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When you scroll through your social media feeds, you will find some individuals showcasing one product or the other, these individuals are called micro-influencers. But you might be wondering how these people make money and why companies or brands will hire micro-influencers.

But what are the steps required to be a micro-influencer and how do you grow in this career path. We are going to take a look at the details involved. Even though there are different types of influencers, this article is going to focus on micro-influencers.

  • Who is an Influencer?
  • What are the Different Types of Influencers?
  • Why are Micro Influencers Used?
  • Why Should You Use Micro-Influencers Instead of Celebrities?
  • How Much Money do Micro-Influencers Make?
  • How Many Followers do you Need to be an Amazon Influencer?
  • Who are the Major Amazon Influencers?

Who is an Influencer?

An influencer is someone in your niche or industry with sway over your target audience.

Influencers have specialized knowledge, authority or insight into a specific subject. Their pre-existing presence in a niche makes them a useful launching pad for brands in search of credibility. 85% of marketers engaged in influencer marketing in 2017 and 92% said their campaigns were effective.

Read Also: How Much do Brand Ambassadors Get Paid

An influencer assists companies in “influencer marketing,” a form of advertising that builds brand authority on the back of another person’s reputation.

Micro-influencers are individuals that have between 1,000 to 1,000,000 followers/audience members and are considered experts in their respective niche. They could be a food blogger, traveler, a local fashionista, or a fitness guru – just to name a few.

These smaller, more focused niche experts connect on a deeper level with their audiences and generate greater engagement

In fact, influencers with 1,000 followers generated 85% higher engagement than those having 100,000 followers, and as the number of followers increases the engagement tends to decrease. Staying within that 1,000 to 100,000 followers proves to be the sweet spot.

It just makes sense — a smaller audience means much more hands-on, personal interaction and we all know that’s marketing gold these days.

With a smaller number of followers, micro-influencers followings tend to see themselves as peers of the influencer rather than fans – and 84% of consumers say they trust recommendations from peers over advertising.

What are the Different Types of Influencers?

When it comes to influencers, there are basically six types, and the type you decide to use will depend on your budget and the kind of product you are trying to advertise. The influencer type include Mega, Macro, Micro, Advocates, Referrers, and Loyalists. Each of them will be examined below.

The Mega Influencer

According to Gil Eyal, CEO and founder of influence marketing platform HYPR Brands, a mega influence is defined as being, more famous than influential. They aren’t necessarily subject matter experts, but they definitely provide a lot of reach in one hit.

An example of this would be Kylie Jenner, who Forbes named as “America’s youngest self-made billionaire” earlier this year (although many questions the “self-made” moniker, given her family association with the Kardashians).

Kylie Jenner

With 138 million followers on Instagram, Jenner is reputed to charge up to $1 million per sponsored post or advertorial when working with brands.

While a million dollars is a lot of money for one post, mega influencers (and agencies that promote them) would argue that the reach offered is worth it.

Indeed, as the Instagram post above shows, one post from these types of influencers can get in front of more than 10 million people.

The problem here, though, is that mega influencers are operating with a one-size-fits-all mindset, and an approach that old school marketing took – throw enough at the wall, and see what sticks.

Jenner’s post may have received over 10 million Likes, but how many of these would be customers for your brand?

Additionally, as the now-infamous FyreFest proved, working with mega influencers can backfire spectacularly and cost you more money than the original fee for the influencer.

When to use mega influencers: Awareness campaigns where a broad reach is required to get your service or product in front of as many people as possible.

The Macro Influencer

Macro influencers are similar to mega influencers, with the main difference being macro influencers usually rise to fame through the web, as opposed to the genuine celebrities that make up mega influencers.

Macro influencers can be podcasters, vloggers, social media stars, and influential bloggers. Their audience size would normally be between 100,000 and a million followers.

A good example of a macro influencer would be social media blogger Chris Brogan.

Chris brogan

Brogan made his name as an early adopter of social media, and talking about how this new medium could be used to connect consumers and businesses.

His blog helped him grow his audience as other early adopters recommended both him and his content, and that audience has continued to build today.

