MDG Solutions

How small influencers can make a big impact for multi-location businesses

Working with influencers is a great way to expand your audience and drive stronger engagement, with a reasonable price tag! With the influencer market set to surpass 48 billion by 2027 (in fact, it’s already worth well over $24 billion), there is no shortage of opportunities for multi-location businesses. Influencers can help move services and products by introducing businesses to their dedicated followers and building brand awareness locally. With more than 63% of shoppers are likely to buy a product that was recommended by an influencer they trust, investing in an influencer strategy may have a big payoff. However, instead of jumping right to the mega influencers, multi-location businesses should consider engaging micro-influencers. We’ll break down why small influencers can make a big impact for multi-location businesses in this article.

The different types of influencers and why you should go micro

Most of us follow an influencer or two (or hundreds). If they post content regularly and have a large following, they are most likely a macro influencer with 500,000 to 1M followers. Even higher up the chain, mega influencers have over 1M followers and the cost to do business with them may be prohibitive for small-to-medium sized multi-location businesses. Sometimes in marketing we have a tendency to look down on small campaigns, thinking they aren’t worth the effort. However, when it comes to influencers, it makes sense to start looking at nano influencers with 1,000 to 10,000 followers and micro influencers with 10,000 to 100,000 followers as the best option.  

Why? A few valid reasons. 

  1. Cost effectiveness – A nano or micro influencer will charge much less for a post or sponsorship than a mega-influencer. A good benchmark is to expect to pay $10 per 1,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok, and $20 per 1,000 followers on Facebook and YouTube. Keep in mind that different styles of posts and the addition of non-compete agreements will typically require a fee, but are well worth it for a successful engagement. 
  2. Access engaged audiences – If people are following a smaller influencer, they most likely feel more connected to that person and trusting because they are not on the mega level, out of reach with their day-to-day reality. Often times, nano and micro influencers are local influencers, making it even more vital for a multi-location business to capture their audience.
  3. Get hyper-local – For multi-location businesses location matters, so addressing a targeted audience about their specific needs or wants can lead to a higher ROI than if you gave the same message to a mega influencer. For your brand to appear authentic and true, your audience needs to believe that you are speaking directly to them. Nano and micro influencers can help fulfill that need by speaking genuinely and honestly about your collaboration. 

How to work with an influencer 

When you are ready to give nano or micro influencer marketing a try, consider some of the tips below to make sure you achieve your goals and make a big impact.

  1. Be clear about your goals – It’s great that you want to promote your products or services with an influencer, but you need to have clear goals if you want to be able to tell if the engagement is working. It’s also advisable to set realistic goals, starting with small wins, like building brand awareness, and then work your way towards increase sales. After all, ideally you find an influencer that you want to work with for the long term. These goals should also be part of your brand’s overall marketing strategy because random one-off campaigns without the broader goals in mind will not return great results. 
  2. Know the FTC rules – In the United States, influencers and brands are subject to rules set forth by the Federal Trade Commission, indicating how they must disclose sponsored posts. Make sure to incorporate this into your agreement with any influencers in case they do not adhere to the rules or try to add #ad to the end of the post when it should be front and center. 
  3. Do extensive market research – Know your audience and know the influencers. Creating a comprehensive profile of your audience and what they are looking for is vital to success. Then, do extensive research around the influencers that adhere to your brand’s values and can speak honestly about your product or service. When you have a list of influencers you think would be great partners, take a long look at profile engagement and comments as this will provide an inside look as to what you can expect when working with them. 
  4. Make it personal – The beauty of nano and micro influencers is that they provide a more personalized approach, so it’a unlikely that they would respond well to a canned email from you. And, if you’re hoping to build a long-term beneficial relationship, a clear, intentional, and personal email goes a long way in paving the way for stronger collaborations.
  5. Collaborate and measure – As closely as you can, track the results of the campaign. Used personalized links and relevant martech tools to understand what is working and what is not. Do not be shy about asking the influencer what works best and pay attention to other brand’s partnerships to generate ideas. Remember, the more you move beyond likes and comments as a measurement, the more robust your return and the more rich your engagement. 

Tools to help manage influencer campaigns

There are platforms available to help find and engage with influencers easily, and may even manage payments. If your multi-location brand has never worked with an influencer before, an influencer marketing platform is a great way to find and connect with influencers. Consider investigating some of the following platforms:

  • Upfluence – An all-in-one platform, you can find and collaborate with influencers, manage projects, integrate with other tools, pay influencers, and measure engagement from the collaboration. 
  • Facebook Brands Collabs Manager – from the Meta team, this platform makes it easy to engage with followers and measure the engagement.
  • Collabstr – Find and hire top talent for most social platforms. Offering a bit more security, Collabstr will also hold your payment until the contract has been completed. 

When you’re ready to start engaging influencers, but don’t want to do it alone, reach out to the MDG team. We partner with influencers and multi-location brands to drive big impacts.