Tips & Guides — 09 Jun 2022
How eCommerce can benefit from Influencer Marketing
Influencers have been a game-changer in the industry and gained the trust of consumers. Through blogs, reviews, videos, and other content, they become a means by which brands can not only reach their audience but also build and establish a relationship with their customer base. It is even more crucial when it comes to eCommerce, which needs a strong online presence.
Many brands that already incorporate influencers into their strategy are reaping good results and increasing sales through new channels. However, if you don’t know much about why they should be a part of your marketing growth strategy, this article will help you understand how influencers can benefit your brand. Below, we will discuss:
The idea of what an influencer is has changed and been redefined over the years, so let’s start by reviewing it. We can say that an influencer is any person who has built a community of engaged followers. The audience trusts their words and sees the value in the content.
One research found that the most desirable characteristic of an influencer is, above all, trustworthiness. This means that the audience expects influencers to be clear about what they post and promote. Other factors, such as being informative or entertaining, are also important to the audience. However, the number of followers or comments only counts for 11% of people.
In a marketing strategy, influencers are responsible for increasing brand awareness, helping brands establish themselves in the marketplace, and so on. Think of them as a bridge to direct the audience to independent platforms like eCommerce websites or recommend products to buy on social networks, which is called social eCommerce.
Nowadays, social networks want to make it easier for consumers to shop on their platforms and offer a seamless experience. The adoption of social selling has been greatly accelerated by the pandemic. One example of how brands and influencers can work together to drive eCommerce sales is Livestream content. In China, for instance, a famous creator Li Jiaqi sold $1.6 billion worth of products in a Singles Day 2021 Livestream.
With the evolution of consumer behavior and the increase of sales through social networks, investments in social eCommerce will also increase for 78% of marketers.
eCommerce is expected to be worth $137 billion in 2023, twice the value of 2022. In this scenario with many opportunities, one of the biggest challenges for eCommerce owners today is to find marketing methods that bring desired results. This is not always an easy task, as consumers are constantly changing, and traditional marketing methods, such as paid advertising, are becoming more expensive.
The cost per click for paid search ads increased by 15% between the second and third quarters of 2021`. As a result, brands want to explore new ways to connect with customers, and the investments in influencers are set to grow even more in the next few years. According to Hubspot, 46% of marketers who leverage influencers will increase their investment, while 21% of marketers plan to leverage it for the first time.
More and more, customers are looking for recommendations from people they trust. When an influencer recommends a product to their audience, it’s like a valuable review and the likelihood of a follower accepting that recommendation is very high, just like when a close friend or colleague makes the recommendation. Brands can make a lot of gains by teaming up with an influencer to position as the best choice.
Influencers help brands work across multiple channels, build consumer trust, increase awareness, and generate more high-quality leads. In addition, as customers spend more and more time online, influencers are an easier and more authentic way to get on the radar of potential customers.
An important part of considering an influencer marketing strategy is to understand the differences between influencers. They can be divided into different categories: Nano, Micro, Medium, Macro, and Mega Macro. Understanding each category will help you determine which category your marketing goals best fit into.
Nano-influencers (from 0K to a maximum of 10K followers) are usually at the beginning of their journey and have more elaborated and multi-faceted content, as they want to grow and be helpful to their audience. They are also highly appreciated by consumers because their recommendations seem more casual, and their followers do not necessarily associate them with commercial interests.
Both micro-influencers (10,000 to 100,000) and mid-influencers (up to 500,000) understand the field as a profitable profession and have more solid ways to monetize their content. They also have more experience in creating campaigns. On the other hand, the cost of a brand to be associated with them is also higher.
Macro-influencers (500K – 1M) or mega-macro-influencers (1M+) have a stratospheric reach. They fit well into a strategy when a brand wants to change the perception of a product on a larger scale. Many macro-influencers are established celebrities. The list of the biggest influencers includes Cristiano Ronaldo, Selena Gomes, Chris Hemsworth, and other sports, music, and movie stars. Just as their reach is theoretically greater, the amount they charge will also be greater.
Which one is the best choice for your digital marketing strategy? It depends. Each level of influencer offers a different kind of value to a brand’s marketing goals. In any case, influencer power can not be measured by follower count alone. Nano-influencers, for example, are increasingly sought after by brands because they are more affordable and have a close relationship with their audience, who are engaged and trust their word.
Influencer Marketing Pricing: How To Reduce The Costs?