When to use a macro influencer: When you want to dive a little deeper into your audience based on topic, but are still in the awareness stage of your campaign and looking primarily for reach.

The Micro Influencer

When you’re ready to move your influence marketing campaign from an awareness tactic to a more defined one, you need to start looking for more effective methods of communication/promotion.

While mega and macro-influencers can still impact results at this stage, this is the time when you would work with micro-influencers.

This type of infleuncer’s audience ranges from 1,000 to 100,000 followers – however, while their audience may be smaller, they’re more invested in the influencer and their niche.

Micro influencers are respected because of their expertise on a topic – they usually stick to one topic, and leverage their knowledge to build their thought leadership.

Because of this, micro influencers are far more effective at driving the action(s) your business is looking for to meet an influence marketing campaign’s goals.

Sensei Marketing client ECHO USA is a good example of this approach, with the ECHO-sponsored ECHO Means Business platform, and its User Advisory Group (UAG).

Instead of using the simpler approach of using social media influencers with huge audiences, ECHO Means Business uses a mix of outdoor power equipment (OPE) professionals to share their expertise and insights.

Indeed, some of them are only starting out on their social media journey, which is fine – it’s their experience, and how they can further help the community in general grow their business.

This has resulted in a highly engaged, industry-respected program that has changed the conversation around ECHO and its products.

The Advocate

Once you have your influencers working for you and the goal(s) you’re looking to achieve, it’s time to start thinking beyond the awareness stage, and more directly into the lead stage of your campaign.

Driving leads can definitely happen in the Micro Influencer stage, but when you take the expertise and trust that’s built through micro influencers, they can both turn into Advocates as well as create them.

Advocates are a special category of influencers.

They are people who speak about your brand positively, either through use of a product or service, and will jump into conversations around your brand to either promote or defend.

A great example of this is Planned Parenthood. While they may create extremely divisive audiences online, they have legions of supporters that will defend them in conversations, and promote important facts about their services to do so.

Founder of online parenting resource Pretty Extraordinary, Danielle Elliott Smith is an influencer with a sizeable community that advocates for her content and its messaging.

However, she can be a powerful advocate herself, as she showed when it came to her personal experience with Planned Parenthood (PP) as a young woman.

Not only did Smith open up and share a very raw and personal account of how she almost died, and how PP saved her life, she also listed, in detail, all the services PP offers, that detractors either didn’t know about or chose to ignore.

The result was a large amount of traction online, donations to PP, and people opening up about their own experiences with the organization, encouraging others to seek help.

This kind of results shows why these types of influencers are so key at both delivering a message, and driving awareness and reach of it.

The Referrer

The next phase of influencer marketing is one that many businesses will already be aware of, even if they don’t think they’re currently using to their advantage.

The Referrer is someone that drives people to your website, place of business, or online profiles, with a solid and trusted recommendation for your product or service.

You’re the only brand they will recommend (or, if they’re comparing with a competitor, will still recommend you as the first choice).

These types of influencers are the equivalent of lead magnets, or Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), as their recommendation is immediately trusted, and acted upon.

A good example of this is the open source software WordPress.

From its early days as a hobbyist blog platform, WordPress now powers more than 1/3 of the world’s websites, and continues to grow that number annually.

When people ask their peers and connections on social media what’s the best web platform to use, the overwhelming response if WordPress.

These referrals – as well as the open source nature of the platform allowing for endless optimization – has given WordPress an army of leads for their platform, and one that also correlates to Advocates as well as Loyalists when it comes to influencers.

The Loyalist?

The final piece of the types of influencers puzzle comes in the shape of Loyalists.

These are followers, customers, fans, etc., that have moved all the way along the influence marketing sales funnel, from the awareness that Mega can drive, to being with your brand through thick and thin.

Loyalists are built from consistent support from, and involvement with, your brand. These are people that have grown with you, and supported you, and bought into your message completely.

A great example of this is The Friendship Bench, and its associated #YellowIsForHello campaign.

Co-founded by myself and my two colleagues here at Sensei Marketing, Sam Fiorella and Robert Clarke, The Friendship Bench is now in its fifth year.

