The Definitive Guide to Ecommerce Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing for ecommerce has developed immense popularity in the modern business world. Both multinationals and SMEs are leveraging the power of influencer marketing to generate leads for their online business enterprises. 

Influencers understand what interests their audiences and know how to package the information. Thus, they build a large following from a group of people interested in a specific field and use their popularity to promote brands and sell products and services. To warrant the time commitment (and make $$$), influencers use social media platforms to promote ecommerce brands.

Are you wondering how to integrate influencer marketing to promote your ecommerce brand? This guide presents a comprehensive guide to understanding what ecommerce influencer marketing entails. 

What Exactly Is an Influencer?

Influencers use their position, knowledge, and authority to influence buyers’ purchasing decisions and persuade them to use specific products or services. From the relationship these individuals make with their audiences, they become influential in the lives of their followers.

Influencers date back as far as Genesis: 3, but thanks to social media, only recently can anyone be one-to-many influencers.

Ecommerce influencers work around a specific niche and promote related products using social media handles and other online platforms. The influence these professionals can have depends on their total number of followers. That also brings in the two primary influencer types: mega and micro.

A Micro-Influencer

Micro-influencers are social media influencers with followers ranging from 1000-5000. Typically, these are small-scale influencers, relatively new in the industry. 

They may have fewer followers than mega influencers. However, micro-influencers have a considerable impact on ecommerce regarding driving sales. They have an engagement rate of 8.8% and are likely to increase your brand’s visibility.

A Mega-Influencer

Mega-influencers are social media influencers with over 100,000 followers. Mostly, they are primarily celebrities & professionals in different fields and command many online fans. Other times, they are personalities who have risen to fame through their preferred platform.

Surprisingly, micro-influencers are more beneficial to your ecommerce business than mega-influencers because of their ROI. Unlike mega influencers, hiring micro-influencers is cheaper, which lowers your business’s expenditure.

Why Every Brand Should Leverage Influencer Marketing

Brands should leverage influencer marketing as a part of their overall content marketing strategy since it triggers a massive increase in sales. Influencer marketing generates leads to ecommerce websites, increasing the revenue for the company.

Influencer marketing uses brand ambassadors to take your brand’s message to the broader market. Rather than selling directly to a large pool of consumers, you instead inspire, motivate, and educate the influencers who do the same for their followers. It also focuses on convincing potential customers to visit ecommerce websites and buy commodities. 

Influencers trigger social proof among potential customers. Apart from that, there are many benefits to using influencer marketing as part of your ecommerce marketing strategy:

• It can help you reach a new and larger audience

• It can build trust and credibility for your brand

• It can be a more cost-effective way to market your products or services

With an adequately leveraged approach, ecommerce influencer marketing can help you build more credibility, get new leads, boost your brand awareness, and increase conversions. 

Given the benefits, this is a type of marketing that both small and large brands should take advantage of influencer marketing to increase sales in the domestic and global markets.

Where To Find Influencers

Influencer marketing is a crucial tool for ecommerce businesses. There are a few issues to consider when looking for relevant influencers. First, you want to ensure they have a large and engaged audience. 

Second, you want to ensure they align with your brand values and are niche influencers in your field. And third, you want to ensure they’re a good fit for your product or service. 

There are several ways to find the right niche influencer for your brand. For instance, hashtags, social media, and YouTube are the top options. Also, you can try influencer marketing platforms, LinkedIn, or search on google to land a relevant influencer for your business.

The most important thing is to find influencers suitable for your brand and can reach your target audience. With a little effort, you can discover the perfect influencers for your ecommerce business. 

Identifying Influencers Who Match Your Brand

Another place to focus on is identifying the right influencers for your ecommerce business. The right professionals can help you sell your products, get top value, and generate higher leads for the company. Using a unique selling position (USP), professional influencers develop a content strategy that attracts potential customers to your products and services. 

But landing the right influencer depends on understanding your business and products. Before shopping for a relevant influencer, begin by defining your audience, brand’s voice, and level of awareness.

For instance, content that’s right for an audience that already understands what they want may not be suitable for someone with little knowledge of the product or service. Thus, you want to reach out to an influencer with information about the product you’re selling and has the relevant audience that you want.

Also, understand your budget and set your target for the right professional. And while at it, ensure your preferred influencer checks all the boxes in the 3Rs of the business. That means they need to post relevant content to your business, have enough followers to help your brand grow, and have an engagement level that resonates with your target.

The right influencer doesn’t have to be those with the largest audiences. Even a smaller influencer with the right tools and knowledge can help you reap a lot from your efforts. These micro-influencers are rising rapidly, thanks to their loyal and highly engaged communities. According to statistics, these professionals grew from 89% to 91% in 2021.

How Much To Spend on Influencer Marketing

As ecommerce brands are looking to expand their reach and connect with new audiences, influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy. Big-name brands allocate a more significant portion of their marketing budget to brand ambassadors and social media influencers.

The amount you spend will depend on several factors, including your budget, goals, and the size and engagement of the influencer’s audience. Celebrity influencers are likely to charge more for product promotion.

That said, a good starting point is to allocate around 10-20% of your overall marketing budget to influencer marketing. 10-20% gives you enough room to work with different influencers and test out what works best for your brand. For example, multinational companies should allocate a higher budget than small and medium-sized enterprises.

