Whether you’re a blogger looking to monetize your platform or a publisher looking to expand reach – micro-influencers have great affiliate marketing value.
Influencers as a whole are becoming increasingly important.
However, for several reasons, many brands prefer to work with niche
micro-influencers to endorse their products or services.
Keep reading to learn what a micro-influencer is, how to become
one and why affiliate marketing presents a mutually-beneficial opportunity for
both micro-influencers and brands alike.
What
is a micro-influencer?
A micro-influencer is as it sounds: an influencer, but one that typically offers more niche content and a smaller, more focused audience. Influencers are online content creators with a large social media following – whether on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube or elsewhere. Companies use influencers to help promote their products because they have such an engaged audience that trust and value the opinions and insight of their chosen influencer. While an influencer may have a reach in the millions, micro-influencers are those with a smaller following and more niche content.
There’s no definitive criteria, but typically a micro-influencer
has between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. This might seem small in comparison to
major influencers, but having an audience of thousands would still make you
hugely desirable for brands. As a micro-influencer, you’d be an attractive
asset to advertisers as you’ll have an audience that’s extremely engaged and
more interactive, potentially offering a stronger platform for retailers to
market through than larger influencers.
Major influencers are such a powerful tool in advertising these
days they rarely come as a low-cost option for brands. Getting a huge TikTok
star with millions of followers to promote a brand or product might be
unrealistic, but going for their micro counterpart, on the other hand, can be
extremely valuable. While you may not have as big a reach, smaller influencers
have an extremely engaged, growing audience. The brand would still be targeting
a strong audience that values the opinion of the micro-influencer, making them
far more likely to purchase the products being endorsed. Forming working relationships
with micro-influencers early can be great for a brand, especially if you
foresee your platform growing in popularity in the near future.
Meanwhile, by working with brands to market their products,
micro-influencers can earn money and grow their platform, helping to establish
themselves as a trusted source while their audience develops.
How
to become a micro-influencer
There’s no one true method for finding success in
micro-influencer marketing, and it’s likely to take some time to test the
waters – but there’s certainly a lot you can do to help tailor your content for
strong results.
Find
your niche
Micro-influencers carry a lot of authority within their specific
niche. To gain a consistent following, you need to ensure you’re creating
regular, relevant content that will keep your audience coming back for more.
Whether you’re a lifestyle blogger, fitness model, travel photographer or
otherwise, you’ll need to be confident in and passionate about the niche you
choose to ensure you become a trusted source of information.
You want to go for a niche that isn’t oversaturated with
influencers already creating within that space, without going so niche you
won’t be able to build a strong audience. Micro-influencers perform well in
less mainstream subject areas and you’ll be able to garner a far more captive
audience if you choose a subject that doesn’t already have a wide range of
influencers already promoting products. If you’re exploring affiliate marketing
as a micro-influencer, you may not want to limit your opportunities too much,
but brands will be far more likely to do business with you if they can see that
you’re a trusted, knowledgeable voice in a field that’s fully relevant to their
product or service.
Be
consistent
No matter what format your content takes, it’s important to be
consistent. You may post once a day, once every couple of days, or even weekly
– but in any case, you should always aim to stick to a well-thought-out
structure and schedule. If you have followers that enjoy your content and you
stay consistent with your output, they’ll get to know your schedule and keep
coming back. On the other hand, in not having a solid content structure, you’re
encouraging audiences to lose interest – and trust – in your
influence.
It’s so important you understand your target audience and what
they’re looking for and create a platform they know they can turn to for
information, entertainment, advice, etc.
Build
a community
Engaging with your audience is another big must. In many ways
you are a brand, but a major part of what makes influencers and
micro-influencers so important in marketing is that they can humanize an
otherwise corporate, manufactured approach. This is even more important for
micro-influencers; a smaller audience means you can create a more intimate
connection with followers, in turn further gaining their trust. So, it’s
important to maintain a strong relationship with the community you’ve
cultivated, through actions like leaving comments, liking posts and following
back.
Do
your research
Be sure to do your research and stay on top of social media
trends and best practices. Factors like setting up your account, how you lay
out your content and building brand identity are extremely important for making
sure your content reaches as wide an audience as possible. Monitor other
influencers and see what works and what doesn’t. Have a look at which hashtags
perform best, what kind of posts get the most engagement, how to use calls to
action (CTAs), how best to share links, and so on.
Something as simple as a CTA – typically a directive line
of text encouraging users to take a specific action (ex: ‘Buy Now,’ ‘Start
Saving Today,’ etc.) can make a huge impact, and knowing how best to frame this
content for your specific target audience is crucial.
For something like Instagram, where links cannot be directly
shared within posts, you might need to sign up to platforms like linktr.ee to promote your links, while reminding your
audience to click the link in your bio whenever posting affiliate
content.
