9 Micro-Influencer Strategies That Work
Nine concrete tactics for working with micro-influencers in 2019, beyond just sending free product and hoping for a post.
By 2019 “micro-influencer” had become a marketing buzzword, which meant the useful advice was getting buried under vague encouragement to “partner with creators.” Here’s what worked for businesses running these partnerships that year, stripped down to specific tactics rather than general principles.
1. Set a follower floor and ceiling, not just a floor
Most brands screened out accounts that were too small. Fewer screened out accounts that had grown past the point where their audience still felt like a community. The sweet spot most brands settled on in 2019 sat somewhere between 5,000 and 50,000 followers, small enough that the creator still replies to comments personally, large enough to reach a meaningful number of people.
2. Vet the comments section, not just the follower count
Follower numbers can be bought. Genuine conversation in the comments is much harder to fake convincingly. Before reaching out, brands checked whether real people were replying to the creator’s posts, not just leaving emoji, and whether the creator replied back.
3. Lead with product seeding before paying
Sending free product with no obligation attached, and seeing who posts about it unprompted, was a cheap way to find creators who liked the product before spending a marketing budget on a formal deal. The creators who posted without being asked were consistently the best paid partners later.
4. Negotiate usage rights up front
A recurring 2019 mistake was paying for a single Instagram post with no agreement about reusing that content elsewhere. Brands that built simple usage rights into every contract, permission to repost the creator’s content on the brand’s own channels or in ads for a set period, got far more value out of the same spend.
5. Use unique promo codes instead of guessing at attribution
A discount code tied to one creator’s name made it possible to see exactly how many sales came from that partnership, something a vague “swipe up and check it out” post couldn’t provide. This became the single most common way small businesses measured whether a micro-influencer deal was worth repeating.
6. Build a roster instead of one-off deals
Running the same handful of creators through a rotation, rather than finding a new one for every campaign, meant less time spent vetting and more consistent quality, since brands already knew what to expect from each partner.
7. Match the creator’s actual niche, not just their audience size
A fitness account with 10,000 followers sold fitness products far better than a lifestyle account with 100,000 followers posting about the same product as one item among dozens. Relevance beat reach almost every time.
8. Give creative freedom within simple guardrails
Creators who were handed a rigid script produced content that read like an ad and performed like one. The brands that got authentic-feeling posts gave a short list of key points to hit and let the creator write it in their own voice.
9. Treat the best relationships as ongoing, not campaign-based
A single sponsored post reads as an ad. A creator who mentions a brand across several months starts to read as an honest fan. Brands that signed ongoing, lower-frequency deals with their best-performing micro-influencers saw stronger trust and conversion than those buying one post at a time.
Keep exploring: browse more Social Media Marketing guides, see everything we published in 2019 or check out the Digital Business Marketing Awards.
