Budget-Friendly Content Creation: Is it Possible for Micro-Influencers?

Intro

While macro-influencers tend to have more followers (insanely, at that), sometimes they’re only as effective as their fame, popularity, and appeal to the masses. Today, brands that want to reach their niche market and provide authentic endorsements turn to micro-influencers and their trusted followers to break through the market.

If you’re a micro-influencer (or planning to be one), it is important to know that all careers do not come without a cost—yes, even micro-influencing. It takes resources to invest in good-quality equipment, products, and materials.

Fear not, because content creation doesn’t need to be expensive to be good. In this article, we will discuss tips and secrets on how to make budget-friendly content (yes, it’s possible!), including skills and cost-saving tips, you can use to your leverage while delivering high-quality content.

How Micro-Influencers Influence Effective Modern Marketing

According to Statista, the value of influencer marketing in 2023 has since risen to 21.1 billion U.S. dollars from a meager 1.7 billion dollars in 2016. That’s an impressive 19.4 billion growth in just seven years! For this reason, we’ve consistently seen the rise of influencers (and aspiring influencers as young as teens) along with it.

With followers of anywhere between 1,000 to 100,000, it is easy to argue why micro-influencers aren’t a better choice than macro-influencers. Looking solely at follower count, micro-influencers certainly don’t hold a candle against the reach of macros. However, more isn’t always better—the higher the reach, the connection becomes less personal and becomes more commercial.

Here’s how micro-influencers can be better than macro-influencers:

Smaller but highly engaged following

Their followers are small, but their engagement rates and posts certainly aren’t. Micro-influencers engagement rates average at 6 percent, as compared to 1.97 percent for macro-influencers.

The reason for this is that micro-influencers are almost all as personally connected and relatable to their audience. Most of the followers of micro-influencers are people who genuinely like the creator and the content they make and have built a sense of kinship and loyalty with them—making engagement rates higher than other types of influencers.

Serves niche audiences

It is very important for influencers to find their niche and the things they are good at, and build a following from this niche. When an influencer has built a loyal following by sticking to a niche, both brands and businesses benefit from sponsorship and marketing deals to an audience that is most likely to be interested in a specific product or service.

For example, an influencer with 50,000 followers who has built their following by posting weekly meal prep ideas is most likely to be tapped as an influencer by an eco-packaging business. Also, one can launch a course on how to prepare fast breakfasts, as Alisa Cooper, Ukrainian blogger, did. It matched moms, business people, the one with desire to cook something special (the recipes were special, indeed). It is just an example of a sales funnel that starts on Instagram, then goes to websites and sales enablement tools, and grows attracting more potential clients and bringing output: both social and financial.

Less demand, better deals

Needless to say, micro-influencers cost less than macro-influencers because, after all, deals are still highly dependent on followings on social media.

However, what this means for micro-influencers is that they have better freedom and leverage on content creation (well within the basic bounds set by a business) because these companies know that with micro-influencers, they are making a deal with content and creativity, rather than popularity.

Authenticity

Smaller following isn’t always a problem, and micro-influencers can always use their rather small following to their advantage by building a personal connection with their followers.

A joint report showed that 85 percent of influencers and 67 percent of marketers consider authenticity and trust as vital strengths of influencer marketing. With authenticity at the forefront of the reasons why micro-influencers are very effective marketers, businesses recognize that their small followings are a highly-influenced market who are most likely to buy what an influencer uses because of this close and personal connection—making promotions more of a recommendation than a marketing tactic.

The Role of Content Creation in Marketing

In an era where pieces of information are so carelessly created, spread, and taken out of context in social media spaces, it is more important now than ever that micro-influencers recognize what is good and bad content, and how the effective use (and misuse) of one and the other can spell the growth of their account and their brand partnerships.

Generally, good content should be:

1. Funny and witty, but not offensive to religions, cultures, sexual orientation, and beliefs
2. Aligned with your account’s brand of content
3. Free from fake news
4. Up to date with current trends
5. Visually digestible
6. Original and relevant

What is good content for one influencer may be bad content for another, and vice versa. For example, a food influencer suddenly recommending and promoting a makeup brand will feel off and unnatural—and will most likely raise the eyebrows of their followers.