Strategize whether you’ll post short-form, expiring content like
Snapchat or Instagram Stories, or perhaps you’ll favor short-form video content
for TikTok, Reels, YouTube Shorts, etc. You might find that your audience
connects more with well-written blog content – like product reviews for
example. What works for you and your audience will depend on the niche and
demographic you’re exploring – so make sure you do your research and always
keep checking what works best.
Keep
it fresh
It certainly helps to offer variety. You might have some content
exclusive for TikTok followers, some static content reserved for Instagram feed
posts and a Pinterest board to share inspirational content to your
audience. Consistency and structure are important, but that doesn’t mean you
should put all your eggs in one basket. Instead, diversify your output to widen
reach and ensure content is always fresh and exciting.
While your ultimate goal may be to earn money from
micro-influencer marketing, you’ll only do so if you balance your output
between sponsored and organic content. You’re not just a billboard with a face
– so remember to keep things grounded with plenty of authentic, relatable
content rather than just posting ad after ad. You’ll lose the trust of your
audience if the majority of your content is sponsored posts.
Social media is constantly evolving, so to succeed as a
micro-influencer you’ll need to evolve alongside it. Even once you have a
structure and brand that you think can take you to the next level, you should
never stop researching, testing and refining your approach.
Once your audience begins to grow, you can start engaging with
brands and advertisers. You might choose to start by promoting brands
organically – without being asked or paid to do so, to show you’re a reliable
partner. You could make the first move, tag the brand in a social
post, and they very well may get in touch to work together more closely.
Having said that, the most efficient and fruitful way for micro-influencers to
make valuable connections with brands is through affiliate marketing programs
like ShareASale.
Monetizing
your micro-influencer platform through affiliate marketing
Once you reach a certain level of influence, you’ll likely have
a variety of offers from brands who want you to endorse their products, but to
get to that level you’ll need to work hard to build your reputation and
following. Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways for micro-influencers to
monetize content because platforms like ShareASale create a structured space
for influencers and merchants to connect
directly. Rather than waiting for brands reach out via social media, you can
use a dedicated program to connect with the most relevant brands and products
for your audience.
Affiliate marketing involves promoting a brand or product in
exchange for a commission on conversions secured as a result of your
endorsement. The commission and desired conversion goal can vary, but
oftentimes an affiliate will be paid a percentage for every sale made directly
from the affiliate’s efforts. The conversion might also be click throughs, sign
ups, subscriptions, or otherwise. Affiliates will typically be given a unique
link to the brand’s product page that they can use in any content to promote
the product – on Instagram, their personal blog, their affiliate website, etc.
Whenever a user clicks on that link and the desired conversion is made, this is
tracked so the conversion is attributed to the affiliate and the affiliate gets
paid.
Through affiliate marketing, micro-influencers can work with
brands that fit their niche to promote products they know their audience will
love. For instance – imagine you’re a coffee-themed micro-influencer with a few
thousand followers. You could partner with an up-and-coming coffee roaster
looking for exposure to review their beans on your social pages. Once you’ve
made the connection and have been approved onto the program, you’ll be able to
generate unique affiliate links to place in your review post. If, for
example, the coffee brand will pay you commission based on sales, any time
one of your followers sees your review post, clicks the trackable link to the
landing page, and makes a purchase – you’ll get paid.
Why
would brands prefer micro-influencers?
Micro-influencers are valuable to advertisers for several
reasons. For one, they’re not as expensive as large-scale influencers while
still garnering impressive results. Micro-influencers might have a more
intimate, personal connection with their audience, too. Major influencers are
less likely to maintain that close a relationship with millions of followers,
but micro-influencers have a little more space to engage in a more meaningful
way – which can certainly be helpful for the brands whose products they’re
promoting.
Unless you’re specifically looking to keep a smaller audience,
as a micro-influencer you’ll likely have your sight set on growth. By
connecting early, brands can capitalize on this trajectory. As you gain more
followers, the brand gains more exposure as they’ll already have formed a robust
relationship with you and helped you strengthen your platform. It’s a mutual
relationship, where both parties can grow, and profit, together.
Audiences tend to connect more with micro-influencers than
brands, because micro-influencers are able to offer an authentic human touch.
Engaging with actual people – whether they know them or not – feels more
personable, and an influencer’s endorsement of a product feels more genuine
than a brand promoting their own product. For the same reason consumers value customer
reviews, influencers, especially micro-influencers, might feel a little more
authentic while still carrying the credibility of being an expert on the
topic.
This is also why it’s so important for growing micro-influencers
to be careful about the content they create and the brands they promote. An
influencer who will promote just about any brand and any product will likely
seem less legitimate than, for example, a micro-influencer that focuses
specifically on reviewing camping gear. Major influencers may be a little too
broad or mainstream for some brands, whereas a micro-influencer may speak to
the niche of this brand far better.
ShareASale’s affiliate tools help advertisers and micro-influencers form relationships with a partner who is the right fit. Search our Merchant Preview to find the brands that will speak to you and your audience, or work with our dedicated influencer partnership managers to start earning money while promoting products you’re truly passionate about.
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