Why Brands Should Consider Micro-Influencers

If you are at least somehow related to marketing, you definitely have heard of those odd "influencers". Influencer marketing is a quite promising concept, adopted by lots of specialists. Perhaps you even watched some fierce debate whether using influencers is good or bad for brands.

It is a well-known fact that people are more likely to trust other people and not some messages of another faceless corporation. We always seek for advice from those we care about, or those who we respect, or the characters, whose example we follow. Marketers call these people "influencers" - those who can influence the opinions of their followers.

And who are the micro-influencers? These are the people who have a relatively small audience in about 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers. They are usually considered as experts by their followers and almost always work in some niche. Micro-influencers are food bloggers, travelers, fitness trainers, or even keen gamers.

Now we've figured out the basics. So, let's see what profits can bring influencer marketing, how good an influencer marketing for people's engagement, and what your business can achieve when doing things right.

Why micro-influencers?

OK, but why should marketing work with micro-influencers? Why not attract someone with over 1,000,000 followers, and make that person promote the product? The answer is quite obvious, having one million followers and more an ordinary influencer is considered to be media, with all its pros and cons. Business can attract, say, Keanu Reaves to promote something, but the overall outcome will be lower than if broadcasting advertising messages to an audience of 1,000 people.

The other advantage of dealing with micro-influencers is that they are just more accessible. A smaller audience means much more personal interaction. Users see this blogger not as some Olympic God or famous actor, but rather as themselves. A micro-influencer is someone whose average subscriber can associate himself with. The image of "next-door pal" is usually a way more efficient because we do trust our neighbors more than Hollywood stars.

Brand awareness

If a stranger approaches you and starts to offer some unknown sort of your favorite product, you'll decline the offer and then go and look for the opinions of people you trust. That's how it works with influencers. No matter what you have to offer, your potential customers will go to Google and look for reviews before making any decisions. If you've got your micro-influencer, a potential customer will see a review praising your product. That's how people make purchase decisions these days.

If your brand is promoted using such a strategy, it will become more trustworthy and memorable. Followers of your influencer will embrace it gladly. If people see that a reputable person sharing their interests and desires speaks of something positively, they will definitely add it to their wish-list. The more people hear that your brand discussed by favorite influencers, the better your brand's identification and recognition are.

Filling the niches

Using the micro-influencers will allow you to enter even very specific niche markets. Taken as experts in their particular niches, bloggers can be way more effective than the most famous celebrity you can attract. And what is better, your micro-influencer will broadcast your message to the audience consisting of potential customers. Those people are already interested in your category of products, and all you have to do to turn them into your clients is to let their idol inform them.

As you can see, this influence can be as good as the backlinks service drawing the attention to your brand of already prepared and potentially loyal people. And an influencer will find proper words to persuade followers without fail. Besides, they have their small community of involved users who will discuss your brand and, based on previous experience, believe all the influencer has to say. It provides you with a huge audience of your niche, and you even don't have to persuade them personally.

Increasing the engagement

Comparing to celebrities, a micro-influencer can personally talk to almost every follower, and persuade those people personally. As a result, the overall engagement with users will be better. Thus, those followers will more likely trust the one they are subscribed to. Higher interaction between the influencer and the audience will surely establish a personal connection. It will make an influencer more reliable than even the celebrity.

And if people have trust in their favorite food-blogger, for example, they will more likely visit the restaurant that blogger praised. Nobody will think that the influencer got some money for promoting that restaurant because they trust him. This high level of engagement will eventually make that influencer the advocate of your brand, not just a poster of your single ad. Ultimately that will positively affect the sales of your product.

Higher conversion rate

It is something that comes out of the previous paragraph. According to the 2019 statistics, nearly 49% of users admit that they take influencer's suggestions seriously and make their purchase decisions accordingly. If working with 1,000 subscribers, the conversion rate can get to 85%. The Internet is full of reviews and recommendations, so in order not to get lost in this informational surplus, you'll more likely follow the advice of the people you can trust. Your relatives, friends... or favorite bloggers.

Opinions of other people actually have a value for us, no matter what we say. When looking for a restaurant for dinner, we'll check at least the reviews on Google. Picking up new clothes, we'll be looking for something we have seen on the Instagram of some fashion guru. Even when decorating the house, people will tend to buy incense they read about on influencers' Facebook. All these are the examples of conversion, we will rather trust people, than the best selling letter in our email.
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Familiar and proven marketing approaches are slowly losing their popularity and are not as effective as people think of them. Every year an abstract consumer starts ignoring one more advertisement trick. People these days tend to perceive ad messages with their minds, not heart and do their own researches. That's why micro-influencers with a personal approach to customers is a way better than good old money-consuming marketing campaigns. Using micro-influencers for promoting your business can bring you lots of profit. And the initial trust is, undoubtedly, the biggest advantage for any marketer.

Know any other profits of micro-influencers? Feel free to share your thoughts with everyone in the most convenient way. Good luck!

This guest article was written by Marie Barnes, a writer for Bestforacar. She is an enthusiastic blogger interested in writing about technology, social media, work, travel, lifestyle, and current affairs. She shares her insights through blogging. Follow her on Medium.