Influencer marketing on social media is a rapidly growing promotional channel for businesses, and for good reason. Almost 70% of consumers say they trust recommendations from influencers more than information directly from the brand. What’s more, almost 90% of marketers think the return on investment from influencer marketing is the same or better than other forms of marketing.¹

So it’s no surprise that the sector is booming. Consumer engagement levels are high, and it has more than tripled in value since 2019.²

And while some influencers have huge numbers of followers, what’s particularly interesting is that bigger isn’t always better. Micro-influencers may command a smaller audience – generally tens of thousands of people – but they have been shown to outperform their larger peers in terms of engagement levels.³

Working with micro influencers to promote your products has plenty of other benefits too. Cost is one, with smaller influencers likely to be more affordable than bigger ones. It can also be easier to work with them, as they are more likely to be accessible and have the flexibility to make any quick changes.⁴

In addition, micro-influencers are typically seen as more trustworthy than those operating on a larger scale.⁵ With almost two-thirds of consumers saying they are more likely to buy something if an influencer they trust recommends it to them, that’s a powerful asset to tap into.⁶

Before you start, it’s worth taking the time to really think about what you want to achieve. This can help set the foundations for everything from the style of your promotions to the kind of micro-influencers you engage with. For instance, it may be brand awareness or audience building that you’re going after, or you may be more revenue focused and looking for increased sales or customer retention.¹¹

It’s also important to understand who you are targeting. This can be essential in finding a micro-influencer that can align with your business and connect authentically with your customers.¹²

It’s essential to plan a budget for your influencer campaign. This allows you to better plot out everything, from who you’ll work with to the number of posts or the scale of any content creation you do.

It’s worth considering your campaign goals when deciding how much you can afford to allocate to micro-influencers.¹³ Each of them will have their own individual rates but, as a rough guideline, research from Shopify shows that micro-influencers charge an estimated average of $100-$500 per Instagram post, while it’s $25-$125 per TikTok post and $200-$5,000 per YouTube post.¹⁴ It’s also important to factor in other costs too, such as those associated with content creation.

There are lots of influencers out there, micro or otherwise, and it can feel daunting when trying to find one to work with. To help, there are a variety of influencer databases you can utilise to help find the right one for your business. You can also search hashtags on social media to find people who could be a good fit – searching by size (e.g. #microinfluencer), category and location are good ways to narrow down the field.¹⁵

It’s also worth considering how you’d like to work with your influencers. For example, you may (or may not) wish to retain some creative control over the content they post. It’s worth making sure the ones you choose are happy to collaborate in the way you want them to.¹⁶

As well as working out which micro-influencers to use, you’ll also need to think about how to use them. For example, influencers can post unboxing videos or product reviews. They could also run giveaways with stock you provide, provide product tutorials, or simply create a sponsored post where they promote your business.¹⁷

It could also be worth thinking about how you can play to the specific strengths of micro-influencers. They often have niche audiences and are typically experts in their field, meaning they can offer authentic insights on a more personal level.¹⁸ It’s worth considering how to tailor your campaign to maximise the connection they have with their followers.

Tracking the performance of your campaign forms an important part in judging its success. There are several ways to do so. One of which is to add UTM tags to URLs in influencer posts and use Google Analytics to monitor performance.¹⁹ Unique promo codes and trackable links are other methods of monitoring success, while you could also use tracking tools available from social media sites themselves or via third-party providers to measure the success of your campaign.

Of course, there’s more to tracking performance than the tools to use. It’s important to know what you want metrics to track too. Reach, impressions and engagement are good examples to help judge effectiveness, particularly if awareness is one of your key goals, while you could also monitor click-throughs and conversions if you’re aiming for a more financial gain.²⁰