Leveraging Locals: How to Work with Micro-Influencers

Influencer marketing is all the rage in digital advertising. It’s a cost-effective way to truly make an impact on an audience with the help of someone they can trust. Since the approach boasts a return on investment more than 10 times higher than traditional marketing, 48 percent of businesses are increasing their influencer marketing spend this year. While working with a big-name influencer can be costly, every community is full of micro-influencers who love to promote small businesses and brands within their niche.

Who are Your Micro-Influencers?

Micro-influencers are accessible and aren’t financially inhibitive – making this a great option for small businesses. In order to have success with micro-influencers, you must determine a strategy for who to work with and how to work with them.

When looking for micro-influencers, the collaboration needs to make sense. If you have created a state-of-the-art yoga mat, you’ll want to choose someone who is a yoga instructor or at least frequently posts about fitness. A beauty blogger may look the part, but if she never posts about wellness, then your product will likely not appeal to her audience or make sense for her brand. If you are a small brick-and-mortar business, you’ll want to look for someone local. If you have an e-commerce site, the local market is not as crucial.

Types of Micro-Influencer Content

Being a micro-influencer is so much more than simply sharing posts on social media – though this does play a large role. When determining your influencer marketing strategy, consider a variety of tactics that can be supported through social media posts and blog content, including:

• Ambassador Programs: Offer products to influencers to promote on their social media channels and in real life.
• Reviews: Send products and/or offer services to influencers to review on their blog and social media channels.
• Affiliated Links: Create referral/sales links for influencers to use in social media and blog posts. Influencers receive a portion of all sales attributed to their unique link.
• Brand Mentions: Pay influencers in products or funds to mention your business in blog posts or on social media. Typically, this requires a smaller buy-in than sponsored content.
• Giveaways: Provide free products, services, or other compensation (travel, gift card, etc.) to individuals who complete certain tasks – typically following an account, subscribing to an email and engaging in a post – for you and the influencer.
• Event Coverage: Invite influencers to a launch party or other occasion to share about your product or brand, in hopes of securing post-event coverage.
• Sponsored Try Sessions: Offer monetary compensation or free products to influencers who come into your location and try on clothing or sample products to share on their blog or social media channels.
• Sponsored Content: Pay for an influencer to create social media or blog posts focused on your product.
• Sponsored Travel: Pay for influencers to travel to your city to share about your business or brand on their blog or social media channels. For micro-influencers, the travel distance should be reasonable such as a day trip or weekend getaway within a few hours of their home base.

Many of these tactics can be combined based on what you hope to receive from influencer marketing, as well as what your chosen influencers are willing to do. Micro-influencers are all different and have certain types of content they are willing to share. Be sure to set clear expectations on compensation and channels before you begin your relationship.

No matter which strategies are used, it’s important to ensure that your business is complying with FTC guidelines. This includes disclosing when influencers are being paid for content or when they are receiving free products or services. Follow these guidelines and implement the tactics above to get started on your micro-influencer marketing strategy!

inferno is an award-winning brand development, advertising, public relations, design, and digital marketing firm based in Memphis, Tennessee. Visit creativeinferno.com for more information. You can also follow inferno on Twitter (@creativeinferno) and Facebook (facebook.com/creativeinferno).