Influencer Marketing Strategy

What Influencer Tier is Best for Your Campaign?

Each tier of influencers has pros and cons and you must take it into account while searching for your gem.

June 27, 2022

5 tiers of Influencers

You probably heard about micro and macro influencers, but there are 5 different influencer tiers and you should know their singularities. 

What are the different influencer tiers?

🐣 Nano influencers (<10K followers)

They have small audiences but very engaged communities. They usually take less than 1 or 2 days to answer a DM, and they usually accept partnerships in exchange for a few goods. If you don't know how to get started in marketing influence, nano influencers might be the best entrance to influencer campaigns. 

🐿 Micro influencers (10K - 50K followers)

They already have certain visibility on social media and are quite efficient in encouraging their audience to shop. Micro influencers are affordable, you can easily get in touch with them, and they have loyal and targeted audiences. 

🐱 Mid influencers (50K - 500K followers)

Mid-tier creators are less popular than macro and mega, but their engagement rate is way better. They stay close to their community and are perceived as truthful since they have many followers. By combining the advantages of small and big influencers, they are often considered the best partners for a brand. 

🦕 Macro influencers (500K - 2M followers)

Now we are talking about creators with an enormous reach, but they are not always the best for converting customers. Since they work with many brands, their audience is quite saturated, making it harder for a brand to highlight its products. Still, they can make great collabs if there is a good strategy, and giveaways are generally a good idea.

🦄 Mega influencers (2M+ followers)

These creators are real stars and have quite heterogeneous audiences. Unless they are truly interested in a specific product and actually act like customers, it will be tough for a brand to get their audience's attention. 

When to use each tier of influencers?

Why work with big content creators (macro/mega influencers)?

If you know a few content creators that correspond exactly to your target (in terms of location, spoken language, and areas of interest), why not invest in a partnership with a macro influencer? Well, if you have the budget and think the creator could be a real customer, it can be a great choice. However, you must ensure that your influencer agrees to plunge into a long-term partnership. If your product is not part of the influencer's daily life, his audience will quickly forget it, and it will be drowned out among other influencer campaigns on social media. Don't forget that even if you are dealing with big audiences, betting it all on just two or three content creators is risky, and it can be hard to obtain the highlight you are looking for. But again, if you have a good strategy, a strong relationship with your ambassadors, macro influencers (and even mega) can do miracles. 

Why work with small content creators (micro/nano influencers)?

Believe it or not, micro and nano creators have the power to boost your growth through influencer campaigns. They are close to their community, and it's easier for them to get attention from their followers. Also, they are usually less requisitioned by brands, which contributes to highlighting each product placement. Not to mention the fact that they have a much more targeted audience according to different areas of interest. For example, if you are running a cosmetics brand, you will find many creators working exclusively with beauty products. Same thing for food, travel, fitness, and so on… You will find a whole range of potential ambassadors for your brand. Among other advantages, working with small influencers is much less expensive, and you can easily create a strong influence network with a reasonable budget. And last but not least, build a strong relationship with your brand ambassadors. The micro influencer you are working with today might become a star tomorrow, and he's already your client!

Working with mid tier influencers

Who are the mid tier influencers and why work with them?

Between micro and macro influencers are mid tier influencers, the favorites of many. They are neither newborns on social media nor super famous stars, but their community certainly adores them. Most have started from scratch and reached incredible results through hard work and good content. 

They combine the abilities of small influencers with a loyal and segmented audience and big influencers' capacity to reach many people thanks to a strong and growing community. However, they are much more affordable than macro influencers and have a more professional approach than micro influencers, since they have already done numerous partnerships. 

In addition, mid tier influencers usually have a favorable growth rate, which should assure a positive ROI for the brands they are working with. Also, studies have shown that middle-range influencers can drive impressive conversion rates since they have a lot of followers and, therefore, certain credibility.

To sum up, mid tier influencers have a great potential to increase your brand's visibility and boost your sales!

Best partnerships with mid tier influencers.

Now that you are familiar with mid-range influencers, would you choose them as your brand ambassadors? Let's finish with some examples of tremendous collabs between a couple of well-known brands and mid tier creators.

twinsb_fit x gymshark

This brand's success is due to a big social media presence and a great influencer marketing strategy. Despite its celebrity, Gymshark is not limited to working only with big content creators. It is widespread to see mid-range influencers as brand ambassadors. Clara and Lauri, for example, are french fitness influencers and have a strong collaboration with Gymshark through their Instagram "twins" account. You should follow these two if you want to get in shape while being super stylish. 

kennyccain x Nyx Cosmetics

We have seen Nyx working with stars and micro and even nano influencers! They trust each influencer's value and are pros when it comes to converting loyal clients into strong brand ambassadors. Kenny Cain is a cosmetics enthusiast, truly passionate about makeup art, and couldn't be a better partner for Nyx Cosmetics. 

suziebonaldi x Kerastase

Kerastase works with a lot of mid tier influencers, they have at least one for each product line. Here we see Suzie, a British lifestyle influencer testing the purple range for blonde locks.

sarabjork90 x Puma

That's right, you don't need to be Neymar to work with Puma, mid tier influencers also have a very important role in the brand's marketing strategy. Here you can see the Icelandic football Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir grabbing her pair of Puma boots. This is much more than product placement. This campaign spreads strongness, self-confidence, and women power.