How To Select a Micro-Influencer For Your Startup, SaaS, Or Service

Traditionally influencer marketing has been used by companies with physical products. Think dog brands, fashion, makeup, etc. But with the increased need for authenticity varying industries and business models are finding value in influencer marketing.

Why You Should Consider Micro-Influencers For Your Startup, SaaS, Or Digital Service

There are many reasons why micro-influencers have become a popular marketing tool for SaaS and digital service companies. It can act as an untapped market for many. But beyond that it’s a means to validate new ideas, test new markets, generate revenue, and more.

More and more companies are enlisting the help of creators on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. to help review and/or spread the word about their tools, services, and platforms.

To put it more simply here are the reasons why:

• Untapped marketing avenue
• Generate new revenue
• Unlock new audience
• Validate business / idea
• Test new market
• Test new geography
• Get in-depth feedback

6 Things To Check When Choosing a Micro-Influencer For Your Startup, SaaS, Or Service

Category, Industry & Niche

The most obvious checkpoint. Do they provide and or create content in your vertical. This is the easiest thing to filter out potential micro-influencers. Search for creators in your industry targeting your audience.

Follower count

When doing your first look at a potential micro-influencer you need to match the follower count on the respective platform to your business and budget. If you have a smaller budget then the micro-influencer target makes sense for you.

How many followers does a micro-influencer have?

Somewhere between 1,000 and 100,000 followers depending on the platform. The channel they are on will change what constitutes a strong following. Think of subscribers on TikTok versus LinkedIn. One has a much higher barrier to follow then the other. Therefore a TikTok influencer with even 150k followers could arguably be considered a micro-influencer.

Activity & Frequency

Next up we have their activity. This checkpoint is all about how active they are. Not to toot our own horn (micro-influencer.io) but most tools for influencers boast “1 million+ influencers”, which consists of 99% of the influencers not having a post out in the last 2 years. This is obviously not someone we want to waste time contacting. And even though it sounds ridiculous to list activity here, it is crucial.

Beyond just the question of whether they're posting or not, there is the frequency at which they are doing it. You want to find a micro-influencer that matches your brand, voice, and yes, frequency. Do they put out content 3 times a day or are they more methodical with their content? What about yourself? Look for a match on this at its a great thing to align on early.

Vibe Check

The item that has no good name. We’re stuck calling it the vibe check internally but really this is the gut feel that can’t be described as easily.

We hand select and vet every single micro-influencer added into our database. And, with that process we actually write down our gut feel about said creator. Things like whether their audience matches the niche, whether they add value in their videos. If they have a cool / unique twist that they put on their content to stand out.

These are the immeasurables that ultimately matter the most. Our team spends the most time creating these personalized insights so that you get a strong high level view of the micro-influencer without having to scroll through all their content.

Engagement

Once we’ve passed all the above items we can start to focus on the granules. Here is where we take a closer look at what type of engagement they are getting on the content. What could we expect if we purchased some promotional content from them? Does their average video get more views then we’ve ever seen on one of our social posts? Based on these numbers we can get an idea of what to expect AND how much we would reasonably be willing to pay!

Demographics

Lastly, we have the demographics. This is the final check to really seal the deal with your selection. We want to see two things. 1) An audience similar to the one we are targeting. If we have accounting software then lets make sure their audience is accountants. Verifying this can be easier said then done. 2) An engaged audience. Beyond ensuring it’s the right audience, we want to make sure they are actually watching and engaging with the content. Tying in to the activity and frequency measure this is the final check before giving your next micro-influencer a call.

The Perfect Micro-Influencer Storm

You’ve found 3-5 micro-influencers that have that perfect sweet spot of 40,000 subscribers on YouTube. They are creating software reviews within your industry and seem keen on utilizing affiliate links. They post a new video every single week and you don’t know how to describe it but they provide a uniquely fun viewpoint on the tools and software they talk about. If these micro-influencers weren’t already perfect, their engagement numbers and audience involvement really sold it. With over 100k average views on each video and 3k+ comments.

All that is left is to REALLY find the perfect micro-influencers and reach out!