The Influencer Marketing Industry Is Facing Challenges
2019 was a year of speedy evolution and innovation for the influencer marketing industry. According to a survey conducted by Influencer Marketing Hub, most respondents agree that influencer marketing draws high-quality customers. In fact, 82 per cent believe that the quality of customers from influencer marketing campaigns is better than from other kinds of marketing. However, the transparency, authenticity and integrity of influencers are fraught with doubtfulness. A number of people inevitably believe that those influencers are simply paid shills. As no form of marketing will successfully reach out to every customer, there are some people who will never be influenced by celebrities. More than two-thirds of Influencer Marketing Hub survey’s respondents report having experienced influencer fraud. In response, laws on influencer advertising are widely applicable and stricter than ever before. Social media platforms have developed and leveraged tools to avoid influencer fraud.
In that event, micro-influencers play a key role in salvaging the industry. Micro-influencers have between 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers. In comparison with celebrity counterparts who have a greater number of followers, they seem to be less popular. But wise marketers know that a good marketing campaign depends on engagement and outcomes, not the number of followers. In addition, micro-influencers are regarded as experts in their particular niche, so they can engage and build trust in customers.
Micro-influencer Marketing Is Evolving
In the early stage of the influencer marketing movement, most brands consider the ability to approach customers as a key part in defining the value of an influencer. That means the more followers influencers have, the higher customer engagement rate they can deliver. A brand will hardly refuse to work with a celebrity who has millions of fans if given a chance.
A firm whose product or service reaches a large number of customers, without a doubt, will be considered successful at the initial stage. However, an effective marketing campaign does not mean merely approaching more customers. It requests marketers to focus on niche audiences as well as deliver personalized customer experience.
Micro-influencer marketing is a satisfactory solution in this case. Survey data from Influencer Marketing Hub indicate that the industry will reach about 9.7 billion USD this year. Along with positive results in general, micro-influencer marketing has been in rapid growth with a 300 per cent increase in micro-influencers utilized by big firms compared to 2016. Furthermore, brands have invested more in micro-influencers (47%) than celebrities (23%).
Why Firms Should Utilize Micro-influencer Marketing
There are several reasons why marketers should take micro-influencers into account when setting up a successful campaign. As micro-influencers are in more niche markets with highly engaged and loyal customers, many brands have turned to collaboration with them. Customers will listen to influencers who are real, trustworthy and relatable rather than those who just get paid and post similar advertisements on their social media accounts.
There may be much fewer competitors if a brand decides to collaborate with a micro-influencer. It is easy to underestimate the value they, along with their niche audiences, can deliver. Brands should leverage this potential for a sustainable advantage over their rivals.
It is obvious that firms are still able to gain outstanding outcomes if they work with a famous influencer. However, as micro-influencers are experts in their niche market, audiences seem to follow what they suggest instead of buying products advertised by a mere celebrity. Another reason why brands should never ignore micro-influencer marketing is its cost-effectiveness. According to HelloSociety, micro-influencers are 6.7% more cost-effective than their mega counterparts, while delivering a 60% higher engagement rate. For small or newly emerging businesses, it is not good to go from the big guns from the start. Not only do micro-influencers attract more customers, but they are also more affordable than mega-influencers.
Build Micro-influencer Marketing Campaigns
Once having reached and find the right influencers, firms must find ways to strengthen their relationship. Some firms set up a marketing campaign including advertisement contents and ask micro-influencers to follow. However, this prevents influencers from creating attractive patterns as no one can understand their niche audience better than them. Setting marketing goals while allowing micro-influencers to unleash their creativity is a wise choice to build a strong relationship as well as produce effective marketing contents.
In fact, it is not easy for a firm to cease tracking and controlling the entire campaign when collaborating with influencers. But by virtue of artificial intelligent platforms, firms no longer have to manually construct marketing strategies. That means those tools have helped marketers from finding the most suitable collaborators, keeping track to promoting the network.
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