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Influencers – What do I need to know? How do I work with one? And how much do they cost? Most importantly, where do businesses go wrong when working with a microinfluencer?
In the past several of years, influencers have exploded across almost all industries, although we have seen the trend leveling off over the past year.
Where entrepreners and smaller businesses are finding a good fit is with microinfluencers. These are usually either more geographically located such as in your town, or they have a very specific niche. They also usually a LOT easier to connect with. These microinfluencers cover all platforms such as IG, YT, FB, Twitter, Pinterest, TikTok, and more … but we’re going to focus primarily on IG in this discussion.
I’m going to talk more about how to work with microinfluencers in a second, but I know the burning question everyone really has is …
We’re going to focus on the micro-influencers, because obviously the big names, like a Kim Kardashian or Kendall Jenner, will be outside of the budget of most entrepreneurs and small businesses.
For most microinfluencers, it’s a full-time job or at least the major part of their job. They’re working at least 8 hours a day doing nothing other than making content for their social channels, responding to comments, and answering emails.
Most have multiple streams of income – always a good recommendation for an entrepreneur.
I’m not going to name any names, but here’s some general info:
The price you pay an influencer really depends upon their reach and their follower engagement level, and the larger microinfluencers with hundreds of thousands of followers and more can cost 10K per post.
One great way to find these microinfluencers is to perform an Instagram hashtag search for a hashtag that relates to your business. Finding someone who is very active in that particular hashtag niche, you can check their bio, usually find a website link, and may easily find that they are working with other brands and you can reach out to them to find more information. You can also research several so that you get a feeling about who may be a good fit.
You can also simply use Google. Use your industry or niche and add microinfluencer, and see who pops up then research them a bit further online.
There are also a few microinfluencer platforms, and if you’re going to use this marketing strategy pretty often, you may want to consider using one of those. Most of these platforms have functions for creation and tracking of your campaign plus analytics. Most of these platforms are not designed with the entrepreneur in mind, with annual fees of several thousands of dollars not including the payments directly to your chosen microinfluencers.
There are two main ways you can use microinfluencers: to get in front of their followers, or to get them in front of yours.
One favorite way that microinfluencers share your business is through Instagram stories. IG stories is a great way to feel more authentic and genuine. When an Instagramer is either verified or has over 10,000 followers, their stories have the “swipe up” option to immediate link to a landing page – which is a great way that your marketing with a microinfluencers can directly lead to sales. The only drawback is that stories only last for 24 hours.
Everyone is familiar with these fairly standard Instagram posts where influencers could provide anything from soft mention to a direct tagging of your business. Keep in mind that the partnership needs to be disclosed in the post, which you can do by using hashtags such as #sponsored or #ad.
A very popular option is an Instagram live takeover – taking over a brand’s account and doing a live broadcast. Tihs option feels more exclusive for your followers since the microinfluencer is sharing personal experiences with your own audience. They can also invite friends and followers to the broadcast on your page. This option allows your followers to ask them questions and can be a new, fun way to interact with your followers. The good strategy is that you can save the live after it ends (the microinfluencer does this with one click) to be used on other channels and also automatically save it to your Instagram stories so that it’s available for another 24 hours.
Where I see most entrepreneurs and small businesses go wrong is with having no written agreement in place. I see at least once or twice a week a business owner saying “I sent products to an influencer and the influencer has never posted, what should I do?”
My first question is “did you have a written agreement?“.
Keep in mind, any Instagram user has no obligation to post about your product if you are simply sending them the product (even if you spoke with them about it first) … unless you have a written and signed contract in place.
With a cash payment there is a greater obligation, but without a written agreement in place it can be very hard to prove what the cash payment was for.
That contract should outline what both sides are giving and getting, quantify everything, and include deadlines.
Remember from your Business 101 class that for a contract to be enforcable it needs to outline the benefit that both sides are receiving.
For example, the contract should note that you are sending 5 products to sample, and the microinfluencer is expected to send you 5 photos of them with the product that you can use on your own social media account, they will post once to their IG stories, they will include this specific link, and it should be completed by March 15.
As always, since contracts are legal documents, we recommend that you consult with an attorney to check yours over to make sure everyone is fully protected.
Recommended next: Do Instagram Reels or Instagram Stories Build More Business?
Vicky is the CEO and Chief Creative Strategist of Vicky Wu Marketing. She draws from 30 years of experience at the CMO level, the CEO level, marketing for Fortune 500 companies and multi-million and multi-billion-dollar organizations, PLUS strategies learned helping startups and nonprofits with limited budgets … now focusing on providing SMBs with effective and efficient marketing strategies – giving them access to the same level of expertise as the really big guys with deep pockets, that they may not otherwise be able to access.
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