The influencer marketing industry is now experiencing a shift. Working with well-known celebrities to promote your brand no longer has the same impact it once did. As per research, only 3% of consumers are influenced by celebrity endorsements in their product purchase decisions.

With social media platforms now overrun with sponsored branded content, there has been a noticeable decline in consumer trust as well. The number of followers and the level of engagement no longer appear to be correlated.

However, there is one type of influencer who can help you deal with low engagement and skepticism: Micro-influencers, or non-celebrity influencers.

Unlike celebrity influencers, micro-influencers are just regular people with specific interests or niches who are enthusiastic about creating content and promoting products they believe in.

Here are some ways your company can benefit from collaborating with micro-influencers:

8 Advantages of Collaboration With Micro-influencers

1. Better Audience Engagement

The most important benefit of micro-influencer marketing is engagement. Although micro-influencers do not guarantee a large audience, they do deliver high levels of engagement as a result of their close interactions with their followers.

The statistics speak for themselves:

• When compared to macro-influencers, micro-influencers have a 60 percent higher engagement rate.
• Micro-influencers have an average engagement rate of 6.6 to 8.8 percent.

2. Budget-friendly

Collaborating with micro-influencers can be a viable marketing option for small businesses and startups with limited marketing budgets.

Why? because micro-influencers are budget-friendly.

As per Bloglovin’s study, a large proportion – 84% of micro-influencers charge less than $250 per branded post.

This could be the most compelling reason to begin collaborating with micro-influencers. Since they are often a one-person team and can produce content in days rather than weeks or months, they save you time and money on hiring a creative team, recruiting models, etc.

3. Target Specific Niche Audience

Celebrities may have a larger following, but they may not be experts in your field. 88% of people say it’s important for influencers to be authentic and genuinely care about their interests.

On the other hand, micro-influencers can help you with targeting a specific audience related to your niche since they often create content for a very specific niche/topic. People who follow the content of a particular niche are generally more engaged and interested in it.

So, if you need to market a product or service to a specific group or community, micro-influencers are the way to go.

4. Less Polished and More Genuine Content

Consumers today are drawn to genuine brand mentions rather than promotional advertisements. In fact, 49% of users would have less trust in an influencer if they discovered that brands were paying them to post advertisements on their social accounts.

Micro-influencers help brands in meeting constant consumer demand for new, high-quality, and more importantly, authentic content. When working with multiple micro-influencers on a campaign, you’ll end up with a lot of UGC that can be used on a variety of platforms to market your brand.

5. Authenticity

Authenticity is key in any marketing campaign.

Since macro-influencers frequently collaborate with brands, their audience is exposed to a fair amount of sponsored content on a regular basis, making them look less authentic.

On the other hand, micro-influencers sometimes termed niche-influencers are often passionate about their niche and create content that is very relatable. They share real-life examples of how a product or brand has improved their lives. Having a small influencer creating useful content for your brand/product will provide social proof and help your brand messaging connect with customers.

6. Increase in Organic Traffic and Conversion Rate

As these non-celebrity influencers drive better engagement, they can drive high-quality organic traffic to your website comprising loyal consumers who watch and interact with their content on a regular basis.

When compared to traditional macro-influencers, micro-influencers have a higher conversion rate of over 20%. It’s not just the higher conversion rates; according to 89 percent of marketers, the ROI from influencer marketing is better or comparable to other channels.

7. Improved Brand Trustworthiness

Trust is the foundation of business relationships between you and your customers. And the more promotional content you post, the more likely your followers are to question your brand’s credibility.

However, collaborating with small influencers can help you in changing this perception and also increase customer trust. As per research, consumers trust peer recommendations 83% more than brand advertising.

So, people are more likely to trust a recommendation from a friendly neighborhood micro-influencer than a recommendation from a branded profile or celebrity influencers who do not typically consume what they promote on social media.

8. Increased Loyalty

Social media content is one of the fastest ways to inspire brand loyalty. Most companies concentrate solely on customer acquisition, but brand loyalty can be a true measure of success. According to studies, existing customers account for 65 percent of a company’s revenue.

Micro-influencers can be your most powerful brand advocates, influencing customer loyalty. Here’s how:

Followers often follow their favorite brands on social media and seek content to learn about new products. A micro-influencer campaign that incorporates user-generated content (UGC) into your marketing mix, can help you keep your existing customers remain engaged and loyal.

Bottom line

Several brands continue to underestimate the power of micro-influencers, preferring to work only with influencers who have a large number of followers. If you’re one of them, it’s time to rethink your influencer marketing plan for 2022 since these small non-celebrity influencers are clearly on the rise.

In comparison to celebrity influencers, micro-influencers can provide you better, genuine, and authentic engagement at a fraction of the cost, allowing your brand to strike a balance between achieving consistent reach and finding an audience that is a good fit.

And if you want to ease the process of influencer marketing, consider using an influencer marketing tool/platform that can help you manage and automate most of the influencer marketing tasks.