How to find micro-influencers for your brand?

When it comes to choosing which Instagram influencers to work with, it’s usually not about the number of followers. Actually, it’s the other way around: Instagram micro-influencers often bring much better results than famous influencers with millions of followers! But how to find micro-influencers who match your brand?

Here is a complete guide to finding the right micro-influencers for your brand! 👇🏼

Who is a micro-influencer?
Why should you prefer micro-influencers?
The risks of working with micro-influencers
Micro-influencer case studies
How to find micro-influencers?

Who is a micro-influencer?

In general, the term “micro-influencer” refers to an influencer with a smaller following.  The exact numbers depend heavily on the market: in a small market, a micro-influencer can be defined as an influencer with 1000 to 10 000 followers.  In a big market such as the US, micro-influencers are often defined as influencers with less than 100 000 followers.

The idea of using micro-influencers might be confusing at first. Why should you work with someone who has a smaller follower base? Let’s find it out!

Why should you prefer micro-influencers?

1. Micro-influencers are relatable and trustworthy

Micro-influencers aren’t celebrities. Unlike Kardashians, they are easy to relate to – and that’s why their followers trust them. They have their ups and downs, their struggles, and insecurities.  They create their own content, sharing bits, and pieces from their lives. Occasionally, they also share their favorite brands or products and usually don’t get paid for doing it.  And even if they do, the recommendations feel so much more authentic as they have built the relationship beforehand.

Usually, micro-influencers are very engaged with their audience.  They are happy to chat with their followers, answer their comments, and build connections with their followers. They are just like friends on social media!

If you don’t believe us, watch the 4-minute video by Forbes! 👇🏼

2. Micro influencers are good for reaching niche markets

Most micro influencers focus on a specific topic in their content – which means that their followers are also following them for that type of content.  Therefore, micro influencers are a very good way to reach a specific target group.

For example, a book blogger might not have a large audience – but their audience follows them to get reading recommendations and know about the latest book releases. Therefore, for a book store or a distributor, collaboration with this influencer might have a very good return on investment.

3. Micro influencers have higher engagement

As micro influencers often have a strong community and they are engaging with their audience, influencers with a smaller following have a 60% higher engagement rate than large influencers.

Average engagement rates of influencers on Promoty:

• Up to 1000 followers – 16,2%
• 1000 to 5000 followers – 13,1%
• 5000 to 10 000 followers – 7,5%
• 10 000 to 20 000 followers – 5,3%
• 20 000 to 50 000 followers – 4,2%
• over 50 000 followers – 3,5%

Thanks to higher engagement, the posts of micro-influencers get a better position in the eyes of the Instagram algorithm, and the posts reach a bigger part of their followers. In total, you’ll achieve a higher campaign reach!

4. Micro-influencers bring higher ROI

While big Instagram celebrities can ask for hundreds or thousands of euros just for one post, then micro-influencers ask for much lower prices.

Moreover, if you are able to find the top fans of your brand who are using your product anyway and are happy to recommend it to their followers, they’ll probably be ready to participate in the campaign for a smaller fee or in exchange for products only!

Combining the smaller fees with more trustworthiness and bigger influence on their audience, collaborations with micro-influencers might bring significantly better return of investment for brands.

Jekaterina Lemetti (@lemettikatja) x Valio campaign photo

The risks of working with micro-influencers

Often, micro-influencers put way more effort into content creation than experienced influencers to prove themselves and continue to work with the brands.

However, this is not a rule – sometimes, their visuals are not that professional yet. They might not have the skill of telling a brand story without being too promotional. And sometimes, as they don’t have much experience working with brands yet, they might be more difficult to work with.

That’s why it’d be good to use an influencer marketing platform like Promoty, where you can see their statistics, and previous collaborations and also review the campaign posts before they go live.

Also, we strongly recommend that you review the influencers’ posts, photo quality, and post captions before you confirm the collaboration with them. That will also give you a good understanding of the influencer’s skills and the expected outcome of the collaboration.

Of course, a well-written influencer campaign brief would help, too! While experienced influencers often need a lot of creative freedom and know what works for their audience, micro-influencers might need more detailed guidelines from the brand.

Do we have any Instagram micro-influencer case studies?

Yes, we do! For example, Finnish chocolate and candy brand Halva did a product campaign with 99 micro-influencers. The main goals of the campaigns were to maximize visibility on Instagram and get more followers to the brands’ Instagram pages.

That helped Halva to reach 380 000+ people and get +6852 new followers on Instagram –  in a small market like Finland; it’s quite a noticeable reach! As influencers were rewarded with products, the campaign budget was 1014€ (Promoty’s fee only). That’s what we call cost-effective influencer marketing!

How to find Instagram micro-influencers?

In general, there are four ways to find micro-influencers for your brand:

▸ Start with your customers.

If there are any influencers among your existing customers, you should start from there. As they already know your brand, collaboration posts would be more authentic and therefore bring better results. As we always say: a happy customer is your best influencer!

▸ Search manually on Instagram

Finding the right influencers on Instagram can be quite time-consuming. However, if you want to take this route, start with hashtags, keywords, and locations: check relevant hashtags like #microinfluencer, #beautyblogger, or #swedishinfluencer. Additionally, you can search based on locations and leverage the “similar profiles” feature.

▸ Find influencers manually on TikTok

When it comes to manually finding influencers on TikTok, the search process is the same: you can search by hashtags, keywords, and locations. When you’re on the phone, select “Users” in the top menu – and use the filters to see profiles with over 10,000 followers. In desktop version, the filtering options are limited.

▸ Use an influencer search tool

Promoty is an influencer marketing tool that helps you to find the right influencers: just use our global influencer search and filter by influencer audience demographics, location, interests, brand affinity, and others. This way, you can find the right influencers quickly and precisely.

For every creator, you can see detailed insights: detailed Instagram statistics, audience demographics (age, location, and gender), interests, previous collaborations, fake followers, similar accounts, and much more. This way, you can find exactly the right influencers for your brand!

Create a free account to try it out yourself 👇🏼

To wrap it up: instead of buying one post from an Instagram celebrity, try working with smaller influencers in your field. That way, you get higher reach and more engagement for less, which might result in higher brand awareness and more new customers. Additionally, that would probably bring you better results with a smaller marketing investment, resulting in a higher ROI.

Using an influencer management tool (such as Promoty), you can find the right influencers quickly and easily, and manage everything in one place. Create a free account to get started! 👇🏼