Influencer marketing is also considered an effective way for small brands to reach their target audience and increase brand awareness.
At the beginning, it is especially important to define what goals are to be achieved through this type of marketing. Because after that, the upcoming campaign will be aligned. Do you want to increase brand awareness only, focus on highlighting your USP, emphasize more Instagram engagement, or even boost the sales of a specific product?
Although some believe that influencer marketing is extremely costly, there are ways to successfully enter this marketing strategy with a limited budget. Instead of collaborating with large, established influencers, small brands with a limited budget can focus on nano and micro-influencers. While micro-influencers have a smaller number of followers, they often have a very engaged community. Working with micro-influencers can be more cost-effective and still achieve effective reach and engagement. A statistic from 2020 shows that around 78% of German influencers are nano and micro-influencers. Compared to the 22% of influencers with a follower count of over 20,000, this creates the opportunity to tap into a huge potential customer base.
Smaller brands should look for creative forms of collaboration to work with influencers. Instead of offering direct financial compensation, they can offer product samples, exclusive discounts, or other considerations. Influencers are often willing to enter into this type of cooperation, as it gives them the opportunity to provide added value to their followers.
Another cost-effective method for smaller brands is to utilize user-generated content (UGC). This means encouraging their customers to create content around their brand and share it with the appropriate hashtag and product tagging. The creator focuses on the brand itself and presents it or the respective product. This image and video material can be used by the brand for its own media design and brings personalized value to customers. The creators often showcase the products in mostly personal situations and share how they use them in their daily lives and why they are satisfied with them.
