7 reasons micro-influencers are best to boost your Ecommerce sales

Let’s begin like this, what if I tell you to approach Shahrukh Khan to endorse your brand? Or maybe a Salman Khan or Amitabh Bachchan? Most of you will straight off tell me, ‘Our marketing budget is not in billions.’ But here’s fact, big brands who can afford billions, are picking up micro-influencers with the following base of 5k-20k subscribers/followers. Why? For the simple reason, that they generate higher RoI and convert more customers. 

For starters, let me first give you a quick definition for Micro-influencers – Influencers can be divided into 3 major categories, micro, macro and super.  They are the ones with around 5000 to 100,000 followers. With such a meager number of followers, what qualifies them to be an imperial part of most of the marketing strategies? Let’s find out. 

They are closer to your audience

Micro-influencers are not yet high-on-followers, which means they are closer to their audience and enjoy higher influential power in their closed knit circle. As I said, Instagram is not their main occupation, instead, it’s a passion. So, if you have a great product to endorse, they have great techniques to market. They initiate conversations, reply to their audience’s comments, queries and feed backs. They create excitement among their followers via interesting Instagram stories. This infuses more trust amidst them and treats them more as friends, thereby increasing your chances of conversion. 

They believe in ‘Quality not quantity’

Can you imagine Alia Bhatt or Deepika Padukone talking to their followers via their comments or direct messages? No right. But I am sure, you must have seen a beauty expert with about 20K followers guiding their audience with wherever they are stuck, reposting the conversations from their personal DMs and even sometimes tap the heart on your post that talks about her sponsored product item. Yes, you can definitely partner with big celebrities and display a product to millions, but you certainly can’t expect their audience to buy everything that they endorse. On the contrary, micro-influencers might reach out to a very limited audience but they will all be quality leads only if you pick the right micro-influencer. 

They are cost-effective

I know you got eyeballs already. Well, why not, as a business we are always looking for opportunities where we can generate higher RoI with low investment. A celebrity who receive dozen of emails for just a story mention every day will obviously charge you comparatively a lot higher than the micro-influencers. Here’s one golden rule of Instagram: The more the subscribers, the higher will be. In fact, say you want to endorse a pair of sneakers to a fitness enthusiast micro-influencer, you don’t really have to pay them in cash – just courier one of your exclusive pairs and you will wake up to a post-mention tomorrow. 

They empower your engagement

Here’s a myth about Instagram, that’s believed by most of the population – ‘More followers have higher engagement’. Well, no that’s not how it goes. Followers and engagement are two different things. They are certainly connected, but not necessarily in the same proportion. There might be more likes and comments on their accounts, but they represent a lower number of subscribers. On the other hand, micro-influencers establish a connection with the audience that leads to more engagement.

The help you generate high-quality leads

If people observe your existence on a celebrity’s page, they might follow you, but the probability of the purchase is comparatively low. On the contrary, if you let the word out by niche specified micro-influencers, the conversion rates are comparatively much higher. There are broadly two reasons why this happens: First, because the market is more specific and second because the audience of micro-influencers trust them more. 

They help you build relationships

Micro-influencers don’t survive on Instagram. Most of them have other professions away from social media. They do it out of their love and passion, infact most of them don’t even believe they are so special. Micro-influencers are very keen and dedicated to their niche, the reason why they develop deeper relationships with their audience. They consider their audience, not like their ‘fans’ but ‘friends’. And as stats   90% people believe in what their friends say, micro-influencers help you gauge customers more than any other type of influencer. 

They intrigue natural publicity

Unlike big celebrities/influencers, a micro-influencer shares his/her daily life with their subscribers and followers. This makes the promotion of your products seem more contextualized, real and natural. The audience doesn’t see it as a promotion, infact a recommendation from an experienced buyer of the product. Pick up any big celebrity and you will analyze the difference yourself. Say, Alia Bhatt the new sensation among youth even if she posts Vivo phone pictures on her feed, we are all aware that there’s no way in the world that she does not own an iPhone for her personal use. But when a micro-influencer, who is more like a part of your online community posts about it, it is evident from their lifestyle. The posts appear to be an honest review instead of a fad promotion.

Now when we have reached the end of this article, let me end it with one pro tip: Micro-influencers would not guarantee you success, but they guarantee you an honest and dedicated promotion. Sometimes it might fail, but the honest promotion will definitely serve your purpose of engaging your target audience. So, keep up with your research, tap on the closest micro-influencer of your industry, send them a free product with a personalized message. Stats say, in most cases they return you in multiples!