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The number of digital marketing channels keeps growing yearly with more platforms and technologies emerging. Influencer marketing is one of those digital marketing channels that emerged, under social media marketing, not so long ago, but it grow to become a powerful stand-alone marketing channel.
Influencer marketing has the highest ROI rate of all digital marketing channels. According to an infographic published by SocialPubli the ROI of influencer marketing is 35.3%. For this reason, over 47% of marketers allocate 20% of their entire marketing budget to influencer marketing alone! Furthermore, 11% of marketers dedicate more than 40% of their budget to influencer marketing. These astonishing statics was published in a report by InfluncerMarketingHub.
In this article, we will provide you with everything you need to know to use influencer marketing to grow your eCommerce business.
Table of contents:
- What is eCommerce influencer marketing?
- Why to use eCommerce influencer marketing?
- How much does eCommerce influencer marketing cost?
- 10 steps to start using eCommerce influencer marketing?
What is eCommerce influencer marketing?
Ecommerce influencer marketing is collaborating with influencers to promote your products and brand. It is the new equivalent of celebrity endorsement in the past. It can be done with multiple influencers at the same time. Business owners can also re-hire the same successful influencers for multiple campaigns.
Why to use eCommerce influencer marketing?
There are many reasons to use eCommerce influencer marketing:
1- Social proof: Influencer marketing is a form of social proof that makes your brand trusted by new prospects.
2- High ROI: As we explained before, influencer marketing has the highest ROI of all digital marketing channels.
3- Cost-effectiveness: This high ROI is also cost-effective, so you don't have to pay a huge budget to use influencer marketing and see results. This is because of the wide range of prices and the different payment options that influencers offer, which we will be discussing later in detail.
4- Re-purposing: Influencers' content can be re-purposed and shared on your pages or on different platforms. It can also be turned into paid ads and email campaigns.
5- Targeted audience: When choosing the right influencer, you are marketing yourself to the ideal audience who are already interested in your niche and are more likely to convert.
How much does eCommerce influencer marketing cost?
We can't give a definite price for influencer marketing because the price varies based on many factors; your niche, fashion, electronics, sports equipment, healthy food, etc, the influencer's reputation and their number of followers, and finally, the campaign form and duration. The range is very wide, starting from $100 per post and up to $10,000.
10 Steps to start Using eCommerce influencer marketing and get more sales
Similar to all types of marketing, the first part of the work is to plan.
The planning phase for eCommerce influencer marketing has smaller steps under it:
1- Define your target audience
It is very crucial to study your audience closely; their gender, age, interests, and location. If you have a large variety of products then it is better to work on segments instead of a large audience. For example, if you own a fashion eCommerce business, it is better to target by segment; women or men. If you offer women's work outfits, nightwear, sportswear, swimwear, and other varieties, then consider targeting a smaller segment; women who work or women who play sports etc.
2- Set your brand tone and objectives
Setting your brand tone and objectives will help you find an influencer who can speak to your audience in your tone and who matches your objectives and won't affect your brand image. So make sure you have a clear understanding of both the brand tone and the objectives.
3- Focus on a clear marketing goal
Successful marketing campaigns always have a clear goal. The same goes for influencer marketing campaigns. Decide what you want this campaign to achieve; brand awareness, engagement "likes, follows, shares", leads, or even sales.
The second phase is about how to find the right eCommerce influencer:
4- Go through your current follower list
Look at your list of followers, you might find a loyal influencer who loves your brand and who is familiar with what you offer and your brand tone. Those influencers are most likely to be more excited to collaborate with you than those who don't know your brand.
5- Conduct a manual search
Search on social media by using hashtags and keywords and see which influencers work in this niche. You can also use Google to find influencers lists based on the platform you want to market on and also based on the industry.
6- Vet the influencers
Vetting the influencers you found is important for ROI. You need to review many aspects not just their number of followers:
- Their tone and image and if they match your brand objectives
- What do they normally post about, and the frequency of their post
- Their engagement rate; by comparing the average number of likes, comments, and shares to their total number of followers. Don't forget to also review the comments and look out for any fake comments and fake followers.
- The volume of advertisements they do compares with their organic posts. Too much advertising means less authenticity.
- Focus on micro-influencers "10k - 50k followers, and macro influencers "100k - 500k followers". Mega influencers are more expensive, and a study conducted by Markerly revealed that the larger the fan-following of an influencer the lower is the engagement.
7- Establish an agreement
Once you find an influencer you believe to be the right fit, reach out to them, introduce yourself and your eCommerce business and find out more about their payment model.
- Fixed price:
Some influencers charge a fixed rate per piece of content.
- Commission or affiliate model:
The affiliate model is to pay influencers a percentage or flat fee based on the number of products sold via their unique promo codes or links.
- Free products:
This is also known as influencer seeding or product seeding. Offer free products to influencers in exchange for a review or a post.
Next, agree on the type of content they will produce for you and the clear message or goal you want them to deliver. Leave space and freedom for the influencer to find a creative and natural way to do it and trust them. Avoid giving them scripts, so you don't ruin authenticity. Some popular types of influencer marketing content are contests and giveaways, and product reviews.
Lastly, don't forget to confirm with them that they are okay with repurposing the content on your other marketing channels.
8- Launch the campaign
Review the deliverables, audio, video, or images. If you are happy with everything agree with the influencer on the timing for the launch.
9- Track the results
Based on your campaign goals, measure the effectiveness of the campaign. So for example, if your goal was brand awareness, then track followers, impressions, and shares. If your goal was Leads, track visits to your store and email captures.
Another important thing to measure is ROI. Based on what you have paid the influencer and the results you got. More metrics to track are click-through rate, cost per click, engagement, conversions, and referral traffic.
10- Repurpose the influencer content
Share the influencer content on your social profiles as posts, ads, or stories. You can also add their content to your website and to your email campaigns. Automate the process using Converted.in to save time and for better results.
To sum up; eCommerce influencer marketing has the best ROI, and it definitely deserves a big part of your marketing budget. For best results, know your audience and focus on one segment per campaign. Converted.in helps you segment your audience and track their interest. Next, define your goals and brand voice then select an influencer that matches your needs and meets the criteria we explained above. Measure how well their content performed and repurpose it. If everything went great, consider another collaboration with them.
