The rise of Nano Influencers

Brands should seek reliable and trustworthy creators who inspire action in their audience, as consumers are now highly critical of traditional advertising and value authenticity and transparency.

"The appeal of nano talent is to really dig deep into specific communities instead of trying to drive maximum reach because I think this is where brands start to get those more human-led stories," explains Bronagh Monahan, founder of Bronagh Monahan Talent, in the Intelligence Influencer Study.

Key Takeaways

• What are nano-influencers? Nano-influencers, typically having 1,000 to 10,000 followers, are valued for their authentic relationships with their audience. They are often seen as more trustworthy and relatable than macro or mega-influencers.
• How much does it cost to work with nano-influencers? Nano-influencers are considered more cost-effective, and brands find working with them financially advantageous as they provide higher engagement at a lower cost.
• What should I keep in mind when working with nano-influencers? Working with nano-influencers, who are often at the beginning of their careers, presents a unique opportunity for brands to create fresh and genuine partnerships. Establishing long-term relationships is particularly advantageous, as it allows brands to grow alongside these influencers.
• Where can I find nano-influencers to collaborate with? Due to their smaller social media profiles, finding nano-influencers can be a time-intensive process. Brands looking to develop a strategy quickly can use influencer marketing platforms, which offer AI-powered tools that efficiently match brands with influencers.

What are nano-influencers?

Nano-influencers are social media personalities with relatively small but highly engaged audiences.

How many followers do nano-influencers have?

The prefix "nano" means "one billionth" in the metric system. Accordingly, the term nano-influencers describes those individuals who have around 1,000 to 10,000 followers. Although such a characterisation makes sense and is generally accepted, the tendency to categorise influencers according to their follower numbers is the opposite of what nano-influencers actually stand for.

After all, they are not celebrities but simply ordinary digital creators who have an affinity for social media and, thus, greatly influence their small audiences. However, this lack of celebrity status and their small reach are now precisely what makes them so attractive to brands.

Nano-influencers are considered more authentic than many of their more popular counterparts. They have a reputation for being more approachable and less commercially oriented and generally place more value on social networking and honest content.

It is even more noticeable now with student nano-influencers, who are digitally savvy and have grown up with technology and social networks. This generation moves in digital spaces as confidently as they do offline. Accordingly, their followers are often also their friends, which is especially interesting for brands whose target groups are millennials or Gen Z.

A study by Digital Information World shows that 52% of Gen Z trust the influencers they follow. And almost 60% engage with brands recommended by influencers.

What is the difference between a nano and micro-influencer?

Even in comparison to micro-influencers, with 10,000-100,000 followers, nano-influencers stand out as the most niche and engaged creators.

The choice between nano- and micro-influencers should be guided by the brand's campaign goals. Nano-influencers are ideal for deep, authentic engagement and potentially higher trust levels at a lower cost. Micro-influencers are preferable for a slightly broader reach while still maintaining credibility within specific niches.

Nano-influencers are highly authentic, likely presenting honest views of their lives, using humour and sharing relatable challenges.

For companies, these trusted individuals offer one of the best ways to capture the attention of an engaged audience. By accessing their engaged audience, brands can easily enhance their business profiles. The options for collaboration are varied, from giving a free product for review to sponsoring a post to collaborating long-term.

The key statistics on nano-influencers

As internal data and surveys from influencer marketing agency Aspire show, 70% of brands are already working with smaller creators, those with less than 60,000 followers. This allows them to reach highly engaged audiences and lower their cost per engagement (CPE). This may be because nano-influencers, with an average of 3.69%, have more than twice as much interaction as macro-influencers and generally 75% agree with collaborations based on free products.

In its study on the rise of nano-influencers, Influencer Intelligence published current results. For this, 359 marketers – marketers, agencies and consultants from a wide range of industries – responded to an online survey. The website found that nearly 50% of respondents saw nano-influencers as more cost-effective. Other reasons for collaboration included influencers' need for a more authentic relationship with their audience (43.7%) and higher engagement rates (44.7%).

The reason to partner your brand with nano-influencers is clear: high engagement rates and an authentic voice that can contribute to brand awareness. For example, 68% of respondents want high-quality content, and 41% want information on content topics and areas of expertise that stand out against the oversaturated and often overly curated offerings.

What to consider when working with nano-influencers?

