Yearly Archives: 2022

Influencer marketing has become more integral to marketing campaigns as brands try to reach audiences on platforms geared toward community building and creating content than companies. When you think of influencer marketing, you probably think of influencers with large followings collaborating with brands; however, smaller influencers (also called micro-influencers) are gaining traction among marketers.

HubSpot recently surveyed 1,200 global marketers and found that 64% of marketers listed micro-influencers among the creators they worked with throughout 2022. 53% of marketers said they plan on working with micro-influencers in 2023. So, why are marketers shifting their focus toward micro-influencers, and should you do the same? To answer these questions, here are four data-driven reasons to work with micro-influencers on your next campaign.

What are micro-influencers?

Our survey defined micro-influencers as creators and influencers with a follower/subscriber count ranging from 10,000 to 99,999. Micro-influencers are very well known within their niche and have a close relationship with their followers, resulting in high engagement.

Why Companies Should Work with Micro-Influencers

Here are four reasons your company should consider working with micro-influencers.

1. Micro-influencers have excellent engagement rates.

Our survey found that 33% of marketers reported having the most success with micro-influencers compared to nano, macro, and mega-influencers. As I said before, micro-influencers have very high engagement, so it’s no surprise that a third of our respondents reported great success working with them.

Micro-influencers boast high engagement because it’s easier to connect with and build a bond with fewer followers versus millions of followers.

A recent study by Later x Forh shows that the fewer followers an influencer has on Instagram, the higher their engagement rate. Instagram users with less than 1000 followers also receive likes from up to 8% of total followers, while users with 10 million+ followers receive only 1.7%.

2. They are more cost-effective than macro-influencers.

According to Shopify, micro-influencers with 5,000 to 30,000 followers charge between $73 and $318 per social media post. Specifically, Shopify says businesses can expect to pay micro-influencers around the following prices:

$172 for an Instagram post
$219 for an Instagram video
$73 for an Instagram story
$318 for a Facebook post
$908 for a YouTube video

This is less than influencers with more than 500,000 followers. These influencers typically charge between $2,085 and $3,318 per post. For these influencers, companies can expect to pay:

$2,085 for an Instagram post
$3,318 for an Instagram video
$721 for an Instagram story
$2,400 for a Facebook post
$3,857 for a YouTube video

If you’re a smaller business looking to tap into a more targeted audience online without exceeding your budget, micro-influencers would be a worthy investment.

3. They account for almost half of all influencers.

Micro-influencers with 5,000 to 20,000 followers account for 47.3 percent of influencers. Mid-tier influencers make up 26.8%, and nano-influencers make up 18.74%. Macro-influencers are rare in the influencer marketing landscape.

With micro-influencers making up such a massive portion of the market, finding one who fits your niche, shares your vision, and can tap into your audience is highly possible.

4. They foster authenticity and trust within their niche.

As mentioned earlier, micro-influencers can form a close bond with their audience, which leads to higher engagement than macro-influencers. Suppose you’re able to get a micro-influencer to support your product. In that case, that influencer will likely boost your reputation and build confidence regarding your business.

5 Brands Who Collaborate with Micro-Influencers

The following brands have included micro-influencer marketing in their marketing strategy:

1. La Croix

Sparkling water brand La Croix has collaborated with multiple micro-influencers to showcase its products. To encourage influencer collaborations, the brand sends vouchers for free cases of their drinks to micro-influencers with as little as 1000 followers. For example, the following Instagram post shows micro-influencer and journalist Andrea Albers holding a can of La Croix next to a Christmas tree.

2. Daniel Wellington

Daniel Wellington is a Swedish watch brand that started its global ambassador community to foster collaborations with micro-influencers. The company’s daily #DWPickoftheday contest challenges influencers to create exciting content to be featured on the company’s main account. Micro-influencers like Melanie Vaclavikova are often featured on the company’s Instagram.

