Micro Influencers have been taking the marketing world by storm. In fact, by 2022, it’s predicted that marketing ad spend on influencer marketing alone will reach between $5 billion and $10 billion.

Influencer marketing is not a new concept though. Influencers are well-known and popular people who have the power of influencing others. So, influencer marketing is basically using these people to promote your brand, product or service. It’s the same concept as celebrity endorsements and sponsorships which have been used for decades.

Lately, influencer marketing has taken a massive boost thanks to the social media boom. This has also made influencer marketing shift from celebrities to more accessible and everyday micro-influencers.

What Are Micro Influencers?

Micro influencers are similar to normal influencers. They are people that have a power of influencing others by cultivating a niche audience in their industry – but on a smaller scale.

They’re not massive celebrities. For the most part, micro influencers are everyday people who have generated between 10,000 – 500,000 followers on their social media channels that generate a lot of response and engagement on their posts and videos.

They span a large variety of industries and sectors, including popular topics such as food and cuisine, fashion and beauty, health and fitness.

Micro influencers can be found in almost any sector: they could be focused on health and wellness, food and cuisine, entrepreneurship or fashion and beauty. They also can be found on different social media channels, with Instagram and YouTube being some of the most popular options.

How Micro Influencers Can Boost Your Sales

Micro-influencers can help increase sales by 300%. But what is it about them that makes them so believable for your customers?

Micro influencers aren’t glamorous celebrities. For the most part, they are ordinary people, just like your customer. So when they recommend or introduce you to something, it has the same effect as a recommendation from a family or friend. It’s much more likely to be trusted – which results in more sales for you.

Micro influencers are also great for adding credibility to your brand.

The internet has given us instant access to a wealth of information at our fingertips. For some of us, this means we take the time to research each product, making smarter, more informed choices to ensure we’re getting the best possible deal.

Part of this research includes looking at customer reviews to see what others thought. This is where micro influencers can help. They give your products powerful reviews that your customers will trust, to help make them make the decision to buy.

In fact, 31% of respondents purchased a product or service after seeing it in an influencer’s post. What’s more, micro influencers will also be cheaper than more well-known influencers, giving you a better ROI (return on investment).

The Dangers Of Micro Influencers

There are people who will misrepresent their leverage with over-inflated follower and reach numbers. This means that there are micro influencers that might promise to reach 10,000 of your customers – but actually pay bots to engage with their posts instead of real people.

Without real engagement, your influencer post will reach a fraction of what you paid for, making it a bad investment for your company.

Fake influencers are more common than you think – so it’s important that you do your research before engaging with any micro influencers.

Some platforms exist to help you find these people, including Social Chain’s Like-wise tool. In an effort to expose fake influencers, particularly on Instagram, this tool identifies suspicious activity to create a blacklist of influencers for your brand to avoid.

In addition to avoiding fake influencers, your company can also be harmed by choosing people who don’t fit in with the image and values of your brand. If something is outside of an influencer’s norm, it will appear staged and inauthentic, turning your potential customers away and giving you lost income.

Finding The Right Micro Influencer For Your Business

Ready to find the right micro influencer for your business? Here are our 5 steps to follow to help you get the right match to increase your sales.

Step One: Start With Your Followers

The first place to start looking for your micro influencer is through your own followers on social media.

Is there someone who often interacts with your brand? Someone who’s already posting about your brand or product? Someone who has a good follower base and engagement level?

If there is – you’ve just found a good starting point for your brand. Looking at your own following is a great starting point because you already have a natural relationship with the micro influencer. You’ll just be building on it.

Even if these people don’t become micro influencers, it’s a great idea to try and build these relationships as much as possible to make them more willing to continue sharing and promoting your posts – extending your campaigns reach.

You can also check out Heepsy – an influencer management platform which allows you to access more than 11 million influencers on YouTube and Instagram. You can filter the results into certain categories, specific locations and who their audience is so you can find the right influencers for your business.

Step Two: Go Where Your Customers Are

There is no point getting a micro influencer to promote your brand or services if your target audience isn’t going to see the post.

So, start with your target audience and go where they’re likely to be. Look at the people that they already follow and engage with – because they’re the ones that are going to have the most influence on your brand.

Once you’ve found your potential candidates, it’s time to move onto the next step: engaging with them and assessing who’s the perfect fit.

Step Three: Engage With Your Micro Influencer

Let’s start talking to your micro influencers.

This is an important step because you want to ensure that your micro influencer is the right fit for your business. This is your chance to get to know them a little better and assess whether they suit the product or services that you want them to offer.

In addition, this step allows the influencer to get to know your business a little better and tell you whether your product is something they think their own following would be interested in. This means you’ve can be confident that you and your micro influencer will be a good fit before your campaign starts.

Step Four: Set Achievable Goals

Before you get started on your campaigns, you need to set achievable goals and expectations with your micro influencer.

This includes agreeing on a rate, post frequency and types of posts that your influencer will make. This can include a range of posts, including:

• Sponsored Blogs And Social Posts. This is where you ask your micro influencer to write a piece exclusively about your product or service and follow that up with a few mentions in their newsletter or social media posts. You can also invest in advertising to boost these posts and ensure they feature in your target audiences timeline for greater reach.
• Product Demos. This involves a vlog (video blog) or post with the micro influencer using your product or service. This type of post is an excellent way of getting your USP (Unique Selling Point) across to potential new customers. It’s important that your influencer indicates that they have been gifted the item or service.
• Guest Blogs.  This involves getting your micro influencer to write content or produce a video that will be shared on your own site and social channels. This will show your audience that you have content from an industry influencer while attracting their following to your business.
• Channel Takeovers. This is where you give your micro influencer ‘takeover’ control of your social media channels for a day or a set amount of time. During the takeover, your micro influencer can post, host Q&A sessions or live-stream directly on your channel. This will attract their followers to you while allowing for real-time engagement with your potential customers.

Setting goals also include understanding the potential reach and impact that your micro influencer can offer. This will also help avoid unrealistic expectations that everyone who sees or engages in the post is going to become a customer.

Clearly outlining your goals will further build a strong relationship with your micro influencer and help you see a great ROI on your campaigns.

Step Five: Track Your Results

Your micro influencer plan is in place, now it’s time to track your results and see how it’s been performing for you.

By setting up unique tracking links or discount codes for your micro influencers, you can directly track the amount of traffic and sales that your micro influencer is bringing in. So, you can directly see the impact and ROI of your marketing plan.

It’s important to give your campaigns time to increase your conversions. Like most other marketing, you can’t expect instantaneous results.

How Micro Influencers Can Boost Your Sales

When done right, micro-influencers are a fantastic way to expand your reach and convince potential customers to buy your product or services.

But, to see the results you want with micro-influencer marketing, you need to select someone that will be the best fit for your brand and product. In addition, your micro-influencer needs to be followed by your target audience, otherwise, your marketing will be lost on people who are never going to convert for your business.

Like any type of marketing, it’s about testing and monitoring your results to get the best ROI and more potential customers to your website.