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What do you feel when seeing product placement in movies or YouTube? Do you rush to the store to buy something a star is using? I guess the answer is no. No, you don’t.
Sure, when done smartly, product placement and influencer marketing can do wonders in terms of spreading brand awareness. Or they can cause irritation and even frustration if done poorly. What they don’t do, however, is they don’t directly impact your sales.
That’s because you lack a connection to the content or the content-creator.
When you see Brad Pitt taking a sip of Bud Light on screen you know it’s not him who enjoys it, but his fictional character. When you watch a review from a YouTube star with millions of followers, you know that he or she was paid to tell good things about a product.
Frankly, why shouldn’t they get paid for their work? That’s how they make their living after all, and the sheer volumes of people watching them are a great market for advertisers.
If 0.01% of Brad Pitt’s followers will choose Bud over another beer brand that will be a win for the company. A win that’s totally worth the hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in a “creative” ad.
The same gig won’t work for you or for your small to medium-sized business. It’s just too expensive.
Luckily, you have an alternative that’s cheaper and much more sales-oriented – micro-influencers!
The game is worth the candles
Micro-influencers are a much better fit for becoming an extensive marketing channel for small businesses. Why? There are several reasons for it:
- It’s obvious that a person with 10-100K followers doesn’t make a living of social media profiles. Or, in simpler words, they are more honest with their thoughts and/or reviews.
- Sending a product or a service for consideration is enough to get the micro-influencer interested. You don’t need to pay anything on top.
- Micro-influencers are more trustworthy. They are close to your average buyer yet they still have an authority of a media figure. A recent study has shown that 74% of consumers are willing to act upon a recommendation of a micro-influencer and only 66% are willing to act upon a recommendation of a common person they know.
The combination of the three factors mentioned above is a powerful argument in favor of investing in a micro-influencer marketing. But don’t make up your mind just yet. There’s more.
5 micro-influencer stats that will make your jaw drop
Here are a few facts about micro-influencer that will change the way you view both them and their followers.
- Micro-influencers are product-savvy. They explore new products and gain experience and opinion first-hand. In comparison, the average person gains this information from friends, family members and… influencers.
- The purchase-related conversions provided by a micro-influencer are 22.2X higher.
- Micro-influencers are looking for more work and are less picky as this study shows that they are only running 5 marketing campaigns per year.
- You get free press by working with micro-influencers as 89% of them will also post their materials in a blog.
- Micro-influencers actually generate a 60% higher engagement rate than other social marketing campaigns.
To sum things up – yes, influence can keep your booking calendar filled. But does it have to be your influence?
Your turn: have you used micro-influencers in your marketing efforts or are you still planning on it? How was your experience? Please, share your thoughts in the comments section below!