Nano Influencers: What are They and Why are They Important?

Nano-influencers: What Are They and Why Are They Important?

When you want to work with influencers, you tend to look for the most recognizable names or creators with the biggest audiences. After all, bigger and more famous is better, right? Not necessarily! Smaller influencers – so-called nano-influencers – can be quite valuable as well. Their audience may be small, but they often provide the authenticity and engagement you’re looking for.

Table of Contents:

• What Are Nano-influencers?
• What Makes Nano-influencers Special?
• Should Your Brand Work With A Nano-influencer?
• How Do I Approach A Collaboration With Nano-influencers In Concrete Terms?

What Are Nano-influencers?

Influencers can be categorized according to their number of followers. You may have heard of micro-Influencers. Micro-Influencers have between 10,000 and 50,000 followers. Nano-influencers are even smaller. A nano-influencer, by contrast, has an audience of between 1,000 and 10,000 followers. There are also mid-tier-influencers, macro-influencers, and mega-influencers – all with significantly more followers than micro or nano-influencers.

However, a smaller audience – as in the case of nano-influencers – is usually not a disadvantage, as the followers of these creators usually show more engagement within the community. According to this infographic by Planoly from 2021, nano-influencers have an engagement rate of 7% among their followers. That’s more than any other influencer group!

But it’s not just the engagement rate of nano-influencers’ audiences that is higher. There’s also a plethora of nano-creators on the market – suitable for any topic and any niche. There are three times as many nano-influencers as mega-influencers (1 million to 5 million followers) and nine times as many nano-influencers as macro-influencers (500,000 -1 million followers).

Nano-creators thus make up the majority of content creators on the internet and present a huge marketing opportunity.

What Makes Nano-influencers Special?

Nano-influencers cover and address niche topics and usually have a lot of influence within their community. These people are often experts, pioneers, or opinion leaders in a certain field, have special interests, special knowledge, or expertise about a particular topic, or offer insights that are not often available elsewhere.

Their online presence, however, is still small enough to be perceived as a “normal person” – someone next door, so to speak. They don’t come across as celebrities or professional influencers, so they can resonate authentically with their target audience and build trust better. Large creators with many followers, on the other hand, are often perceived as inauthentic, artificial, and fake.

Nano-influencers often don’t even see themselves as professional influencers either. Their social media account is more of a side job or hobby, and they mainly share personal content about their own lives and interests. A large portion of her followers consists of family members, friends, and people they know in real life.

In a recent survey by Social Media Today, more than 60% of respondents said that testimonials from friends and family members influence their purchasing decisions. That’s nearly three times as many as the 23% of participants who said their buying decisions are influenced by celebrities and major influencers. People buy products recommended by people they know and trust. And this is where nano-influencers come into the picture.

Nano-influencers are also particularly attractive because they appeal to a very specific niche or target group. For example, their account might be all about handmade paper-mâché sculptures, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Pomerians, or Art Deco architecture.

If you’re selling a product that fits that niche, focusing on a nano-influencer can be very effective. This way you reach an extremely interested target group that is curious about exactly your product. Nano-influencers thus represent a huge marketing opportunity. That’s why brands like IKEA, Dove, and Dyson have already relied on nano-influencers in their campaigns.

Should Your Brand Work With A Nano-influencer?

Even though nano-influencers are small, they can still have a big impact. They achieve the highest level of engagement and often have a close relationship with many of their followers.

If the aim of your influencer marketing campaign is to be seen by as many people as possible, cooperating with a nano-influencer is obviously not the right choice for you.

But if you have a very specific audience in mind and want to achieve high engagement, working with the right nano-influencers can be highly effective.

To summarize, here are a few reasons for working with nano-influencers:

• They Are in Close Contact With Their Community: They are more likely to reply to comments, exchange DMs (direct messages) with their followers, and interact more actively with their target audience.
• Their Fans Love Them: The audience may be small, but on average it is all the more loyal. It’s their unique content that makes nano-influencers so popular.
• They Inspire Trust: Nano-influencers feel more like friends than celebrities. Their community sees them as approachable, so they come across as much more persuasive when recommending products.
• They Are Very Selective About Which Products They Promote: Many nano-influencers generally only work with companies that truly fit their brand, so they will most likely be a good fit for you and your product.
• They are Cost-Effective: Nano-influencers usually don’t charge as much as mega or macro-influencers. You might even be able to strike a deal – barter-style – where you offer them free products and services in exchange for their mentions.
• They have Energy and Creativity: Because they target a niche audience, nano-influencers are often very creative and innovative when it comes to content. They are likely still new to the scene and are therefore still enthusiastic.
• They have Growth Potential: Just because a nano-influencer only has a few thousand followers right now, that doesn’t mean their audience won’t grow in the years to come. If the influencer grows, you’ve already built a great partnership and a loyal ambassador for your brand.

Of course, you should also consider the potential negative sides of working with such Influencers, for example:

• You don’t reach as many people. The most obvious disadvantage of collaborating with nano-influencers is that their audience is small and your brand won’t be seen by a huge audience.
• They likely have less experience working with brands. That means they might be more unreliable or difficult to work with.
• The quality of their social media accounts might be worse. After all, this could be exactly the reason why they are not bigger and better known.
• They may not be as present and available. Since a nano-influencer’s social media presence is often not their primary occupation, they may suddenly stop caring about their account if they get too busy or decide it’s not worth the effort.

How Do I Approach A Collaboration With Nano-influencers In Concrete Terms?

If you want to take advantage of nano-influencers for your brand, there are some important things you should know:

1. Keep an Eye Open in Your Network of Acquaintances: What’s the best place to find nano-influencers who know, like, and trust you? Look around in your personal environment: among friends, relatives, at work, etc.! Employees in particular are a good place to start; after all, they already know everything about your company and the products or services you offer.
2. Conduct a Targeted, Data-Driven Search for nano-creators: Partnering with a nano-influencer allows you to narrow down your target audience to a specific niche. So take advantage of this opportunity! With influData, you can not only search for creators with a certain audience size (and thus specifically for nano-influencers), but also perform an intuitive keyword search to find the exact influencers you’re looking for who fit your topic. No matter how unusual your niche is, you’ll find the perfect influencers for your brand here.
3. Build a Partnership: To get the most out of your collaboration with an influencer, it’s best not to just plan a one-time promotion, but to build a long-term partnership. This way, you can get to know the target audience better and offer deals and special promotions that really hit the mark. Also, brand awareness within the target audience increases when your product is mentioned more than once.

Conclusion

Nano-influencers may not have gigantic follower counts, but what they do have are authenticity and an interested audience. They are regular people who use social media to connect with others who share their values and interests. 

When you find the right influencer for your brand, even a small community can have a big impact.