Influencer marketing is on the rise, and more than 80 percent of larger companies are expected to use it in some form this year, according to Statista.
For small- and medium-sized businesses, what’s the best approach? Based on our experience, we encourage these businesses to engage with micro-influencers instead of macro-influencers.
While micro-influencers are defined to have 10,000-100,000 followers, we use a rule of thumb to scale that down to roughly a cap of 5,000-10,000 followers for local or regional branding purposes, depending on the size of the market or your niche.
First, let me explain some of the pitfalls of working with macro-influencers (using our scale, basically anyone with more than 10,000 followers). At their level, macro-influencers will charge a fee, and you typically have to work with their agent and hash out a contract. Many small- and medium-sized businesses can’t afford these rates or the time spent to get something off the ground.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve encountered an influencer who turned down an experience because no one’s going to pay them to participate. I think that’s really sad that they would turn down something unique like a behind-the-scenes tour or early access–what was once a fun perk is now a pay-for-play situation.
You also have to watch out for the more aggressive macro-influencers. I’ve heard from hoteliers and people who work at convention and visitors bureaus that they receive unsolicited requests from bloggers for comped rooms, activities and/or meals simply because they’ll be in town.
Lastly, so much of what macro-influencers post on social media is beautiful but typically staged, thus losing authenticity. Even brands have made fun of this phenomenon in recent ads.
For all these reasons and more, we recommend to our clients that they work with micro-influencers in a certain niche (e.g., food, music, fitness, fashion, etc.). They are usually extremely appreciative of the opportunities with which they are presented, are easier to work with and are more inclined to build an ongoing relationship with your brand.
In fact, we would much rather work with 10 micro-influencers with 1,000 followers than one influencer with 50,000 followers. As another plus, we have seen a better return on investment for our clients following this approach.