What is a Micro-Influencer? Pros and Cons of Working with Them

9 min read

Influencer marketing is one of the most powerful and effective ways for brands to sell products. However, not every company can afford to hire the industry’s top influencers for a couple of social media posts.

The challenge with influencer marketing for brands lies with the cost. The larger the following, the more an influencer can charge for their endorsements.

Smaller ecommerce shops and businesses may not have the budget to fund an influencer campaign, no matter how effective it could be for their business.

That’s where the micro-influencer comes in. Let’s explore the smaller but just as impactful influencers making a considerable splash in influencer marketing.

What is a Micro-Influencer?

A micro-influencer is defined by their follower count. They generally have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 followers on any social media platform.

Micro-influencers have smaller followings but pack a huge punch when influencing their audience. Their niche is typically very targeted, making building trust and authenticity with followers and establishing personal connections easy.

Aside from celebrities and famous people, anyone who started a social media profile and gained a following over time was once a micro-influencer.

For many brands and businesses, working with micro-influencers is a highly effective strategy for their bottom line.

Benefits of Micro-Influencer Marketing for Brands

There are several benefits and perks of working with micro-influencers in your industry. Whether you’re trying to build brand awareness or drive sales, micro-influencers bring a unique level of engagement and community to the table without breaking the bank.

Here are the most significant benefits of using micro-influencers in your marketing campaigns.

Engagement

Smaller followings don’t mean less engagement; they mean the opposite. When followers feel connected to the influencers they follow, they’re more likely to engage with their content. This includes liking, commenting, sharing, and re-posting photos and videos.

Micro-influencers interact with their communities on a personal level, building trust and credibility with their followers. The more they engage, the more their followers feel like they have a personal connection.

In 2022, micro-influencers with 10,000 followers boasted an engagement rate of 2.53%. Meanwhile, global influencers’ total engagement rate was around 1.9% in 2022.

This level of engagement will only benefit your brand if you partner with a micro-influencer. If they endorse your products, their followers will most likely follow suit.

Cost effective

You can certainly hire a more prominent influencer for a campaign, but it’ll cost you a pretty penny. Influencers with large followings (over 100,000 followers) can charge anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000 per post.

Micro-influencers are a great alternative if your advertising budget doesn’t match that price. According to Internet Marketing Hub, here’s how micro-influencers typically charge for social media posts:

Instagram: $100 to $500 per post
YouTube: $200 to $1,000 per video
TikTok: $25 to $125 per video
Twitter: $20 to $100 per Tweet
Facebook: $250 to $1,250 per post

As you can see, micro-influencer rates are much more affordable. Micro-influencers are a fantastic resource for small businesses or those launching new marketing campaigns.

Targeted audience

While mega-influencers are trying to appeal to the masses, micro-influencers have built a much more targeted following. Finding a micro-influencer who appeals to your audience is a brand’s dream — it almost guarantees your product will sell.

Leveraging a micro-influencer collaboration is a great way for brands and ecommerce shops to boost sales by appealing to an audience ready to buy.

How to Find Micro-Influencers

Utilizing influencers as a part of your marketing strategy is now in reach. Thanks to micro-influencers, product campaigns can see major success on social media without a massive budget.

Not sure how to find micro-influencers who meet your brand’s needs in terms of audience and engagement? You’re not alone. Over 70% of marketers and brands say finding the right influencer is one of their biggest challenges.

Here are a few organic ways to find the perfect creators for your brand.

Search relevant Hashtags

Whether you’re on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, you can try searching hashtags for research on influencers in your niche. You’ll find content from influencers who promote similar products, and you may easily find a micro-influencer who fits your campaign’s vision.

Browse through your followers

You may have a micro-influencer at your fingertips and not even realize it! Check your followers and posts to see who interacts with your content and if you can leverage them in an upcoming campaign.

Use a micro-influencer platform

If all else fails, enlist the guidance of a micro-influencer platform to fill in the gaps for you. These platforms are marketplaces where brands can find micro-influencers on the social media platform of their choice.

These platforms typically include features like communication and recruitment tools, campaign management, and an influencer search engine.

Micro vs Macro Influencers: Pros & Cons

If you’re considering partnering with influencers for an upcoming campaign, keep reading for a quick comparison between micro and macro influencers. These two types of influencers have a few key differences, benefits, and disadvantages.

Pros of micro-influencers

A more affordable option for building traffic, brand awareness, and driving sales
Engaged, targeted audience built on trust and authenticity

Cons of micro-influencers

A smaller audience can mean fewer people who are ready to make a purchase
If they’re good at what they do, they’ll likely grow quickly and start charging higher rates

Pros of macro-influencers

Access to a huge audience of potentially interested buyers and massive reach
Diverse audience with different demographics and locations
Near-guarantee of high-quality content thanks to professional teams they work with

Cons of macro-influencers

Macro rates may be out of reach for smaller businesses and brands
Large audiences may feel less connected and less influenced

Micro-Influencer Examples

Gillette created brand awareness with Gen Z social media users by paying beauty influencers to endorse their Venus product line. These influencers included women with follower counts of 1,000 and up. Gillette’s #choosetosmooth campaign was wildly successful, with a thousand tagged posts from influencers and a 2.2% engagement rate.

LaCroix sparkling water enlists the help of small micro-influencers to boost its trending hashtag #LiveLaCroix in unique ways. The water brand has found that micro-influencers create content that reflects their style and originality while promoting the La Croix brand as a whole.

You can see from these micro-influencer examples that even the biggest brands in the game are more interested in having authentic content than celebrity endorsements.

You may not have the budget of La Croix or Gillette, but you can work with a micro-influencer in your niche who can promote authentic content for your brand.

Final Thoughts on Micro-Influencers

Getting started working with influencers can feel daunting, but it’s a highly effective way to get your brand’s name out on social media. Micro-influencers are often more cost-effective than larger influencers because of their authenticity and credibility within their follower base.

For more tips and recommendations on utilizing influencer marketing for your brand or ecommerce business, explore the Ecwid blog.

Sell online

With Ecwid Ecommerce, you can easily sell anywhere, to anyone — across the internet and around the world.

Get started

Jul 25, 2023

About the author

Max has been working in the ecommerce industry for the last six years helping brands to establish and level-up content marketing and SEO. Despite that, he has experience with entrepreneurship. He is a fiction writer in his free time.