Good content that is aligned with your niche and your audience will most likely generate more engagement, and the constant use of bad and forced content to ‘sell’ a product will most likely result in a decrease and loss of interest from your followers.

Is budget-friendly content creation possible?

Depending on what type of micro-influencer you are, influencer costs vary from person to person. Blog influencers must inevitably spend on domain names and website hosting, which don’t apply to social media influencers. TikTok and Instagram influencers, on the other hand, may have to invest more in good cameras and lighting equipment, subscriptions, editing apps (or editors), and the like.

Aside from the basic things you need to get started on your influencer marketing journey, the creation of your base content doesn’t need to be expensive to be effective. So yes, budget-friendly content creation is possible for example, by switching paid photo editing tools to free ones, repurposing household items as props, or using your phones as cameras instead of buying high-end cameras from the get-go.

Ways a micro-influencer can create budget-friendly content

Collaborate with other creators

By collaborating with other content creators, you make a fun swap deal with the person in the same field, exposing both your content to each other’s followers—increasing the reach and engagement of your content. Content collaboration can be as simple as creating fun skits together on TikTok, or as thrilling as exploring the deadliest roads in New York.

Most content collaboration comes at no monetary cost to each, subject to the agreement between both content creators on content collaboration and agreement with their brand partnerships (if applicable).

In a paper published in the SSRN, authors emphasized how content collaboration between creators increases the diversity and monetizability of content, thereby increasing profits between collaborators and reducing consumer surplus.

Be ready to make content anywhere

You don’t (always) need a fancy setup to make content. A content creator needs to always be on the lookout for content creation ideas while buying a car or even just simply walking on the street because most of the time, the fun things happen when you least expect them to.

You can also save on the fancy setup by utilizing app filters that edit backgrounds into your videos when creating funny content.

Repurpose old content

It is difficult to work on content with a limited time and budget, so the best way to put content out there is by repurposing old content and tweaking it to make it more relevant today.

Take for example evergreen content. Simply put, evergreen content is content that remains relevant over time, no matter how long or how much time passes. These are **not **news articles or the latest fashion trends, but rather how-to videos, tips, or product review pieces.

You can use old evergreen blog content to make video content while creatively incorporating your brand partnerships—reducing the length of time you need to spend creating entirely new content.

Use free digital tools in the market

As online content creators, the need for digital tools is of utmost importance. Video editing apps, photo apps, and writing tools are just some of the most common tools that content creators need for content creation.

With a myriad of tools and apps popping in at every minute of the web, you can find free graphic design tools like Canva, Figma, Fotor, and the like instead of paying for Adobe Photoshop Illustrator, or Procreate. When it comes to simple video editing, you can turn to Canva, CapCut, or InVideo instead of Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro.

If you’re overwhelmed with work, there are many free project management tools and SOP software tools that offer free basic plans that can help you get your schedule and work projects more organized.

For blog influencers, you don’t need to shell out dollars for Microsoft Word. Google Docs works better by allowing document collaborations and having your content available on any device through your account, without having the fear of losing your work by forgetting to save it.

The best part of all? It’s free!

Tap into social media trends

The most important part of being a content creator is being up-to-date with the trends and knowing how to incorporate these trends into your content. These can come in the form of trending movie scenes, music, drama—or even meme-fying a viral video or doing impersonations.

Take for example the ever-famous Stanley Cup video which went viral after a car caught fire and nothing survived…but a Stanley Cup. Today, the Stanley Cup has become a 73 million dollar business from 2019 to 740 million dollars in 2023. While this case is not exactly an effect of targeted influencer marketing, it just goes to show how impressive the reach of social media trends can be to make or break a business.

Conclusion

With millions of people in the social media sphere wanting to become influencers of their own, becoming an influencer marketer is becoming a cutthroat competition. What differentiates a good influencer from a bad influencer ultimately boils down to the content they make and how effective they are in turning this content into engagement and sales.

There are many ways influencers can create content without breaking the bank—looking for free alternatives, utilizing real-life events, repurposing old content, or doing a swap collaboration. This just goes to show that effective marketing doesn’t need to be expensive to be effective, and that micro-influencers can put out high-quality content even with a tight budget.