As video marketing becomes more about developing deeper relationships with online audiences, marketers need to look at how to drive genuine brand engagement. Micro-influencers present a relatively untapped and surprisingly cost-effective means for marketers to promote their brand among highly-engaged audiences.
What are Micro Influencers?
These days, a person doesn’t need to have millions of followers in order to be influential. Micro influencers are well-known social media personalities who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Due to a smaller audience base, followers of micro-influencers followers tend to perceive themselves as peers of the influencer rather than fans. They tend to specialise in creating and sharing video content about super niche subjects which could range on anything from DIY to knitting. As such, brands can partner with micro-influencers to extend their reach in niche areas.
What is Micro-Influencer Marketing?
Launching an influencer campaign is effectively word-of-mouth marketing at an unprecedented scale. – James Tait, Tribe
Influencer marketing refers to when organisations establish partnerships with popular online content creators in order to promote their products or services to the influencer’s audience. By doing this, brands can leverage the established trust amongst the influencer’s audience. Studies show that consumers are more likely to buy a product based on the recommendation of someone they know and trust, so influencers can be a highly effective way to word-of-mouth marketing and social proof. Organisations will typically appeal to the influencers’ audience by paying the influencer to either publish content featuring their products or to sponsor their events.
Why Choose Micro-Influencers over the Macro Influencers?
Micro-influencers are a highly-effective route for brands with limited budgets who are ready to trial influencer marketing. While micro influencers have a considerably smaller follower base than macro influencers, their followers do tend to be more engaged and trusting. As such, micro influencers tend to be quite successful at influencing purchasing decisions among their fans. Research from influence.co backs this up, showing that once a social media influencer surpasses a certain number of followers, audience engagement drops:
| Followers | Engagement Rate |
| Less than 1,000 | 15% |
| 1,000 – 9,999 | 7.4% |
| 100,000 + | 2.4% |
Why Do Audiences Engage More with Micro-Influencers?
“The first wave of influencer marketing was all about getting the word out. It was top of the funnel activity. Now it’s time for influencer marketing 2.0, which is about creating deeper relationships between brands and influencers, and about creating useful content that consumers discover when they run searches.”
– Troy Dreier, OnlineVideo.net
- AUTHENTICITY
Unlike celebrity influencers, micro-influencers usually work full-time and don’t rely on sponsored content for income. As a result, when a micro-influencer recommends a brand or product in a video, their followers are far more likely to believe their endorsement.
- ENGAGEMENT
Micro-influencers have an excellent relationship with their fans. They are more likely to interact with their followers on a more personal level than influencers with vast followings.
- CREDIBILITY
The 2015 Nielsen Global Trust in Advertising report found that the most credible advertising comes from the people who are just like us who we know and trust. This trust extends beyond friends and family to the online world, with 66% of respondents saying they trust consumer opinions posted online.
Advantages of Using Micro-Influencers
- HYPER-TARGETED
Micro-influencers specialise in producing video content for a specific niche community. This means that you can tailor your promotion to the audience in a highly-targeted, effective manner.
- BUILD BRAND AWARENESS & ENGAGEMENT
<blockquote> “If we want an audience to really understand us, our work, our values, or our products, then collaborations with YouTube creators are 4X more effective at driving lift in brand familiarity than those with celebrities.”</h2>
– Sanjay Nazerali, Global Chief Strategy Officer of Carat
Engagement rates from a sponsored micro-influencer post can be up to 13 times higher than that of a traditional digital advertisement and 4 times that of a celebrity-led campaign.
- COST-EFFECTIVENESS
Usually coming in at less than $500 per post, micro-influencer collaborations can offer more value than an endorsement from a social media celebrity. Businesses with bigger budgets may be able to create a network of advocates by partnering with multiple micro-influencers.
How to Partner with YouTube Micro-Influencers
Stage 1: Identifying Possible Partners
Aim to partner with a micro-influencer whose interests, content and personality aligns with your brand. Use social media listening tools to conduct thorough research on any potential partners. This knowledge will deepen your understanding resulting in more natural promotions for your brand. If budget is not an issue, why not build a community of micro-influencer ambassadors to promote your brand among different niche groups.
Stage 2: Outreach
Be clear in communicating exactly what you want the end goal of your marketing campaign to be. Identify the best means of contacting them – some influencers may have management teams whereas others may have an email addresses specifically for business inquiries. Be open-minded in your approach; tell them what you have to offer and what you think may resonate with their audience. Consider what your brand can do for them to ensure that both parties will benefit from the partnership.
Stage 3: Collaboration
Be accessible. Send them product, let them talk to the relevant people in your business, and make sure they understand your brand message. Don’t micromanage. Trust their creative input and perspective. Influencers know their audience inside-out and are experts in creating video content that will resonate with them.
Stage 3: Measurement
Create a custom URL so you can track traffic acquired from the micro influencer video campaign. Carefully monitor organic search traffic to see if there’s a spike in activity. Request analytics from the micro-influencer including the click-through and engagement rates. Don’t forget to calculate your video campaign’s return on investment.
Read the infographic below to learn how you can go viral with micro influencer video marketing
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