3. Asos

Online retailer Asos works with micro-influencers via its Asos Insiders program. Through the program, Asos finds influencers of all follower counts to promote its clothing and beauty products. One micro-influencer the retailer has worked with is Lauren Nicole, a fashion influencer and editor with 74.6 followers on Instagram.

4. Coca-Cola

Even huge, long-standing brands like Coca-Cola have leveraged micro-influencer marketing in campaigns. Coca-Cola’s #Cokeambassador campaign welcomes influencers to post photos and videos of themselves with Coca-Cola products.

5. Sperry

Boat shoe brand Sperry frequently collaborates with micro-influencers on its social media. Sperry will grant influencers a budget to engage their community and audience. The company also launched OpenSponsorship to connect athletes with the brand, resulting in over 6,000 athletes from 160 sports working with Sperry.

In short, micro-influencers have excellent engagement and a close bond with their followers. Leveraging micro-influencers in your next marketing campaign is an effective and budget-friendly way to tap into your target audience on social media or community-based platforms. Now that you know the benefits of micro-influencers, you’re ready to collaborate with those whose work aligns with your vision.

Post Content

Few marketing trends last forever. In reality, they come and go at rapid speed — and marketers must adapt.

Because marketing is always evolving, your marketing playbook should, too. But if your strategy looks the same as years prior, it’s time to do some housekeeping.

Here, we’ll cover five marketing trends that are losing steam and how marketers can respond.

1. Celebrity endorsements on social media.

Have you ever seen a sponsored post from a celebrity on social media and thought, “Do they really use that?”

For example, Beyond Meat’s collaboration with media personality Kim Kardashian became a viral moment in 2022, but not for the right reasons. After releasing a promotional video of Kardashian sampling its vegan products, viewers were quick to accuse Kardashian of “fake chewing,” leading many to question the authenticity of her endorsement.

While celebrities offer more exposure, consumers need to trust the celebrity and believe the endorsement is authentic. But building that trust is getting harder.

Research shows that trust in celebrity endorsements is decreasing. Only 44% of Gen Z-ers trust endorsements from a celebrity or athlete. This number drops to 38% for Millennials.

Unsurprisingly, the same study found that influencers are more trusted as brand spokespeople. We predict social media influencers – specifically micro-influencers — will start dominating this space.

Micro-influencers have a smaller following than traditional celebrities, but their audience is highly engaged. On top of that, they are seen as “everyday” people, so their audience is more likely to trust their recommendations.

Brands seem to be catching on: more than 56% of marketers who invest in influencer marketing work with micro-influencers.

2. The heavily filtered Instagram aesthetic.

If you’ve scrolled through Instagram recently, you may notice the aesthetic is changing.

Gone are the days of heavily filtered photos and perfect Instagram feeds. Nowadays, influencers, brands, and everyday users are pivoting towards a more unedited, imperfect look.

What’s the reason for this pivot? Many users feel a sense of fatigue over the highly processed aesthetic that has dominated the platform. The Gen Z crowd, in particular, values authenticity over appearing too polished online. It’s no wonder they gravitate to TikTok, where raw and unfiltered content is the norm.

Brands are starting to take notice of this shift, including Glossier. These days, the brand plays into the “anti-aesthetic” movement by sharing candid shots, unedited photos, and even cute animal photos.

Although this is just a shift in aesthetics, it points to a bigger trend with young consumers: they crave authenticity from brands. In other words, snapshots of avocado toast and heavily filtered selfies won’t cut it. Instead, brands must explore how to appear more accessible and relatable online.

3. Audio chat rooms.

Audio chat rooms — like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces — surged in popularity during the start of the pandemic, when many people were seeking opportunities to connect with others.

Fast forward to today, and more than a quarter (29%) of marketers are planning to stop investing in audio chat rooms in 2023.

From a marketing perspective, the biggest problem with audio chat rooms is that users prefer to speak with people — not brands. In fact, only 7% of Gen Z consumers prefer audio chat rooms for discovering new products.