Started from a personal tragedy, the program enables and supports peer-to-peer connection between students with mental health issues.

By utilizing an iconic yellow bench that acts as a visual reminder to talk about your mental health, campuses that have the bench program installed have seen a rise of almost 20% in students coming forward to talk.

Last year, the program started to suffer as it grew, and more schools and faculty came forward requesting a bench, or for Sam to speak at their school.

The amount the 100% volunteer program needed to scale to meet this demand wasn’t in place and, as such, communications from us were a bit hit and miss.

Despite this (perhaps because of this), our community stepped up and supported us, and continued to share and promote the program even while we were trying to scale.

This ensured our reenergized and refocused goals moving forward had an active and receptive audience, as our Loyalists who continued to help us, and be there for the program, continued to build our target audience.

Loyalists in influence marketing take every step of your influence marketing strategies, tactics, and campaigns, and become a valuable and important addition to your team and goals.

Why are Micro Influencers Used?

Higher Engagement Rates

As we mentioned, engagement with users from micro-influencers is a huge benefit to working with them. (Plus, as a user, it’s just a better experience!)

Compared to celebrity influencer accounts, micro-influencers are able to interact with their audience more frequently via likes and follows, and respond to questions/comments in quicker manner.

Higher interaction amongst the influencer and the audience means that a connection is established quickly and chances are the influencer is also more relatable than a celebrity.

Your micro-influencer is more likely to talk through common pains their audience feels in relation to your product and “get real” with them, whereas a celebrity influencer is likely being paid big dollars to do the same.

Higher engagement rates with these micro-influencers mean they’re actively being an advocate for your brand, not simply posting something and letting it disappear into their feeds.

That exposure can ultimately help you not only get eyes on your business but can help with the sale of your product. This means your dollar (and limited dollars at that) can go much farther connecting with a micro-influencer.

Affordability

Going with a celebrity influencer or endorser can cost you hundreds of thousands, just for one post. So, unless you are a huge brand, that just may not be realistic or worthwhile.

A micro-influencer is much more affordable. It all depends on the number of followers and engagement, but on average the rates hover around $1,000 per post for those with 100,000 followers. 

Because you’ll likely have more budget working with micro-influencers, consider working with more than one to cast a wider net and reach your different personas where they are.

Higher Conversion Rates

49% of people say that they trust recommendations by influencers to make their purchase decisions. And that shouldn’t be a surprise, reviews and recommendations are huge!

For example, when you’re going to choose a restaurant to go to that you haven’t been to before, if you’re like me, you check out Yelp or Google reviews to see what people think (if you haven’t asked your friends already).

In the business world, if you’re a company looking for a solution for a problem you’re facing, you’re going to first reach out to people you know and see if they have any recommendations of people to reach out to.

If you’re doing research on your own, chances are you are asking for references, case studies or checking reviews of their service online. At the end of the day, we want to know the opinions of others.

Other people’s opinions really do hold value when someone is making a purchasing decision.

Niche Markets

Unlike most major celebrities, with micro-influencers, you’re often able to tap into very specific, niche markets.

Micro-influencers come in all shapes and sizes. Each of them has a specific area of expertise, style, brand, and appeal to a particular kind of audience.

Consider your buyer personas, just as you would for content you’re creating.

What kind of people would your audience be following? What would resonate with them and prompt them to buy your product?

Typically these micro-influencers have a tribe surrounding them that align closely with their interests.

The only way to be most successful with micro-influencer marketing is if you find someone who is catering to your specific target audience. Otherwise, you’re wasting money on audiences that will never buy.

Why Should You Use Micro-Influencers Instead of Celebrities?

As we have discussed already, choosing the right influencers is key to the success of your brand and company. Another decision you might have to make is whether to use influencers or celebrities. Below are some reasons you will choose influencers over celebrities.

1. Higher engagement rates

By having a smaller audience, micro-influencers are more likely to interact with their fans and build empathy with them. For this reason, the engagement rate of their posts is definitely higher than big celebrities’ ones.