Working with nano-influencers is often different to working with mega-influencers who have incredibly popular accounts.

Since nano influencers are still at the very beginning of their careers, if they aspire to be professional content creators and influencers at all, working with your brand might be the first time for them. According to the Influencer Intelligence study, this lack of experience is actually seen as attractive by many experts, as it makes collaboration easier. Still, 52% of experts give nano influencers extra support and mentoring during the campaign process, as they often have full—or part-time jobs in addition to their online work.

Above all, you should aim for long-term partnerships because your brand can consequently profit from the growth of nano influencers.

Are nano influencers good for brands to work with?

While you can easily define nano-influencers based on follower size and engagement rates, it is more challenging to identify which influencers will produce a good ROI for your business.

Leveraging an influencer platform makes identifying high-potential nano-influencers simple. You can quickly search through an extensive database of influencers, and once you've found compatible creators, you can manage your relationship on the same interface.

Try a Kolsquare demo today for free,

One of the biggest advantages of platforms is that they make it easier to tap into a wide audience while still leveraging nano-influencers. Partnerships with a group of nano-influencers, rather than one individual, allow you to reach a large audience while winning customers through high engagement rates.

What are average nano-influencer rates?

Nano-influencers have smaller profiles and typically charge less than more popular influencers. While that is usually the case, the rates you pay influencers vary significantly and are open to negotiation.

The type of collaboration and number of posts also will impact costs. For example, a brand could take a low-cost approach by sending a free product in the hope of receiving a public review. Alternatively, the brand could invest heavily in an influencer and co-create many posts, developing a long-term partnership.

Check out Kolsquare's influencer rate calculator for a quick estimate!

All in all, your collaboration budget should be based on the growth you expect. Once the campaign is underway, you can pinpoint whether a campaign is paying off by looking at key metrics, such as comments, likes, and shares. If necessary, you can discuss your findings with your nano influencers to identify a sensible price moving forward.

While gifts are a good start for cooperation, fairness dictates that you should support influencers long-term if they improve your campaigns.

Nano-influencer Elle Linton says, "The biggest obstacle in the industry right now is the different levels of influencers being paid differently. Currently, the work involved in creating content is not fully recognised. If I create content for a brand for free, that means I'm not doing anything to pay my bills. I have bills to pay just like everyone else."

The aforementioned strategy helps not only nano-influencers but also the brand, as a good partnership is always mutual. 32% of respondents are concerned about the lack of control resulting from little or no pay and the lack of a formal agreement.

Nano-influencer best practice example: Elle Linton

Nano-influencer Elle Linton is a personal trainer, instructor, coach, and blogger with 7,892 followers. She is trying to establish a fitness community that measures exercise success not by how the body looks but by how it feels. "Keep it simpElle" is, therefore, a gym, smoothie bar, and weekly health magazine all in one.

The fitness enthusiast works with both Adidas Running and a smaller niche brand. Accordingly, the athlete is also Brand Ambassador of @LyvcyclingUK. The web store is primarily for women who love cycling and it offers guides and videos in addition to bikes and equipment. The brand itself has only 14.4K followers on Instagram.

How do I find nano-influencers?

One way to locate nano-influencers is to conduct research on social media platforms independently. For example, you can search relevant hashtags and analyse suggested follows.

However, this requires a significant investment of both time and resources. While this is true for all influencer marketing campaigns, it is most challenging to find nano-influencers due to their smaller profiles.

In addition, brands targeting nano influencers often seek to reach wider audiences by working with a group of small influencers. This sniper, rather than scattergun, approach is highly effective for brands looking to build authentic connections. However, it requires intensive research.

For brands aiming to develop strategies fast, there are two popular ways to speed up influencer campaigns:

Leveraging nano-influencer platforms

Influencer marketing platforms rescue brands from the arduous search for the right influencers. Instead of undertaking a drawn-out search process, they can quickly access insights about many influencers.

Through AI-powered searches, you can filter an entire database of influencers who align with your brand in seconds.

Learn more about influencer marketing platform success stories.

Using a nano-influencer agency

Working with an agency offers many benefits. For example, agencies offer a heavily guided approach and can help develop a marketing strategy from start to finish.

This is a great help for brands requiring all-around assistance. However, it's crucial that brands carefully select an agency, as they often work with limited pools of influencers. In addition, hands-on marketing expertise typically results in higher price points.