Influencer marketing has become one of the most popular forms of marketing for brands and businesses of all types. Many professionals previously assumed that influencer marketing was only for big companies that could afford to purchase the marketing services of influencers with millions of followers. That is no longer the case.
Micro-influencer marketing has been a growing trend over the last several years. Rather than seeking out influencers with millions of followers, smaller businesses on tighter budgets can seek out small-time influencers with only thousands of followers. Small-time influencers charge much more reasonable fees for their marketing services because they only have between 1 and 100,000 followers on average.
Yet, small to medium-sized businesses can still utilize the power of micro-influencer marketing to appeal to their target audience. All they need is a way to seek out and connect with micro-influencers who run social media channels with a similar theme as their businesses.
What Are Micro-Influencer Platforms?
The popularity of micro-influencers has given rise to something called micro-influencer platforms. These online tools can help smaller brands and businesses connect with nano-influencers, micro-influencers, and mid-tier influencers. Each of these influencer groups can be defined by the number of followers they have:
- Nano-Influencers – 0 to 10,000 followers
- Micro-Influencers – 10,000 to 50,000 followers
- Mid-Tier Influencers – 50,000 to 100,000 followers
When using micro-influencer platforms, you don’t need to seek out the influencers yourself by sending them anonymous marketing requests on social media. Instead, you can utilize micro-influencer platforms to connect with them quickly and professionally.
There are plenty of micro-influencer platforms online. However, the Social Cat influencer platform is the most popular micro-influencer platform. Its online tool has revolutionized how small brands can access influencer marketing. All the influencers listed on the platform are thoroughly vetted and confirmed to be legitimate influencers from major countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Small brands can easily use Social Cat to find micro-influencers operating in specific themes and niches, from pet care and parenting to beauty and fitness. Most influencers have uploaded videos introducing themselves to show firsthand who they are and how well they can speak to their target audience on camera. After all, once you hire them, they will be the face and voice of your brand to their audience. So, choosing well-vetted influencers is critical for sustaining and strengthening your brand image.
How Technology Helps Democratize Influencer Marketing
The technology utilized on micro-influencer platforms like Social Cat is a testament to how it has helped democratize influencer marketing. The technology makes it easier for small brands to search and collaborate with the best influencers to market them. Some of those technologies include:
Influencer Search Database
The essence of any good micro-influencer platform is its search database. You can expect to find between 100,000 and 500,000 registered influencers on any micro-influencer platform. Use the advanced filters and search prompts to find the most qualified influencers to promote your brand easily. These filters may include engagement rate, location, hashtags, and niche.
Streamlined Communication
Influencer platforms offer centralized communication between brands and influencers using in-platform messaging systems to streamline communication without third-party email services or apps. Some platforms like Social Cat even let you create message templates or choose premade templates to quickly and effectively send messages to influencers.
Reviews
In true democratic fashion, micro-influencer platforms allow brands to post and publish reviews of the influencers listed. These reviews enable other brands like yours to quickly judge whether a particular influencer is compatible and trustworthy enough to promote your brand well.
Comparison Between Social Cat and Other Tools
Are you curious to learn more about the other influencer platforms and how they compare to Social Cat? Let us review these different tools to see how they measure up to Social Cat:
INSENSE
INSENSE promotes itself as the number one influencer marketing platform for user-generated content and creator ads. Unlike Social Cat, it does not offer gifted collaborations, free trials, affiliate collaborations, message templates, or a policy allowing users to cancel anytime. Social Cat does provide all these things and so much more.
MODASH
MODASH has a few basic similarities to Social Cat, such as allowing brands to search for influencers and engage in paid collaborations. Unfortunately, MODASH has many more limitations and far fewer features than Social Cat, such as no licensed content, direct communication, influencer vetting, influencer contracts, influencer reviews, and influencer portfolios. You are pretty much limited in how well you can vet and research the influencers.
Influencity
Influencity allows paid collaborations and the ability for brands to search and invite influencers. It even offers audience insights and direct lines of communication with influencers. On the other hand, it doesn’t provide message templates, influencer portfolios, reviews, contracts, vetting, or licensed content either. The good news is that it does have a cancel-anytime policy, which you may need after paying the starting price of $398.
Takeaway
Social Cat continues to stand out amongst the rest because it has more accessible features than any of the other platforms. It is also the only platform with a gifted collaboration option. Gifted collaboration means the brand can send a free product to the influencer in exchange for their social media post to promote them. It is an affordable way for smaller brands with limited budgets to utilize influencer marketing.
Conclusion
According to a recent influencer engagement rates report, the smaller influencers deliver the highest engagement rates for brands. Nano-influencers have the highest average engagement rate of 2.71%, whereas micro-influencers come in second place at 1.81%. Meanwhile, the engagement rates of macro-influencers are up to 0.87%, and mega-influencers are up to 0.94%.
Therefore, small brands can save money and see better engagement by partnering with micro-influencers for marketing purposes. Social Cat is certainly a highly regarded influencer marketing platform, but the other tools also offer unique services. Try each to see which has the most features to connect you with the best influencers to market your brand.