You can constantly adjust your budget up or down as needed based on your results. If you’re getting a good return on investment from your influencer marketing campaigns, increase your budget to reach even more customers. 

Creating Your Influencer Marketing Campaign

Influencer marketing is among the most effective ways to reach new customers and develop higher leads. Your chosen influencer should help you drive sales and awareness or attract new customers for your products or services (depending on your target). 

Here are some recommendations to help you create your influencer marketing campaign effectively.

Influencer Marketing Tools 

Many great influencer marketing tools are available to help you run your campaign smoothly. Here are two of the most popular ones:

Hootsuite Insights: This tool helps track, measure, and analyze your influencer marketing campaign. You can see the most effective influencers and track your campaign performance.

BuzzSumo: This tool allows you to find and connect with influencers in your niche. You can also see which content is most popular with your target audience and use this information to create more interesting content for your campaign.

Defining Your Marketing Objective 

As you plan your influencer marketing campaign, it is essential to define your marketing objectives. You can ask yourself many questions to determine your marketing objective. 

Once you know your objectives, you can start identifying the right influencers to work with and create content to help you achieve your goals. The marketing objective enables you to focus on building your brand.

Choose Your Social Platform(s)

As an influencer, choosing the social platforms most relevant to your niche and where your audience is most active is essential. 

When choosing which media to use for your influencer marketing campaign, there are many things to consider. They include the following:

• The type of content you desire to create

• The audience you want to reach

• The goals you want to achieve

• The existing budget 

Some of the most widely used social platforms for influencer marketing campaigns include Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. If you are looking for in-app conversions, TikTok ecommerce syncs perfectly with influencers. Several other media can also be effective, depending on your goals and audience.

When choosing which social platforms to use, consider the type of content you desire to create, the audience you want to reach, and which channels they shop at. For example, if you’re looking to get a younger audience who frequents target, TikTok and Instagram may be more effective at supporting your omnichannel ecommerce approach. 

It’s also important to consider the goals you want to achieve with your campaign. For example, if you wish to increase brand awareness or drive sales, you’ll need to choose social media platforms. However, if you want to create more in-depth content, promoting your ecommerce brand on YouTube may be a better option.

Creating Your Influencer Marketing Strategy 

We must keep your top goal in mind as you develop your marketing strategy. Create a campaign to promote your brand (effectively) and help you achieve your business objectives. You’ll need to consider several factors, including your target audience, your budget, and the platforms you’ll use to reach your audience.

Choosing the right influencers is one of the most critical aspects of your strategy. Remember that not all influencers are created equal; finding ones that align with your brand and have a large-engaged following is important.

Once you’ve selected your influencers, you’ll need to create a plan for how they’ll promote your brand. Creating your action plan involves creating content, such as blog posts to support your ecommerce SEO, videos to increase the length of engagement, or social media posts that feature your product or service. 

Tip: Leverage your existing audience and promote the influencer partnership in your ecommerce email marketing campaigns. Not only should you capture their audience's attention but yours as well. 

You’ll also need to determine how often they publish the content and what kind of call to action you want your audience to take. Finally, you’ll need to monitor the results of your campaign to ensure that it’s meeting your objectives. That will involve tracking metrics, such as reach, engagement, and conversions. 

Tip: Don't assume an influencer's audience will buy anything they pitch. Be sure to follow ecommerce direct response practices with the influencer's content, your call to action, and the product page. 

Create Contests & Giveaways 

Creating contests and giveaways is a great way to increase engagement in your influencer marketing campaign. By offering relevant prizes to your brand, you can encourage your target audience to participate in the campaign.

State the contest’s rules or giveaway clearly, and select a winner at random to avoid any potential conflict.

Reviewing Your Influencer Campaign

Social media is increasingly becoming an essential part of ecommerce marketing. With its growth came influencer marketing, taking the industry by storm and changing how people view and use the internet.

While it’s effective, how you create your influencer marketing campaign will determine whether you’ll succeed in this process. Here are some metrics to review before signing a contract with your preferred influencer.

Engagement: The influencer may have many followers. But the number of these people interacting with the influencer through their posts makes the difference. 

How Frequently Do They Post: A moderate number of posts weekly is a good sign when considering your ideal influencer.

Audience Demographics: Work with an influencer whose audience matches your target customers.

How many campaigns has the influencer promoted before? Working with an influencer with experience is more straightforward than contracting an utterly new professional. The new influencers may still give results, but you’ll have to keep guiding them until they get perfect in the game.

Tip: You may only get one shot with an influencer. To maximize your results, integrate your influencer marketing into your ecommerce retargeting campaign.

Key Takeaways

Finding a perfect influencer is an effective way to manipulate buyer decisions in your favor. Influencers use their authority, knowledge, position, or expertise within a particular field to convince customers to make purchases from ecommerce websites.

However, the challenges of finding the right influencer, the high cost of working with professional influencers, and the risk of fraud can make you miss out on this critical aspect of social media and ecommerce marketing. 

Thus, ensure that you’re contracting a professional when considering ecommerce influencers. Working with a professional with a proven track record of success will enhance your chances of thriving at this.

Let Us Create Your Influencer Marketing Strategy

The Nine is an ecommerce agency specializing in digital marketing. Our team will help you create and execute your influencer marketing strategy. From identifying the right social media influencer to reporting on the campaign’s success, we ensure your influencer campaign is successful.

Schedule a time to talk with our fantastic team and learn about our influencer marketing services for ecommerce brands.