A person who has gained the trust of Instagram followers by posting exciting content and is regarded to be an expert in one of the niches is called an influencer. Marketers divide influencers into several tiers and nano-influencers feature the smallest audience in comparison with others.
In fact, every person who has an Instagram account, a large following that exceeds 1k people, is popular with other users and receives many likes, comments, and saves can be a candidate for the title of a nano-influencer.

There are two types of such influencers:

  • Native: these people have started their online career on social media from scratch and managed to achieve success thanks to hard work;
  • Non-native: these people might have already built their audience on other platforms and transferred most of them to Instagram as well.

How Many Followers Do Nano-Influencers Have?

It is not a secret that this influencer tier has the smallest number of followers. Their community usually consists of subscribers whose number is between 1k and 10k people. It means that every user who has created a large community and partnered with a company can be called a nano-influencer. Moreover, these are people whose engagement rate is the highest and reaches 5% and more on average. Usually, they are experts in a tiny niche and share the same interests as their followers.

Difference between Nano-Influencers and Micro-Influencers

Influencer marketing (IM) latest statistics provided in the report of HypeAuditor says that 85.4% of all influencers registered on Instagram are nano- and micro-influencers with the audience between 1k and 20k people. It means that brands have a wide selection of accounts to choose from, but do they have a clear idea of how micro-influencers differ from nano ones? They do have much in common, but there is some difference too.

  1. Following. Naturally, since the tier with the lowest number of subscribers has a following up to 10,000 people, micro-influencers constitute the second smallest tier and their community is between 10k and 100k.
  2. Engagement rate (ER). Undoubtedly, there are exceptions in the rules, but most often micro-influencers can’t boast the same high ER and usually, it is around 1% lower than nano-personalities do. In fact, the higher following there is, the lower ER you can observe.
  3. Niche. Micro-influencers take a certain niche which is usually much wider than one covered by nano-personalities. The last ones are usually characterized by taking a narrow niche or sub-category and having better contact with the community.
  4. Target audience. Representatives of the smallest tier usually target a local audience, while micro-influencers have a more diversified audience that can be located in different cities and even countries.
  5. Cost. Naturally, it will be cheaper to partner up with nano-influencers. They often agree to work not only for money but also for gifts or company products. It would be more expensive to pay for the services of a micro-influencer – the average cost is $10 per 1,000 followers.

How Nano-Influencers Can make Business Grow

60% of IM campaigns had a budget under $10k and many of them have been conducted with the help of true brand connoisseurs who are also nano-influencers. Why do companies hire people who work in IM? There are several ways how they can help companies:

  • Improve brand awareness: many brands want to generate more leads by being known to or be tried by a bigger number of people;
  • Pave the way to the target audience: other forms of advertising are more general, while nano-influencer marketing allows promoting a product to people who need it most of all and will be interested in it;
  • Increase sales: natural advice from an influencer is not admitted as advertising and encourages followers to purchase goods described positively;
  • Test new audience: every company wants to expand its market and IM is a great way to test if another type of audience might be interested in the brand products.

How Much Money can Nano Influencers Charge?


Why do more companies try to cooperate with nano and micro-influencers first of all? One of the most apparent reasons is higher ROI with lower fees. It is possible not only to save on working with representatives of the lowest tier but even to advertise your brand free of charge. Devoted connoisseurs of some brands agree to advertise their products taking them as gifts, exchanging for reposts, or other benefits. It means that companies can attract new clients with minimum investment.

When it comes to monetary rewards for IM, the average payment rate for one Instagram post is $10 per 1k followers.

According to the research conducted by Klear, there is a difference in payment amount depending on the way this advertisement is represented to the audience. Influencer rates with 500-5k followers at the beginning of 2019 looked as follows:

  • $100 per ordinary post;
  • $114 per one video post;
  • $43 per story.

How to Collaborate with Nanoinfluencers


Instagram marketing differs from other types of strategies used by advertisers. It is necessary to be aware of how to organize an efficient campaign on this social media platform and how to collaborate with people who have no or minimum of advertising experience as well as add posts for their own pleasure. Here are several approaches of how to start cooperation with nano-influencers:

1. Send them brand products to get a review

Word-of-a-mouth marketing is a powerful tool that brings about great results, especially if used by influencers. Nano-marketers on Instagram are not spoilt by many offers, so they would happily accept one of the company products and make a review. Such content will look natural and increase brand awareness significantly. Moreover, company representatives can read comments and check the efficiency of this way of cooperation easily.

2. Offer nano-influencer to become a brand ambassador

Many global brands choose ambassadors to make product promotions more authentic. It means that an influencer will be the face of your brand on social media. Some ambassadors also visit brand events and add brand profile links to their own bio to show others that they are true fans of one or another company.

