Influencer Marketing: How to Improve Your Ecommerce Business

The business world has become more competitive than ever in the digital world. Brands must keep up with the latest eCommerce trends and technologies to remain on top of the game. However, amid all these developments, one thing remains sure for businesses: they need to attract customers through trust. This situation is where influencer marketing comes into play.

Businesses have been adopting influencer marketing as early as the . They used royalty, fictional characters, and celebrities to make their products and services more attractive. By the 2010s, ordinary people with a massive following on social media have taken over as influencers. 

Today, approximately 86.3% of Filipinos follow at least one influencer on social media. The global influencer marketing market’s value is now $16.4 billion.

If you want your business to survive today, you should adopt influencer marketing into your overall digital marketing strategy. Here’s an extensive guide about the power of influencer marketing for your eCommerce business.

1. Benefits of Influencer Marketing

Builds trust in your products or services Celebrities aren’t the only ones capable of promoting your products and services. Influencers can also be ordinary people who know how fellow consumers think and behave. They share their personal lives and honest opinions on social media, making them approachable and reliable sources of product information.  

Not only do influencers connect with their followers, but they also link brands with potential consumers. Partnering with an influencer can add credibility to your brand and increase your product and service demand.

2. Attracts new audiences 

As of July 2022, there are 4.70 billion social media users worldwide. They spend an average of two hours and 29 minutes daily across all social platforms, which adds to roughly 70 hours per month. They consume thousands of content within that timeframe, including ads and product reviews. 

With influencers sharing their opinions and experiences with your brand online, you can cross borders and reach new, untapped markets. If you have a referral or affiliate program, you can give influencers product links they can share with their followers. Affiliate marketing is also a low-cost way of attracting customers and building solid relationships with influencers.  

3. Builds brand loyalty 

Social media is key to brand loyalty. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok help brands engage consumers in unique ways. Add influencers to the picture, and you get genuine connections with your customers. 

Influencers can also promote your existing rewards or loyalty programs. For instance, influencers can review exclusive products that are part of your loyalty program to encourage consumers to sign up. They can also share their experience with your premium services to build hype around your VIP privileges. 

4. Improves modern marketing strategies 

Consumers are now finding a way around online ads to improve their social media experience via ad-blocking tools. You can dodge these ad blockers with influencer marketing and even increase hype around your brand. 

Consumers typically seek authentic reviews from influencers they trust. As such, partnering with influencers that align with your image and values can bring customers to your brand and provide them with content they’re already looking for. 

5. Saves time 

Launching a marketing and ad campaign takes a lot of time and human resources. Influencers can help you streamline the entire process since they can provide the photos, videos, and credibility needed to attract customers. With some influencers on multiple social media platforms, you can expect to reach thousands, if not millions, of consumers in no time.

How to Launch a Successful Influencer Campaign

1. Identify your audience 

As with any marketing strategy, you should identify your target audience first. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is my target demographic?
• Where do they live?
• What online and digital platforms do they use?
• What are their interests?
• What problems do they have that my products and services can resolve?
• How do they communicate?
• What are their shopping habits?

Identifying your audience sets the tone for your entire influencer marketing strategy. With your target market in mind, you’ll know what type of influencers will catch their attention. 

2. Find the right influencers 

Partnering with influencers is not as easy as you think. One influencer may have millions of followers but have low engagement, while another may have only a few thousand followers but have high engagement. As such, choose influencers that have the credentials you want. 

Aside from engagement, it would be best if you also chose influencers based on niche, values, and style. For instance, working with a beauty and makeup influencer is ideal if you’re a beauty brand. Working with a fitness guru can also work in your favor if you sell athleisure wear. 

Lastly, you can tap your existing customers as your influencers because they already know and understand what you’re offering. Working with them in a marketing campaign may be easier and more time-efficient. 

3. Create an effective strategy 

Influencers offer several marketing services that can help boost your brand awareness. However, you should only choose those you can monitor and measure throughout your campaign. 

For instance, if you want to create hype around a new product, you can send PR kits to influencers and have them post a review on their social media platforms. You can also ask influencers to vlog your products and services to boost brand awareness. 

Give your influencers a final outline of your marketing strategy so they can effectively contribute to your brand’s success. Moreover, give them the creative freedom to promote your brand since their individuality is what made them famous in the first place. 

4. Offer fair compensation 

Whether you enter an x-deal or paid partnership with an influencer, you should adequately compensate them for their hard work. Influencers invest a lot of time, money, and effort in what they do. As such, you should properly pay them for driving customers to your brand and helping you close sales. 

If you plan to build long-term relationships with influencers, it’d be best to compensate them with money. The better you pay them, the more effective they’ll be in producing engaging content for your brand. 

5. Measure return on investment

It’s not enough to launch an influencer marketing campaign. You also need to measure the ROI to gauge the effectiveness of your and your influencers’ efforts.  

For instance, check your influencers’ authentic social media engagements to see if they helped boost your brand awareness. Track the conversion rates of your influencers’ affiliate links as well to see if they’ve successfully converted their followers into customers for your brand. 

Work with People Your Consumers 

Trust Running a business is never easy, especially today when nearly all brands have shifted online. It’s now more challenging than ever to capture and retain consumer attention. With influencer marketing, you can breathe new life into your marketing strategies and grow your customer base. In the long run, influencers can also give credibility to your brand.