If you haven’t already discovered the power of influencer marketing for your e-commerce store, it’s time to get with the program. Social media influencer marketing is one of the most effective methods of increasing sales and growing your brand awareness.
Using the power of platforms like Instagram, YouTube, TokTok, and Facebook have proven to be a goldmine for any type of business. For your Shopify, or any other type of online store, the possibilities are seemingly endless. Influencers have become one of the most popular and cost-effective ways to get ahead of the crowd by utilizing the power of social media, online videos, and blogging.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Let’s start by answering the question: what is an influencer? These are people with some sort of authority to influence the way make decisions. This could be a knowledgeable expert in a certain field. It could also be a celebrity or someone who has gained recognition simply by obtaining a massive following on social media platforms. Obviously, the ability to influence buying decisions has a huge amount of power and marketing potential.
Influencers can be individuals with a good following or an agency that uses their network of social media accounts and blogs to promote your business or brand. Typically, influencers will earn a commission on qualifying sales. However, you can structure your influencer marketing strategy to suit your budget and objectives.
To help you maximize your sales potential, I’ve compiled a step-by-step guide to creating the ultimate influencer marketing strategy.
How to Create the Perfect Influencer Marketing Strategy
Follow these easy steps and you’ll be on your way to the top of your game as a successful e-commerce store owner.
1. Find the Social Media Platforms That Work For You
Research has shown that video influencers work best for e-commerce marketing. The top platforms for influencer programs are:
- Instagram: 68%
- TikTok: 45%
- Facebook: 43%
- YouTube: 36%
While the big players certainly reach a lot of people, you may find that smaller niche platforms can achieve better results. There are a myriad of social media platforms out there. Many of which, you may not even be aware of. Do your research. Find out which platforms will appeal to your customers.
2. Set Up Your Guidelines
It’s important to establish your objectives and how you want to engage your audience through an influencer strategy. Do you want to stimulate engagement through discussions and hashtags? Is promoting your brand image a priority? Do you want to promote certain products or brands? By asking the right questions, you’ll be able to formulate a strategy that will help achieve your goals.
How do you plan to work with the influencers that you choose?
You can send them products that you want to promote. The influencers can mention that product in their posts. Often, simply the fact that an influential person is using your product can be enough to turn it into a craze.
Reviews are a common and very successful way to attract customers. This would entail using influencers who are respected for their knowledge and have a trusted following. Many bloggers and vloggers earn a living by reviewing products for a niche market in their field of expertise.
You can also use public events, where influencers will engage directly with followers to create interest in your brand or products.
If you already have an affiliate marketing program, you can invite influencers to join.
3. Find the Right Influencers
Choosing the best influencers to represent your brand is crucial. How influencers promote brands will vary depending on the individual. There are two critical elements to consider when choosing the right fit for your business – knowledge and personality.
Knowledge is important when your aim is to encourage customers to buy products through product reviews or informative posts. Many social media influencers are admired by their followers, like celebrities. Others are liked simply because they have a vibrant character and engage people easily. Choose the personalities and a knowledge base that will enhance your image.
Okay, this is easier said than done. How do you find the best influencers for an e-commerce store?
- You could start by observing your existing followers. You may find the right people within your social media network.
2. Googling for Influencer lists is another easy way to find the right people for your brand. If your store sells tech gadgets, try searching for “best tech gadget influencers”.
3. Doing a manual search on social media platforms can also achieve great results. Search for hashtags that relate to your products or just type keywords into the search bar and see what results you get.
4. If you have the money to spend, influencer and database tools are probably the easiest and quickest way to get in touch with prominent influencers.
Reach out to influencers through the contact details on their website or their social mediapages. You may not get a response from every attempt to make contact. Be persistent and contact as many potential influencers as you can find.
Also read: 2 Unique Ways To Find Fashion Influencers Fits Your Brand
Time to Start Influencing
We’ve taken a look at how to get sales with influencer marketing in 3 easy steps. To summarize the discussion, here are the important things to remember:
- Choose social media platforms that are the best fit for your e-commerce store.
- Know your objectives before setting out to find influencers. This could be increasing individual product sales, engaging potential new customers, creating awareness about your brand through conversation, or promoting your brand image.
- To find the right influencers for your brand, search for people with the best knowledge in your field and personalities that will enhance your brand image.
- You can search for influencers on social media platforms, look for influencer lists using a search engine, or use influencer tools.
Once you have the right influencers on board, you can expect to see your sales soar.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How much does influencer marketing cost?
A: You can structure your influencer marketing strategy to suit your budget. Using nano-influencers (1,000 – 10,000 followers) generally costs about $0 to $100 per post. Mega-influencers (with over a million followers) can charge north of $10,000 per post.
Q: Which platform is the best for influencer marketing?
A: It depends. But in most of the cases, Instagram has shown the best results for influencer marketing. Other big performers are TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Q: What are the most important metrics for an influencer?
A: The top two metrics to analyze, when it comes to influencers, are reach and impressions. This lets you know how many times a post (or video) was displayed (impressions), and how many people saw the post (reach). Other important metrics include audience engagement, audience growth, brand mentions, traffic from social media, conversions from social media, and revenue from social media.