Imagine you want to make a new friend. Who would you target: the president of the United States or somebody who shares your interest in barefoot waterskiing, your love of miniature schnauzers, and your passionate opposition to vinyl flooring?
Although the first candidate is powerful and has the media watching their every move, the second might present a more obvious and immediate choice. When it comes to making a meaningful connection, shared interests matter more than public profiles.
Brands can apply the same logic in the influencer marketing space. While partnering with an influencer with a massive Instagram following can be an effective strategy, influencers with smaller followings whose interests align with your brand can help you increase brand awareness, boost sales, and reach new audiences—for a lower cost.
What is a micro-influencer?
Micro-influencers are social media creators who have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. Traditional influencer marketing favors follower counts, and both brands and creators frequently evaluate an influencer’s social media presence based on their total number of followers. But compared to influencers with huge followings, micro-influencers represent a more cost-effective, targeted option for marketing partnerships.
Here’s a breakdown of influencer categories by follower count:
- Nano-influencers: Creators with 1,000 to 9,999 followers
- Micro-influencers: Creators with 10,000 to 99,999 followers
- Macro-influencers: Creators with 100,000 to one million followers
- Mega-influencers: Creators with more than a million followers
How working with micro-influencers can benefit your brand
If you’re new to the influencer marketing game, you might think the more followers an influencer has, the better your results will be—right? Not necessarily. After all, for most brands, the number of people who see a sponsored post is less important than what those people do when they see it. In other words, engagements and conversions often matter more than reach.
Micro-influencers can deliver these results—in some cases, for a lower cost than other influencer types. Here’s an overview of what makes micro-influencer marketing different, and how this type of partnership can benefit your brand:
1. High engagement rates
Micro-influencers tend to have more engaged audiences than influencers with more followers. Influencer engagement rates tend to decline as follower counts increase. Partnering with micro-influencers can help you secure more post engagements (including likes, comments, and clicks) relative to the amount you spend.
2. Superior audience targeting
Working with micro-influencers allows you to target niche audience segments. While celebrity influencers tend to serve large and diverse audiences, influencers with a smaller following typically serve audiences interested in their specific influencer niche.
For example, a celebrity mega-influencer in the beauty space will have followers of all ages with an interest in makeup and beauty, fans with no interest in makeup and beauty trends, and folks with a general interest in keeping up-to-date with internet culture.
A micro-influencer, on the other hand, might have an audience of social media users interested in performance makeup for gymnasts and dancers. This type of influencer type has much more tightly defined audience segments, allowing for more focused targeting.
3. Lower cost
Partnering with micro-influencers can be a cost-effective strategy. Although exact rates vary, many micro-influencers charge between $100 and $500 for a sponsored post while a mega-influencer may charge $10,000 or more for the same type of content.
Working with micro-influencers allows you to engage influencer marketing strategies with a smaller total budget and distribute available funds across multiple influencers. This has the added benefit of helping you test different types of content and measure results across different audience demographics.
How to build a micro-influencer marketing strategy
- Determine budgets, goals, and audiences
- Identify platforms
- Find influencers
- Approach influencers
- Monitor campaign performance
Micro-influencer marketing campaigns can help companies improve brand awareness, sales, and their brand reputations. Here’s how to build a micro-influencer marketing strategy of your own:
1. Determine budgets, goals, and audiences
The first step is identifying how much money you have to pay influencers. Review your digital marketing budgets and allocate a percentage to micro-influencer campaigns. If you’re new to influencer marketing (or if your budget is tight), start small and adjust later. Budgets between $1,000 and $2,000 are usually enough to test a strategy.
Next, identify campaign goals and target audiences. Review your overall business goals and audience information, and then identify specific campaign goals and audiences that support your broader objectives.
For example, say you have an ecommerce store that sells vegan protein powder. If one of your business’s goals is to increase sales by 10% and your overall target audience is women between 25 and 35 interested in healthy eating, you might aim to increase traffic to your site from social channels by 20%. You may then decide to specifically target women between 25 and 35 with an interest in vegan cooking.
