Today, it’s nearly impossible to go through the social media feed without noticing some form of influencer marketing.

Influencers are everywhere…

They are promoting and showing different clothing lines, makeup brands, tech companies, and even internet courses.

And, that is just the beginning!

By looking at recent research, we’ve managed to see that businesses can actually make around $6.50 for every $1.00 they spend on digital influencer marketing.

From the basic feed post(s) to the ever-so-popular Instagram Reels, there are tons of ways influencers reach out to their audience without having to be physically in front of them.

That’s why we can firmly say that this is no longer a trend - it’s a solid marketing tactic that’s here to stay!

However, here’s the hard part - how can you start?

Should you just reach out to famous celebrities like Kim Kardashian or Lebron James and ask them to work with you?

Well, absolutely not.

Not only will these celebrities ask for a whole bag of money (literally) for a 3-second video ad, but they may also be pretty irrelevant to your brand/niche.

There is a solution - micro-influencers.

Even though these users don't have millions of followers, they can have a much better impact after all.

Their audience is more targeted to a specific niche - providing a big opportunity for your brand.

In this blog, we will help you learn exactly how you can use influencers for brand visibility and more reviews.

Without wasting second, let us jump straight into the article - shall we?

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What Is Micro-Influencer Marketing?

So, before we come to the central part, let’s explain what influencer marketing is.

Well, it’s really simple - influencer marketing is a method where brands request promotions from individuals that have a certain following on social media.

They are generally incredibly dedicated to their audience and often viewed as niche experts.

Here’s a simple quote:

“If you have followers, you have an influence. If you acquire multiple likes. you’re inducing further engagement.”

Generally, you can find several types of influencers depending on their number of followers:

• Nano-influencer - These influencers have up to 10,000 followers at max.
• Micro-influencer - The micro-influencers (the type we’re talking about in this post) have around 10,000 to 100,000 followers
• Macro-influencer - Macro (mid-range) influencers typically have around 100,000 to 1 million followers.
• Mega-influencers - These are some of the most popular influencers and generally have over 1 million supporters.

What Are The Benefits Of Micro-Influencer Marketing?

Now since you have a much better understanding of micro-influencer marketing, let’s see all the benefits.

Bigger Engagement

Believe it or not, micro-influencers have a higher engagement rate than some of the most popular celebrities out there.

There are a couple of reasons why their overall engagement is higher:

• One of the reasons is because they are incredibly connected with their audience and have more time to reply to some of their personal messages or comments.
• Next, they’re really passionate about their particular area and love working in their profession on a regular basis.
• Lastly, they spend a lot more time on their social media network and post interesting content for their followers.

Open to Feedback

Most of the micro-influencers are new to the space. So, they use each experience to learn and create their own unique brand.

As a result, these types of influencers may be more accessible to specific project schemes, in-depth feedback, and even different compensation types (payment, free product, and more).

Better Trust

Generally, most of their followers have a higher trust in their opinions.

It has been proven that over 80% of the buyers are extremely likely to follow the suggestion of a micro-influencer and perform the action in a pretty short period.

So, that’s something that your business shouldn’t miss out on.

Product Reviews

Micro-influencers can even perform excellent reviews of your product - both on their official social media page and even on your site.

Their opinions are incredibly truthful and can greatly impact their audience.

Niche Oriented

Bigger and more popular influencers cover more generic topics. So, if you have a niche-specific website (which you probably do), things won’t work out as you initially planned with a mega influencer.

So, that’s why it’s better to use micro-influencers. They have a specific niche that they mainly focus on and are much more distinctive. You can find a suitable influencer for your store in no time.

Willing To Do Business With Smaller Brands

As the following numbers increase, influencers start to become more precise about what kind of sponsorships they accept. So, that’s why most mega influencers won’t cooperate with smaller brands.

On the other hand, micro-influencers are more open to any cooperation.

Cost-Effective Solution

Most of the time, these influencers offer their services at a much more affordable rate. This way, even businesses with low budgets can get their product promoted.

