I was reading the AMA Journal of Marketing this morning, and I came across the Research Paper on the efficacy of utilizing small influencers rather than large influencers to push a product. The paper was attempting to challenge years of research that suggests that larger influencers lead to great numbers of sales and drives a larger volume of online traffic. After reviewing the data, the paper concluded that this claim is false, and that in fact, it was smaller influencers who were more effective sellers of their product. One of the reasons they concluded that this was true, was because smaller influencers have the ability to mimic their audience better, leading to a greater level of trust and friendly feeling towards the influencer. “[N]ano-influencers,” the paper reads “match the communication style of their followers far better than macro-influencers.”
This part of the paper caught my attention, because we have recently been reading about the importance of attunement in the sales process, and how part of the attunement process is learning to strategically mimic the buyer, so to achieve a level of comfort and trust. Psychologically, humans favor and are more likely to believe those people who act like themselves. As such, being able to accurately mimic your buyers behavior helps to establish a level of trust and friendliness with the buyer that can be immensely beneficial in the selling process. It should come as no surprise then that smaller influencers, who have the ability to know their audience better, and can connect with their audience on a more familial level, are going to be more effective sellers for brands looking to enter the influencer marketing space. Marketers would do well to treat their marketing similar to how they treat their sales. Marketers should have an in depth knowledge of their customer, and be able to take the perspective of a future buyer. If a brand can’t do that, they should lean on those people who can do that. Attunement and Mimicry are just as important in marketing as they are in sales, and that is why I agree with the paper, and would implore marketers to utilize smaller influencers when attempting to reach their core audience.
For more information on influencer marketing and to read the paper, see below.
Beichert, M., Bayerl, A., Goldenberg, J., & Lanz, A. (2024). Revenue Generation Through Influencer Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 88(4), 40-63. https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429231217471
RMcIlwain
Great point! Smaller influencers build trust by mirroring their audience’s style, just like good salespeople do through attunement. That relatability makes them more effective at driving engagement and sales — a strategy more marketers should embrace.