What is influencer marketing? 

Influencer Marketing is a form of marketing that uses influencers to send a brand's message to the market. Instead of advertising directly to a group of customers, you'll inspire and pay influencers to help you do it. Influencers spread their voices through social media channels with content either pre-compiled by the brand or written in their own way by the influencers. 

Dawn of micro-influencers 

In the past, brands and businesses often collaborated with influencers who are famous singers, actors or models (Grade A stars) to act as brand ambassadors or advertise their products on TV and newspapers. However, young consumers have changed with the growth of social media. The marketing trend in the world has moved to a new “influencer marketing” model, which I would call “micro-influencer” marketing or advertising with micro-influencers. 

A micro-influencer can have 10,000 - 50,000 followers on Facebook or Instagram, while top influencers can have more than 100,000 followers. A Grade A star may have a large fan base, but we need to consider why the audience is interested in this star. Often the fans only pay more attention to interesting or entertaining things than the advertised products. Sometimes, you can follow because everyone is following, not you are interested in the content. In contrast, audiences follow these micro-influencers because they actually (1) have a real-life relationship or (2) share a special interest in a particular topic life. 

Most companies, especially small and medium, cannot afford to pay top influencers to promote their products. As a result, they began to reach out to these micro-influencers for co-sponsorship and also gradually shifted from popularity and fan base to the relevance of followers and real engagement. Not surprisingly, a “micro-influencer” with 50,000 followers can achieve as high engagement as a “top influencer” with 1 million followers. High real engagement and low cost for these campaigns help brands sell products and increase hundreds of new followers. 

For example, a sportswear company cooperates with a star with 1 million fans, they can reach a large audience, but 90% of these people may not be sports lovers. If the company worked with 20 micro-influencers whose followers were also sports fanatics, the brand would reach a huge fan base. 

Aside from having a close relationship with followers, branding content creation is still a secondary job, not a full-time job, so they'll post less sponsored content. Hence, their content will be more natural. With the same budget, brands can collaborate with 20-40 “micro-influencers” to reach a different audience and see real and better engagement, compared to 1 or 2 famous stars. 

On average, collaborating with a "micro-influencer" yields 2-5 times better active engagement with an "influencer" of 100,000 fans. This helps brands and businesses truly build sustainable brands when "92% of customers trust acquaintances' referrals" *. 

Terminology Note: 

Micro-Influencer: people who make an impact with a small group 

* as reported by Nielsen

Source: BrandsVietnam