Now, let’s imagine the same scenario, but this time instead of the celebrity photo, you see a post by your favorite fitness blogger. It’s also a promotional post for the same sporty brand, but it feels more authentic. The blogger clearly took time to craft an engaging caption that connects with their audience.
Which of the photos would compel you to check out the said sporty brand?
If you went for the second scenario, then you’re part of the whopping 92% of consumers who trust influencers more than traditional celebrities.
The tide has shifted in the world of advertising and endorsements. Consumers today no longer trust polished ads promoting products and services. Instead, shoppers are turning their attention to influencers — relatively normal people who have amassed lots of followers.
If influencers aren’t part of your ecommerce marketing mix, you could be missing out on opportunities to get in front of your target customers.
In this guide, we’ll show you the ins and outs of influencer marketing for ecommerce. You’ll learn how to find influencers, what tools you should use, and how to ensure that you select the right ones. We’ve also included some tips on working with them and cultivating harmonious relationships with your collaborators.
To help keep your campaigns on track, we’re also giving some good and bad examples of influencer marketing.
Let’s dive in!
Start with audience research
Get to know your target customers before attempting to search for influencers. Be clear about who you’re targeting. This is particularly important if your products appeal to multiple types of audiences.
For example, a store that sells fitness apparel may attract consumers ranging from 20-something single women to mothers who are looking to get back into shape. If this is the case, then select one market segment per influencer campaign, so your messaging stays on target.
Once you’ve decided on your market, put their key demographic and social info down on paper. How old are they? What’s their educational level? What websites do they visit?
If you’re already collecting customer data, then most of these things should be fairly easy to find. But if you want to go deeper, you could try the following:
Send surveys – Survey your customers to discover additional psychographic and social info that you may not be aware of yet. You can also take this opportunity to ask about the websites they visit and the influencers they follow.
Look into a handful of shoppers – If you know some of your customers personally, then do a bit of online and social media digging. Which social networks are they active on? What types of content are they sharing? What hashtags are they using? These are just some of the questions you should be asking.
Why go through all the trouble of audience research? Getting to know your target audience will help multiple aspects of your influencer campaign.
Deep audience research will help you craft the right messaging.
It will enable you to identify the best influencers (more on this in a bit).
It will help you identify the best platforms for your campaign.
Determine your platform
Speaking of which, determining the platform on which to run your program is a critical step in influencer marketing. Should you do it on Instagram or Snapchat? What about Twitter and YouTube?
The answer depends on two things: your audience and objectives.
First, figure out which sites or apps are popular with your target audience. Which networks do they frequent and how are they using different social platforms? Then you have to consider your campaign goals. Are you looking to drive awareness? Do you want traffic and sales to come out of the campaign?
To give you more clarity on this step, here’s a quick overview of the popular social platforms for influencers, and how you can use them in your campaigns:
Instagram Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce
Great for reaching younger demographics, as more than 90% of Instagram users are under 35, according to Business Insider.
Instagram is better for growing your social following and brand awareness.
While you can generate traffic and sales from Instagram, the process is still quite cumbersome on the app.
Instagram Stories continues to gain popularity, making it an excellent platform for delivering real-time or spontaneous content.
Snapchat Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce
Great for reaching even younger audiences. According to Statista, as of 2017, 83.4% of U.S. mobile phone users aged 18 to 24 years were active on Snapchat. Additionally, 78.6% of users ages 18-24 were active Snapchat users, while less than half (47.6%) of 25 to 34-year olds were active on the app.
Snapchat is also ideal for promoting real-time content. As BigCommerce puts it, “Snapchat influencers work well for building awareness and creating buzz around real-time events like product launches or products targeting young audiences (think gummy bears).”
If you’re looking to drive traffic or sales directly from your campaign, Snapchat may not be the best choice.
Twitter Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce
Twitter is excellent for reaching millennials. Hootsuite cites, “Thirty-six percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 years old use Twitter, more than any other age group. Usage drops as age increases, with 22 percent of those aged 30 to 49 using the service, 18 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds, and just 6 percent of those aged 65 and up.”
The jury’s still out on whether Twitter influencer campaigns can drive sales directly. But a Nielsen study (commissioned by Twitter) found that “one in four new vehicle purchasers in the U.S. used Twitter as an input to their vehicle purchase decision.”
Twitter is ideal for driving conversations. Twitter chats continue to be popular, and they help influencers and brands tell stories and inform their audience about particular topics.
Doing something newsworthy? Taking a stand on a particular issue? Twitter is the platform for you. Seventy-four percent of US adults using Twitter say they get their news from the site.
YouTube Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce
YouTube is ideal for reaching millennials and (younger) boomers. Research has shown that people ages 25-44 watch the most YouTube videos.
Sixty-two percent of YouTube viewers are male, and 38% are female. It’s important to note, though, that YouTube’s user base is incredibly huge (over 1 billion users) so the audience is significant either way.
YouTube can be used both for branding and traffic campaigns. As BigCommerce notes, “YouTube is particularly special because it works well at every part of the funnel — offering both visual branding opportunity and attributable traffic to your site.”
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