How local influencers are influencing consumer buying behaviors

As your customers scroll their social media feeds, they’re naturally drawn to content that pops. Today’s best influencers still manage to strike a real chord with followers, making them a huge asset to brands that hope to change consumer buying behaviors.  

But if you’re looking at influencers with the glossiest content and the highest follower counts, you might be disappointed with your results. Just like you ask for advice from your colleagues, neighbors, and pals, your customers rely on people in their social circles to learn about (and get inspired by) an array of products and services. 

If you’re interested in who lies behind rising sales and what they’re posting to leave such a lasting impression, we’ll look at why local influencer marketing may have more power than you realize.

Why brands turn to local influencers and content creators 

Local influencers are social media personalities who largely post for followers in their neighborhood or city. They might stray from the general formula once in a while, but in general, their content stays close to home. Their follower counts may not look impressive at first glance, especially when compared to traditional influencer counts, but their collective impact for brands is undeniable. 

Most influencers base their success on sheer volume. To grow their followers as quickly as possible, they have to make their content appeal to people outside their town, state, or even country. Local influencers care about what their local followers want — because those followers usually happen to be the people they know in real life. 

Hummingbirds is a platform for local content creators, known as “hummingbirds,” who create content for brands that align with their values. These content creators typically have years of trial-and-error in their rearview, so they know what their followers are looking for. 

So, a new mom who posts photos of her messy kitchen on Instagram might partner with a brand that promises an easier cleaning experience. Or a notorious foodie might partner with a new restaurant right down the street, then tell her followers about her new favorite spot. Today’s brands are finding that the lines between customer and influencer are increasingly blurred and that some of their best marketing comes from word-of-mouth.

Local influencers are a popular choice for brands that hope to either introduce a product or service on the market or cast an existing product or service in a new light. The partnership works because the influencers aren’t really influencers at all: they’re relatable people who want their followers to lead better lives. 

People are tired of ads and celebrity influencers 

Well-known social media personalities have been known to drive more than just brand awareness. They’ve ignited national trends, shifted consumer culture, and redefined marketing standards. It’s no wonder that one post from Kim Kardashian can cost a brand $2.17 million. 

But it doesn’t take a marketing expert to understand why celebrity influencers aren’t a sustainable path. Most followers are immune to brands that are either well outside their budget or simply have no place in their lives. This doesn’t mean that all celebrity content is worthless, only that it often doesn’t have the same impact as content creators with different intentions. 

If brands want to influence buying behaviors, they need to find people who already fit their ideal customer profile. Once brands find the right brand advocates, they won’t need to shell out thousands of dollars per post to get the content they’re looking for. 

Audiences respond favorably to authentic content 

Consider the most influential people in your life: chances are you trust them because they tell you what they really think and give first-hand accounts about their experiences. Successful modern marketing calls back to one of the most traditional strategies of all time: word-of-mouth. 

The majority of local content creators built their social media followers by posting real content to real people. They live their lives (warts and all), they give the highlights, and they look for ways to be helpful to their followers. Whether that’s inviting followers to a block party or recommending a new winter carnival, local content creators value authentic connections. 

Let’s say that you’re interested in promoting your CPG brand in Kansas City. Instead of getting a glamorous family to introduce your kid-friendly frozen meal, you should look for busy and budget-strapped parents who will honestly say whether their kid enjoyed their dinner.

Just like you relate most to people who are like you — as opposed to people who get paid a premium for every social media post — your customers do the same. At Hummingbirds, we’ve seen some of our creators’ posts go viral, which demonstrates how even small creators can make a big impact. How exactly does a person with 900 followers rack up millions of views? They post real content that resonates. And brands will quickly begin to see the value of authenticity reflected in their growing sales. 

Digital word-of-mouth marketing is powerful 

Word-of-mouth was and remains a powerful marketing engine for brands, but in the digital world, the means of communication has changed. Social media can expand people’s worlds, introducing them to products and experiences that they may not have heard about within their closest circles. 