Audio chat rooms are also losing popularity with younger audiences. Only 14% of Gen Z consumers have visited Twitter in the past three months, and a slim 13% have visited Clubhouse. If your audience skews younger, it’s worth exploring other strategies.

4. Long-form videos for social media.

It’s no secret that short-form video has dominated the social media landscape this year, and it will continue to pick up steam in 2023.

In fact, short-form video will see the most growth of any trend in 2023, according to HubSpot’s 2023 Marketing Strategy & Trends Report. On top of that, a staggering 96% of marketers agree that the optimal length of a marketing video is under 10 minutes.

Of course, this isn’t to suggest long-form video doesn’t have its place — or that it’s going extinct. Longer videos can offer more information about a topic, product, service, or brand.

However, the challenge is keeping your videos engaging enough to hold the audience’s attention. Shorter videos, on the other hand, work well on social media because they align with the fast-paced attention spans of online audiences.

5. Marketing in the metaverse.

Marketing is all about experimentation, and the metaverse became a new playground for marketers to explore. However, this initial excitement seems to be fizzling out.

29% of marketers plan to stop marketing in the metaverse (e.g. Horizon Worlds and Roblox) in 2023. In addition, more than a quarter (27%) plan to stop leveraging VR and AR.

Although the metaverse is intriguing, it’s proving difficult to execute. The equipment is expensive, the hardware is uncomfortable, and adoption is slow.

That said, the metaverse is still in its infancy. As it continues to evolve, things could turn around.

Back to You

Marketing is always evolving, so your marketing playbook should, too. As we inch closer to 2023, it’s essential to take stock of which trends you want to leverage, and which ones are better left behind.

Nano-influencers and micro-influencers — which are content creators and key opinion leaders (KOLs) with smaller audiences ranging from 10,000 to 75,000 followers — often slip under the radar.

However, despite a smaller following, their conversion rates stack up against celebrities and those with bigger audiences. In fact, according to Forbes, micro-influencers drive 60% higher campaign engagement rates than their macro-influencer counterparts.

You can dramatically increase revenue with the right strategy behind your micro and nano-influencer marketing plan. Here’s what you need to know.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is the practice of brands collaborating with influencers. Influencers are social media superstars, trendsetters, tastemakers, and knowledge leaders with sizable and highly engaged networks of followers on social media.

Accessing influencers is a powerful marketing tool to boost brand awareness, send qualified traffic to your website, and impact purchasing decisions through product placements and endorsements on social media.

Influencers can be anything from a famous fashion photographer on Instagram, a well-read cybersecurity blogger who tweets, or a dance instructor on TikTok.

What are micro- and nano-influencers? 

Micro- and nano-influencers are individuals or accounts with small but loyal audiences. Nano-influencers have less than 10k followers, and those in the micro category have an audience size between 10k-75k.

The most significant benefit of working with an influencer with a smaller following is their close, trusted relationships with their audiences. Consumers are more likely to follow advice or recommendations because, with a smaller audience, these influencers are more likely to engage one-on-one with followers.

This interaction leads to higher conversion rates and more returns on your marketing investment. Plus, smaller influencers typically come with a budget-friendly price tag, so your marketing dollars go further.

These influencers want to grow their following and reputation, so they may go the extra mile to impress brands. If you need to adjust deadlines or alter posts, micro- and nano-influencers may be responsive to feedback. Small-scale influencers respond faster to communication as they have fewer messages in their inbox.

Some brands shy away from working with influencers with fewer followers because they want a broader reach. However, nano and micro-influencers have developed strong trust with their audiences, will work for smaller budgets, and are more likely to collaborate in content creation.  

How to Find and Recruit Micro-influencers and Nano-influencers

Building a successful campaign with micro- and nano-influencers requires finding the hidden gems that fit within your budget but have a highly engaged audience. Here’s how you can do that.

