Mumbai: What an interesting time to not have enough money to have Kim Kardashian do the marketing of your brand! With every endorsement, the persona of the celebrity goes larger, and so does their wallet, but using a big ticket money is not just money out from wallet, but may just be the noise of the noise bar.

What brews better is catering to those who have a very niche followership – those who engage better with a smaller dedicated group!

Sources like Emplifi have reported that micro-influencer-based sponsored posts on Instagram have an engagement rate as high as 91 percent. Micro-influencers may have ball park reach, but their relevance to the brand and to their audience builds the bridge of trust that no celebrity with millions of followers can.

Celebrities including movie stars and sports stars may have a range of followers, but the demographics is better set for micro-influencers. Another aspect to consider is the fact that celebrities work with tons of endorsements, often many of them in the same time frame. But influencers are more tiered in that particular manner. Hence micro-influencers do not have to be people pleasers, because they just do not have to be.

There is a certain wholesomeness that a public figure has to maintain that is not the shade to be followed by micro-influencers. It is practically given that these people may also be doing certain other side jobs to finance themselves. Another issue is that one can trust any micro-influencer faster than a celebrity. It is a known gimmick that the celebrity may not even be an actual user, or may not even have tried the product he or she is so enthusiastically promoting. Ultimately, no one believes that the beauty bar of film stars may actually be the ones used by them to actually take a bath. But seeing a how-to video of cheek contouring by a micro-influencer is believable and more credible. The fact that lot of micro-influencers also accept payment in goods improves the belief that they are users too.

Marketers can articulate returns so much better with a micro-influencer than with another public figure. It can be counted transaction to transaction, with lot more effort expended on the big ticketers.

Another beautiful thing about micro-influencers is that while brands will like to work with known names, and celebrities want to work with brand names, micro-influencers can work with brands, irrespective of their status and position in the market. Legacy and heritage need not be the deciding factors because finally Victoria’s Secret and Mamaearth will all be needing a little help from these folks. Micro-influencers are special because they are with the common man, and yet a pedestal above. They are like the boy/girl next door who are just like you but can teach one skill better than that inaccessible distant star you know.  Reachable, snuggly and credible, they create aspirations for people to build a community that loves what they themselves love doing!

The article has been written by School of Commerce, SVKM’S Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Indore Campus Associate Professor Dr Shilpa Sankpal.