Learn now →More and more consumers are exposed to a greater number and variety of eCommerce brands, particularly younger consumers, generation Z. According to research, this generation is more likely to discover new brands on digital channels and buy online, from social media to ads on websites and apps, while being less loyal to brands.
Thus, influencers, who already have an engaged audience, are becoming an alternative for brands looking to stand out and gain exposure in a specific niche. Let’s take a look at what opportunities there are to partner with influencers:
It offers a discount or promo code, which can be found in the description of the video or other featured content. Codes are also popular on Instagram posts where influencers tag the promoted product in the caption. The idea behind the discounts is to create a lot of interest, attract potential customers to the page, and turn some of them into regular customers.
Discount codes are often used in YouTube or podcast videos and are introduced with the following message: “The content was made possible thanks to the sponsor”. After that, we can see influencers talking more about the service or product, even testing it in the video and showing how it works.
In this case, the brand partners with an influencer who runs a contest on their profile. For this, of course, the influencer is paid and the product is provided by the brand for free. This type of post can be done in different ways, always with the aim of involving the public and bringing them closer to the brand.
Some examples are: asking the audience to tag a friend and follow the brand, making some kind of comment about what changes with the product, sharing the sweepstakes page on their personal channels and identifying the brand, and much more. In this way, the brand builds engagement around its name and a positive reputation.
Influencers can also be affiliate marketers. Business owners can partner with the ones that are willing to promote their products for a commission by setting up a partner program. Influencers spread the word about the brand and expect to be seen by their audience, resulting in leads or sales, depending on the program. When an expected conversion occurs, influencers receive a commission.
This model is beneficial for brands that only want to pay for conversions that actually happen. It also allows brands to be present in different channels, even globally, which helps reach and identify more potential customers.
In this case, an influencer is appointed as the face of the brand. Generally, influencers who do this have a good connection with their target audience and also a connection with the brand. However, this action requires an influencer of the micro to a macro category, as it requires more attention and therefore costs more to your marketing budget.
It can be a good strategy for brands that want to have exclusive influencers since the contract as an ambassador can provide that he dedicates himself to only one brand.
There are endless possibilities, and these are just a few examples. Entrepreneurs and marketers are free to come up with another option for partnering with influencers because there are many ways to effectively increase eCommerce sales
There are a number of actions you can take, such as manually searching for key social media personalities with authority status in a particular niche, that can significantly influence your audience to take action. However, it can take a long time before you find influencers who are truly interested in promoting your brand.
A more objective way to find them is to use the Reach platform. With it, you can run the entire partner marketing campaign in a customized way, refer to influencers without geographical barriers, and contact directly the influencers you consider suitable for your business.
With Reach, you can identify and build relevant partnerships that are allied to your marketing goals and that increase your brand’s exposure across diverse channels. This way, you increase your online engagement without increasing your marketing costs. In addition, Reach has a diverse range of influencers, affiliates, influencers, sponsorships, ambassadors, and more, giving your business much more autonomy to grow in a big way.
Another crucial point to consider is how to track and measure your results. Get access to accurate analytics to make decisions that help your business and partnerships thrive. Reach allows brands to track and monitor their partners’ performance through a fully customizable dashboard. So, it is easy for business owners and marketers to recognize and highlight top-performing partners.
When it comes to payments, providing the option to pay in each partner’s currency helps brands to build a lasting partnership. In addition, with Reach, you can optimize payments, create rewards, and ensure that receipts are delivered to your partners. The result is you’ll see your brand awareness grow and the number of leads increases – all without much effort.
Working with influencers can benefit your eCommerce and take your brand to the next level. Even better, you don’t have to use your entire marketing budget and businesses of all sizes can develop strategies with influencers.
Working with influencers not only increases the awareness of your brand but also makes it easier for your potential customers to find and appreciate it. Keep in mind that it’s not the numbers that make or break an influencer, but the trust that the audience places in them.
So, we can conclude that trust is an element of online sales. This is understandable because there are many scams and fake ads, and sometimes the ads seem intrusive. This has led to consumers becoming more resistant to traditional advertising, while marketers who have started investing in influencers have seen good results. By working with influencers, your brand automatically becomes more trusted in the eyes of your audience.
If you are ready for the next step and want to test in practice what results working with influencers can bring to your brand, start your free trial to find a new and profitable partnership.
Written by
Affise Academy
Affise is a partner marketing platform for brands, advertisers and agencies to scale via all possible performance marketing channels. Synergy of technology and our long standing experience lets you expand your partnerships, automate every step of the campaign lifecycle and make data-driven decisions.
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