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Influencer marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies available today for ecommerce businesses. For every $1 spent on influencer marketing campaigns, the average return is $18 according to the Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2019.
In fact, marketers rank influencer marketing above search engine optimization, social media advertising, search engine marketing, and email marketing for driving the highest return on investment (ROI).
That’s because influencer marketing works. Four out of five consumers have purchased a product or service recommended by an influencer by clicking on a link or image that the influencer shared.
How to Create Your Own Ecommerce Influencer Marketing Strategy
For ecommerce businesses, influencer marketing can help you boost brand awareness, build brand trust, increase word-of-mouth marketing, and even improve your search engine traffic by adding authoritative incoming links to your ecommerce site.
There are five key steps to create an ecommerce influencer marketing strategy that has a chance to be successful:
1. Define Your Target Audience
Who do you want to connect with? Before you can find influencers to help you promote your products and services, you need to identify your target audience.
Your entire influencer marketing strategy is dependent on your target audience. Everything from which products or services you promote to which influencers and what type of content and offers those influencers create for you depends on who you’re trying to sell to.
2. Choose Your Social Media Platforms
Where does your target audience spend time online? Do they spend most of their time engaging with content (particularly influencer content that’s related to your business, products, and services) on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, or another platform?
Different people spend time on different social channels, so do your homework to find your target audience. Without this information, you won’t know where to look for influencers or where to invest your marketing budget.
According to the 2019 Influencer Marketing Global Survey – Consumers report, 65% of consumers follow influencers on Instagram while 62% follow influencers on YouTube and Facebook. This makes sense when you consider the same research found that 64% of consumers prefer video content, 61% prefer image content, and 38% prefer written content.
With those statistics in mind and an understanding of your target audience and your product or service, choose the social media platform that will best allow you to connect with the right influencers and audience using the most effective types of content.
3. Look for Influencers
The best influencers for your campaign are those who have an engaged audience of followers. Those followers should be in your target audience, and it should be likely that they would be interested in your products or services. In addition, the followers should have a proven history of acting on the influencers’ recommendations.
Your product or service and your brand have to be the right match for the influencer and their followers or people will be confused about why the influencer is promoting your business. It helps to use a social media analytics website to find influencers, manage your campaigns, and track results.
Furthermore, it’s important to choose influencers who publish valuable content rather than fill their content streams with one promotional offer or paid endorsement after another. You want your brand to stand out for the right reasons rather than be passed over as just another type of ad.
4. Create a Marketing Plan with Each Influencer
Work with each influencer to create marketing campaigns that will appeal to their unique audiences. They know their followers and what their followers like and will respond to, so trust their judgment. Don’t dictate what you want them to do. Instead, listen to their ideas and partner with them to develop the most effective plan possible.
For example, your marketing plan could include tactics like contests, giveaways, unboxing videos, product reviews, discounts, and more. Give the influencer some creative freedom within guidelines that match your brand so the content they create matches your brand promise and reputation while still feeling like it comes from them.
5. Track Your Results
The only way to know if your influencer marketing investments are helping your ecommerce business is to track the results. Establish a goal for each campaign and review the results, including:
- Click rates
- Cost per click
- Conversions
- Referral traffic to your ecommerce site
- Social shares
- Return on investment
Use the results to learn what works and what needs to be improved so the results of your future influencer marketing investments are even better.
Key Takeaways about Ecommerce Influencer Marketing
Ecommerce businesses have great success with influencer marketing to build their brands and drive sales. Follow the steps above to create your own strategy, and you’ll get the results your business needs to grow.
Susan Gunelius
Susan Gunelius is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Women on Business. She is a 30-year veteran of the marketing field and has authored a dozen books about marketing, branding, and social media, including the highly popular Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing, 30-Minute Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing for Dummies, Blogging All-in-One for Dummies and Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps. Susan’s marketing-related content can be found on Entrepreneur.com, Forbes.com, MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, and more. Susan is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She has worked in corporate marketing roles and through client relationships with AT&T, HSBC, Citibank, Intuit, The New York Times, Cox Communications, and many more large and small companies around the world. Susan also speaks about marketing, branding and social media at events around the world and is frequently interviewed by television, online, radio, and print media organizations about these topics. She holds an MBA in Management and Strategy and a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing and is a Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC).
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