If you’re trying to increase your digital word-of-mouth, you may see results if you spread your budget across multiple types of people in a single city. So instead of paying one or two influencers, who will inevitably have to deliver a more generic message to a bigger follower base, you get more specific messaging for better local impact.  

Working with a large group of local content creators, instead of just a couple of mega influencers, has the benefit of creating an echo chamber of sorts. All of a sudden, people within a city or region see an influx of content about a specific brand — and subsequently want to get in on the action as well. This creates measurable demand within a concentrated market. 

Local campaigns also have very different structures than more national strategies. Influencers aren’t asking their customers to click a link, reshare their post, or use a unique QR Code. The underlying motivation of the content creator is not to overhype the brand, but to make genuine connections between the brand’s benefits and their followers’ everyday lives. 

Truly local creators tap into the markets brands are trying to reach 

Brands don’t always realize just how different their customers are across sectors, and it’s not because they haven’t invested enough in their marketing software. It’s because they simply can’t always know what’s really driving consumer behavior. 

Local content creators have a different perspective; they experience what their followers experience. They shop at the same stores, they attend the same events, and they listen to chatter about everything from small-town politics to general pet peeves. 

So if an influencer’s followers are largely fellow parents at her son’s school, she might work in how a certain breakfast brand helps her have calmer mornings when drop-off parking is a zoo. Or if a local environmental prop is on an upcoming ballot, a sustainability enthusiast might connect an eco-friendly brand to the town’s larger green initiatives. 

Even in the case of more general campaigns, it’s clear that content hits differently with people based on where they live. For example, seeing an influencer drinking an Olipop soda in the middle of Manhattan isn’t the same as seeing your neighbor enjoying the same soda at a family backyard BBQ — and this is true even if both influencers have the same socioeconomic background. This doesn’t mean that one type of content is better than the other. It simply means that, in order to reach the customers you’re trying to reach, you need to show up as a brand that people within that same community know and love.

Larger influencers have national audiences, so even if you choose someone who lives in a geo-targeted location, the influencer won’t risk alienating their non-local followers. Still, their content may look great, but it likely won’t inspire the social proof that inspires a fear of missing out (FOMO).

With local influencers, this relationship between cause and effect is more straightforward. Content creators test the brand, their followers want to try it for themselves, then the followers share their experiences. It’s the best kind of echo chamber for a brand because it’s not empty words or meaningless promises being tossed back and forth. It’s real people talking about why they like a product or service. 

Both regional and national brands can benefit from local strategies. While regional brands may already have a finger on the pulse of resonant messaging, national brands may need a little help niching down. This is where local influencers shine: they create content that authentically resonates with others in their area. No matter what type of brand you represent, big or small, your sales success will come down to the partners you choose. 

Learn how Hummingbirds makes it easy to partner with local creators at scale 

Hummingbirds empowers brands to work with local creators in targeted locations at scale. Instead of paying for every post (which can quickly become expensive if you’re appealing to multiple types of customers), brands give hummingbirds free products or gift cards in exchange for their collaboration. 

When you partner with Hummingbirds, you don’t have to send out endless DMs to different influencers only to never hear back. Instead, you post the campaign for the hummingbirds and if they like your brand, they’ll pitch themselves to you. You can then review the applicants, including their past posts, before making the final decision. 

This double-matching process is a win-win for both brands and birds: the hummingbirds only apply to campaigns that they personally connect with and brands only approve people who are right for them. Brands can also ask questions during their campaigns about the applicant’s honest experience with the product, and then use those answers as a part of their local market research. 

Local campaigns have the power to influence sales, but there are far more benefits to local influencer marketing than just a bigger bottom line. Instead of just short-term revenue bumps, brands come across as far more relevant when they ask relatable people to do the talking. With Hummingbirds, you can shape a better image of your brand so it sticks with customers long after your social media campaign wraps up. 

Ready to see why so many brands trust local influencers? Book a call with the Hummingbirds team today!