Influencer marketing is an effective marketing channel for brands who want to put their product or service in front of mass audiences to generate sales. However many high-profile athlete influencers are demanding huge paychecks that most brands can’t afford or don’t foresee a high enough return on investment (ROI), therefore questioning the merit of these campaigns.
An emerging alternative to using big name athletes, known as a macro-influencers who can charge thousands of dollars, is to use a less well known though potentially just as influential athlete, known as a micro-influencer.
When influencer marketing began to rise, every big name celebrity and athlete was the ideal candidate because of their mass followings. In recent times, smart brands have been shifting towards micro-influencers who have smaller audiences with larger engagement.
An athlete who would be considered a micro-influencer is typically someone who would have between 3,000 and 50,000 followers on their social media channels.
Below are the top three reasons why athlete micro-influencers should be a consideration for your marketing campaigns.
1. Highly Engaged Audiences
It is reported that influencers with a follower base of 10K to 100K typically have a 2-3% engagement rate per post, whereas micro influencers average 8-10% rate per post, which is three times better. We’ve seen that these engagement rates are typically higher for professional athletes. Therefore taking the reported engagement rates, an athlete who has 10,000 followers potentially has the same amount of reach as one who only has 3,000 due to their engagement rates.
A high engagement is also a good indicator that their audience is real! There are plenty of ways for people to purchase followers which can typically be noticeable when their engagement doesn’t match up to their followers.
2. Their Fans Trust Them
Athlete micro influencers typically grow a deeper connection and trust with their followers because of the more frequent interaction and engagement followers receive from the athlete directly and through other channels such as media, game showings, club pages etcetera. It would simply be unforeseeable that a mega influencer would have the time to personally reply to questions in their comments or respond to all of their messages.
These simple actions by micro athlete influencers are what build stronger connections with their followers, leading to deeper levels of trust.
3. More Cost Effective
Macro influencers demand significantly higher fees for a single post, and for a high-profile athlete, this can be 10x more. Athlete micro-influencers may be the key for brands to get into the Influencer marketing world, without using a significant budget allocation, and can allow brands to test multiple athletes across different sports at a relatively low cost to find their right target audiences.
Like all marketing channels, there are learnings to be made, and testing to be considered before you can work out what is the optimal influencer strategy for your brand. It may even be a mix of using a high profile athlete, with a number of athlete micro-influencers.
If you are interested in learning which of our athletes would work best with your brand as social media influencers, call us today to discuss.
To find out more, visit our website www.agencyxtalent.com.au or contact us direct at hello@agencyx.com.au.