How Working With Nano Influencers Boosts Brand Awareness

For many brands, influencer marketing has quickly become an important part of a comprehensive marketing strategy. Many marketers mistakenly believe they’ll be more successful working with well known influencers. However, working with nano influencers can get your brand seen by small, highly targeted niche audiences for a fraction of the cost.

Nano influencers have a small following on social media–usually 10,000 followers or fewer, though opinions vary. Many nano influencers focus on non-traditional topics, products, and causes. They have highly engaged audiences who are looking for relevant content concerning their specific interests.

Although nano influencers work on a variety of social media platforms, they’re often associated with Instagram. For our purposes, we’ll focus primarily on Instagram influencers in this article.

Aside from being affordable, a nano influencer can help your brand build some much-needed traction as you grow. Let’s take a look at how nano influencers can help boost your brand awareness and help you expand your audience.

Different Types of Influencers

There are three common types of influencers: mega influencers, micro influencers, and nano influencers. Let’s take a look at the differences among the three.

Mega Influencers

Mega influencers have 100,000 followers or more, and many include A-list celebrities and other well-known public figures. These influencers are best for big brands to partner with. That’s because their advertising rates generally run high. Therefore, they’re out of budget for most companies, but get those companies in front of the largest possible audiences.

Micro Influencers

Micro influencers have between 10,000 and 100,000 followers and are considered to be subject matter experts (SMEs) or key opinion leaders (KOLs) on a variety of topics, industries, and niches. They’re likely to have a more engaged audience than a mega influencer. Additionally, micro influencers are more likely to cultivate real relationships with some of their followers. On the downside, micro influencers can also charge costly advertising fees for partnerships.

Nano Influencers

Nano influencers tend to have 1,000 to 10,000 followers, though some have fewer than 1,000. Their audiences are likely to be small and highly invested in a particular niche. Sometimes, nano influencers may have a following within a local community. Other times, they’re simply serving a highly targeted niche audience.

Why Work with Nano Influencers?

Nano influencers have the most engaged audiences and the highest rate of affordability among the influencers out there. Partnerships aren’t nearly as costly–in fact, some nano influencers will work with brands in exchange for free product, without requesting further compensation. When this is the case, it’s possible to partner with more than one nano influencer at a time and spread the word about your brand even further.

Audiences who follow nano influencers have usually selected them for specific reasons. Therefore, there’s a higher level of trust between nano influencers and their audiences. Their followers may see them as an authority or trusted source on any range of topics–usually within that specified niche.

Because the trust factor is so high and audiences are small, nano influencers also enjoy the highest rate of engagement on their platforms. According to the 2019 State of Influencer Marketing by HypeAuditor, nano influencers had a 5.6% engagement rate, as opposed to 2.43% for micro influencers and 1.97% for mega influencers.

Getting impressions costs less when you work with nano influencers because your investment is low, and because their engagement rates are so high. If your brand fits into a unique niche, you’ll also be likely to find a nano influencer who aligns with your brand, product, or service.

If your brand is part of a more common topic or industry, you can still partner with a nano influencer. You might be able to find influencers who have a unique personal brand or angle on your industry. Perhaps they target a specific audience you want to get your product in front of.

How to Work with a Nano Influencer

To begin working with a nano influencer, the first thing you’ll want to do is reach out and make a connection. Check your influencer’s Instagram profile for instruction on how to connect with them for partnerships. Often, they’ll either provide an email address in their profile, or they’ll specify whether they accept DMs. Some influencers do not want to connect via DM, so pay close attention to their bio.

When you connect with your influencer, find out what their terms are for partnering with brands. Some will accept free product for review in exchange for an occasional post to their Instagram feed. Others will charge a nominal fee per post.

According to MarketingProfs, nano influencers charge an average of about $100 per post. If you’re a small brand or a startup, nano influencers are a great choice because they’re so economical to work with. They’re also a great fit for brands that want to scale. When it comes to influencer marketing, that’s the best bang for your buck.

Here are some examples of influencer marketing strategies you can leverage for your brand:

• Offer influencer partners free product samples to review on their account
• Encourage user-generated content, then re-share
• Sponsor giveaways via one of more of your social media platforms
• Offer your influencer an affiliate link or discount code they can share with their followers for special offers and discounts. With WordPress, there are a number of affiliate plugins that can help you generate and track their codes.
• Recruit nano influencers as long-term brand ambassadors in exchange for free product
• Pay for sponsored posts

Make sure you draw up a contract outlining your agreement with the influencer. It will need to cover terms such as compensation, frequency of posts, and reposting permissions. You’ll want to ensure you have permission to re-share their sponsored posts across your online brand (social media, websites, email marketing, etc.).

Give your influencer partners guidelines for how you’d like them to share your brand, but don’t dictate the content of their posts. Nano influencers are at their best when you allow them to put their own unique spin on your product or offering.

Wrapping Up

If you’re looking to partner with influencers to scale your brand and boost brand awareness, then working with a nano influencer could be a great way for you to grow. This type of influencer marketing strategy is not only affordable–it’s also likely to get your brand in front of a dedicated, engaged audience.

Are you planning on working with a nano influencer to market your brand? Have you worked with nano influencers before? Drop a comment below and let us know.

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