--- title: Does Micro-Influencer Marketing Really Work? description: An article about micro-influencer marketing and whether or not micro-influencer marketing works. Micro-influencer marketing is still effective. --- [![OpenSponsorship_logo-3](https://opensponsorship.com/hs-fs/hubfs/OpenSponsorship_logo-3.png?width=200&height=34&name=OpenSponsorship_logo-3.png "OpenSponsorship_logo-3")](https://opensponsorship.com/) [Case Studies](https://learnmore.opensponsorship.com/case-studies) [Create Free Account](https://opensponsorship.com/registration?type=brand&utm_source=Blog+header&utm_medium=Blog+header&utm_campaign=Blog+header&utm_id=Blog+header&utm_term=Blog+header&utm_content=Blog+header) # Does Micro-Influencer Marketing Really Work? - [Home](https://opensponsorship.com/) - Blog Details [Jayson](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/author/jayson-walla) February 21 2017 Don’t have a budget to work with professional athletes? Don’t have a marketing budget, period? This is where micro-influencer marketing comes in handy. Let’s get you the most bang for your buck with athlete sponsorships. Sounds too good to be true or confused how we do so? Let me explain. We recently connected one of our brands (Trago Smart Water Bottle) to triathlete Tim Hacker. Trago gifted Tim a free product (worth $70) in exchange for social media help. Tim has 1.7k followers on Twitter and 400 more on Instagram. Nothing to write home about, right? Wrong. Let’s think about it together. If Russell Westbrook had a blog, he’d have millions of followers, right? He’s so popular I can’t imagine someone NOT wanting to follow him. But if you’re following Tim Hacker’s blog (click [here](http://trihak.blogspot.com/) to see)? You’re following it for a reason and you actually NEED his recommendation for the best products. Either you’re a budding triathlete yourself, or just want to get in the same shape as a professional triathlete. Sitting behind my desk, I wish I was in the same shape as a triathlete…. But if you know Tim, you know him because he’s either running, swimming or on his bike 24/7. If you need a recommendation on a product made for an active athlete, you go to Tim. Oh did I mention he’s also a professional photographer? This is the reason sport sponsorship is so great. If you’re a big brand, you can get national recognition from working with an athlete like Russel Westbrook. If you’re not a big brand, there are 100s of Tim Hackers out there for every Russell Westbrook that are looking for smaller, yet awesome brands (A.K.A. YOU) to work with. “But Jason, where can I find all of these smaller athletes that will promote my brand for just free product? And how will I know if they would work with my product specifically?”. This is where OpenSponsorship can help. If you know you have a great product, and just need more people to find out about it, we help post a campaign (think like a job application) to attract some of our 2,000+ athletes. If they like the product, they’ll apply. If they don’t, they won’t waste their time. You want to work with athletes who are genuinely interested and believe in your brand anyway, right? - [marketing](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/topic/marketing) - [sponsorship](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/topic/sponsorship) - [sports](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/topic/sports) - [sports brands](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/topic/sports-brands) - [Uncategorized](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/topic/uncategorized) - [athletes](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/topic/athletes) - [brand ambassador](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/topic/brand-ambassador) ![](https://opensponsorship.com/hubfs/Jayson%20Walla.png) #### [Jayson](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/author/jayson-walla) Jayson is a content marketer at OpenSponsorship. He often shares insights about how brands can effectively work with athletes on marketing campaigns. #### Popular Post #### [America's 250th Birthday: The Brand Activation Playbook for 2026](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/america-250-brand-activation-playbook) July 01, 2026 #### [OpenSponsorship Releases World Cup Brand Activation Data as FIFA 2026 Kicks Off](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/opensponsorship-world-cup-2026-brand-activation-data) June 10, 2026 #### [High School NIL: A Brand's Guide to Sponsoring High School Athletes](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/high-school-nil-guide) May 19, 2026 #### [Why Athlete Influencer Marketing Is B2B's Most Underleveraged Channel](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/b2b-athlete-influencer-marketing) April 08, 2026 #### [Athlete Sponsorship Cost in 2026: $500 to $500K+](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/how-much-does-athlete-sponsorship-cost) March 30, 2026 #### Tag Cloud [marketing](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/marketing) [sponsorship](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/sponsorship) [athletes](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/athletes) [Uncategorized](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/uncategorized) [sports](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/sports) [Brand Endorsements](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/brand-endorsements) [sports marketing](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/sports-marketing) [Parterships](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/parterships) [Endorsement](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/endorsement) [athlete marketing](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/athlete-marketing) [brand ambassador](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/brand-ambassador) [influencer marketing](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/influencer-marketing) [sports brands](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/sports-brands) [endorsements](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/endorsements) [NIL](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/nil) [olympics](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/olympics) [Fitness](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/fitness) [sports innovation](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/sports-innovation) [artificial intelligence](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/artificial-intelligence) [social media](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/social-media) [NFL](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/nfl) [nba](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/nba) [KPIs](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/kpis) [mlb](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/mlb) [nhl](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/nhl) [twitch](https://opensponsorship.com/blog/tag/twitch) ### OpenSponsorship Blog ## FAQs What is OpenSponsorship? OpenSponsorship is an online marketplace and platform that connects athletes, teams, and influencers with brands and businesses for sponsorship opportunities. It was founded in 2014 and has since become one of the leading platforms in the sports sponsorship industry. How do I signup as a brand? Brands can signup for free here: https://opensponsorship.com/registration?type=brand How do I signup as an athlete? Athlete can signup for free here: https://opensponsorship.com/registration?type=athlete ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Jayson", "url" : "https://opensponsorship.com/blog/author/jayson-walla" }, "dateModified" : "2021-06-22T19:10:06.281Z", "datePublished" : "2017-02-21T23:14:40.000Z", "headline" : "Does Micro-Influencer Marketing Really Work?", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://opensponsorship.com/blog/micro-influencer-marketing-really-work-2", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://opensponsorship.com/hubfs/OpenSponsorship_logo_compact-3.png" }, "name" : "Opensponsorship" } } ```