How to use Influencer Marketing for eCommerce

When was the last time you ventured out to the shops to look for a product you knew you needed/wanted? Now, when was the last time you ordered that product online? 

We’re the latter, and we’re certain that the majority of you are too. 

Ecommerce has become such an integral part of our daily lives, to the point where worldwide sales are projected to reach 5.5 trillion dollars by the end of 2022. But just how do companies encourage online shoppers to interact with them in the first place, let alone make a purchase? 

In this blog we will explore the methods to the ecommerce madness, with an emphasis on influencer marketing for ecommerce, and hopefully inspire new brand strategies from those of you among us who are business owners. 

What is eCommerce, exactly?

You can’t run an ecommerce business without first knowing the definition of ecommerce marketing. Sendinblue describes it as the following:

Ecommerce, short for Electronic Commerce, marketing is any marketing effort you do to promote your online store and generate sales. It applies both to getting new customers and making old ones shop again. 

In other words, we are referring to the world of online shopping; from the seller’s perspective, in particular. 

The ecommerce explosion

While the pandemic gave a push to the ecommerce industry in 2020, here are a few key statistics to prove that it is here to stay:

1. 2.14 billion people were said to have purchased online services or goods in 2021 – that’s around 27% of the world’s population.
2. 3.56 trillion dollars were made in online purchases from a mobile device alone in 2021.
3. The three biggest adopters of ecommerce are China, the United States and the United Kingdom.
4. There are currently 26 million ecommerce sites and stores worldwide.
5. The total global ecommerce market size in 2021 was 4.9 trillion dollars.

The advantages of ecommerce

Just in case you needed a little bit of convincing to set up your ecommerce store, here are a few benefits you can expect to encounter:

1. Faster buying process
2. Store and product listing creation
3. Cost reduction 
4. Affordable advertising and marketing 
5. Flexibility for customers
6. No reach limitations
7. Product and price comparison
8. Faster response to buyer/market demands
9. Several payment modes
10. Enables easy exports.

Types of ecommerce marketing 

There is a wide variety of ways to market your products to keen online shoppers. This means that there is bound to be a method for each and every business out there, without having to bend and break to try and fit into a particular mold.

1. Search engines – search engine optimisation (SEO) makes your website more visible and easily discoverable on search engines. Adding the correct keywords ensures you appear higher in the search rankings and targets those with higher purchase intent – ie, someone searching for “white men’s linen shirt” is likely to buy from you if you appear higher in the results list.
2. Social media – organic social media marketing is your unpaid presence across social media channels. Today, it’s an absolute must to be discoverable on these sites, as its a way for people to know whether you’re in business and to determine whether they should visit your site. 
3. Email marketing – this is cheaper, more reliable and is something owned by you; not by a social media channel such as Facebook. 
4. SMS marketing 
5. On-site 
6. Owned media – such as blogs.
7. Non-owned online publications and podcasts
8. Paid social media – i.e., influencer marketing for ecommerce.

Let’s delve a little further into influencer marketing for ecommerce.

Influencer Marketing for eCommerce

Benefits 

Today, it is near impossible not to stumble across a brand who hasn’t leveraged influencer marketing in one way or another. 

With influencer numbers skyrocketing and consumer behaviours changing to favour recommendations from a friend or influential figure rather than directly from brands themselves, implementing influencer marketing for ecommerce is a no brainer. 

But what exactly are the benefits of using this tactic that others simply cannot provide?

Boosts brand awareness – it goes without saying that having just one popular influencer promote your brand can potentially put you in front of thousands of new faces. 

Builds trust with your audience – having a trusting audience is crucial for selling your products online. Partnering with an established influencer immediately awards you a level of trust from their audience. If you’re good enough to be promoted by their favourite influencer, then your brand is good enough to be bought from.

Enables reach of niche audience groups – partnering with an influencer whose niche and ethos are in alignment with your brand ensures that you are put in front of an audience who will genuinely be interested in what you have to sell. 

Improves SEO – partnering with influencers can improve the quality of your link profile (a culmination of all your website’s inbound links) by generating natural backlinks. Overall, the extensive reach of influencers gives your brand more visibility and increases site visitors; translating to higher search engine rankings. 

Provides easily traceable engagement – nowadays, every social media platform offers the opportunity for users to review their metrics; i.e., reach, engagement and demographics. Get influencers involved by giving them a customisable promo code. From here, you can measurably see through views, clicks, likes, shares, mentions and the amount of engagement with your promotion. 

Strategise wisely 

An influencer marketing for ecommerce strategy includes the tactics you plan to use to promote your online store and drive more sales. This strategy is a long-term idea of where your ecommerce business is going. 

Before you get started, ask yourself the following questions:

What are your sales expectations?

How big is your market?

What target group do you want to reach?

Where are they? (geographically and online)

How do you want your product to be perceived?

What are your competitors doing?

The answers to these questions will help you pick your “battle weapons” with which you will head into the strategy creation process. 

However, when it comes to creating the best strategy that concerns influencer marketing for ecommerce, there is no right answer. Instead the best strategies are devised by the brands that know their strengths and use them to their advantage. 

Once your battle weapons have been selected, and you are ready to dive straight in, your strategy creation will look a little something like this:

1. Define your target audience and market – finding your audience is paramount to everything else. This will allow you to find the right voice, messaging, channels and offers.
2. See what your competitors are doing – we’re strong believers in ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, however, there are always things that can be improved upon. You never know, this could become your competitive advantage.
3. Set targets based on benchmarks – before you begin to gather your own data, base your projections on industry benchmarks.
4. Research marketing tools that can help you – trying to manage everything alone will be the cause of your demise. Utilise tools out there to keep you on track and generally afloat. 
5. Add more channels once you’ve found your footing – once your influencer marketing for ecommerce campaigns are up and running, expand to other channels. 
6. Automate as much as possible – the more you can run hands-off, the better.
7. Personalise your communication – customers love being understood and not just receiving another generic email. Personalise ads, emails, SMS messages etc. 
8. Measure, refine, reuse – track the ROI of your campaigns and whichever ones aren’t bringing results, they are not worth wasting more money on. For those that are, try to use them on a bigger audience, rinse and repeat.
9. Build loyalty into your strategy – customer loyalty boosts profits, improves your brand image, attracts new customers etc. 
10. Focus on profitability, not just sales – one-off sales can come out as more expensive for you because of ad prices. Focus on driving repeat sales to current customers. 

You should now be armed with the knowledge to begin your journey in influencer marketing for ecommerce. Influencer marketing is a powerful tool in the ecommerce space and when used correctly, it can boost brand awareness and drive online conversions. 

FAQ’s

What is influencer marketing for ecommerce?

Influencer marketing is commonly used by ecommerce marketers to increase brand awareness and drive online conversions. Here, the influencers are tasked with promoting a brand’s products/services to their followers in the hope that they will visit the website and purchase something of their own accord. 

Our Influencer marketing agency and Social agency are located worldwide, with our agency network based in the USA, UK, UAE and China.

If you want to receive our industry insights, visit our Influencer Marketing & Social Media blog.

@ Socially Powerful

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