As a matter of facts, a survey of 2 million social media influencers by Markerly, a famous influencer marketing platform, showed that for unpaid posts, Instagram influencers with fewer than 1,000 followers have a like rate of about 8%, while those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers have a like rate of 4%.

2. Higher perceived trust regarding your brand

Because they are personally invested in their crafts and given that 70% of teenagers trust influencers over celebrities, we can assume that micro-influencers are trusted sources of recommendations for their followers, who easily identify more with “everyday people” such as micro-influencers than with celebrities. 

For this reason, their opinions will evoke high levels of credibility and, as a consequence, your brand will be seen as trustworthy and high qualified. 

Moreover, micro influencers can turn into your personal brand’s advocates through more continuous collaboration and long-term campaigns. A unique and simple photo featuring your product won’t do the difference but more everyday pictures and stories about your brand, yes.

3. Affordability

As we already mentioned before, working with celebrities and famous influencers required a high budget. On the other hand, micro influencers are way cheaper and could give you more results than others. Costs for influencer marketing depend on the number of followers and fans of the people you choose as advocates.

According to dedicated studies, influencers on the following platforms will charge on average:

  • Instagram Influencers: 1,000$ per 100,000 followers
  • Snapchat Influencers: from 500$ per campaign
  • YouTube Influencers: ca. 2,000$ per 100,000 followers

4. High conversion rates

A great strategy when working with micro-influencers is to share unique discount codes or affiliate links only dedicated to that influencers’ fans. These social individuals are able to feel the audience’s pulse better and further understand what kind of content it admires, pushing it gently and in a spontaneous way to buy the same products they trust or use.

5. Opportunity to reach niche markets and more specific target

Micro-influencers come in all shapes, sizes, and topics. Each of them is unique and is considered an expert in a certain field. Everything they share is a unique and real experience for the audience they are talking to. For this reason, your company will be able to reach a specific target who are not following these individuals for their famous name but for what they really say or talk about. 

Their audience is homogeneous and this means that, if a company is able to find the right micro-influencer to work with, it will reach exactly the right target it wants to.

The ongoing rise of social media allows people to spread their ideas and share them with an audience that has the same interests and actively listen to what they tell. It’s not just the rich and famous who can access the world of influencers.

As interaction and engagement are getting more and more important, both in terms of visibility in social media and perceived trust, companies should not miss the opportunity to make people talk about their brand and spread their idea about it. A micro influencer can in this sense make the difference.

Fashion is one of the industries that perform the most, together with travel and tech, but there is no field that will not find a place in the influencers world. The crucial step is only to search and find the right ones!

How Much Money do Micro-Influencers Make?

While climbing the influencer ladder, it’s common to get paid more per post if you have a higher follower count. This logic stems from the idea that the more eyes that see the content, the more brands are willing to pay.

< 10,000 Followers

“Micro” influencers have anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 followers. Unlike your popular friend that has acquired this many followers by posting cool stuff, the people behind these handles are vying to grow their page around a specific niche.

According to a recent survey, these accounts can make up to, on average, $88.00 per post. However, most micro-influencers hold off on charging upfront so they can first garner a larger, long-term presence.

Understood as a dedicated hobby, this follower level can get your Instagram handle in the door for future collaborations or sponsored posts, filled with some free perks along the way.

< 100,000 Followers

At this stage in the game,  brands are sending out direct messages to accounts with this amount of followers like clockwork, asking for product endorsement in exchange for freebies: Think designer-labeled clothing, monthly packages catered to health and wellness, or a free meal from the restaurant that wants exposure.

Some occasional money may come in, but most influencers are hesitant to start charging at this stage since it may delegitimize their growing success.

For example, one self-proclaimed “foodstagrammer” currently holds 72,000 followers. While hundreds of likes swarm in for each post, the account is waiting to monetize their work until at least hitting the 100,000 mark – which is the “socially acceptable” marker.  

It’s somewhat of an unspoken rule that influencers can expect to be paid $10.00 for every 1,000 followers they have, once they hit the 100,000 thresholds. Charging for posts before hitting this may result in getting paid less, or settling before the account has fully bloomed.

