Running a business can be an incredibly demanding and exhausting journey, with numerous challenges to overcome, such as dealing with demanding customers, managing employees, handling finances, and engaging with salespeople. The common thread among all these challenges is that people always look for ways to take advantage of you and your business without offering anything in return.
Remember, nano, micro, and macro influencers are business owners, too, so even though they come across as friendly and charming, it’s ultimately good customer service. You are looking to use their company to help you generate revenue, and they want to do the same.
They want to promote your product quickly and effortlessly by simply making a brief appearance in their videos and earning a quick profit. Unless you can assure them, you genuinely want to partner with a micro-influencer long-term. As well as provide quality products and services to their target audience.
The micro-influencer strategy can be fruitful if you commit to a well-thought-out micro-influencer campaign.
Avoid falling into the trap of trying to go viral because nobody can guarantee you a viral video (Except Keith Lee).
It’s essential to be aware of some simple do’s and don’ts that can help you navigate the world of influencers and ensure your business remains profitable and successful.
Top 5 Pros of Micro Influencer Marketing
- Find your niche quicker.
- Increased trust
- Control over ad placement.
- Long term potential
- Shorter learning curve
Find your niche quicker
If you’ve ever run any PPC ads (Facebook and IG ads, Google Ads, Display ads, etc.), then you know targeting your audience of people can be a lot more tedious than it seems. For example, if you’re a landscaping company in Phoenix selling fake grass.
To reach your desired audience, you must know their likes and demographics. Running ads on Facebook for people who like “artificial grass” will cause your ads to play for people who may want to buy artificial grass. The ads will also play for people who want to install their own artificial grass, fix the grass they already have, or people who aspire to one day be able to afford artificial turf.
However, if you decide to work with a micro-influencer, maybe a local realtor or a popular pool cleaning company on social media, you know there’s going to be an overlap in your audience. The people who follow them are interested in upgrading their homes. Not only will you target the right people, but you will catch them at the right time in the buying cycle.
Increased trust
Millions of people run social media ads daily, and we have both seen a few that were scams and a few more suspicious-looking ads.
Typically, this is not an issue with Micro-influencers because a young woman in Phoenix, AZ, amasses 10k followers by recommending local restaurants. It’s clear her page took time to build, and it’s clear her followers trust her.
More people trust her judgment regarding places to eat every day. She has credibility and a proven track record that everyone can see. An FB or IG ad for a new pizza restaurant advertising “Best pizza in the city” leads to the question… Why should we believe you? Are you trying to sell me pizza? People will always have more credibility than the computer.
Control over ad placement
Once you strike a deal with a few local micro-influencers, they will tell you the social media platforms where they get the most traffic. Based on their analytics, you can converse and agree on where to advertise (IG/FB Reels, Stories, Posts, YouTube, Blog, X/Twitter).
Once they finish making your content, you can go to their page and verify that they delivered on their promise.
When you run FB/IG ads, they are never as transparent as you’d like them to be, and since they are fed into people’s news feeds, it’s hard to feel confident in your ad placement if you don’t get any sales, feedback, or engagement.
Long term potential
Your marketing strategy is going well, and working with a few micro-influencers over the past couple of weeks has been fruitful. At this point, you will become each other’s Golden Goose. The audience likes your services, and you’re both making money.
These are opportunities where you can create joint venture agreements, have them cut you a discount with a promise of a 3-6 month deal, develop new products or services specifics specifically for their audience, and try to collaborate with them to build up your own social media following to make you more independent.
Shorter learning curve
Using Micro influencers is an old tactic with new terms. The best comparisons are sponsorship and endorsement deals.
Advertisements you’ve likely seen every day since you were born. In the same way, Shaq endorses Icy Hot, you want your micro-influencers to promote your local service. You don’t need to learn how all these ad platforms work or how to set up all the backwiring for data tracking. (Here is my article on how to work with micro-influencers)
Getting to deal with a human
Working with a micro-influencer, you can talk out your marketing plan and get feedback from them.
The influencer can tell you, “My audience will love this,” or “My audience will hate your service.” Running a catering company, I’ve had micro influencers sell my product better than I ever could. I didn’t have the charisma to dazzle 10k people over video, nor did I have the camera skill to make my churros look extra delicious. These were intangibles I didn’t know were possible.
Top 5 Cons of Micro Influencer Marketing
- Less control over messaging
- Shorter reach/impressions
- Less tracking analytics
- More manual and hands-on
- Having to deal with a human.
Less control over messaging
Because messaging is crucial, countless hours, days, and weeks are spent on the commercials and ads we see.
As a business, you want to ensure potential customers are aware of your service’s benefits and features while also keeping people captivated long enough for them to read about your product.
The idea of handing off the final execution to a stranger is nerve-racking and, truthfully, can definitely go haywire. However, it’s necessary because the micro-influencer knows their audience the best and has a proven track record for well-executed content.
Shorter reach/impressions
Facebook ads gained a significant portion of their popularity by providing the furthest reach for the cheapest price.
If you’re running a campaign where you want to carpet-bomb your message to anyone remotely near your target audience, then I don’t recommend micro-influencers.
Micro-influencers provide pinpoint accuracy for target audiences, and if an influencer can’t tell you anything about their audience tendencies, you’re either dealing with a rookie or an amateur. They are still usable, but their prices should be significantly lower than their competing influencers.
Less tracking analytics
Micro-influencers can provide an analytics report for any content they post for your business. Ultimately, however, they will never be as in-depth as the analytic data you will receive from most ad platforms.
This shouldn’t be a deal breaker on its own, but you will need to put in a little more legwork to analyze micro-influencer data.
More manual and hands-on
Although digital campaigns have a higher learning curve, they come with tutorials and learning resources directly from the social media platform.
Working with influencers is the same as working with independent contractors. You’re both there to make money, but the process needs to be apparent, and someone will make more than the other.
Having to deal with a human.
I’ve enjoyed most of my experiences working with micro-influencers for my catering company. They’re generally grateful and enthusiastic about working with you because their business is still new and exciting.
At the same time, I’ve had to deal with influencers missing deadlines and creating content that didn’t match my messaging, and at the moment, it makes you question if you made the right decision.
It’s essential to manage the situation with firmness and humility to keep people on their toes and to ensure they don’t resent you.
The Benefits of Working with Micro-Influencers
We’ve discussed the pros and cons of micro-influencer marketing. Working with micro-influencers can help your businesses find your niche quicker, increase trust with potential customers, provide control over ad placement, create long-term potential, shorten the learning curve, and provide the opportunity to deal with a human.
However, it’s essential to avoid trying to go viral and use cons to improve your campaign strategy and marketing techniques.
