The Ultimate Guide to Effective Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce in 2020 As the proprietor of an online store, promoting your brand takes up a large chunk of your time. In this digital era, the ideal avenue for eCommerce marketing is using social media. The social media platforms host several people, an ample sample space for your target market. You can share different kinds of content on your various social media platforms. And no doubt, your online store brand might even gain some traction. However, another way goes a step further in spreading the word about your brand and products. Two words. Influencer marketing. In the earlier days, businesses used A-list celebrities to advocate for their brand. However, this meant that outfits with smaller marketing budgets couldn’t compete favorably. Now, with the advent of the internet and social media, personality-based marketing is open to all. Several online store brands are using social media personalities to expand their reach Do you want to build a high converting Shopify store? Download Debutify to give your customers a clean and intuitive shopping experience. So, influencer marketing. What is it? To understand the concept of influencer marketing, you need to first know who an influencer is. Remember the A-list celebrities we talked about earlier? Well, an influencer is a celebrity. Sort of. Influencers are content creators that have made a name for themselves on the internet. They’re “thought leaders” in their various industries, ranging from fashion, beauty to the different kinds of technology. And just as the big brands of yesteryear wanted to be associated with the big names, online stores use influencers’ social media clout to achieve the same thing. That, my friend, is influencer marketing. Of course, there’s more to it. And that’s the purpose of this guide. Why is influencer marketing successful? For the longest time, eCommerce marketing has been all about ads. Email ads, pay per click (PPC) ads and video ads. The reason they’ve lasted so long is that they are successful. That is, until now. Although you might direct traffic to your Shopify store through this kind of marketing, the return on investment is getting smaller and smaller. One of the main reasons for this is that consumers are tired of ads disrupting their online experience. They use blocking software to filter ads from their content. Furthermore, they are adept at sniffing out marketing lingo in different types of content. This makes it easy for them to ignore such content.
Influencer marketing attempts to sidestep these issues. Influencers have gained the trust of their audiences. Brands take advantage of this to pass their message along, confident that it’ll hit home with less resistance. Consumers trust influencers more than they do brands. This is because the brand seems like a distant and indifferent entity. On the other hand, they have followed the influencer for a while and associate them. And speaking of following, influencers usually have several followers on the various social media platforms. It is this following that you want to spread your brand message to. How can you make influencer marketing work for you? You should set aside a significant portion of your Shopify marketing budget for influencer marketing. This form of brand promotion offers substantial returns. For every $1 you inject into this strategy, you’ll get $18. Point being; it’s very effective! Let’s not get tangled up in the numbers. Here’s how you can make the most of influencer marketing. Listyourgoals Before you can think about hiring an influencer, you need to identify your goals and KPIs. This serves as a guiding light, enabling you to know what exactly you want to achieve. The goals and KPIs also let you know what to expect from the influencer. In other words, the points from which you can gauge the influencer’s success. If you’re just starting out, you shouldn’t set too many objectives and goals. Focus on a few objectives so that you can discover all the nuances of this type of marketing. When you’re comfortable with it, you scale your approach. Hire a few more influencers and broaden your objectives
Identifyyourtargetaudience
To select the best influencer to promote your brand, you need to know who your audience. For example, your Shopify store exclusively deals with makeup accessories. It doesn’t make sense for you to hire an influencer in the technology niche just because they have a large following. Identifying your audience informs your influencer hiring decisions. Your target market will only listen to someone who also uses your product. List down the characteristics of your ideal customer. This is known as a buyer persona. Select influencers that fit this mold. Your customers will relate more to them.
Whichsocialmediachannelsareyougoingtouse?
The same method we’ve discussed above will help you answer this question. The buyer persona lets you know where to find your potential customers. If you’re targeting a young and fun-loving clientele – let’s say Gen Z and late millennials – you won’t sign off on a campaign using LinkedIn influencers. You’ll look for influencers with an ideal following on Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok. Additionally, the kind of content you want the influencer to push will determine which social media channel to use. If you want short-form video content, you should consider Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. For longer video content, YouTube influencers are the more prudent option. For image and textbased content, Twitter and Facebook should do the trick. However, you should mix up the kind of content that you want your influences to promote. If you’re using both video and still content, you can use various platforms. Facebook and Twitter are advantageous because they support both forms of content. Lookforinfluencers Now that you know your objectives, target audience and channels of interest, you can start searching for influencers. Your influencers should fit with your brand’s culture. The tone that they use in their interactions with your audience should reflect your brand personality and values. One of the most important factors when it comes to hiring influencers is the size of their following. In fact, you can categorize them according to this metric. There are nano-, micro-, macroinfluencers and celebrities. While the latter pair might seem like the go-to options to reach a broad audience, they might not be the most effective. On the other hand, influencers with smaller followings interact more with their audience. This makes them more down-to-earth, which bodes well for your brand’s reputation.
Another advantage of nano- and micro-influencers is that they charge considerably less that celebrities for more engagement. Where can you find these influencers? You can monitor your social media feeds and see which influencers promote brands or products in your niche. Reach out to them via their channels. Alternatively, you can browse online marketplaces where you can find and hire influencers. Google “where to find influencers” and you’ll find several platforms that list them. Some have gone as far as categorizing the influencers in their various niches and their total number of followers. How do you use influencers for marketing your Shopify store?
Now that you’ve found and hired your influencers, how exactly do they fit into your Shopify marketing strategy? Where to from here? Ready to kickstart your Shopify marketing campaign? Hire influencers to increase your return on investment. This guide points out the key areas to pay attention to. Remember, influencers can decline your offer to promote the brand based on the quality of your products and store. Get an excellent Shopify theme here to ensure that influencers want to work with you.