The more digital marketing becomes popular, the more it is getting tougher to reach the potential customers. What explains this irony is the increasing number of choices before the consumers that bring down their loyalty to a brand.

This unique situation is presenting marketers both opportunities and threats, and driving them to adopt new methods to protect and expand their customer base.

Trust and loyalty make the foundation of brand building. Again, unless it’s a brand, you can’t expect loyalty or trust. Big companies resort to large-scale advertising for a solution to this catch-22 situation. But how can small companies cope with them with limited marketing budgets?

Digital marketing provides the solution, rendering the perfect level playing field for small businesses with its flurry of techniques and promoting entrepreneurship.

And, trust & loyalty continue, as ever, to be the well-defined goal of marketing, with huge amounts being spent every year through the traditional marketing processes just for that. But the problem is that trust & loyalty are very private feelings that can’t be won over through spending only, you need stronger influence than that, like somebody’s advice whom you adore and trust.

Social media influencers fit the bill to a big extent for this purpose at social media platforms and have been roped in by the marketers to start a new branch of marketing called influencer marketing.

There are four categories of social media influencers –

• 1. Mega
• 2. Macro
• 3. Micro
• 4. Nano.

The combined experience in influencer marketing reveals that micro-influencers are the most effective group that gives the highest ROI.

Who are Micro-Influencers?

Micro-influencers are those individuals who have a follower count of 10,000 to 100,000 people. These people are well-known in their field and have exceptionally high levels of interaction with their audiences. The reason for their high engagement level is their relatively smaller follower base only. Because studies reveal that the fewer followers a person has, the stronger is their involvement.

Why micro-influencers are better equipped to help marketing?

Micro-influencers aren’t your standard public personalities, specialists, or celebrities who have millions of followers. They specialize in a single vertical and exclusively share content related to that area. Because their audiences are hyper-engaged, partnering with a highly relevant micro-influencer can drastically increase reach and user engagement.

There lies the advantage of the micro-influencers – their high level of authority in a field and ability to provide quality guidance earn them high respect, trust, and loyalty from the followers. Their recommendations can break the wall of resistance that the advertisements cannot. This is where word-of-mouth marketing takes the center stage by these content creators.

• Customers trust a micro-influencer 92 percent more than a standard ad or celebrity endorsement.
• Over 82 percent of consumers are likely to purchase something recommended by a micro-influencer.
• Better control over the followers – since the number of followers is moderate, it is easier for the influencers to monitor and engage fairly easily and promptly. In fact, nano influencers are granted sources for high engagement.
• Easier to identify the right audience group – it is easier to scan the profiles and make a group of the right demographics, and then engage with them.
• More creative content ideas – marketers can exchange their piece of content ideas with the influencers; Micro and nano influencers can be your partner in your marketing plan to meet the marketing goals.
• Less costly – charges for the micro and nano influencers are comparatively on the lower side as compared to other marketing campaigns.

How to find micro-influencers?

Obviously, finding the right micro-influencers is not an easy task, and removes half of the headache of the marketers when they find them. Marketers hunt for relevant influencers where their target audience hangs out(online & offline).

Ascertain that a micro-influencer has a high level of engagement with their audience. Check analytics like comments, shares, likes, and queries, among others. It will have a significant impact on the success of your influencer campaign. Set a target engagement rate (10% is a decent starting point) and see if a micro-influencer can meet it.

Micro-influencer marketing platforms

With the burgeoning growth of micro-influencer marketing there has developed the need for platforms that can help the agencies or brands to manage working with the micro-influencers in a more informed manner.

Influencer Marketing Platforms are basically software solutions that consist of discovery tools, massive databases, and clever algorithms to assist the brands and agencies in their quest for the right micro-influencers in their product group.

Here are the top influencer marketing platforms in India.

• 1. Plixo
• 2. OPA
• 3. Influencer.in
• 4. PulpKey
• 5. Winkl
• 6. BrandMentions
• 7. Eleve Media
• 8. StarNgage
• 9. Qoruz
• 10. Blogmint

How is micro-influencer marketing doing in India?

India being the third largest social media market in the world is a hotbed of influencer marketing, quite expectedly, with an increasing number of micro-influencers promoting an increasing number of brands. Here are some brands in India that are working with micro-influencers:

• Mamasearth
• Vivo
• OnePlus
• Ustraa
• GoPro India

And Coca Cola too!

Coca-Cola benefits from long-term influencer partnerships with micro-influencers like Miette Dierckx, who has over 35000 followers and is a travel and cuisine micro-influencer. For many years, she has been developing material for their heritage soda brand. She frequently posts images of herself holding a joint. Long-term influencer connections are an excellent approach to gradually increase reach, engagement, and positive review.

Micro-influencers on Instagram

Instagram with its outstanding visual effects, considered to be the biggest playground for the influencers. Here is some tips on how to work with micro-influencers on instagram –

• 1. Choose an Influencer
• 2. Establish A Relationship
• 3. Help Grow Their Following
• 4. Nurture a Long-Time Connection

Not all micro-influencers will be a good match for your brand. Even if you find the right influencers they may not be interested to work with you. So keep doing research on instagram to find the good influencers.

Wrap up

micro-influencer marketing works best for products like clothing, food, drinks, and the like. Working with lesser-known influencers is a smart, low-cost, and low-risk approach to test your brand and product in front of a limited and targeted audience. You can rapidly determine whether this is a scalable strategy for you by experimenting with a few different influencers who fit your brand

Source- Fluidscapes
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