Influencer marketing has taken over traditional marketing in terms of its effectiveness.
People make purchase decisions based on recommendations of anyone having a positive influence on them.
The psychology that supports this consumer behavior lies in the “sense of belongingness”. This feeling comes after they adopt the choices of the people they trust.
In this article, I will show you three types of social media influencers that exist
- Micro-influencers
- Macro-influencers
- Mega-influencers or Celebrity-influencers.
But let’s first discuss the whole point of using influencer marketing as a promotional strategy.
Why Choose Influencers at all?
Social media influencers have a significant and consistent following to their accounts.
Each follower takes a keen interest in influencer content (daily personal-life stories’ updates).
This storytelling aids humanizing businesses. The audience connects so emotionally to influencers that they easily trust them for their words and unbiased opinions.
Marketers leverage this BANDWAGON EFFECT using influencers as a means of promoting their products.
Effective marketing results when it has its fair share of three key ingredients – established credibility, an empathetic connection, and an interactive community. Thankfully social media influencers have them all.
Bottomline – It is an underutilized sales-boosting tool to reach markets that were “not-so-approachable” before. No geographical or physical barriers can come in the way of reaching out to your “potential-customers.”
Making or breaking a digital marketing campaign is based on the type of influencer you decide to collaborate with.
Let’s put each type of influencer under the microscope to see which will fit best to represent your brand.
1. Micro-Influencers
Follower Count – 10,000 to 100,000
Platforms They Use: Instagram and Facebook
Best Choice For: Engagement and Conversions
Using Micro-influencers to grow e-commerce is a preferred choice by most marketers despite budget stability.
Micro-influencers have the most niche-focused audience.
This reason is enough to solve the mystery of why they are SO EFFECTIVE in driving conversions like crazy!
Therefore, brands having a niche product find micro-influencers as a lucrative opportunity to reach their target audience.
A large follower count like that of mega-influencers does not serve the purpose alone. It has to be backed by a DEEPLY ENGAGED FOLLOWER BASE to work your magic.
Micro-influencers have a smaller following, but the quality of consumers overshadows their quantity. It turns out to be of great advantage to bring leads for brands.
Micro-influencers have a very flexible budget to work with, and that’s another plus! Some even endorse brands for free, provided they get their PR samples.
2. Macro-Influencers
Follower Count: 100,000 to 1 Million
Platforms They Use: Youtube and Instagram
Best Choice for: Brand Awareness and Exposure
Although one macro-influencer is recruited at the cost of many micro-influencers, their potential to scale-up your brand awareness is unmatchable.
In fact, Macro-influencer marketing is the cream of the crop for broad appeal products. These influencers charge a considerable amount in exchange for high-quality content.
When compared to their lower-tiered counterparts, this group of influencers lacks engagement, but how they reach the masses within seconds overcomes this drawback beautifully.
Macro-influencers are less successful celebrities or social media “established” celebrities who have invested time and effort to earn a sizable following.
This type of marketing comes with the perks of a high ROI and potential reach.
Tracking ROI with macro-influencers is easier than doing so with micro-influencers. Due to their generous following, analytics are easily accessible to them.
They can communicate a unique discount code to their audience, provided by the brand and can further add a swipe-up link for customers to reach the web-page of the product.
Putting it simply, if your brand allows, and your top marketing priority is a diverse audience to target, go for macro-influencers.
They will reap the results you want. Furthermore, since they are celebrity-level-influencers, expect high-grade professionalism, and timely delivery of content.
3. Mega-Influencers or Celebrity-Influencers
Follower Count: 1 Million+
Platforms They Use: Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Instagram
Best Choice for: Brand Awareness and Exposure
Mega-influencers are high-maintenance, high-profile superstars.
They don’t have followers. Instead, they have devoted fan bases! But their fandom comes at quite a hefty price!
It goes without saying, their reach is HUGE! And by huge, I mean VERY VERY HUGE!
Therefore, there isn’t a better way to get your brand across to the masses than by mega-influencers endorsing it.
If you can happily spare 50 to 100 million dollars for each campaign, go for this marketing strategy.
But don’t over-expect. High exposure doesn’t translate to high engagement!
Moreover, these celebrities have recruited intermediary agencies to deal with brand endorsements. The process of agreeing to terms thus becomes very mainstreamed and disciplined.
Any Recommendation for the Best Choice?
If your budget is adequate, then I highly recommend using a mix of mega, micro, and nano influencers to make the most out of influencer marketing. Nano is similar to micro but has followings of less than 10,000.
Time to Take Action:
I’ve introduced you to the three types of influencers for marketing.
Now, it’s your turn to incorporate the knowledge provided in this article into your next block-buster marketing strategy and choose the best-fit influencer for your brand!
