How to Become a Micro Influencer: 7 Steps for Turning Social Media Into Profit
In this blog post, you will learn how to become a micro influencer, and how to make money as a micro influencer.
Micro influencers and micro bloggers are often sought out by brands for collaborations because they know that a partnership will carry weight with their audience.
This blog post will teach you how to become a successful micro-influencer by providing 7 steps for how to do so! We will provide the best tips on how to work with brands as a micro influencer and how you can turn social media into profit.
Psst… want our toolkit to land paid partnerships with brands? This toolkit is what we use to land brand deals for our social media clients and it works even if you have a small social media following.
Disclosure; This post probably contains affiliate links. We only recommend products we use and love and all opinions expressed here are our own.
What is a micro influencer?
Defining the term “micro influencer” or “micro blogger” can be a little confusing because there are many definitions. What makes you a microblogger? Followers? Engagement?
Basically, a micro influencer or micro blogger is a person who has a deeply engaged audience within a specific niche.
How many followers do you need to be a micro influencer?
A micro influencer or micro blogger could have from 1000 to 100,000 social media followers or blog readers and still land brand sponsorships.
A micro influencer has built an authentic connection with their audience. There are different opinions on what makes an influencer “micro” but generally it means they have less than 100,000 followers.
A micro influencer is highly engaged with their audience and they have built like and trust factor with their community that causes them to take action. Basically, they have a genuine influence.
So if you’re looking to pitch as a micro influencer, let’s talk about ways you can stand out.
Why are micro influencers so sought out by brands?
Being a micro-blogger actually puts you at an advantage because you usually have a small but loyal audience, versus the bigger bloggers with a lot of spammers and ghost followers.
Micro influencers often have a loyal following, because their followers trust them. Brands feel that these individuals provide authentic reviews of products or services. Micro influencers offer an intimate experience for the audience which makes consumers more inclined to buy from the brand!
Related: Brands that collaborate with small influencers.
How much do micro influencers make?
Micro influencers typically make anywhere from $100 – $1000 per post depending on their number of followers and engagement rate. If you want to learn how it’s done, keep reading!
A rule of thumb for influencer brand collaborations is $100 for every 10K followers you have depending on the amount of work. This means if there is a lot of work involved, you can charge a little more.
If you have around 1000 followers you can make around $10-15 per sponsored post. Influencers or bloggers with a number of 10 000-15 000 followers can make anywhere from $100-300 per post.
Why do brands want to partner with micro influencers?
If you’re reading this you are probably wondering “Why would a brand want to work with a micro influencer when they can easily collab with macro influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers?”
Here’s why:
- More affordable
Working with a micro influencer is a much smaller expense for brands than if they would collaborate with macro influencers who have hundreds of thousands of followers.
On Instagram 84% of micro-influencers charge less than $250 per branded post. 97 percent of them charge less than $500 for a branded post.
For most brands looking to do marketing on Instagram, it is more cost-effective to work with several micro influencers at once. This means they can achieve their goals at a lower price.
2. Higher engagement rate
Micro influencing focuses on a niche or a highly targeted audience. A highly targeted audience is likely to drive higher engagement. Reports show that micro-influencers have 60 percent higher campaign engagement rates and those campaigns are 6.7 times more efficient per engagement than influencers with larger followings, which makes them more cost-effective. Also, micro-influencers drive 22.2 times more weekly conversations than the average consumer.
For example, an influencer who focuses on a particular niche like beauty products, would have an audience made up of mostly of people who are looking to try out new beauty products. Any post the beauty influencer makes will drive high engagement and reactions from his/her followers.
3. Authentic content
One of the biggest reasons why brands chose to start working with micro-influencers has to do with their authenticity. People can relate to their feeds and their everyday content.
Although macro-influencers and celebrities can still be successful ambassadors, they are not relatable to the target audience.
Consumers see micro-influencers as they can be one of them. Brands also boost their own level of authenticity with this trend. Their messaging has higher chances to be liked and trusted by their target audience, improving brand reputation and making a higher return of investment (ROI).
How to become a micro influencer 2021
So, you think you’re ready to learn how to become a micro influencer 2021? Where should you begin? How do you start gaining followers? You might also be wondering how to work with brands as a micro influencer.
Here are the 7 steps to follow:
Have a strong branding
Create a strong and cohesive brand to stand out. This means you need a logo, which can be used on all your social media platforms and on your website. Also, choose your brand colors. You also need to think about your brand values and tone of voice. You can incorporate these into your social media posts.
Create an aesthetic and professional looking media kit that matches your brand identity. We have media kit templates in our shop that will help you stand out among your competitors to land successful partnerships.
Create an influencer profile on sites like FameBit and Social Blade to start bidding for jobs with brands that are looking for micro-influencers 2021. Gaining followers is how you make money as a micro-influencer, so this step will help get things moving in the right direction.
Choose your niche
If you choose a target niche you will have less competition and a more specific and loyal audience.
But how do you know what niche to choose? Step one is to think about what you are passionate about. Find your passion areas and pinpoint problems associated with this niche.
Learn everything you need to know about your niche and experiment with topics in this area to learn what works with your audience.
Post consistently
As an influencer, you have to post consistently and engage with your audience. Posting once a week is not going to cut it.
Post at least once a day or every other day to start with and make sure you are engaging with your audience by responding to comments, liking posts, and asking for their thoughts on how the post could’ve been better.
Create content that solves problems in your niche.
When posting on Instagram, it’s important to use the right hashtags to make sure to increase visibility.
Get inspiration from your competitors
Drawing inspiration from your competitors is not the same as copying someone else’s idea or works. It is more about how to use what you find as inspiration and add your own spin on it.
If you are not sure how to get started or how to go about creating content, talk with other influencers in the same niche that have been successful.
