Kanchan Srivastava
According to experts, nano influencers have a higher engagement rate, offering 30% higher chances of consumers purchasing a product that is recommended by them.
Mumbai-based Razien Patel who is a dentist by profession, and who also does lifestyle photography as a hobby, is also a nano influencer on Instagram. She has promoted brands like Meesho, Conscious Foods and Chai Point on the platform. She has barely 2,500-odd followers but her posts, which include videos and stills both, are able to gather eyeballs and conversations within her small Insta community.
Another nano influencer, Poornima Srivastava, who is also a lifestyle and food photographer with nearly 4,400 followers, has bagged paid partnership offers from brands like H&M Home and Chumbak.
Patel and Srivastava, like many other Instagrammers, are neither a celebrity nor a ‘macro or micro influencer’ as per the marketing standards, but brands are making a beeline before them primarily for two reasons – their videography and photography skills and their ability to influence their followers who are commoners like them.
“Nano influencers are probably the largest pool of influencers contributing as much as 20% to the influencer universe,” says Kunal Sawant, Business Head, INCA India, GroupM, WPP, Content and Influencer Marketing. This clearly shows every fifth influencer in India is a nano influencer now.
A few years ago, most brands would only work with celebrities, film stars, or cricketers who enjoy a massive fan base and a huge following on social media platforms. They are now increasingly open to working with nano and micro influencers, which is not only a cost-effective deal but which results in better engagement than the macro influencers and celebrities, industry experts say.
“A lot of brands out there are keeping aside 30-40% of their influencer marketing budgets for nano-influencers only,” shares Ishan Jindal, Founder & CEO of Wobb.
The content and influencer space has, to a certain degree, been democratized. To become an influencer, all one needs is a good smartphone, high-speed internet, and a creative outlook, says Payal Sakhuja, Co-founder and CEO, Ripple Links.
Sakhuja adds, “This has led to the emergence of several nano creators across the country, across a host of categories such as photography, fashion, lifestyle, parenting, food, travel amongst the common ones and a lot of niche and skill-based categories like illustrators, trick-shot artists, cyclists, etc.”
Who are nano-influencers?
“A nano influencer with just 100 – 15K followers on Instagram is one that has highly engaging audiences, building a personal connection and relationship with followers. On YouTube, their follower threshold would be around 5,000,” says Sakhuja.
They aren’t professional ‘influencers’ in any way and the majority of their posts feature typical content like photos of their family, friends, pet videos, and memes.
The nano-influencer industry in India flourishes on YouTube and Instagram where thousands of influencers work with brands for a small fee, barters, and also when they very strongly believe in the brand, their values, and resonate with any campaign.
Sawant explains, “These are everyday people who have turned their hobbies into professions and have a small but closely-knit community built on trust. Followers closely follow updates from these influencers and perceive them as experts in specific domains.”
Brand value
The abilities of nano-influencers to create authentic content, connect and respond to followers help them achieve better engagements than celebrities, say industry experts.
“Brands that seek to address the bottom of the consumer funnel to increase actual sales, engage with nano-influencers. If a purchase is the campaign objective, then engagement becomes the natural KPI,” explains Sawant, highlighting the metrics of nano-influencers marketing.
Sakhuja says, “The nano influencers are often more relevant to their fans than the celebs since they are like their next-door neighbors. There is a 30 per cent higher chance of consumers purchasing a product that is recommended by a nano-influencer when compared to a product promoted by a celebrity.”
Ishan Jindal noted, “Nano influencers have a higher engagement rate than macro influencers. The large ER is an output of their narrowed niche which further opens up space for personalisation and connection with their limited audience, resulting in better engagement.”
Market size
As per the last e4m INCA influencer marketing report, the influencer marketing is pegged as a strong Rs 900 cr industry, growing at a CAGR of 25 per cent and will become a Rs 2,200 cr industry by 2025.
“Nano influencers would roughly contribute to 5-10 per cent of the influencer market revenue. Traditionally, clients used to focus on large and known influencers, but there is definitely a shift and brands are quite open to working with influencers who resonate the most with the brand, talk to the right audience, and sport a better engagement rate,” Sawant explains.
Gen-Z is fueling this growth as they constitute the bulk of Instagram influencer followers, marketers have realized this and therefore, they are also increasing their budget allocation for the influencer marketing activities, Sakhuja points out.
Payment
The average charge for one static post for a nano influencer is around Rs 2000. However, a majority of deals happen as a barter collaboration instead of paid collaboration, confirms Jindal.
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