Social media influencing is one marketing trend that is evolving very fast.

This is one of the most successful marketing strategies for brands to create awareness for their products/services and also generate sales from a wider audience. Different influencers will deliver different results for a brand.

There are tiers in the influencer marketing industry. Depending on your brand’s marketing goal, you should consider the most suited influencer to help you attain the set goals.

Before we can get to discussing which kind of influencer a brand should engage, let’s dive into each kind of influencer in more detail.

Nano Influencers 

This is the newest influencer term in the influencer market. These influencers have the smallest number of followers ranging from 1000-10,000.

They are individuals with a strong influence on their immediate community of followers. Though their reach is low, their engagement is higher compared to the other influencer tiers. This is because they know and interact with most of their followers. Them promoting a brand is like a friend recommending something to you. They are more likely to be trusted by their close-knit following.

Having a high engagement is something brands can leverage while working with these influencers.

Since most nano influencers are just starting out, they charge less than other influencers who have been in the game longer. 

Nano influencers are best for startups or companies with a small budget. These brands get an opportunity to experience the benefits of influencer marketing on a low budget before they can fully invest in this kind of marketing. 

Micro Influencers

This is the tier with the majority of social media influencers. Their followers range from 10,000 to 100,000. They have more experience working with brands compared to nano influencers.

Micro influencers mainly specialize in one niche (beauty, food, travel, fashion, tech). Their followers know them for their expertise on a specific topic and have grown to trust their influence on a particular product/service. 

These influencers have a greater reach and more engagement. They are also quite affordable compared to mega influencers.

Brands can concurrently engage a number of micro influencers in a particular campaign to have a wider reach. Collaborating with a micro influencer in the same niche as your brand can help your brand generate conversions since your target market and their followers are one.

Macro Influencers

These are more known influencers who became famous from the internet either through vlogging on Youtube, blogging or having any other form of content on the internet. These influencers have a following ranging from 100,000 to 1 million.

They have vast experience in working with brands and can be costly to partner with. Their following is huge and can expose your brand to greater masses. Since they are mainly sought after by brands, it is harder to get a chance to collaborate.

Most macro influencers have grown their audience from scratch and have mastered what collaborations are best with their audience. They are specific with the brands they partner with and wouldn’t do a collaboration with a brand just for the sake of it.

Though they have a wide reach, their engagement is not as much as for the smaller tiers of influencers.

Most macro influencers use agents to collaborate with brands. This contributes to an increased brand partnership fee.

If reaching a broader demographic is one of your marketing goals as a brand, partnering with a macro influencer is the way to go. 

Factors To Consider Before Collaborating With An Influencer

For effective influencer marketing of your brand, you have to choose the best-suited influencer. Each influencer will have their own strategy and will have a different impact on your brand. 

So, what are the factors a brand should consider when choosing an influencer for their marketing campaign? 

1. Cost.

Every influencer has their own price range depending on their tier. A macro influencer will charge more than a micro influencer who will charge more than a nano influencer. 

There is no standardized rate for the influencer marketing field.

Brands should consider their budget and goals when choosing an influencer. Depending on your budget, you can choose which tier of influencers you will work with as well as the number of influencers you will need to achieve your goals.

Based on research from a social media consultant, here is a general overview of how much influencers charge per post.

Type of influencer	Number of followers	Rate
Nano influencer	1k – 10k	$10 – $100
Micro influencer	10k – 100k	$100 – $500
Macro influencer	100k – 1M	$5k – $10k

2. Reach

As a brand, you should choose an influencer who will help your brand reach a wider audience and have good engagement. The metric for measuring the reach of an influencer is by the number of followers, the number of people reached by the influencer’s content.

Nano influencers have a narrow reach compared to macro and micro influencers. If your goal is to increase brand awareness by reaching out to more people, you should consider macro influencers, who have both a vast reach and relatively high engagement.

However, you should note that some influencers use pod groups and bots or they buy followers to prove that they have a wider audience hence a wider reach. This does not translate to conversions since the followers are fake.

3. Goals

Another factor a brand should take into consideration before collaborating with an influencer is the goal they have for their brand.

If the goal is to create awareness, motivate people to purchase, or generate quality leads, a brand should choose an influencer who will help them attain exactly that.

A brand whose goal is to create awareness should consider partnering with an influencer with more followers i.e a macro influencer. If their goal is to motivate people to purchase, they should consider partnering with an influencer with a high engagement and stronger connection with their followers. In this case, a nano influencer would be best.

4. Availability of influencer

While planning for an influencer campaign, brands should consider the availability of the influencers they would like to partner with. 

Macro influencers are more in demand in comparison to nano influencers who are more likely to be available for a partnership.

A brand can also choose to work with several nano influencers to have a wider reach similar to working with one macro influencer.

5. Engagement

Engagement on an influencer’s content provides insight into the quality of interaction. An influencer may have a vast reach but the quality of their engagement is not the best and may not bring out the desired results.

High engagement rates are a result of trust. People engage more with promotion content posted by influencers they trust.

Comments, likes, and shares on an influencer’s post can show you how well the audience reacts and converts to content posted.

Summary

As seen above, nano influencers, micro influencers, and macro influencers all have different impacts on a brand. They are all significant in the influencer marketing industry.

A brand’s campaign objective and resources available are the greatest determinants when it comes to choosing an influencer. 

It is recommended for brands to launch various influencer campaigns (with different influencer tiers), analyze the results, and ascertain which strategies or influencer tiers will perform best in the long run.