1. Search in an influencer database or marketplace.

A database like the impact.com for Influencers and Creators platform does most of the heavy research for you. It gives you a quick overview of an account’s followers, engagement rate, platforms where they are active, and more. A marketplace also shares potential partners’ categories, demographics, and values so you can quickly find influencers that match your brand identity.

2. Get specific about with whom you want to work.

The smaller the audience, the more targeted your messaging needs to be. When trying to connect with a small number of people, you need to be sure your product fits their lifestyle. When finding and recruiting micro- and nano-influencers, get specific — look for partners who are already fans of your brand and speak your language.

3. Offer a personal touch when engaging with influencers.

Building long-lasting relationships with influencers are all about creating emotional connections. Customize your outreach messages and focus on nurturing your relationships as your partnership grows.

4. Consistently add new influencers to your marketing strategy.

You’ll want to work with larger groups of influencers with small audiences to widen your reach, so keep your recruitment efforts going after getting your partnership program off the ground. Consistency fuels your marketing initiative, so you can make new connections and promote brand awareness.

How to Manage Micro- and Nano-influencers to Build Profitable Relationships

Securing long-lasting partnerships that boost revenue involves creating a mutually beneficial environment where you and your influencers succeed.

For instance, online for-profit clothing store Ivory Ella partnered with micro- and nano-influencers to tap into new audiences and grow revenue. By the end of their first full year, they saw 11% of their total revenue coming through partnerships. They decided to double down on partnerships, and in Q4, they increased revenue by 56% year-over-year (YoY) and generated 17% of total revenue through their influencer partnership program.

Ivory Ella isn’t an outlier. You can achieve great results by doing the following:

1. Automate manual processes to improve workflow.

Busy work piles up when you onboard and manage multiple influencers. Automation tools help ease some pressure, so you don’t fall behind. Consider automating:

Tracking and reporting: automatically generate reports that show each influencer’s engagement and conversions.
Communication: use an automated system to send updates, surveys, check-ins, feedback requests, and other forms of communication.
Recruiting: set up alerts to be notified of new potential partners in your space. Using automation fosters growth with less human intervention.

2. Choose your compensation method based on performance.

Influencers with smaller followings charge far less than celebrities. However, you still need to reward them fairly for their time and effort.

Some popular payment models for influencers include:

Performance bonuses: brands pay influencers when a user converts or triggers a “success event.” These events include purchases, subscriptions, sign-ups to newsletters and free trials, app downloads, etc.
Participation bonuses: this model compensates for upper-funnel contributions such as brand awareness.
Hybrid model: influencers get paid a flat fee plus performance and/or participation bonuses for specific user actions.
Flat fee: brands pay influencers a fixed rate per post or campaign.
Gifting: brands gift products or services to influencers in exchange for content creation.
Tiered fee: the fee is based on the number of engagements and/or contributions to the buyer journey.
Monthly payouts: influencers get paid a fixed monthly fee for the length of the contract.

Micro- and nano-influencers introduce potential customers to your brand through engaging content. The last touchpoint attribution model gives the conversion credit to the final touchpoint where a customer has converted.

These creators are seldom the last touchpoint. They play an essential role in other parts of the sales cycle, such as brand awareness and persuading audiences to convert eventually. For these reasons, paying small-scale influencers with gifts and performance bonuses that solely reward last touchpoints may not meet their requirements.

According to a WARC and impact.com white paper, 84% of influencers (small-scale and big-scale) prefer a flat fee payment, while 47%are open to a hybrid model.

3. Prioritize your partner’s experience.

Working with a beloved brand is exciting for an influencer of any size. Micro- and nano-influencers who partner with the right brand may get the momentum they need to accelerate audience growth. By providing a memorable experience, you may contribute to their development, which benefits your brand.  

When partners feel valued, they’ll take that extra step when discussing your brand and products. They want to build a business with you, and the more recognition they get for their work, the better their content becomes.

