What Are Nano Influencers?
Nano influencers have often been compared to that super-popular friend on your feed. They have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers, and as with micro, (10,000 to 100,000 followers) micro (100,000 to 1 million followers) and mega (over 1 million followers) influencers, they exert a certain power over the purchasing decisions of their community.
Nano influencers may share lifestyle photos, live stream videos and post blog content about their daily activities. Their content typically highlights their knowledge of a niche industry, which positions them as specialized yet relatable figures. Because of their relatability and the insular nature of their following, they can build substantial relationships with their community, indicated by high engagement rates. Engagement is defined as the number of likes, comments and shares a post receives. The nano influencer gains by far the most engagement of the influencer tiers. According to a Digiday survey, nano influencer marketing can engage up to 8.7% of a creator’s following, five times a mega influencer’s engagement rate of 1.7%.
Nano influencers can also achieve higher conversion rates. Their content receives more clicks than influencers with larger followings, meaning a nano influencer can rake in more potential sales with a series of posts. This stems from nano influencers’ ability to forge trusting, authentic relationships with their communities.
Why Are Nano Influencers Booming?
If you were to open Instagram and take a few minutes to scroll through your feed, chances are you’d encounter several sponsored posts and promoted ads for big-name celebrities. Advertising is becoming ever more entwined with social media, and we’re used to scrolling past such forms of marketing with little interaction or thought.
On the other hand, if you see a friend raving about a certain product or come across a travel recommendation from someone with similar interests, you, as a consumer, are more likely to respond. Your responses can take the form of social media engagement or actual purchases. You feel more comfortable behaving this way because you can rely on your friend’s taste, interests and endorsements.
The domain of nano influencer marketing essentially weaves together the power of good marketing and neighborly, trusted recommendation. Nano influencers are already highly involved in their social media communities. They comment on and like their peers’ posts and share mentions from their followers on their stories. They bring niche expertise to their platform and help elevate their community members to their level of knowledge. In short, nano influencers are great at earning engagement because they are themselves engaged; their recommendations and interests inspire excitement within their communities.
It is this point that is so appealing to brands. Marketing is all about tapping into a target audience, expanding reach and motivating purchases. Nano influencers are essentially the vectors for brands looking to connect with their existing and potential customers; these influencers already have a tight-knit, active following that will respond to their brand-bolstering content. This means higher conversion, higher engagement and greater trust for the brand appearing on a nano influencer’s feed.
How Can Businesses Use Nano Influencer Marketing in Their Campaigns?
Brands should consider two avenues when deciding to implement nano influencer marketing: brand ambassadors and sponsored posts. Both offer the benefit of high engagement but require different approaches and budgetary considerations.
Brand ambassadors usually accept a company’s product in exchange for a series of posts. These posts feature the product and explain how it relates to and improves the influencer’s life. This long-running partnership produces lifestyle photos and other content that the brand can use in subsequent marketing efforts. Through this partnership, brand ambassadors provide a hefty amount of diverse, high-quality, user-generated content at practically no cost.
44% of influencers prefer monetary compensation over free products. Therefore, the other option is to arrange a deal with a creator to create a sponsored post featuring a brand’s product. Brands usually pay per post rather than for an ongoing series as with brand ambassadors. The upside of this approach is that brands can be somewhat experimental; they can keep their costs low while receiving a post from several nano influencers in different cities with different followers. Plus, because posts must be flagged as a sponsorship, they can be promoted like ads in Instagram stories and the feed, receiving more impressions.
How Can Brands Choose the Right Nano Influencers?
One of the best parts about working with nano-influencers is that they are incredibly abundant. Only 0.3% of influencers have more than 1 million followers, while 52% of creators have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers. On Instagram alone, there are over 1 billion active nano influencers, which means businesses have a huge selection of creators to choose from. Of course, this also means it can be hard to find the best partners for a brand’s unique marketing goals.
Brands should first and foremost look for nano influencers who share their values. This will maintain the influencer’s authenticity among their followers and lead to higher conversions for the brand. An influencer should have an established interest, knowledge and awareness of a brand’s industry and should be able to relate to its products and services fluently. Moreover, a well-versed influencer can bring new, unexpected life to a brand’s marketing campaign. Capturing this creativity can reward businesses with new customers and more sales.
Furthermore, businesses should consider an influencer’s engagement rate and reach; reach is calculated as the number of users who saw an influencer’s post. Some campaigns will succeed with smaller, tighter communities, while others will do better when an influencer can impact buyers in several cities and across several platforms.
Lastly, brands must assess the quality of an influencer’s existing feed. Look out for influencers with a spammy follower ratio, as this gives the impression that this influencer isn’t truly engaged with their network. Also, decline partnerships with influencers who post low-quality photos or who write super brief captions. Good photos gain more impressions than grainy, poorly lit or poorly composed photos, and brands must ensure their product is highlighted in the most flattering way possible. Engagement is also correlated to caption length; a caption of 1,000 characters garners a 5.97% engagement rate, compared to just 5% for 100 characters.
Even if the pool of existing nano influencers doesn’t satisfy a brand’s needs, there’s still hope; brands can create an influencer. A brand can scour different social media platforms for relevant hashtags, looking for regular people in targeted areas willing to become a brand ambassador. This strategy works especially well for smaller businesses on tight budgets since a brand new nano influencer will typically accept free products in lieu of a paycheck. Overall, these undiscovered creators represent a huge potential for partnership.
What Does It Cost to Hire a Nano Influencer?
Current guesstimates place the average cost of a sponsored post at 1% of the influencer’s follower count. For example, one sponsored post from a nano influencer with 5,000 followers will cost just $50. Compare this to the average price of a single Instagram video from a celebrity: $3,138. Nano influencers deliver a greater value for money, as their posts inspire their followers to click through at higher rates than mega influencers. Plus, brands still can build a clique of brand ambassadors by giving away their product.
What Kind of Contracts Do Nano Influencers Require?
In general, it’s a good idea to use professional contrast with nano influencers, even if they are new to the world of marketing. Draft a contract that outlines the partnership’s duration, the number of posts, photos or pieces of content required and the terms of payment.
Brands should also communicate their expectations from an influencer’s posts. If they want to achieve a certain tone, target a niche audience or employ specific hashtags, they should write this into the contract. One of the few drawbacks of nano influencer marketing is that the content creators can be inexperienced; it’s, therefore, necessary to clearly define the bounds and requirements of the partnership before signing an arrangement with a nano influencer.
Lastly, businesses should ensure transparency in their partner’s sponsored posts. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires that all brand partnerships are disclosed on an influencer’s content; such disclosures should be placed visibly in a post’s text or on a photo itself. It’s also essential to use plain language that isn’t going to come across as illusive or misleading.
What Does the Future of Nano Influencer Marketing Look Like?
2020 has already seen a surge in influencer marketing, and this industry is only expected to grow. 80% of marketers say influencer marketing is an effective strategy, and as platforms like Instagram and Facebook continue to grow in usership, this number could likely go up, as well.
Think back to your social media feed and the number of ads you see. Think of the investment these platforms are making to attract and retain users. Think of the marketing developments that have launched this year alone; Instagram unveiled suggested posts, reels and IGTV integration in posts. These updates create even more opportunities for influencer marketing to succeed, meaning a more significant impact in the nano influencing sphere.
With all this in mind, it’s time to boost conversion rates, engagement and sales by jumping on the trend of nano influencer marketing. For more resources, please visit us at Influx. If you’re interested in working with us schedule an appointment.