How Influencer Marketing Can Leverage Your E-Commerce Business

 

Table of Contents:

• What happens when influencers vouch for e-commerce business?
• What is Influencer Marketing?
• Why invest in getting influencers and useful content to your marketing?
• Create a Solid Influencer Strategy

 

• Steps in Planning and Lead Indicators

• Expand to relevant Social Media Platforms. 
• Utilize Tools to Identify Compatible Influencers
• Fair Share policy for Marketing Influencers
• How to Leverage Influencer Marketing to Boost Sales?
•  Conclusion

 

Social Media came into being as a medium for peers and distant family connections. However, social media’s evolution has helped several individuals, organizations, and entrepreneurs gain prominence as service providers across the world. Given that social media’s prowess is limitless, recommendations from influencers can also help your brand raise awareness, boost conversions, and drive engagement.

 

As per recent findings, around 40 of total Twitter users reportedly purchase products after seeing an influencer tweet about them. This trend has become quite natural to survive the growing competition among e-commerce businesses by its looks. Today, influencer marketing for eCommerce is as vital as the social media presence. If an eCommerce business happens to equip both influencers and social media for their campaigns and product listing, getting at the top becomes somewhat more manageable. That might be why even the notable e-commerce brands leverage influencer marketing for eCommerce businesses for steady conversion rates.

 

What happens when influencers vouch for e-commerce business?

 

When e-commerce businesses incorporate influencers’ service to vouch for their brands, it is the influencers’ face value and reputation that would help your business win the hearts and the truth of your target audience. If you still feel influencer marketing for eCommerce is a gimmick, allow us to change your mind. Incorporating an influencer for your eCommerce business sends a message to your potential target audience as a distinguished form of social proof.

 

In addition to this, you can gain access to the influencer’s wider audience size, which is built on their work and reputation, not yours. So, technically, here, you’ve got nothing to lose. So, how do you get to leverage any reputed influencer marketing for driving sales and prominence? Let’s discuss!

 

What is Influencer Marketing?

 

Influencer Marketing for eCommerce solely emphasizes specific figures and leaders from within the industry. Moreover, their distinguished personalities host a significant follower base for driving your eCommerce brand’s message.

 

As influencers already have an extensive and dedicated follower base. So, it becomes easier for them to reach out to existing and potential followers while promoting a product. Further, this marketing avenue automatically aids e-commerce businesses to reach a broader, more extensive market. Influencer marketing usually targets the essential Return on Investment. As per the report, around 89% of total marketers firmly believe that the credibility of ROI ranging significantly better than most of the marketing tactics.

 

It entirely depends on your overall goal; as an eCommerce, you’re going to have to reach out to distinctive influencers. Moreover, eCommerce businesses have to ensure that they need to curate campaigns in a way where they can seamlessly measure results. For instance, if a business’s content plays a vital role, it is essential to write a comprehensive guideline regarding the pictures you’d like to see. 

 

Why invest in getting influencers and useful content to your marketing?

 

Reaching out to the appropriate influencers is essential as many influencers are ready for collaboration. These influencers work on different niches and content. For instance, some Instagramers are perfect for taking pictures, bloggers with impeccable copywriting skills, and YouTubers who ace at video content.

 

It is vital to work with influencers who are a perfect fit for specific campaign goals. In addition to this, eCommerce businesses should focus on getting the audience of the said influencer as your potential customers.

 

Once these things are set, it is time for you to dive into the content part. It is vital to choose the content which aligns perfectly with the value of your brand. Also, brand value has to be positive, energetic, and triggering. It would be best to work with an influencer who is perfect for transmitting the same energy and message on their profiles.

 

Choosing the appropriate quality of the community is critical too. Taking note of both the quality and quantity of potential engagement can change your market stance. Quantity here refers to the number of engagements that will check the post. When it comes to acknowledging quantity, the higher is the number, the better will be the reach. On the other hand, quality refers if influencers will engage the audience who are reaching to converse on the post. If your influencer asks questions concerning the content, it is better accepted by the audience if they answer them.

 

The real challenge? Finding the right influencers among millions can be like finding a needle in a haystack. The process can be quite time-consuming.

 

For this reason, it is vital to have a strategy to pick out the right influencers with the right audience which could be your potential customers.

 

Create a Solid Influencer Strategy:

 

Having a clear cut goal with step by step plans in finding the right niche of influencers is vital for the successful execution of this marketing. You should have adequate Key Performance indicators set in place which should aid you in identifying the influencer’s reachability. 

• Measure your Plan with Lead Indicators

For the first time, brands will feel like they are up for an uncertain chance with such a mode of marketing. They strongly suspect if it would provide any ROI at all. Without any clear strategy set, most of them really fail without any positive outcome along with a huge loss. Lead indicators show the exact measure of lead generation in real time. 

Steps in Planning and Lead Indicators

“What’s measured, improves” – Peter Drucker

Following are the key steps to follow for successful Influencer Marketing.

• Generating Brand Recognition is done by monitoring the change in the number of followers, likes and other engagements which includes comments, shares as well as hashtag usage in different social media handles.