Influencers with 50,000 to 80,000 followers get around $200.00 per post, but the price point changes based on the advertiser. Some accounts make deals with brands to post promotional codes on their feed, and everytime a new person uses their code, they make a percentage of the sale. Other accounts opt into giveaway deals that purely boost their follower count.

Whether these middle-tier accounts are maintaining their presence on the side working vigorously to turn their accounts into a  full-time career, their followings are impressive.

< 1,000,000 Followers

The leap from 100,000 followers to one MILLION followers is quite an undertaking to say the least, coming with no standard manual or rules to follow on what to post and how much to charge.

Accounts of this nature (think 250,000 to 500,000 followers) have hit the jackpot of Instagram influencing, with possible earnings averaging at $670.00 per post.

But it doesn’t even need to be a picture on their feed that brings in the cash.

Accounts this large have various features that lower-tier handles can’t access yet, such as a verified account (blue check mark) and the Instagram story “swipe up” capability, brands and companies can leverage these features for more effective influencer ad campaigns.

Once an account reaches more than one million followers, the sky’s the limit on what they charge. So what can we conclude from all of this?

1)    Quitting your day job to live off of an Instagram-influencer salary is easier said than done, since accounts need to garner thousands of followers before they can even start to see a monetary profit.

2)    Instagram influencers with under 10,000 followers can make, on average, $88.00 per post. Those with under 100,000 followers average $200.00 per post, but these numbers often vary account to account. Most accounts in this level are instead, gifted with free products or discounts for posting.

3)    Accounts ranging from 250,000 to 500,000 followers can make a pretty penny posting on their accounts for brands, whether that be in a static picture, GIF-like video or an Instagram story. Once an influencer has reached one million followers, it’s safe to assume they are making quite a decent amount of money, and working very hard to maintain it.

How Many Followers do you Need to be an Amazon Influencer?

To begin with the Amazon Influencer Program, you’ll need to have a following on one of the major social media networks. Amazon recognizes following on either Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, as well as YouTube.

Snapchat is not currently recognized as an influencer platform, and neither is TikTok, but we are expecting TikTik to be added to the list soon. LinkedIn is not on the Amazon influencer list and unlikely to be part of the influencer program at any time soon because of the different reasons that followers use LinkedIn.

To become an Amazon Influencer, you will need to go through their application process, Amazon then reviews this and you’ll be either accepted or turned down. If you are turned down, Amazon will invite you to try again once your following meets their Amazon influencer program requirements.

There aren’t any official statistics on exactly how many followers an influencer must-have, but the general rule is around 100,000 minimum, but Amazon states on their website:

“While we look at the number of followers and other engagement metrics of your social media presence, we also look at the type of content you post and the relevancy it has for Amazon customers.”

If you’re serious about becoming an influencer for Amazon, you’ll need to know your followers inside out and be able to provide the analytics when required. This will involve follower numbers and, very importantly, the engagement rate you currently have. 

If you’re wondering how to do this, we have a couple of great blogs on how to use analytics across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Who are the Major Amazon Influencers?

Amazon influencers work within different platforms to bring awareness to products from the brands they work with on Amazon. Here is a list of eight influencers who work with Amazon to curate their own store, share that with their followers, and recommend products that they may find useful and interesting.

Warren Whitlock

Warren Whitlock describes himself as a ‘Business Storyteller’. He is a business development strategist and author – he wrote the first book about Twitter. He has been working with businesses and brands for many years – priding himself on using new media from before there was the internet.

As one of the early adopters of the internet, Mr Whitlock has a very large following in a number of business categories. 

Mr Whitlock now consults with brands on effective strategies for use in social media advertising to gain ground in noisy, overpopulated markets. He uses his Amazon Influencer status to reach out to brands who are looking for long term engagement and reputation.

Jillian Michaels

Jillian Michaels is a world-renowned fitness and lifestyle blogger and expert. She has a very successful website with followers from around the world who log on for her fitness advice, recipes, and lifestyle news. 

Jillian has been known for many years for her down to earth fitness and health approaches, with recipes and fitness tips interwoven with her lifestyle advice. She has a very positive style that appeals to different generations and varied points in a fitness or health journey.