Here are some ways to boost your partner experience:

Reward partners. Incentivize influencers for achieving specific goals or milestones. For example, offer them a performance boost when they bring in a defined amount of new leads or raise their commission at a special conversion rate.
Pay influencers on time. An influencer and creator platform tracks and streamlines payments, so you’re never late.
Gifting goes a long way. Give away some of your top products to loyal partners or share a discount code for them to try something new.
Have fun and get creative. Challenges, games, or other fun activities are a great way to stand out and bring something new to your partnerships.

Get Significant Revenue Boosts from Smaller Audiences

A strong influencer-based marketing strategy requires many different kinds of partnerships — including those with smaller followings. It’s easy to get caught up in numbers and assume bigger is always better, but after a few collaborations with micro- and nano-influencers, you’ll quickly see how you can get great returns from working with the right people.

As a marketer, you know digital content like blogs, videos, and social media are integral to your marketing strategy, but figuring out the frequency you should post digital content can be tricky.

Fortunately, HubSpot surveyed over 1,200 marketers to determine how often you should publish content across various channels. Here’s what you need to know.

How often do marketers publish content?

Our survey found that 34% of marketers publish content multiple times a week, and 33% publish content once a day. Only 13% reported publishing content multiple times a day, 10% said weekly, 6% said multiple times per month, and 4% said once a month or less.

But which posting frequency is the most effective? Well, most marketers (35%) who publish once daily described their 2022 marketing strategy as effective.

Interestingly, we found that 33% of the marketers who publish multiple times a week said their marketing strategy was effective, 39% described it as neither effective nor ineffective, and most (43%) described it as ineffective.

However, how often you should post content depends on when your audience is most active online and on different platforms.

How often should you post content?

To find out how often you should post content, conduct audits for your marketing channels to track your audience’s behavior and your content’s performance. You can conduct a website audit to assess your blog and web pages. You can also perform a social media audit to do the same for your social media channels.

After completing your audits, you’ll have a comprehensive analysis of your content’s performance and your audience’s behavior. You’ll then be able to determine how often you should post content for each channel.

While the ideal posting cadence can vary for every organization, there are some factors marketers should be aware of when posting content.

How often should marketers post blog content?

How often you publish a blog post depends on your goal. For example, if your main goal is to boost organic traffic, we recommend posting optimized content as frequently as possible. Consider educational content like how-to’s, listicles, and campaign round-ups to keep your blog posts fresh and consistent. Running out of ideas? Check out 101 blog post ideas for inspiration.

For organic traffic, small blogs should post new content 3-4 times a week, and larger blogs should post new and updated content 4-5 times a week.

If your goal is to raise brand awareness, you likely won’t need to post as often as you would for organic traffic. That’s because you’ll focus more on building your brand’s voice than on boosting numbers. You’ll need to focus on diversifying your posts and providing informative content to boost brand awareness.

We recommend small blogs post new content once or twice a month to raise brand awareness. In this case, larger blogs should post new and updated content 3-4 times a week.

How often should marketers post social media content?

How often you post on social media depends on the platform and how it works. For example, Twitter is a chronological-based social media platform — so posting at a high frequency is better for visibility.

On the other hand, Facebook is algorithm-based, so your posts should be more about quality than quality. In fact, we found that posting on Facebook more than five times per week can cause the ROI to drop significantly.

However, every social media app is different, and there are exceptions to the rule. For instance, TikTok is algorithm-based, but creators are encouraged to post 1-4 times daily to boost visibility.

How often should marketers post video content?

The frequency in which you post video content will vary depending on the platform, but a great rule of thumb is to include video content wherever possible in your blog and social media content. So, every time you post a new blog, try to find a way to incorporate video. For example, you can embed TikTok videos and YouTube videos or create fresh videos specifically for the post.

Now that you know how frequently you should post content, you’re ready to craft your 2023 marketing strategy.