Tuesday, September 15, 2020

The Rise of the Micro Influencer

 

The last decade saw the emergence of the social media influencer – largely centred around the travel, hospitality, beauty, and personal care industries – to such a high degree that it is now viewed as a marketing channel of its own. The success of the influencer was estimated by their social media following and was usually contracted on terms that ranged from stringent social media product placement to actual product reviews in order to drive sales.

According to a PR firm, Edelman, the power of influencer marketing isn’t just about engagement. Influencer marketing is how people find products and buy products — 58% of people have actually purchased a product because of an influencer recommendation, in the first 6 months of 2019.

However, while luxury influencers are still prevalent (not to be confused with social media content creators, which are a growing category on their own), the latest data shows that micro-influencers, influencers with 10,000 or fewer followers, are getting the best results for brands and businesses. More engagement, more clicks, and lower ROI. More specifically, influencers with 10,000 followers or more have just 3.6% engagement, influencers with 5,000 to 10,000 followers have 6.3% engagement and influencers with 1,000 to 5,000 followers have the highest engagement at an 8.8% engagement rate.

What micro influencers lack in overall reach, they make up for with engagement, community involvement and a higher ROI on marketing spend for brands. It is therefore no surprise that influencer led marketing is still the channel of choice for fledgling brands but it is worth noting that the choice of micro influencers for these brands is in fact more important than the larger influencers that they may choose to work to, especially when purchase (in$) is measured as a percentage of expenditure on this channel.

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