Influencer marketing is not news anymore for most marketeers. According to a recent study comprised of marketers from a variety of industries, 94% of the marketing specialists interviewed said influencer marketing was an effective campaign strategy and a lot of them already had successful influencer marketing campaigns to prove their point.
The problem with influencer marketing is that, much like the TV or Radio ads, it is very hard to determine ROI on a influencer marketing campaign. You can determine quite accurate the CTR and referrals but not the return on investment. Same study said 78% of marketers said that determining the success of influencer marketing campaigns would be a top challenge this year.
Nonetheless there enough examples to make it worth investing in and some industries, in particular, are more successful than other. Take for instance the wellness or fashion & apparel industry.
H&M had a Fall Studio Collection campaign and used Influencers: Julie Sariñana and Ela Velden. Fashion blogger Julie Sariñana and model Ela Velden are two influencers with whom H&M collaborated for its autumn 2017 catalogue.
We all can assume that H&M has one of the largest Instagram followings but this is so due in large part to its influencer campaign with women who reflect H&M’s style all by themselves. H&M is using influencers with a huge commercial success and it’s just one example.
So it’s established, for some industries it just works.
Something new happened recently though, these industries starting using micro-influencers more and more as they realised that the ROI in the case of micro-influencer is higher.
Why is that? It has something to do with the quality of followings.
First, let’s define the concept of micro influencer. People from Scrunch.com define a micro influencer as someone who has an audience within the follower range of 2,000 followers up until about 50,000 followers on a particular social media channel, usually comprised of a focussed passion, topic or niche market.
Buffer.com tries to explain: “There are a lot of similarities to celebrity endorsements and to word-of-mouth marketing. Just like with those strategies, influencer marketing aims to make a brand more relatable and trustworthy in the market, especially with younger demographics. In fact, studies show that 70% of millennial consumers are influenced by the recommendations of their peers in buying decisions.(…) At the micro level, there’s stronger engagement, better costs, and tons of opportunities.”
“There is a greater loyalty and authenticity with the micro-influencers”, said the CEO of a large chain of wellness spa & gyms. Some influencers are selling so many Instagram posts on various domains where they lack expertise that they lost all credibility with their followings. People can tell.