• Creating a new set of Customers which has all the components in the brand recognition included but for an entirely new group of products. This probably requires you to attract customers with matching requirements to the new product line than the existing ones. Here influencers can come to your rescue by building a reputation for the new line of products triggering the right part of the market.

• Easing up the Generation of Sales Lead is the ultimate point any marketing strategy has in mind. To have a clear idea of how much each influencer source is chipping into the overall increase in sales can get tricky without unique codes or landing pages for each individual influencer.

This strategy gives you a better advantage in figuring out which partnerships are bringing in business and which aren’t. Now, a comparison of Influencer Marketing with other types of marketing in terms of Returns on Investment will give you comprehensive information on whether it’s worth maintaining. 

 

• Be informed about Influencer Marketing Possibilities

The vital thing when establishing connections with “compatible” influencer personalities is having a win-win relationship. The person should be aware of your potential customer’s requirements and desires whose words they take for face value when making purchase decisions. 

Expand to relevant Social Media Platforms

Another big mistake brands make is- when they follow the current most popular social media platform neglecting the kind of audience with a better possibility of being their future customers.

For example, if it’s a book publishing company, you have a better chance with Youtube or Goodreads rather than on Instagram. Many crucial components such as audience exposure, influencers with a business-relevant audience base, etc contribute mostly to the turnovers. 

Instagram is the most preferred platform for brands to recruit influencer Marketers with more than 92% share. Before investing only in such a platform with a “herd mentality”, understand that social media demography is dynamic and different platforms gain prominence with time. 

Actively research your target audience availability in each platform with already established alternate brands with the same product. Or check the search trend in each platform and leverage it. 

The Advent of Topic Specialists

Topic specialists are “micro-influencers” who are focused upon a specific niche with a follower base ranging from 1,000 to 100,000. These types of influencers can have a more fitting lifestyle with the brand he is vouching for. He can easily blend in with your brand’s mission, concept and Integrity.

Brands fanatically go after extremely famous influencers spending an enormous amount of money only to realise the engagement was low. It is always better to go with the micro-influencers who are the topic specialists in your brand who can cater to his fair audience base converting most of them to your potential customers. 

It is always better for any brand to find an influencer with 10K to 100K followers than one with millions. As the audience engagement is lower when the follower numbers go higher.

Apart from all this, it is of utmost importance to consider the loyalty the audience has to the influencer along with the absolute engagement. 

Glance over your potential influencer’s previous posts to check the overall engagement of loyal followers. Check whether your brand niche syncs with the influencer’s character by which his recommendation will sound authentic.

 

Utilize Tools to Identify Compatible Influencers

Even though “trial and error” techniques are considered normal for a company to progress, investing in the wrong marketing ideas do serious harm to the brand. 

For lion’s share (more than 78%) of the emerging brands, calculating the ROI from the Influencer Marketing itself is a cumbersome effort. Half of them find it difficult to find the right influencer marketing provider.

Here is where the brands have to utilize the right tools to overcome these hurdles. These tools should accomplish three major problems.

• Finding relevant Influencers.
  Tools like Buzzumo, Rapportive, etc aids in finding influencers sorted by topic and filtered by the number of followers and follower engagement metrics.
   
• Collecting contact information of potential influencers
  Advanced tools such as Voila Norbert, Sideqik, etc. enable you to find contact details in a single stroke.
• Automated Outreach Strategy.
  With the contact details ready it is time to start mailing influencers. Tools like  Mailshake, OutreachPlus, etc help you send highly customized emails in bulk and also track the responses and replies accordingly. Such tools even track the readiness from the tone of the response.

Apart from the recommendations given above, using the clear steps defined you can find ideal tools online with little research.

Fair Share policy for Marketing Influencers

Brands that are new to this new mode of marketing make a huge mistake by underpaying the influencers. This has become a serious damaging factor in recent times to the ROI. Now Brands are realizing the value of Influencer Marketing in E-Commerce and are willing to provide a fair deal. 

Identifying the requirements of the influencers and satisfying them accordingly right from the agreement and terms made from the beginning is the solution. 

Some influencers are satisfied with the exclusive products and limited edition gifts. While others prefer to have an affiliate status. They require to be compensated with an adequate commission from the sales revenue they have generated. 

Here too the brands can make use of convenient tools to identify the rate to be paid considering different variables such as follower count, likes, engagement etc. Instagram Influencer EC, is an example.

How to Leverage Influencer Marketing to Boost Sales?

 

1. Giveaways and Contests

 

The Giveaways alongside the contests are very common these days on Instagram. Almost all Instagram users try their luck to get their hands on the free giveaway. By its looks, these contests are organized by notable influencers associated with one brand or the other.

 

These online giveaways and contests compel general social media users to follow specific rules such as following a page, tagging new users, or commenting or like the post. The more people get engaged with the post, the more it enhances a particular brand’s awareness. That is how influencers help get the underlying target audience’s attention to aid eCommerce businesses gain conversion.

 

Some eCommerce businesses rise to prominence quickly because the free giveaways are popular among the people. Everybody loves free stuff. Moreover, if people get their hands on the free stuff by merely winning contests, it makes them a little proud of their achievement, irrespective of how infinitely small it is in reality.