2. Identify platforms
The next step is to identify the best platforms for your influencer campaign. You can use platform demographic information to identify where your target audience is most active. If your target audience is women between 25 and 35, you might select Instagram because many Instagram users fall into this category.
3. Find influencers
Once you’ve chosen your social media platform, you’re ready to find the right influencers for your campaign. To find micro-influencers, search for relevant hashtags and brand mentions on social media platforms and review top posts. Use influencer marketing platforms like Shopify Collabs, which connects brands with available influencers, or contact an influencer marketing agency for help.
Consider these factors to identify the best influencers for your brand:
- Engagement rates. Identify influencer engagement rates by using an influencer platform, analyzing their posts and crunching the numbers yourself, or asking the influencer to provide metrics.
- Personal brand. Before selecting a brand advocate, make sure their brand values, public persona, and political activities align with your company’s brand identity and values. Set up a search engine alert for a particular partner’s name and social media handle to get updates on media coverage that mentions them.
- Content quality. Many influencers create their own content for paid partnerships. Review recent posts to confirm that potential partners publish quality content aligned with your brand standards and voice.
4. Approach influencers
If you’re using an influencer marketing platform or agency, they can help you approach influencers and determine rates. If you’ve found potential partners on your own, pitch a partnership by sending an email or a direct message on a social platform.
Here’s what to include:
- Brand alignment. Specify why you’ve chosen the influencer for your campaign. Include your brand values, target audiences, and perceived alignment with their work.
- Campaign goals. Tell the influencer your campaign goals and the metrics you’ll use to analyze results (such as impressions, engagements, or conversions).
- Proposed activities. Specify the proposed influencer activities, such as the number of Instagram posts, reviews, or product mentions you expect to get. It’s best practice to include a proposal instead of asking the influencer to create a custom pitch, but you can invite potential influencers to amend or add to your suggestions based on their experience reaching goals like yours.
- Content creation process. Specify who will create branded content; in most cases, this responsibility falls to the influencer. Outline your timeline for campaign activities, and specify whether you’ll require editorial review before publication.
- Compensation. Specify your proposed budget for the partnership. You can also ask the influencer to provide a rate sheet or influencer media kit if they have one.
- How to respond. Include your contact information and a deadline to respond to your proposal.
5. Monitor campaign performance
Once you’ve signed a micro-influencer, you’re ready to launch your campaign. Review their content if allowed by the terms of your contract and monitor their social media feeds. If you haven’t already set up a search engine alert, now is a good time to do so. You’ll want to be informed of any news your brand advocates generate.
Once your campaigns are up and running, use your social media management tool or in-platform analytics features to monitor results. If you’re seeing strong results from a particular influencer or with a specific audience segment, you can use this information to inform future influencer marketing campaigns.
Crafting authentic content with micro-influencers
If you want to create content that resonates, authenticity isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a non-negotiable. Micro-influencers, who are more connected with their followers than their mega counterparts, ooze authenticity via personal stories, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and the user-generated content (UGC) they reshare.
Their smaller, niche audiences are not only engaged but also deeply trust their recommendations, making micro-influencers the secret sauce for brands looking to build credibility.
Here are three ways to create engagement-driving content with micro-influencers:
Use UGC
Consider working with micro-influencers to solicit UGC from their followers around your product. They could do this via sponsored contests or giveaways of your product on their platform. In this way, they’re sharing your brand’s product and asking their community to do the same. Although you’ll need to use the #ad hashtag to designate the sponsorship, the UGC created by micro-influencers’ followers will read like recommendations of your brand. This is why UGC works so well: it’s organic, real, and relatable.
Consider Airbnb. It’s successfully leveraged UGC by encouraging hosts to share their experiences and spaces on social media. By partnering with micro-influencers, Airbnb doesn’t just tell you what staying in a place feels like—it show yous, through the eyes of someone you can relate to.
