How To Earn Money As A Micro-Influencer [Understand the Market]
After moving to New York City, Jen Lauren wanted to find a gym to join. She quickly realized there wasn’t a reliable source of information available online.
Noticing this, she decided to start testing out local gyms and posting Youtube videos reviewing the atmosphere, the overall quality, and the workout classes provided at different locations.
Today her channel, Jen Lauren, has 4.96k subscribers on Youtube -- it’s small but it’s mighty.
She earns $195 a month from Youtube ads and charges gyms $350 to be sponsored in a video. She also monetizes her Instagram account, which has 3.9k followers; a post there also costs $350.
Living in NYC, it’d be challenging to live off this income stream, but nonetheless, Jen’s story is encouraging. It proves that a following of 100,000+ people isn’t necessary to earn money as an influencer.
Further, Jen’s story is not unique. Micro-influencers make up the largest share of influencers selected on Instagram, coming in at 57.8%.
Source: Graph made using data from, InfluencerMarketingHub
*InfluencerMarketingHub defines a micro-influencer as <15k followers
Intrigued?
The remainder of this article will provide a broad-brush overview of the micro-influencer market and provide tips for breaking into the industry.
So, what is a micro-influencer?
The word influencer carries a “grand” connotation. After hearing it, people think of Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and a host of other celebrities with millions of followers.
Although, as seen in the graph above, influencers in the mega-tier only make up a small fraction of the overall market. There are tons of smaller influencers, such as Jen Lauren, who do the same thing but on a significantly smaller scale.
Why do brands want to work with micro-influencers?
Brands love micro-influencers because their audiences are more engaged than mega-influencer’s audiences. As a rule of thumb, engagement falls as followers increase.
Source: Hype Auditor
Consequently, brands experience higher conversions and higher ROIs when using micro influencers in their campaigns. They’re also able to hire micro-influencers at a relatively cheap price point (see below).
How much money can micro-influencers make?
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the average micro-influencer rates are as follows:
Instagram: $100–$500 per post
Youtube: $200–$1,000 per video
Tiktok: $25–$125 per post
Twitter: $20–$100 per post
Facebook: 250–$1,250 per post
How do micro-influencers find work?
Due to their size, it’s inherently harder for brands to discover valuable micro-influencers than it is for them to find macro or mega influencers.
Micro-influencers get around this problem using two strategies.
They pitch to brands
They connect with influencer agencies
Pitching to brands - the process of reaching out to a brand and offering to promote its products.
To learn how to draft a pitch that wins business, check out Chrissy Abram’s article: Tips for Influencers: How to Successfully Pitch for More Brand Deals.
Connect with influencer agencies - the rise of influencer marketing has inevitability given birth to influencer marketing agencies.
These agencies connect brands with influencers. Part of their job is to hunt for and identify influencers that could promote their client’s products. Micro-influencers can reach out to these agencies directly and request to become part of their talent pools.
A few agencies that specialize micro-influencer space include Obviously, Inbeat, and BarnettX. At the time of writing this article, BarnettX is actively recruiting content creators.
Finally, Niche Is Important
All micro-influencers have thousands of followers, but having thousands of followers doesn’t guarantee someone will find work in the space.
To get paid, a micro-influencer needs a niche. Micro-influencers are valuable to brands because they have a niche.
An Instagram account that posts new recipes daily is very valuable to companies in the food industry. People follow the account to learn new recipes. It’s not a stretch to assume that these are people who are at least entertaining the idea of using these recipes themselves in the future. Therefore, including a company’s product as an ingredient in a recipe-post will probably boost sales. The connection is clear.
This why micro-influencers must have a niche. Companies have little-to-no incentive to pay to reach 1,000 random people. It’s inefficient.
A good niche is imperative to success. For a comprehensive strategy on how to identify an ideal, profitable niche, check out this article: How to Pick a Profitable Niche.
TL;DR
Microinfluencers have 1,000-50,000 followers
Brands love micro-influencers because they have high engagement and conversions
To succeed as a micro-influencer, pitch to companies, join talent pools, and identify a niche
