of before. So when working with micro-influencers, I try to help prove the product's worth by giving away free samples to an audience that would appreciate them. The goal is to get them hooked and return as paying customers.
I've executed some campaigns in which micro-influencers promoted a giveaway campaign for free products.
Some of our giveaway campaigns also involved prizes in the form of store credit like in the giveaway Boomdash is promoting through micro-influential mom, Kim Watson (kikhaly). This allows people to pick out whichever products they have been dying to try.
Encourage them to be honest.
I ran a couple of campaigns in which we sent out some free products for micro-influencers to review. This would have been fine if we hadn't specifically asked them to say something positive. We missed the part about how micro-influencers engage their audience through honesty.
When we expected micro-influencers to rave about our products, they had a hard time being themselves. This was clear from the way they talked about the product and the way they created lackluster content that's strikingly different from their usual pieces.
Micro-influencers like Adri (sortofobsessed have even expressed their intention to accept PR gifts only from brands that don't expect anything in return. She's doing this so she can direct her focus back to her passion for beauty and skincare products.
These are the best, most effective tactics to increase sales with the help of micro-influencers. As you can see from my experiences, it's always a good idea to have micro-influencers tell compelling stories and promote discount codes. Don't forget to ensure that they can be their honest selves.