Micro/Nano Influencers in Luxury in 2022

Influencer marketing has become essential for any brand that wants to expand its visibility and awareness on the web and increase its sales (conversion rate). Marketing and communication budgets dedicated to influence are exploding and are expected to reach 22 billion dollars by 2024.

With micro and nano influencers, the influencer marketing market is expanding even further. Several studies have shown that the smaller the number of followers, particularly on the social network Instagram, the higher the engagement rate. Thus, brands that could no longer do without influence campaigns in their marketing strategy must now add micro and nano influencers to their communication plans.

These niche influencers are changing the rules of influencer marketing and companies must master them, regardless of their sector of activity. The luxury sector is no exception to this rule. Thus, social networks like Instagram or YouTube are full of micro and nano influencers displaying their interest and taste for luxury brands.

So, what do these niche influencers bring to large groups or luxury brands? How to identify them? What are the criteria to consider for a successful micro-influence campaign?

Micro and Nano Influencers: Who Are They?

There are four types of influencers:

• Mega influencers or stars, celebrities with more than 1 million followers;
• Macro influencers, who have between 100,000 and 1 million followers;
• Micro influencers followed by 10,000 to 100,000 followers;
• Nano influencers with less than 10,000 members in their community, generally between 2,000 and 5,000 followers on their social networks.

Micro and nano influencers are therefore the smallest in terms of community on social networks, but they are the ones who generate the most engagement with their audiences! Brands are now interested in these accounts, with a small number of followers, but having significant influence power over their online community.

Anyone can therefore become an influencer on their own scale. Today’s influencer posts reviews on products they use or consume, publishes photos, videos or writes blog articles, product reviews… In short, the influencer tests products or services and guides other consumers in their choice by sharing their opinion on the web.

According to an Ifop study, “88% of internet users consult online customer reviews before making a purchase” and “68% trust these reviews, even if they don’t know the author”. Today, consumers trust their peers, which is what makes these micro and nano influencers, with whom followers fully identify, so powerful. Social networks are the preferred expression space for these influencers because it is easy to share content and reach a community beyond one’s private circle. It’s the principle of word-of-mouth that has gone digital!

Micro and nano influencers are numerous, with varied profiles, and therefore represent an important pool of potential ambassadors to serve brand objectives.

Luxury Brand: Why Collaborate with Micro or Nano Influencers in 2022?

Micro and nano influencers may have small communities, but the followers of these accounts are highly engaged (the engagement rate is 3 times higher on average than that of macro or mega influencers). This is explained by the fact that they gather their audience around specific, even niche subjects and content. When a follower follows a micro or nano influencer, it’s because the content particularly interests them and/or they identify with the influencer in question.

The objective of these micro and nano influencers is not financial; they primarily seek to satisfy their community by being transparent and authentic. There is a real desire to share their point of view and bring value to their audience. Generally, influence is not always their profession (unlike macro and mega influencers), so they express themselves on social networks out of passion for the product.

As a luxury brand, it is therefore interesting to collaborate with several micro and nano influencers to:

• Obtain interesting data that helps evolve the product, refresh a best-seller and bring it up to date, for example;

• Reach a new target audience, a new generation of consumers and modernize the brand image;

• Increase brand awareness on the web and generate more online sales. According to a Keller Fay study, “82% of consumers follow the recommendations of at least one micro-influencer”. The influence of micro and nano influencers is therefore of high quality, due to the trust they generate within their communities.

Luxury and Micro and Nano Influencers

Contrary to popular belief, the luxury world is not immune to micro and nano influencers! There are multiple small accounts on social networks specializing in luxury, such as @lepointjenn, which has 3,700 followers on Instagram and nearly 37,000 on YouTube. This nano influencer shares her passion for luxury brands and their products on her Instagram account and YouTube channel: bags, small leather goods… On Instagram, she shares looks featuring products from these brands (Vuitton, Hermès…) and on her YouTube channel, she presents her latest purchases or comparisons between several products. The videos are of high quality and the most viewed one has over 34,000 views.

Other examples include the nano influencer @votreimagepersonnalisee who shares her fashion looks on her Instagram feed with her 9,000 followers, always with a touch of luxury: a Chanel sweater, a Dior bag, or a Fendi swimsuit. Luxury micro-influence on Instagram is not limited to women. @olouwa.g has over 20,000 followers and poses for Valentino or Mugler.

These nano accounts are just a few examples among many that demonstrate “there is a significant audience for this type of content, and that the power of influence is very real, even when it comes to” luxury items. These micro and nano influencers are nothing more or less than real buyers and consumers who share an experience, unfiltered, and who guide “internet users in their choices. The Favikon influencer search tool has even published a” TOP 5 of nano-influencers for luxury brands which gives you an overview of the type of content for your partnerships.

Luxury Brand: How to Collaborate with Micro and Nano Influencers in 2022?

Identifying Profiles that Align with Luxury Brand Values

The multiplicity of micro and nano influencer accounts makes them, in fact, difficult to identify in the mass. These influencers do not have agents or dedicated teams in charge of collaborations, so it proves more time-consuming to target and contact them. Beyond identification, you need to ensure the quality of their content, their tone, evaluate their audience engagement, verify their geographical reach, the typology of followers…

The tool developed by Trustt allows you to integrate an ambassador program on your website and thus identify potential influencers among your clients, prospects, and visitors. Trustt has developed its own machine learning algorithm: SophIA®. This smart matching technology helps identify the right ambassadors for your products. These profiles are pre-selected based on their affinities with your brand and its products, on their potential to engage, contribute, and speak authentically and relevantly about the products. To help you make the right choice of “influencers, Trustt generates a comprehensive analysis of each identified profile: number of” followers, engagement rate per post, hashtags used, audience analysis…

Connection with Communities Dedicated to Your Brand’s Values

Once the ambassador profiles are validated, all you have to do is send them the products you want to promote. Trustt takes care of making publication requests, follow-ups, and collecting photo and video testimonials. All content created by the influencers is then centralized on a dashboard that allows you to track your objectives and the performance of your influence campaigns (whether it’s mega, macro, micro, or nano influence).

In short, launching a micro-influence campaign without a dedicated tool represents a potentially significant waste of time, not to mention that the process will need to be repeated across the different social networks you target. This is why we recommend that brands wishing to conduct micro-influence campaigns equip themselves with software dedicated to identifying and managing relationships with micro and nano influencers.

Micro and nano-influencers will not replace macro and mega influencers, but they are complementary in strategy. They should be integrated into marketing strategies and your influence campaigns, even as a luxury brand. The important thing to guarantee your brand image is to work with influencers who truly appreciate your brand and its values. The authenticity of messages and content is the key to a successful influence campaign on the web.