Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce Business

Influencer marketing is a vital marketing channel for ecommerce brands, delivering impressive ROI, strong influencer engagement, and precise online audience targeting. Achieving goals is possible by tapping into influencer credibility through sponsored endorsements, making it a highly effective initiative for ecommerce, regardless of size. Notable brands like Glossier, American Eagle, and Adidas have successfully launched with influencer partnerships, highlighting its widespread success in the industry. This article delves into the impact influencer marketing has in the ecommerce field.

Who are ecommerce influencers?

In simple terms, influencers are individuals highly regarded in a specific industry or by the public, known for their ability to impact others’ beliefs or opinions. On social media, influencers play a crucial role in boosting the success of posts, tweets, events, and products or services by leveraging their authority.

Why influencer marketing is effective for e-commerce brands

In the competitive online world, working with influencers has become crucial for e-commerce brands to stand out. Influencers, by narrating a brand’s story and sharing their experiences with its products, often become the deciding factor for consumers who can’t physically test products before purchasing.

However, this strategy requires the right partnerships. Successful brands collaborate with creators who share their values and fully embrace the brand’s vision. By teaming up with aligned influencers and reaching their like-minded audience, e-commerce brands can build social proof, influencing purchase decisions, and fostering lasting relationships with consumers.

5 Key Tips for Your Influencer Marketing Strategy

Look Beyond Follower Count

With influencer marketing, recognizing that influencers come in various forms and sizes is crucial. From YouTubers, bloggers, and Instagram celebrities to podcasters, TikTokers, and LinkedIn thought leaders, each brings a unique perspective and audience. While it’s tempting to be swayed by large follower counts, it’s important to understand that the number of followers does not always correlate with engagement.

Macro and celebrity influencers may have a broader reach, but nano and micro influencers often boast higher engagement rates and a more dedicated audience. Small and nano influencers, especially those with follower counts ranging from 1,000 to 100,000, tend to be more open to collaboration and might accept free products in exchange for content. This approach not only reduces overall expenses but also nurtures stronger relationships with a target audience.

Find the Right Influencer and Negotiate

Recognizing that your brand goes beyond merely selling a product is vital. It improves the quality of life for specific groups of people, making it essential to collaborate with influencers who represent the specific needs and values of your target audience. Instead of casting a wide net, it’s advisable to be selective. Quality surpasses quantity when it comes to influencer marketing.

Partnering with a handful of influencers who genuinely align with your brand is more impactful than engaging with numerous influencers who might be a hit or miss. Negotiating influencer rates can be a delicate process. Exploring alternatives, such as product seeding campaigns or affiliate partnerships, can be effective. Combining cash incentives with perks can create a mutually beneficial partnership and ensure a successful influencer program.

Establish Goals and Choose Channels

While influencers may be active across various platforms, it’s unnecessary to target all of them. A focused approach, especially when starting influencer collaborations, can yield more effective results. Beyond the conventional platforms like Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram, success can be found in unexpected places. Tailoring influencer campaigns to platforms like Discord or Pinterest, based on the specific audience and content type, can unlock unique opportunities.

Engaging in open discussions with influencers about campaign goals and preferred channels fosters a collaborative environment. Utilizing influencers’ expertise in social media platforms helps tailor the campaign for optimal performance.

Ensure Seamless Product Integration

The heart of influencer marketing lies in authenticity. Influencers are valued for their genuine, non-sponsored content. Ensuring that influencers know, use, and believe in your brand and products leads to authentic brand mentions that resonate with their audience. Building brand love with influencers transforms them into true brand champions.

This goes beyond a simple endorsement; it establishes influencers as educators, storytellers, and integral members of a community. The essence of successful influencer marketing lies in creating collaborations that benefit both the brand and the influencer. Seamless integration of products into an influencer’s content collection ensures audience engagement and conversion.

Utilize Marketing Tools for Program Management

Managing influencer relationships involves tracking a multitude of data, from social media handles and emails to posts, addresses, and product preferences. Initially using spreadsheets to organize this information is a practical approach. However, as the influencer program grows, spreadsheets may become cumbersome to manage. Upgrading to a creator management platform streamlines workflow, providing features like extensive creator databases, workflow management, advanced analytics, and integrated CRM systems.

Selecting a platform that aligns with your goals is important. Features like influencer analytics, email integrations, ecommerce integrations, and social listening tools enhance the efficiency of influencer program management. As the brand evolves, the right platform ensures continued success by offering scalability and adaptability.

Ecommerce Trends to Leverage Influencer Marketing

Viral Commerce

The trend in e-commerce is shifting towards achieving ‘viral commerce,’ where brands center their marketing campaigns on the idea of shopping and sharing. Platforms like TikTok’s For You page and Instagram’s Shopping tab enable creators of all sizes to reach massive audiences and create viral moments. An example is the #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend, leading to increased sales for various products.

Resale and Sustainability

Resale and sustainability are enduring trends, with experts predicting a more than 46% increase in resale e-commerce, making it a $15.5 billion industry by the end of 2022. Millennials and Gen Z consumers are driving this trend, compelling modern e-commerce brands to adopt sustainable practices. Influencers in sustainable fashion niches are crucial partners for brands reevaluating their missions to resonate with consumers focused on reducing their carbon footprint.

Subscriptions

Subscription services like Stitch Fix, BarkBox, and Kiwico are proving to be difficult for customers to quit. A survey found that over 70% of consumers have tried a box subscription service, and more than 65% renewed their subscription after the first use. These services allow brands to curate unique product experiences for customers, and influencers can engage their audiences through entertaining “unboxing” content.

AR Tech

Augmented reality (AR) technology is playing a pivotal role in helping consumers visualize purchases. Platforms like Snapchat and Pinterest lead the AR charge, enabling users to see how a product looks on them before making a purchase decision. Data indicates that products advertised with AR content have a 94% higher conversion rate, and 40% of e-commerce shoppers are willing to pay more for a product if they can test it using AR technology.

How to Measure Goals and ROI for Your Ecommerce Business

To achieve the best outcomes from your influencer marketing campaign, clarify your goals early on. Whether it’s building brand awareness, driving sales, or launching a new product, define your objectives and the metrics for measuring your ROI. Consider metrics such as sales through affiliate links, website visits, newsletter signups, brand account followers, engagements with the campaign hashtag, and the creation of new quality branded content.

For campaigns involving multiple influencers, use a campaign management tool like Upfluence software to easily track desired metrics and report campaign success. This tool eliminates manual data extraction from social platforms, allowing for real-time performance measurement and the flexibility to make adjustments for better results.

Tracking campaign performance is crucial for identifying influencers who contribute to your objectives. The goal is to establish long-term relationships with influencers through successful partnerships, saving time and effort. While a one-time promotion by an influencer is interesting, repeated endorsements from the same person build trust and drive action. Long-term partnerships are more achievable with influential customers, as they already have an affinity with your brand and are likely to continue promoting it organically or in exchange for products and discounts.

Conclusion

E-commerce brands should welcome collaboration with influencers to harness the impactful role of social media and creator content in the online shopping process. A majority of consumers, 8 out of 10, make purchases based on influencer recommendations. Authenticity is key in influencer partnerships that drive conversions, and an influential customer authentically endorsing your brand on social media is unmatched!