Earlier when televisions did not exist, companies used to allocate their marketing budget on outdoors advertising in the form of big-big posters and door to door advertising. The public transport also had many advertisement brochures and posters. When people started to read the newspapers, the advertisements were being printed on the newspapers. Later, Televisions had come into existence and the companies started their marketing and advertising commercials on the TV. Now, in the digital era, many of the companies use the social media as an advertising platform. For example, Youtube advertisements, Instagram marketing , website marketing and so on.
This is how e-commerce came into existence. The newest form of advertising and marketing is influencer marketing, where in, a popular social media influencer advertises a certain brand or product. Hence, we can conclude that the advertising and the marketing industry keeps evolving with the passage of time. In the social media era, a newer marketing concept known as micro-influencer marketing has come into existence. It’s the same concept as influencer marketing, but on a comparatively smaller scale. Various brands collaborate and partner with social media influencers with smaller followings on social media to promote products with realistic, authentic and visual posts instead of paid sponsored ads.
You might be wondering why would a brand seek out for someone with a smaller following to promote their brand?
In the social media era, customers have become more mindful and conscious. Millenial generation find micro influencers (micro youtubers and Instagram influencers) very relatable to themselves. They feel a sense of personal connection with them. Micro influencers have an authentic and genuine connection with their audience which big celebrities lack due to a large number of following. Micro-influencers have a relationship of trust with their audience. Companies and brands can tap into these strong communities built on trust, enabling a degree of targeting that’s impossible with macro-influencers. Micro influencers make content related to a particular and specfici field of their interest and this makes them relevant only to a particular group or niche of people. Micro-influencers have more targeted followers base.
Let us take an example of a micro influencer, Kia. She creates content regarding hair styles and hair care. Hence, her followers would be people who are interested in hair care and hairstyling. If Kia collaborates and markets a hair oil brand, chances of a successful marketing campaign would be more with Kia rather than that of a macro influencer advertising the same brand. This is because of the particular specific target audience Kia has. If the hair oil brand collaborated and partnered with a celebrity with millions of followers on Instagram, the celebrity could reach their big pool of audience, but a large portion of them might not be interested in hair care and styling.
Instead, if the oil brand connected with 100 haircare and various other beauty care bloggers with 1,000 followers each, the brand would be able to connect to a smaller but far more targeted and engaged audience. The consumers seem to trust the micro-influencers. Micro-influencers are also pretty affordable as compared to the big ones. Micro-Influencers have a better reach and engagement. The personalised touch of the micro-influencer makes the product more appealing to the consumers.
Micro-influencer marketing has so much potential. More and more brands have started taking advantage of it. There are enormous marketing and advertising options than ever before, but identifying micro-influencers relevant to the brand’s objectives and mission and working with them would pay off better than any other strategy.