Influencer marketing is a highly successful marketing strategy.
By working with the right influencers, brands can make more than five times what they spend on influencer marketing.
How can you choose the right type of influencer for your brand? Learn about them, evaluate their differences, and weigh their benefits against your business goals.
Listed below are five types of influencers you can choose from:
- Mega-influencers with more than a million followers (think celebrities)
- Macro-influencers with 500K to 1 million followers
- Mid-tier influencers with 50K to 500K followers
- Micro-influencers with 10K to 50K followers
- Nano-influencers with 1K to 10K followers
Table of Contents
1. Mega-Influencers
Due to their celebrity status, mega-influencers have more than a million followers on social media. They generate a ton of engagement on the social platforms where their audience spends time. The reason they are so attractive to brands that want to leverage influencer marketing is that they are extremely expensive.
Studies have found that, despite mega-influencers’ incredible reach, the rate of engagement declines as the influencer’s total followers increase. Only 1.6 percent of Instagram influencers with over 10 million followers engage with their content.
2. Macro-Influencers
A macro-influencer can be a celebrity, a TV personality, an athlete, or a thought leader. Their followers are typically between 500,000 and 1 million. They are more expensive than mega-influencers because they can leverage their reputations to gain followers on social media. Influencers of this type still reach a large audience, but engagement may be lower. That’s because of the follower-to-engagement ratio.
Micro- and nano-influencer content tends to look more professional than macro-influencer content. Depending on their audience and goals, this may be more appropriate for some brands.
3. Mid-Tier Influencers
Despite their lack of celebrity status, middle tier influencers remain a powerful group of content creators. The audience of this type of influencer ranges between 50K and 500K, offering brands a wide reach and slightly more engagement than macro- or mega-influencers. Posts are polished, but not out of date, lending authenticity and familiarity to the writing.
Influencers on the mid-tier are likely to have spent years ascending from nano-influencer to mid-tier influencer rather than leveraging fame for a quick rise to fame. Creating content is their expertise, and they are more connected to their audience.
4. Micro-Influencers
Brands consider micro-influencers to be a more effective group in terms of engagement and trust, even though they have fewer followers than mega-influencers do. Micro-influencers have a close relationship with their followers and are usually more niche-focused. A micro-influencer makes a product more likely to be bought by 82 percent of consumers.
You should keep in mind that micro-influencer content is less polished but may feel more authentic than content from macro- and mega-influencers. Influencer marketing may have a greater impact on a brand’s success based on its business goals.
5. Nano-Influencers
The smallest number of followers gives nano-influencers a modest reach, and possibly a narrower one as well. Brands still benefit from their engagement, however. A nano-influencer has an engagement rate of 8.8 percent, the highest of any influencer type. With this type of influencer, brands can expect a different experience since the content is hyper-authentic and personalized.
A brand with limited resources may be able to start with nano-influencers, who are more cost-effective than their higher-ups. Nano-influencers aren’t always charging brands, as they are building their following and partnering with brands.