You can generally negotiate with them and get a pretty reasonable deal in the end.

Typically, most micro-influencers will charge you around $150 - $1000 per post. This number can inherently vary depending on several factors, including the location of the influencer, the number of followers, and the page's niche.

So…

Are Micro-Influencers Worth It?

Well, even though these influencers have a considerably limited reach, their low-cost pricing means that you will be able to operate them on a consistent basis.

Maybe one micro-influencer won’t have the same reach as Lebron James, but 50 of them would (at a significantly lower price).

And if that wasn’t enough to convince you, then take a look at this case study.

“A business owner has decided to promote his products by using influencers. He hired a mega influencer with over 600,000 followers on Instagram. And, guess what - he managed to acquire 300+ shares, thousands of likes, but only 5 sales… But, here’s the trick - he hired a micro-influencer as well. The channel he picked had around 10,000 followers on Instagram and experience in cosmetics and skincare. After the campaign, the post had under 10 shares, around 100 likes, but even up to 100+ sales. Wow, now that’s a lot of sales - isn’t it?”

So, you’re convinced? Let’s move on…

How Can You Use Micro-Influencer Marketing To Grow Your Brand?

In this special section, we will briefly explain all the steps you need to follow in order to start using influencer marketing.

We definitely urge you to keep on reading until the genuine end - this way, you won’t miss out on any important info.

Step 1: Find Your Target Audience

Preferably, you should already have an idea of your niche and brand propositions. Defining your audience can be a critical part. Your ideal influencers will either share your audience or might even be a part of it!

Factors such as customer values, demographics, and requirements can help you find the right influencer later.

Customer values

The best way to determine your customer values is by seeing your completion. Open their website and check out their social channels to learn more about who their customers are.

Demographics

Also, don’t forget to take massive advantage of your analytics (try Google and Instagram Analytics) and determine buyer demographics.

Or more specifically, you can ask yourself these questions:

• Where do they actually come from?
• What is their typical age?
• See what kind of hobbies they have?
• What are their overall characteristics?

Requirements

Lastly, try to figure out their requirements. Think about what problem are you solving, what they really need, and why they should choose you as a brand.

* Here’s a quick example:

Let’s say you have a store that’s primarily focused on selling weight loss supplement products. Then, you should preferably aim towards individuals that are around the age of 18 to 40, have a desire for daily exercise, and need to lose weight.

Step 2: Determine The Right Social Media Platform

The next thing you should do is determine the most suitable social media platform for your specific influencer marketing campaign.

There are literally a ton of different sites that you can choose from, including Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and many more.

But, remember that each has its own distinctive style and works well for certain individuals.

• Snapchat and TikTok - Perfectly suitable for businesses that want to reach out to teenagers or young adults.
• Youtube and Instagram - These platforms offer great visual capabilities, allowing you to take your marketing techniques one step further.
• Facebook and Twitter - If you want to drive people to an external website, then you should certainly stick with Facebook and Twitter.

Step 3: Pick The Right Micro-Influencer

Once you know your target audience and the preferred social media platform, make sure you pick a suitable micro-influencer for the job.

You should start by picking a few micro-influencers before you can initially make the final decision.

But, how can you find them?

Track down bloggers

Believe it or not, over 86% of influencers have their own unique blogs on the internet. In fact, most of the time these websites are their main source of influence and power. Here’s everything that you need to do.

Go to a searching engine and type “(your company’s niche) + blog site.”

Be sure to search for “best of” lists and roundups among all of the results.

Click on each blog and see if they have a suitable social media platform on their site. (it should be listed among their official social profiles).

If they do, then go ahead and add them to your list!

Search for hashtags

A pretty easy method to find individuals is to search for certain hashtags on the preferred social media platform.

In order to fully accomplish this, you will need to find an appropriate hashtag in your niche. The All-Hashtags tool can make things a lot more convenient.

Next, write down each of these hashtags into the search bar and start scrolling around the options.

