How Effective are Influencers for SMBs?

Which SMBs use influencers? What kind of influencers do they use? How effective are they? To find out, Bredin recently surveyed 500 U.S. SMB principals.

SMB use of influencers varies quite a bit by size. For example, 24% of very small businesses (VSBs, with 1-19 employees) use influencers occasionally or regularly, versus 47% of small businesses (SBs, with 20-99 employees), and 54% of midsized businesses (MBs, with 100-500 employees). Almost half of VSBs have no plans to use influencers.

Which SMBs Use Influencers?

‍Does your company use influencers or content creators for social media marketing?

Among the SMBs that do use influencers, local influencers are the most popular, regardless of SMB size. Industry/niche influencers are second among all size segments, although SBs are equally likely to use micro-influencers (who are third for VSBs). For MBs, celebrity influencers rank third.

What Kind Influencers Do SMBs Use?

What types of influencers do you work with? Select all that apply.

95% or more of SMBs, depending on headcount, rate influencers effective, although their effectiveness varies by headcount. For example, 35% of VSBs rate influencers very effective, compared to 58% of SBs and 63% of MBs. Larger SMBs can devote more resources to selecting, managing and compensating influencers, and as a result can get more from them.