You can be the Beauty, or you can be the Beast. In our new social media world, the prettiest faces (male or female) rise to the top of the algorithm. The average-looking people have to be innovative and strategic to gain ground on the algorithm, and their position is never secure. There’s no shortage of products for these IG baddies or IG Bros to push, and millions of people are waiting to be WOWed and sold a new item they probably don’t need. Where am I going with this?
You’re probably asking yourself, “How can I get in on this?” and this, my friend, is the right question to ask.
As you’re probably aware, if an influencer can amass 1 million followers, they will have no shortage of business opportunities. Advertisers will bust down their doors to have them sell a new probiotic or some underwear. Ignore them.
We want to talk to the influencer who could be up and coming and has 10k followers or anywhere in that ballpark. Their business opportunities are scarce and low-paying; most people will pester them to work for free.
If you manage to get a few to talk about your product for free, then stop reading and start selling. However, you’ll need a budget if you want a more predictable outcome.
Don’t overthink your marketing strategy. Micro-influencers are doing exactly what local celebrities have been doing for years—a retread of the retired athlete who endorses a car dealership and puts on an annual golf tournament.
Follow these five steps to Micro Influencer Marketing:
- Narrow your niche.
- Set a budget.
- Find as many micro-influencers in your niche as possible.
- Schedule product reviews and messaging with influencers
- Follow up and capture leads.
Follow these 5 steps:
1. Narrow your niche
This first step requires patience and self-awareness, particularly for new businesses. Established businesses, you might already understand your niche, but it always helps to reevaluate new opportunities.
Try to get in your customer’s mind and understand what words they would type in on their phone to find businesses yours. For example, if you’re a BBQ restaurant. People might type “Brisket in Phoenix.” You will then type this same search term on whatever social media platform you’re most comfortable with. This isn’t the time to experiment with new apps unless you don’t have a niche on said platform but that’s pretty rare. You will then look through all the videos and posts and find pages with somewhere between 1k to 50k followers.
2. Set a budget
You won’t make a big enough splash with one or two micro influencers. I’d recommend at least 6, but the more you get, the bigger the splash. Decide what you have to spend to have these pages review or recommend your product, factor in the cost of discounts, and follow up on leads. If possible, keep 5 percent of your money aside to “boost” posts on your page. This will increase engagement and give you the chance to run lead-gen ads.
3. Find as many micro-influencers in your niche as possible
The more, the better because all of them will charge different prices, so you will need to reach out to them and ask them about their fees and processes. Keep in mind that it won’t do you any good to find 100 potential influencers and not contact or research each one. Each one will have something different to offer, but the more you contact, the more you can save going with cheaper pages.
4. Schedule product reviews and messaging with influencers
Be intentional about every interaction you have. Have a clear marketing message and unique selling point so the influencer can speak to these benefits. Let them use a unique approach and voice; if you write a script for them, it’ll come off like an unnatural ad, and you might lose the benefit if your product isn’t convincing enough.
Ensure every influencer is going to post within one week of each other so your audience does not go more than five days without hearing your name.
This will give your niche audience the illusion that “your product is everywhere. “Everyone is talking about it; I keep seeing it on social media.” This will give your niche audience confidence in your product.
5. Follow up and capture leads.
It’s time to convert; converting will look different for every business.
If you have an e-commerce product-based business, an easy way for you to track your converting sales with promo codes. Give your influencer a promo code for followers to use when they buy your product while receiving a small discount. It will let you know the exact number of sales you received from this micro-influencer and whether they are worth reusing. Another good tactic is to provide the influencer with a link to your website, where potential customers can submit their name and email address for a discount or a freebie. I prefer this tactic for more expensive items because it’ll allow you to market to the same person multiple times.
If you have a service-based business, your best option is to create a lead form for your micro-influencer campaign. Influencers can simply send potential customers to the lead form. As you get the leads, you can follow up with all the potential customers and save their information so you can market your services to them repeatedly.
I recommend using CRM(Customer Relationship Management) software to store and track all of your leads and client information. I’ve primarily used Mailchimp in the past with my catering business, and it was a great way to safely store client information while also sending them promotional emails to keep them up to date on specials and discounts.
Have a clear call to action; it’s not enough for your company name to be mentioned in a video.
Lastly, be mindful of your timing.
Every business has its ebbs and flows when it comes to sales. Running a local catering company, my Achilles’ heel of marketing is that people didn’t always need my services. Micro-influencer campaigns didn’t work for me in January and February. People didn’t have a need for my services at that time. However, this same marketing strategy was very fruitful in April and May for Graduation parties.
