Influencer Marketing Made Simple and Successful for Your Brand
Bigger isn’t always better, especially when implementing influencers in your marketing. Influencer marketing has become a foundation for many brands’ social media strategy.
But developing that influencer marketing campaign can be a confusing, winding road to navigate. You find yourself asking the same questions: Who do I contact? How many followers should they have? Will it help my brand? What’s my goal? How do I manage influencers and measure ROI?
The answers lie in part, whether you choose macro or micro-influencers and the dynamics of their followers. Here’s an overview of the idea of influencer marketing:
What is influencer marketing?
Sometimes, it’s okay to put your brand in somebody else’s hands. Influencer marketing is partnering up with an influencer (someone who a decent number of people trust and engage with) to boost your brand’s visibility. Whether your goal is to boost sales, grow your email list, or generate brand awareness – influencer marketing can help you. With the Instagram algorithm now making business content practically invisible, influencer marketing is essential. Influencers fall into one of two categories:
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Macro-influencers: These are celebrities and public figures with millions of followers on each and every platform. They’re unavoidable, as they’re major players in the television, film, music, and lifestyle industries. Even if you don’t follow them, they’re bound to end up on your ‘Explore’ page on Instagram. Their reach goes far beyond that of micro-influencers.
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Micro-influencers: These are often regional or special interest-specific people with a following of thousands to a slim tens of thousands. Most of the time, they stick to a certain niche and are rarely known outside of social media. Although they don’t have as vast an audience as macro-influencers, they can still positively impact your influencer marketing campaign, often having a closer relationship with followers and a higher percentage of engagement.
Depending on your campaign’s goal, both kinds of influencers can take your brand to the next level. Let’s take a look at when to use each kind of influencer.
Macro-influencers
As you know, macro-influencers are usually well-known celebrities known throughout the U.S. and around the globe. They should be used for reaching the following short-term goals:
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Increasing social media followers. Sometimes, your focus shouldn’t on be going for the sale right away. If your focus is on promoting your free top-funnel content and increasing your following, then macro is the way to go.
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Boosting brand awareness. If you just want to get your brand’s name out there, macro-influencers are the better choice. Although many of their followers may be inactive, there are still hundreds of thousands of people you can reach.
If you are trying to reach one of those goals and do find your macro-influencer match, here are some benefits of your choice:
Macro-Pro’s
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You’ll reach almost 22 times the amount of people.
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ROI is more obvious, and you’ll likely hit your goals.
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You can reach multiple niches and groups.
But all that glitters is not gold – there are some downsides to consider:
Macro-Con’s
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They are often less authentic than micro-influencers, by portraying their celebrity persona instead of real self.
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They’re expensive, charging up to $1,000 and more per post, according to Later.
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They have less overall engagement.
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Studies show consumers are 30% less likely to buy your product/service from the recommendation of a celebrity vs. a non-celebrity, one survey from Collective Bias said.
Here’s a prime macro-influencer marketing example of Kylie Jenner promoting Bumble, a dating service:
The “Macro-Influencer†takeaway: When considering macro-influencers, they come at a high price tag. Therefore, they’re often best for high price/large profit margin products or mass market, broad appeal products, ecommerce and services to ensure a return on your investment.
Micro-influencers
The playing field for micro-influencers is vast compared to that of macro-influencers. When it comes to influencer marketing, using micro-influencers is the preferred practice. Here are some goals you could approach with micro-influencers:
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Building a loyal following. Because of their smaller reach, micro-influencers’ followers are more engaged. That means that if you cater to the same audience, they’re likely to engage with you, too.
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Sell more. If you have a good sales funnel in place, then influencer marketing will do wonders for your brand. While macro-influencer are great at reaching the masses, micro-influencers are the one that bring the sale home. Â
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Expand your audience. Micro-influencers are often niche, so influencer marketing is a great way to learn more about your audience. You can reel in more followers from your particular industry, thus earn a higher customer retention rate.
Should you go through with one of the thousands of micro-influencers in your industry, here are their benefits:
Micro-Pro’s
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They’re authentic. It’s like taking a recommendation from a friend, which is what 70 percent of millennials prefer.
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They’re more affordable.
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Their followers are actually engaged. That’s a sign that their followers all have the same values and interests, which is perfect for your niche.
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They’re more likely to drive the sale, since they have greater conversion rates.
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The followers you gain are proportional to their following.
But like macro-influencers, there are cons of micro-influencers:
Micro-Con’s
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Less visibility for your brand on an individual influencer basis, requiring that you create a team of micro-influencers.
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ROI should be proportionally measured to their followers’ size and scope.
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It’s best for niche marketing, (not mass), providing more limited exposure and brand awareness.
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You need to use a team of micro-influencers to see an impact
Here’s an example of a micro-influencer that Into the Blue used to help Wedge Effect, a fitness tools company. Nicholas Coolridge (a.k.a. Modern Tarzan) is an acro-yogi and participant on NBC’s American Ninja Warrior. He’s also a micro-infleuncer with around 225k followers on Instagram. This particular collaboration earned Wedge Effect over 400 organic followers. Coolridge, along with several other ambassadors we meticulously chose, help build a trustworthy and authentic voice for the brand: