What is a micro-influencer? You probably already know what an influencer is: someone who can essentially vouch for your brand’s products or services on your behalf. While a micro-influencer cannot always be defined precisely, it is basically someone whose reach is less than celebrity-level. 

It’s tempting to think that you should simply shell out for services of a celebrity influencer if your budget allows. However, research suggests that micro-influencers’ services can, in the long run, prove more cost-effective – for reasons like these…

Micro-influencers have higher engagement

In research mentioned by Digiday, Instagram influencers were generally found to have a higher “like” rate the fewer the followers they had. For example, while a follower base of under 1,000 attracted an 8% like rate, that fell to 1.7% for those influencers with at least a million followers.

Therefore, the “sweet spot” for maximum impact is, arguably, an influencer whose followers number 10,000 to 100,000. Fortunately, it isn’t difficult to trace such Instagram influencers whose goals can align with your brand’s.

They attract higher-quality leads

Naturally, micro-influencers can be found on Twitter, too – and Twitter has posted an article on micro-influencers to its own Business blog.

That article shines a light on one particularly eye-opening statistic that, in a study, 51% of marketers indicated that they acquired better-quality customers through influencer marketing than through alternative marketing methods.

This benefit is likely to be especially strong with micro-influencers due to their sway in specialised niches – and, thus, the relatively targeted and relevant leads these influencers attract.

They build trust more easily than brands

People often place a lot of trust in a micro-influencer they follow, like they might trust friends and family members. Trust, as many of us will already know, can form strong “glue” in various relationships. This certainly applies to a micro-influencer’s relationship with their followers.

Of course, you would like to think that people trust your brand – but, unfortunately, consumers do not always trust brands, as consumers can often perceive them as inherently biased.

You can develop targeted advertising campaigns

Even in today’s digital age, it can be surprisingly difficult to get conventional ads seen by their intended audiences. One thing to blame for that is ad blocking software; in a survey cited by Forbes, 47% of consumers admitted to blocking ads out of a belief that they are “irrelevant and annoying”.

However, as micro-influencers are specialist in both their focus and follower profile, you can expect a carefully-chosen micro-influencer to help you in reaching out to your specific target customer.

You can look forward to improved ROI

Is it possible to put a specific figure on that improvement? Yes; research indicates that, compared to influencers with larger followings on social media, micro-influencers can secure 60% better engagement and 22% higher conversion rates.

Such results, if achieved in your own campaigns with micro-influencers, would certainly bode well for your return on investment (ROI) in those campaigns. Still, the onus is on you to find the right micro-influencers – a task where an influencer marketing agency can help.