The recipes, combined with the exercise and dietary advice, are a welcome addition. She has written many books about her health journey, encouraging others to follow her into fitness. 

Bre Sheppard

Bre Sheppard is a lifestyle blogger from Seattle. She combines everything in her life into a beauty/travel/daily life blog. Recently, Bre has announced a pregnancy and has now expanded the topics of her lifestyle blogging to include the incoming bundle of joy.

As part of her website, Bre includes an Amazon-specific section, featuring brands and products she herself encourages others to try and to use.

Bre Sheppard attracts a millennial and younger audience. Generally, those with aspirations and a decent disposable income. 

Chris Han

Chris Han is one of Amazon’s top influencers. She is a fashion and beauty blogger from Shanghai, currently living in Los Angeles, and blogs about her lifestyle and fashion choices on a regular basis. Chris Han works a lot with women and female entrepreneurship, and often, links the clothes she wears and makeup she uses on her website, for her followers to view.

Recently, with her pregnancy, Chris Han has moved into the ‘Mummy bubble’ of fashion bloggers who are attracting new crowds amongst the pregnant fashionistas.

Cassandra Bankson

Cassandra Bankson is a model and a beauty guru from San Francisco. She has a successful YouTube channel and communicates with her followers across social media. As a vegan, Cassandra is very much into cruelty-free and vegan products. She uses her huge platform and following to encourage animal-free products and to encourage awareness. 

As a former sufferer of acne, Cassandra is huge in the acne awareness circles, too. If this wasn’t all, she is also an LGBT ambassador! 

Cassandra’s followers are generally slightly different to the average fashion follower. They are likely to be people who struggle with acne and coping with it. However, she is very positive and shows men and women alike how to cope with acne and the tricks she uses.

SilentC0re

As well as beauty and fashion influencers, Amazon’s influencer program reaches out to influencers in other areas. Silentc0re is a well-known gaming YouTuber with a large following. He creates many videos featuring him playing games and showing player POV. He is well known within the gaming community and has made guides to encourage the beginner to design and play game levels.

He uses his Amazon influencer shop to encourage his followers to purchase gaming and tech products. His followers are likely to be in the millennial age group and more likely to be male. The demographic he attracts are within the affluent, or willing to spend on technology and computing set.

Green Bee

On the smaller side of the influencer circle are those who have their own shops and products, but also promote the products from others that align to their own aesthetic.

Green Bee is an ex Parachute Regiment Officer. As part of his former work, he has seen first hand the damage that climate change is causing. He started with his flagship beeswax wraps and has branched out into other ecologically friendly products.

Using his influence, Green Bee shows his followers products that are also ecologically friendly and go along with his own green values through his curated collections. Green Bee has an interesting following, not defined by age or generation, but rather a lifestyle or belief set.

Green Bee’s followers are those who believe in sustainability and, in recent terms, zero waste. They are more likely to purchase recycled and recyclable products. As an influencer, Green Bee provides an alternative to the disposable and fast fashion side of Amazon.

Eleanor Prior 

On the general side of Amazon, there are influencers such as Eleanor Prior. She is an online marketing specialist and entrepreneur. She blogs on marketing and digital subjects, educating her followers on how to grow their businesses using online products.

Read Also: Top 10 Social Media Advertising Agencies

She has a lifestyle amazon storefront covering all the categories someone wishing to emulate her style and lifestyle would need, from hobbies to maternity and coffee mugs for the house. Her storefront is laid out nicely, and the products she has chosen to promote are along a definite style line.

Eleanor Prior has an aspirational website, for people wishing to move into online marketing, and companies wishing to become more successful with their online audiences. She gives lots of advice about online marketing, as well as writing articles about her experiences with online marketing and promotion.

Final Thought

The most important thing to remember when considering influencer marketing is that authenticity is key. The recent explosion in social media and social media marketing has meant that anyone has the opportunity to become an internet sensation.

While the playing field has been leveled, and anyone with a smartphone can become a micro-influencer, it’s not always that easy, though.

Becoming a micro-influencer is a great way to add passive income to your social media presence. If you run a successful blog or social media presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, then you can earn money.

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