UGC also adds a layer of trust. When a potential customer sees a micro-influencer using a product in real life, it bridges the gap between curiosity and conversion. Think about it like this: If you’re considering trying a new fitness app and see a micro-influencer you trust using it in their daily workout, you’re more likely to give it a shot. It’s not just marketing, it’s a conversation between peers.
Pro tip: “When you’re working with creators, especially those who are smaller or just starting out, it’s important to give them creative freedom within a few well-defined rules. This allows them to bring their unique style and perspective, which often leads to more authentic and engaging content. UGC thrives on that authenticity because it’s content created by real people who are genuinely invested in the brand or product, rather than something that feels overly polished or corporate,” says Francis Zierier, lead editor at Creator Spotlight.
Apply storytelling techniques
Effective storytelling is where micro-influencers really shine. They weave products into content about their routines, relationships, and growth journeys.
Take, for example, the brand Patagonia. Patagonia partners with micro-influencers who are outdoor enthusiasts and care deeply about environmental sustainability. They share stories of their adventures, challenges, and environmental impact.
Storytelling with micro-influencers is about creating moments that audiences can see themselves in. A micro-influencer sharing their journey with a sustainable clothing line doesn’t just showcase the product—they’re inviting their followers into a narrative about making conscious choices. This approach builds brand affinity and drives home the message that the product is part of something bigger.
Leverage multiple platforms
Micro-influencers aren’t confined to a single platform, and your strategy shouldn’t be either. Each platform offers unique ways to connect with different segments of your audience.
For instance, Instagram is ideal for visual storytelling—think behind-the-scenes content or day-in-the-life posts that make followers feel like part of the influencer’s world. Meanwhile, TikTok is the go-to for short, engaging videos that can quickly go viral—especially with Gen Z.
Say a gourmet spice brand partners with a micro-influencer with a presence on both Instagram and TikTok. On Instagram, the influencer might share beautiful photos showcasing a recipe using the brand’s spices, complete with a heartfelt caption about family traditions. On TikTok, they might share a quick, fun video of the cooking process, adding a catchy soundtrack to make it pop. It’s the same product but two completely different approaches to amplify the brand’s reach and impact.
Micro-influencer FAQ
What is the value of a micro-influencer?
The value of a micro-influencer lies in their ability to authentically engage niche audiences and build trust, which often leads to cost-effective engagement. Micro-influencers have a knack for creating relatable content that fosters genuine interactions and drives targeted traffic.
Are micro-influencers very powerful?
Absolutely. Micro-influencers’ power lies in their deep, genuine connections with niche audiences. They’re not just promoting products; they’re curating experiences and sharing them with people who trust their opinions. This trust translates into higher engagement rates and more authentic interactions, which can drive real results for brands. So, while they might not have millions of followers, the influence they wield within their community is incredibly impactful.
How many followers does a micro-influencer typically have?
Micro-influencers typically have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers.
Are micro-influencers as effective as macro-influencers in driving engagement?
Yes. Micro-influencers typically see higher engagement rates than macro-influencers, making them a cost-effective partnership option. However, the total number of interactions and impressions with a micro-influencer campaign may be fewer than one with a macro-influencer.
What are the disadvantages of micro-influencers?
While micro-influencers are great for authenticity, they do come with some trade-offs. For one, their smaller audience size means they don’t offer the same reach as a macro or mega influencer. You’ll likely need to collaborate with several micro-influencers to achieve the same level of exposure. Additionally, since many micro-influencers manage their own content creation and partnerships, the process can sometimes be slower and less polished than working with more established influencers or agencies. That said, if your goal is to build genuine connections rather than just chase numbers, micro-influencers are well worth the investment.
Is it possible to establish long-term partnerships with micro-influencers?
Yes. You can approach micro-influencers for both short-term partnerships and long-term brand ambassadorship deals.