3. Suggest coupons and discounts

It is a common truth that discounts encourage people to make a purchase more than anything else. Statista says that 93% of people who make online purchases use coupons and discounts at least once a year. The reason for that is a desire to save on the bargain. Brands can provide influencers with such a unique promo code with a discount for company products too and control the ROI thanks to that without much effort. Influencers are happy to accept such exclusive offers since they can boost engagement in this way too, so they refuse rarely.

4. Organize giveaways

Who does not like free gifts? It is not a secret that giveaways attract a lot of attention on social media and contribute to the growth in engagement rate. It is also a great way to increase the reach of the target audience encouraging followers to mention other users in the comments. Nano-influencers are happy to get such offers since they get their own benefits in return too.

5. Create user-generated content

Modern Instagrammers tend to trust influencers 10 times more than advertising. They feel when content is not natural, so it is better to entrust influencer with an opportunity to develop unique content in his or her own style. Moreover, people want to ensure that others also appreciate this brand and user-generated constant can be evidence of this fact.

Examples Of Top Nanoinfluencers

Being active on Instagram and a big list of followers is not guaranteed that you will get the title of a nano-influencer. However, there are people who have achieved success in this niche and this top list looks as follows.

1. MEGAN VADNAIS

With over 8k followers on Instagram, this lady from Salt Lake City has received recognition as a beauty expert from her followers. There are Story Highlights in her profile bio and many popular brands have already cooperated with Megan.

2. WHATWOULDREADO

This is an account of blogger Reannion Jean who writes about fashion and style. Currently, there are around 6k followers and experience of cooperation with multiple small brands.

3. HAILEY KNOTT

Despite only 4k followers subscribed to her Instagram account, Hailey features an unbelievable engagement rate of around 21%. She can boast not only several sponsored posts but also long-term partnership with famous companies.

4. Bradley Blaylock

A Canadian influencer who works as IN-Magazines Director of Marketing and Sponsorships has already attracted almost 9k followers and cooperated with such famous brands as Nike and Topman Canada.

5. Rachel DaCosta

The follower number of this travel and fashion blogger has already beaten a 9k threshold. Calling herself psychologist in training she creates exciting content appreciated by many people.

Nano-Influencer Campaign Examples on Instagram

Since nano-influencers constitute the biggest percentage of social marketing specialists, you can find many examples of successful advertising campaigns with their participation.

1. Dove

This company is well-known all over the world, but it decided to attract nano-influencers when it launched a new product called Exfoliating Body Polish. It managed to increase awareness about a new product giving it to influencers. Those ones who liked it should have added a link to the product to the bio. One of such influencers is Ritso Yipsa with 1.3k followers.

2. IKEA

Another globally renowned brand launched the POD campaign. It has hired around 400 nano-influencers interested in interior design. They took photos with the company catalog of 2019 and it has boosted sales of this catalog immensely.

3. McDonalds

Haven’t you tried the famous Big Mac? The company decided to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this burger with a campaign powered by both nano and micro-influencers. The last ones have received Big Mac coins and awarded their followers with them since they can be used for purchasing another burger.

Pros&Cons of Working With Nanoinfluencers

Like any other type of marketing, social advertisement created by nano-influencers has both its positive and negative sides. When it comes to the benefits brought about by this cooperation, they can sound very convincing for some companies:

  • Better connection with the audience: they have more chances to interact with their followers and respond to their comments as fast as possible;
  • Credibility: true influencers have been building their accounts from scratch, so they have put much effort to deserve the trust of other people and their recognition;
  • Cost-effectiveness: it is much cheaper to hire several nano-influencers than cooperate with one medium or macro influencer;
  • Higher ROI: making a minimum of investment brands get great results;
  • The highest ER that means more leads for brands and dictated consumer purchasing decisions;
  • Possibility to advertise locally: it is especially important for small brands;
  • Ease of cooperation: nano-influencers agree to work with brands with pleasure and often admit the terms offered.

Working with influencers of the lowest tier has its drawbacks as well:

  • Reach is low: it is necessary to run several campaigns simultaneously to attract more target audience;
  • Their resources are worse: naturally, it is impossible to earn your living being an influencer of this tier, so their quality of photos or other aspects that impact the quality of the advertising campaign can be worse;
  • Lack of experience: the absence of reliable marketers who will manage influencer activity and content may lead to negative consequences for a brand.

Conclusion

Experts predict that the IM budget will soon reach $101 billion and a good deal of this money will be handed to nano-influencers – the most numerous tier on Instagram. As you can see from this article, this type of marketing gets more popular since brands switch from celebrities to personalities whose audience brands target and who have high ER. It means that despite possible drawbacks nano-influencers will be in great demand in the upcoming year and the closest future, so why not create an Instagram account right now and start building your audience?