Use some tools

The best way is to use marketing apps like Klear or Buzzsumo. These tools are incredibly effective and can help you narrow down your search in just a few clicks.

Look for micro-influencers with the highest engagement on their posts or use the tools to filter by your budget, industry, and more.

However, you should know that some of the apps are paid. So, you will need to pay a low subscription rate in order to gain access to all the functions they offer.

Generally, this is completely worth it - not only does it save time, but it also increases the effectiveness of your searches.

Step 4: Analyze the Micro-Influencers

Carefully analyze their social media platforms and see whether they can actually bring profit to your brand.

Here is a simple checklist:

• The number of followers - See their total followers and make sure that it ranges from around 10,000 to 100,000.
• Regular posts - Search for an influencer that posts consistently.
• The accounts they are following - Make sure the influencer doesn’t follow thousands of users. They should preferably follow around 10 to 200 individuals.
• Total likes - Don’t forget to check the number of likes each post gets. If the followers are reacting to each post, then this might indicate high engagement.
• Average comments - Like the previous factor, a significant number of comments is a sign of huge engagement.
• Previous collaborations - Scroll through their page and see if they’ve done any previous collaborations with other companies. You can see how certain people reacted to that.

Step 5: Type Of Promotions

When you’re actually working with influencers, creating a concrete strategy is crucial.

This way, you will be capable of spending your money in the most effective way possible. Some of the most popular promotion campaigns for eCommerce businesses are:

Giveaways

This is, without a question, one of the most effective ways to improve your overall brand awareness and acquire better sales conversions.

You will be able to promote any kind of existing offers or just create an exclusive giveaway for the influencer’s followers.

Before you begin, don't forget to create a couple of rules. This will ensure you’re getting the most out of the entire giveaway promotion.

For instance, in order to enter the competition, the users need to like the post, follow your company on the current social media network, and even tag a few friends in the comments.

The influencer will use their account to announce the giveaway, explain all of the rules, and then constantly promote the deal until the actual winner is declared.

Best of all?

In the end, you earn a ton of new followers, and the influencer’s audience gets an opportunity to win a free item or service.

Promo codes

Next up, we have promo codes. This kind of promotion is quite simple and incredibly easy to set up. All you need to do is create a special promo code and share it with the preferred influencer.

After that, the influencer will post it on their social media feed and tell their fans about the exclusive discount they can get by using the following code.

For best results, use a unique discount code for each influence. Not only will this make the influencers feel incredibly special, but it will also allow you to track the performance of each campaign (we will talk about this further on).

Here are some interesting discount code examples:

• “MARK10%OFF”
• “JUSTIN25%”
• “FITNESSARMY”

Video content

Another fantastic way of growing your business with micro-influencers is through the use of video content.

How-to videos are the perfect start. Be sure to ask the influencer to briefly demonstrate how the product works and show that perspective to the purchasers.

These promotions are more authentic to the viewers and offer them a pure insight into the product.

You can even ask them to do a quick review of the product as well. This way, they can explain all of the things that they like about the product in person - making the entire thing seem more legit.

Both of the methods seem to work just fine. Make sure the influencer includes a convincing call-to-action at the end. You can even ask them to place a hyperlink in the description as well.

This can help drive more traffic to your eCommerce site and even boost your search rankings.

Step 6: Approach The Micro-Influencer

Once you’ve identified everything, it’s time to start reaching out!

There are many ways that you can perform this, but just remember not all of them are completely effective.

Send an email

This is the most straightforward approach that you can take. Most of the time, the influencers have their emails mentioned somewhere on their social media profile or official website.

The email you’re planning to send needs to be highly informative, pretty concise, and totally honest.

“Hey (name of the influencer)! I was searching for top-rated influencers and came across your social media account. To be honest, I really love that you have such a high engagement with the entire community. We have a business called (name of your brand). So, I was wondering if you’re interested in doing a paid promotion. I need you to (describe what kind of promotions you want to run on your website)... Another thing that I want to discuss is your official price rates. Can you tell me how much you charge per post? I would be more than glad to work with you! Tell me if you’re interested. We are really looking forward to your initial response. Have a fantastic day,
(your name).”