Pitch to Brands
The best way how to start making money as a micro influencer is by pitching brands for sponsored content and consulting work.
We have a brand pitch toolkit in our shop. These are the tools we use to successfully land brand sponsorships for ou social media management clients.
There are some things to keep in mind when you want to learn how to pitch brands as a micro influencer.
To land your first sponsorship you might have to make a few free collaboration posts to score your first paid one. Free collaborations give you a chance how to show your personality and style.
For example, if you are pitching an electronics company, consider making videos with your favorite tech gadgets in different settings such as on vacation or at home.
Bonus points if you’re active on more platforms than just Instagram. Starting a blog before jumping into becoming a micro-influencer is a great idea to gain more authority within your niche, increase your credibility and you can potentially charge a lot more money for future brand collaborations.
Double bonus points if you put together a media kit that you can attach in your email pitch.
Don’t forget the super important part to sign a brand collaboration contract with the client you’re gonna work with. I highly recommend getting this Sponsored Posts Contract Template from ASelfGuru. The founder Amira is a lawyer and her templates make sure that you get paid in time and don’t get in any legal trouble.
If you’re wondering how to write the perfect e-mail pitch you can learn everything about that in this post.
Ask for a referral
Every time you’ve completed a collaboration and they are happy with the results, ask for a referral. You want your reach to extend far beyond just a single company, so make sure you have plenty of names you can share. Referrals allow you to show your previous wins and create trust between you and your potential brand partner. This also allows them to visualize your skills and what kind of content they’d like created for their brand.
People are most often happy to throw in a good word for you, especially if they have been pleased with your work. This way you’ll get more brand deals coming your way.
There are a few steps to follow to get high-quality referrals. First, make sure your content is on point and up to date. Exceed the brand’s expectations, over-deliver, and create extraordinary results. Second, respect your partners’ deadlines, always communicate effectively and respond to any feedback given.
Next, ask for the referrals as politely as possible. For example: “I’m really happy about how this project went- please share my work with anyone you think would be interested! -Your Name
Go above and beyond for your client and they’ll most likely agree to grant you a referral.
Use influencer platforms for micro influencers
As a micro influencer, you should make yourself more visible for potential collaborations by signing up to influencer marketing platforms. The great thing about these platforms is that, in most cases, they will find the perfect match for your brand.
There are several popular examples of influencer platforms you can look into:
-BrandBacker
-Pair
-TapInfluence
-Social Baker
-FameBit
-Social Blade
…etc.
How brands select micro influencers
If you’re looking to collaborate with brands, it’s important to know what brands are looking for in micro influencers.
Here are some info brands consider before collaborating with an influencer or a blogger:
Your niche
Brands only work with micro influencers whose niches are aligned with their brand. Do you have a strong following in the beauty industry?
If so, then it’s likely that most of your followers are looking for makeup and skincare-related items.
This means that they would be less interested in electronics or fashion brands.
Your engagement levels
Brands will also look at if your audience engages and interacts with the content you put out. If there is a high chance that the audience will not interact with your content, then there is no point for a brand to work with you. If they see that your account has a low engagement rate, they most likely will not be interested in collaborating.
Audience demographics
Brands want to look at your audience demographics before offering you a collaboration. Do you share the same audience with the brand? Include this information in your media kit. You can find information about your audience demographics in your analytics section on Instagram and in Google analytics.
How to pitch to brands as a micro influencer
Now you might be wondering how to pitch brands as a micro influencer.
There are some things to think about before you pitch a brand for collaboration:
Pick the right brand to pitch
The brands you reach out to should make sense to your own personal brand. If the brand doesn’t fit your profile, it might not be worth sending them a pitch.
Do your homework on the brand. Try to figure out your similarities and where you can really add value to their brand, don’t be afraid to mention that in your pitch.
A great place to start is pitching to brand that are already working with micro-influencers. If they have already chosen to work with micro-influencers chances are they believe in this strategy, and would be glad to work with you as well.
Send a personalized email or DM
Brand collaborations are all about how personal you can make it for both parties to benefit and feel like they received something in return. Customize each email with information that is specific to what benefits them and their company. Check out this email template for collaboration to successfully land brand sponsorships.
Know your value
Before you start reaching out to brands, it is important that you know your engagement rate, conversion rate, analytics, and how much influence you actually have. These numbers will help you figure out how much a brand should pay for your posts, how many followers you need to have, and what is the best way to price yourself.
The key is to have all of your analytics tracked so that when brands ask for proof, you can show them your stats. And as a micro influencer, it’s not about how many followers you have, it’s about proving to brands that your audience has a high engagement and take action!
Know your goals
As soon as you get started in this business it is important that know where you want to go with it. Do a business plan, create goals, and make sure to think about how you will track your success.
No Time? No Problem!
If you really don’t have any time, there are services that can help with social media management for micro influencers including Hootsuite and Buffer.
Get creative
When it comes to pitching to brands as a micro influencer, you will need to get your creativity flowing. You have to think outside the box to stand out among others and really showcase your strengths. The possibilities are endless so try to come up with creative ways you can work together to help the brand achieve their goals.
Audit your branding
Not having a consistent and clean branding and messaging across social platforms, website, and marketing materials is a red flag when brands look into a partnership with you. It makes you look unattractive to work with.
So make sure to audit your Instagram, make your website look great, have a professional media kit and some referrals ready.
Even if you’re just starting out as a micro influencer, make sure to prepare everything that the big influencers and bloggers do so you look like a pro.
Conclusion
Now we hope you have gotten some tips on how to become a micro influencer 2021 and how to work with brands as a micro influencer. Remember to do your research, be creative in how you present yourself and know your value. We wish you the best of luck!