 

Making these giveaways successful requires a notable influencer with a significant follower base intrigued by your niche. Further, as an eCommerce business, you’d need to set a prize for your potential audience or customers. So far, this is the only way you can appeal to a wide array of customers.

 

2. Instagram Stories

 

Have you heard of Instagram Stories? Well, you’d have used Instagram Stories. They play a crucial role when it comes to influencer marketing.

 

Almost all influencers worldwide and Instagram users alongside Facebook, even LinkedIn today, use stories. As per reports, around 500 million miles from across the world use Instagram Stories. In addition to this, 1 in every four millennials & generation-z popular look at Instagram before buying any desired services or products. Moreover, 36% of the total eCommerce businesses can be found on Instagram Stories to promote their products and services.

 

Instagram is the most preferred medium for businesses to seek influencers, followed by YouTube, and then Facebook. Instagram Stories will be the second-most format for the influencers on Instagram right after conventional Instagram posts, then comes YouTube and Instagram videos.

 

Why are brands leveraging on influencer marketing? Well, Instagram Stories allow people to connect with brands immediately seamlessly. If you wish to leverage groundbreaking influencer marketing’s optimum potential, you should ask influencers to share stories comprising the brand and the product. Using Instagram stories in a perfect manner would aid in creating the ideal brand awareness. Further, increasing the rate of engagement and finally increasing the products’ sales.

 

3. Direct the traffic directly into your website

 

Before signing any agreement with influencers, it is essential for you as an eCommerce business to understand how influencers can help get followers to visit your website.

 

You can also ask the influencer you’re going to collaborate with to provide links to the landing pages or website.

 

For Instagram:

 

 

• Inserting Call-to-Action in the caption will do wonder
• Link in Bio is more than suitable
• The swipe-up Instagram stories with influencers with over 10K followers

 

For YouTube:

 

 

• Call-to-Action right in the video
• Description with a clickable link

 

For Blogging:

 

 

• A simple link in the text would direct followers to your website

 

The important thing is to get the funnel completely uninterrupted. As an eCommerce business, you must make sure that the funnel is seamless for conversion. If your associated influencer will be promoting any product, then providing a link directed towards the product page will be great for selling your business.

 

You can optimize the funnel by curating a unique and separate landing page for your website’s influencer. You could work with them to define the products they like and why. Here, adding a promo code and a few offers will be like the cherry on a cake.

 

4. Testimonial Videos

 

By far, testimonial videos are the best way to leverage social media alongside influencer marketing. Here, asking influencers to create product testimonial videos would instantly reach hundreds. Later, you can share the testimonial videos on your and your influencer’s social media platforms.

 

There is a specific reason why certain people are called influencers. They are reached to the point of recognition with the utter trust and faith of their followers. If influencers collaborate with you to create testimonial sort of reviews for your products and share it with their followers, it has a different impact on the viewers’ psyche. The audience immediately believes in your brand’s motto and vision as they witness the real-life application from their trusted source. Moreover, in this way, you enhance your sales and gain potential customers’ trust. And this does increase the chance of increasing your follower base.

 

5. Influencers Operating Your Account

 

For some eCommerce businesses, this idea or strategy could be outrageous, but this method’s real-life implications are sensible. What would happen if an influencer uses your social media accounts to reach his audience? Well, long story short, the idea is a win for your brand.

 

With this strategy, you won’t only reach a wider audience than before, but even there will be a surge in your follower list. After the increase in fellowship, the rate of conversion will also increase while boosting leads. Influencers are aware of how to direct their audience to choose the right product or service. Before you plan on executing this, running an advertisement for the forthcoming post or video or both moments ahead on social media will keep the anticipation intact.

 

6. Exclusive Cut-price and Performance Marketing

 

This is one of the easiest ways that any E-Commerce businesses can utilize in order to calculate the exact ROI thereby enabling firms to compensate the influencers accordingly. 

 

• The custom URLs provided for the influencers to funnel the audience to your website.
• It provides exclusive cut-price or extra benefits is one of the best ways in Influencer Marketing.
•  The coupon codes specially designed for the influencers make it easier for them to include them in their content in any format such as videos, animations, podcasts, etc.

 

Wrapping Up

 

Over the years, influencer marketing indeed ranges as one of the most sought-after and popular online marketing methodologies. Influencer marketing for eCommerce businesses is perfect for reaching a broader audience in a designated time.

 

Note that the opportunities that influencer marketing provides are insurmountable. Nevertheless, if you don’t integrate influencer marketing alongside content marketing and social media marketing, then the impact won’t be as grand as you anticipate. A robust strategy to connect with people new and old will ultimately help eCommerce businesses establish relationships irrespective of the ever-growing competition.

 

Reference:

https://www.izooto.com/blog/ecommerce-brands-work-effectively-with-influencers-to-drive-sales

https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/influencer-marketing/

 

https://www.singlegrain.com/content-marketing-strategy-2/guide-influencer-marketing/

https://www.fourstarzz.com/post/how-ecommerce-brands-can-leverage-influencer-marketing

 

https://neilpatel.com/blog/influencer-marketing-ecommerce/