How To Use Micro Influencers To Grow Your Business In 2019

We get it – you love your business. Your products are awesome.

The problem is that getting everyone else to love your business as much as you do – and trust it – isn’t easy. Especially now with so much competition.

Marketing trends come and go, but one thing stays always the same – building trust with your audience is a foolproof way to keep your business thriving.

This is where micro influencers come in. Micro influencers are magical, supreme beings who have a dedicated band of followers who trust their judgment. If you can partner up with a micro influencer to promote your brand, you’ll be able to put yourself in front of a whole new audience who are suddenly willing to check you out.

Ready to get started? In this article, we’re going to show you How to Use Micro-Influencers to help you promote your business.

The Benefit of Working with Micro Influencers

Micro influencers typically have 10,000 or fewer followers. But while they don’t have the kind of ginormous following that macro influencers do, research has shown that they can be more effective than macro influencers. This is primarily down to the fact that micro influencers are generally thought to be more authentic and “real.”

Think about it: When Kim Kardashian or someone of that ilk promotes a product on social media, do we really believe they actually use it?

Moreover, micro influencers are more cost-effective. While a macro influencer might charge you $400 per Instagram post, micro influencers will charge a lot less. They might even take a free gift as compensation. This makes them perfect for smaller businesses looking to scale.

Then there’s the engagement factor. According to stats, micro-influencers have more engagement than macro-influencers. In fact, engagement tends to drop off as influencers build up their following.

How To Find Micro Influencers

Identify Right Social Media Channels

The right social media influencers are out there on the right platform. But do you know which platform it is?

There are lots of social media platforms available but not all will be equally useful to you. You need to decide on the right network and find the social media influencers that can get you the best results. For example, fashion startups will target influencers on Instagram, while SEO companies will target SEO influencers on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Write down a list of social platforms to target before you begin searching for influencers.

Once you’ve got your list, it’s time to draw up a list of potential influencers. It’s a smart idea to use a tool to help you do this. Here is the list of 15 free tools to help you find influencers. If you decide not to use a tool, you’ll find that doing all your research manually will take up a lot of your time.

Ask Yourself “Are They The Right Fit For Our Company?”

Let’s say I run a fashion business. As such, I’m on the lookout for fashion influencers. But be careful, not all fashion influencers will be the right fit you. Just because a fashion influencer has 10,000 followers, it means nothing if their demographic is not what you want.

So take a look at the influencers demographic. Is it the same as yours? For example, if your product is aimed at females but an influencer primarily targets males, the shoe won’t fit.

It’s the same with their voice and style. How do they communicate with their audience? Are they brash or wholesome? Are they family-friendly or do they use cuss words? Their voice and style has to match yours, as they will help you build your brand and scale up.

When profiling potential suitors, take a look at their engagement rates, too. A micro influencer typically has around 10,000 followers but you need to see how engaged their followers are. Take a look at their latest social media posts. How many likes, comments and shares are they averaging? If literally no one is engaging, you need to pass.

It’s also a good idea to look for influencers who aren’t necessarily in this for the money. If you can find influencers who are genuinely interested in building communities, you’ll be able to forge a long-term relationship. They can help you slowly move towards the direct to customer model which is the key to your success in 2019.

Get To Know Them

You don’t need to start a conversation with your influencers to get to know them. Instead, take a close look at their work. What do they do exactly?

Then, take a look at how they behave on their social media profiles. What do they say? How do they engage with others?

The more you know about them, the better your pitch will be.

Make The Approach

Once you’ve identified your influencers and taken a good look at what they do, it’s time to pitch your idea to them.

Your pitch should be personalized on an individual basis, which means you need to greet them by their name and reference some of their work. For example, you could write “I loved what you did with X brand a few months ago.”

Keep your opening pitch short, concise and direct. Get to the point about what it is that you want here but focus on how they’ll stand to benefit. It’s really important that you don’t ramble on about yourself too much. Your aim is to build a relationship with the influencer and you can only do this by keeping the focus on them as much as possible. What do they stand to gain from this?

Offer an Incentive

While some influencers will work with you for free on content that offers value and education to their audience, many will be motivated by some sort of compensation. It makes sense, after all. Who isn’t motivated when there’s something fairly lucrative at stake?

If your budget is small, you could offer early or exclusive access to your products or a free gift. Or you could just offer plain financial compensation.

The best way to find out what they may be interested in is to simply ask.

Put Together a Winning Influencer Marketing Campaign

Once you’ve paired up with an influencer, it’s time to work together on your campaign. Here are some ideas you could go with:

• Give-away Contest – Your influencer asks their followers to do something for the chance to win one of your products

• Sponsored Content – This one is a tad risky as too much sponsored contest can cause mistrust among followers but it can be great for generating more backlinks. Take a look at potential influencers and see how much sponsored content they’ve already put out in the past

• Review of Your Product – Offer the influencer a free gift in exchange for a honest review. This is a great way to put your product in front of their dedicated audience who listens to what they have to say. User-generated content is what will bring you new leads in 2019.

• The Good Cause – Pair up with an influencer who supports the same cause as you do, and offer to donate a percentage of all sales to a specific charity

Conclusion

In 2019, you won’t be able to breathe without hearing the phrase “influencer marketing.” It’s everywhere and everyone is leveraging it. Use the tips in this article to nail your own micro influencer campaign and keep growing your business into 2020.