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Micromanaging Microinfluencers: Boosting Sales The Nontraditional Way

As a salon owner, you know how important positive feedback is for your salon. Feedback given to you can boost the morale of your salon while satisfied customers can proudly show off your work to their friends and family, drawing attention to your business.

Business is business and therefore you need to know the limit of how far you can stretch yourself for a client. If a customer were to walk into your salon and ask for free services, your first reaction would be, “Excuse me?” You’d laugh it off and not take them seriously.

Then the customer goes on to say that they will use their Instagram and YouTube account to tell their followers about your salon if you do. Things just got interesting right? Such business relationships are referred to as “Micro-influencing”

What exactly is Microinfluencing?

Micro-influencing is the term used when any business contacts bloggers with a large following to feature their products and services. Businesses either pay the bloggers depending on the business they generate or give them free products and services in return.

Sounds like a good marketing venture right? The beauty industry has been the most active in terms of getting influencers on board for their marketing campaigns. Such strategies rank the lowest when it comes to risk. As a salon, you most likely don’t have TV commercials running every few minutes nor do you have big billboards in the busiest parts of the city. Let’s face it; your options for advertising your salon are limited!

Which marketing mediums do salons opt for then?

The most widely used these days are social media platforms. Facebook is a great application to use to inform clients and potential customers of your services, prices, salon timings, location, and have client’s reviews too. Often times, salons don’t even have a designated social media executive. Salon owners and staff rely on word of mouth and the fact that clients come across their salon while going on errands.

In the social media age, you can direct a lot more attention to your brand than ever before!

So what advantages does the involvement of micro-influencers bring?

They induce engagement

 

Brands generally shy away from contacting micro-influencers because their following isn’t as large. In reality, influencers with a lower follower count tend to have more engagement on their posts. Research done by Markerly says so.

Followers of prominent Instagrammers tend to like their posts but don’t engage because they don’t reply or they are nervous about being seen by such a large following. Social media engagement can easily become a catfight and many tend to avoid conflict.

Smaller influencers take the time to respond to posts themselves. Their blogs are a lot more personal. They are also much more likely to give true feedback regarding products and services.

Full-time bloggers with millions of followers tend to rave about every other product they are offered. After all, their livelihood depends on it! With micro-influencers, their thoughts and advice are taken more seriously. They are known for their integrity and not their blind selling. Adweek supports these claims. Their research shows that micro-influencers have 60% higher engagement rates.

More convincing

You want to see results from all the efforts you have put into your marketing campaign right? Your goal is to grow your business and gain as many clients as possible. Micro-influencer marketing can achieve those results for you.

According to ExpertVoice, there is an 82% chance that consumers will purchase a product or service endorsed by a micro-influencer. They also revealed that micro-influencers had 22% more buying conversions. They gain the trust of their followers with honest reviews and, therefore, followers look up to them before making a purchase. If they say something is good, followers will blindly take the plunge.

Relatable

Micro-influencers tend to have blogs that target a particular interest. Their followers share those interests too. Big influencers and celebrities tend to have a mixed crowd when it comes to their following, making them an inefficient marketing channel.

Businesses such as yours can, therefore, drive up their sales by contacting influencers of the niche you operate in. Use this opportunity to drive more conversations. The social media audience has been quick to catch up on the widespread and blatant selling that is done by big bloggers and celebrities. They are more skeptical of such products and services.

Cheaper than investing in a big influencer

YouTube and Instagram stars have gained the status of celebrities these days. Many of them rose to fame overnight and let’s face it, have nothing much to offer. If you are into keeping abreast with influencers, you will notice how their wealth has inflated in a short amount of time.

Most of them forget their roots and their blogs have gone on a complete tangent from where they began. Dealing with such influencers isn’t easy. They put some ridiculous terms before you and some hefty price tags as well.

Big influencers will give you higher sales but at what cost? Smaller salons tend to have smaller budgets for marketing. Micro-influencers may sound daunting to you as well, but it’s surprisingly affordable. A survey revealed that Micro-influencers charge less than $250 for Instagram posts. You can, therefore, engage more than one Micro-influencer to market your salon for you.

To further help you, here are some useful tips on managing Micro-influencers:

  1. Do your research – follow Micro-influencers work for a good amount of time before you decide on hiring them. Their interests must be in-line with your business. If you are a hair salon, they must specialize in hair tutorials as well. If you are a wellness spa then the influencer you choose must be a health nut or someone who talks about wellness. Choosing someone with interests that are opposite to yours will massively backfire on you.
  2. Connect with the influencer – as mentioned before, it’s a good idea to begin following a particular influencer before you make your decision. On your salon’s social media accounts you can share some of their content. The engagement you see on such posts by your audience can help you gauge how warmly they will be welcomed. It will also help you find out if you share any followers. When your salon has decided on an influencer to collaborate with, always approach them on their direct email. It’s a much more professional channel to communicate on and they will know that you are up for serious business. Applications like Lushacan help you get hold of their valid email addresses.
  3. Trust the influencer – it must be very tempting for you to tell the influencer what to do. Remember to bite your tongue when it comes to dealing with Micro-influencers. They are just as motivated as you to increase your sales, at the end of the day their commission is riding on it too! The reason an audience enjoys the work of a particular influencer is because they aren’t hell-bent on selling their followers something. They keep a very subtle approach to the marketing and you have to let them do their thing. Policing them into publishing content about you and singing your praises won’t do you any good. Learn to trust them. They are good at their job and that’s the reason you were drawn to them in the first place!

All this and much more can be achieved with the help of Salon Income Booster. We are an online platform built with the sole purpose of growing salons to their maximum potential. Our strategies are sure to increase your beauty salon’s revenue while our upselling techniques are foolproof!