Micro-influencers: How to Promote Your Content in a Competitive Environment

One of the trends in influencer marketing has been the “rise of micro-influencers” — bloggers with a small but active audience. Brands are paying less attention to the number of subscribers and views, and engagement is coming to the fore.

The rise in popularity of micro-influencers illustrates the concept of the long tail, which is formed by niche influencers who can affect a brand's image and attract new customers.

Disguising advertising from bloggers with millions of subscribers is becoming increasingly difficult. An advertising post on a star’s page is perceived as hypocrisy - it’s hard to believe that a blogger who advertises all the services in a row actually uses them.

A post from such a blogger will be seen by a wide audience, but they will be little interested in purchasing. Users will not respond if there is no story behind the ad and it is clear that the collaboration was a one-time thing.

Who Are All These People?

Brand ambassadors can be opinion leaders who have from 1 to 200 thousand subscribers on Instagram or from 20 to 300 thousand subscribers on YouTube. Most often, these are bloggers who create niche content: photography, sports, travel, fashion, technology or lifestyle. Micro-influencers understand their topic, so they have a highly targeted audience that listens to them.

Micro-influencers Fully Meet the Advertising Requirements of Millennials

A micro-influencer advertising campaign will be especially effective if it is aimed at millennials. These people do not trust traditional advertising, are looking for a new reliable source of information and expect an informal presentation.

1. Ignore Ads

Users no longer accept traditional promotion, ignore contextual and targeted advertising, use Adblock and send all mailings to “spam”. Advertising posts featuring stars and major bloggers will simply be ignored.

2. the Need for Personalized Content

If users ask questions in the comments, they will receive a quick and personalized answer from the blogger or the brand itself.

3. Trust in Reviews

According to Bizjournals, 47% of millennials trust reviews and rely on them before making a purchase. Millennials are following trends and willing to try new things, especially if the recommendation comes from someone they trust.

Honesty Is the Best Strategy

Micro-influencers communicate with the audience in a friendly way. Followers identify with these bloggers and feel connected to them. It's more like a relationship between two buddies rather than between a star and her fans.

Bloggers can advertise your product in different ways: review it, mention it in your post, integrate it into your personal story, share a discount code with your subscribers. In addition, they will respond to comments and tell you more about the product. Here critical comments will add honesty, the post or video will be authentic. The user will not miss such a post and will react.

It’s the best if the blogger already uses your product. Then his response will be even more believable; excessive persuasion will not be required. With one such post you will attract maximum audience.

Bloggers value their reputation and relationships with subscribers. Advertising integration is one of their types of content for a blogger, an opportunity to tell a story.

Price Is a Nice Bonus

A post from micro-influencers will cost less than that one of bloggers with a large number of followers, and it will be much cheaper than traditional advertising. You can find out in advance the reach, level of engagement and cost of a post from any micro-influencer through special services.

For example, it may turn out that the level of engagement after a post for a micro-influencer will be 3 times higher than for a large blogger, and the price of the post is 25 times lower.

How to Start Working?

If you want to invest money, contact the micro-influencer directly. Discuss the story and presentation format with him.

The blogger must tell his story related to the product, show what role it plays in life. Looking at processed photos or videos, we may doubt their veracity, but now there are tools that show events “here and now” - live broadcasts and stories.

In your next advertising campaign, you can focus on your target audience, building their trust while other companies continue to invest in large numbers of subscribers.

Two factors will help you make a decision:

• Decide who your campaign is targeting. A product or service first of all must solve a specific problem for the target audience, showing in practice the benefits of the product and methods of application.
• Decide on the goal of your advertising campaign. If you need maximum coverage of a wide audience, it is better to choose a major blogger.

An advertising campaign with the participation of a micro-influencer will be successful if his posts or videos contain sincerity (does he really like the product), audience involvement, and uniqueness in creating content. Detailed information on how to save your advertising budget and time by collaborating with micro-influencers is collected on our website.