Note: This is only an example; you can create an email depending on your own requirements and needs.

Contact them through direct messages

If you can’t see their email mentioned on their page, then you can even contact them through their DMs.

You should keep your messages shorter than emails.

Here’s an example:

“Hello, (name of the influencer)! Are you interested in doing a little sponsored post for (name of your company)? If yes, then be sure to hit me up with a reply. We will talk about the details when you have the time. 😄”

Post a comment

Another way that you can reach out to your preferred micro-influencers is by posting a comment under their post. Even though this is indirect, the chances of them reaching out to you are relatively high.

Here’s a good comment:

“Wow, you are gorgeous! Would you be interested in doing a promotion about a certain healthcare product?”

Step 7: Proceed With Your Conversation

Now, proceed with your conversation and talk about all of the necessary parts of the campaign, including target audience, details, upload time, price rates, and other stuff.

If you have the opportunity, then you can even ask them to hop on a quick video or phone call to better explain all of your intentions.

But, just remember - only do this if the influencer is comfortable with it.

Don’t just push them to get in a call if they don’t necessarily want to.

One of the best tips we can provide you with is to try and keep an ongoing relationship with all the influencers you plan on working with.

Stay in touch with them on a regular basis - even between certain campaigns.

Why - you might ask? Well, searching for a new influencer isn’t only hard, but it also takes a lot of time.

And in the eCommerce world, time is money!

Step 8: Discuss Price Rates Upfront

We’ve mentioned price rates above, but let’s dive a little bit deeper into this part. Typically, these campaigns can be ongoing or one-time offers.

If you plan on doing video content and giveaways, then you should certainly just negotiate on a one-time offer payment. This price can inherently vary depending on your requests and the number of followers the influencer has.

On the flip coin, if you want to proceed with promo codes, then your best bet is to set up an affiliate campaign and give the user a small percentage for every purchase they influence.

This payment method works best because it encourages the influencers to promote your business and post on their networks as much as possible.

This will really come down to your particular needs. So, carefully think about your business plans and select the most suitable payment option.

Step 9: Start The Campaign

Shake hands (virtually) and start the campaign. Generally, you should send them the payment at the beginning. This way, you will show that you’re actually interested in their services.

Don’t forget to check whether the influencer followed every detail you mentioned and arranged everything properly.

You can even ask for a link to the promotion post. They will be more than happy to provide you with it.

The influencer marketing campaigns can last from as little as a few hours and even up to several months - depending on your requests.

Step 10: Analyze Results

Once the entire influencer campaign is completely over, you can go ahead and measure your returning investment to ensure that everything turned out to be exactly as you planned.

The 2 main things that you should certainly pay crucial attention to are brand recognition and sales conversions.

Brand recognition

In order to properly measure your brand awareness, you should see how many likes and comments the post got on the influencer’s media page.

Another essential thing that you should definitely do is check how many times the posts have been shared. More shares basically mean more visitors.

Lastly, just compare your website analytics from the previous week and see if the influencer post made any kind of impact on the total page traffic.

Sales conversions

Even though traffic is hugely important, it’s actually useless if you don’t convert it into profits. So, be sure to see if the sales conversion increased or maybe even decreased.

If you’re employing affiliate tools, you can easily track the sales made from the influencer’s coupon codes.

But, if you’re doing giveaways and video content, then measuring these conversions can be a bit harder. You should certainly consider downloading a useful app.

Conclusion

That's it for today, folks! Just remember - bigger isn’t necessarily better. Micro-influencers can literally play a huge role in your digital marketing.

With the help of our article, you will be able to find the right micro-influencer campaign for your eCommerce shop and boost your sales in no time.

Both start-up businesses and professional experts can use this technique to their advantage.

It's extremely affordable, cost-effective, and versatile.