What Is an E-commerce Influencer Marketing Strategy? 7 Tactics to Know

Are you looking for ways to boost your e-commerce marketing efforts? With the influencer marketing industry topping $16 billion in 2022, it’s a no-brainer that influencer marketing is one of the most effective strategies for driving traffic, increasing sales, and creating brand awareness.

In fact, 93% of marketers have already dipped their toes into influencer marketing!

But how do you make sure that your influencer strategy is successful? The key lies in understanding the different marketing tactics that are available to you, as well as how they can be used to reach the desired outcomes for your online store.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss some of the top tactics to know about an e-commerce influencer marketing initiative so that you can maximize its potential benefits.

Read on to learn more about our top e-commerce marketing tips for influencer partnerships!

What Is an E-commerce Influencer Marketing Strategy?

An e-commerce influencer marketing initiative is a way to engage influential individuals within your target audience in order to promote and market the products that power your e-commerce store.

It is the process of developing relationships with “influencers,” who are people who have a significant influence over potential customers, such as social media personalities, bloggers, vloggers, and other online celebrities.

Important aspects of a successful e-commerce influencer marketing strategy include correctly identifying influencers who are the best match for your brand, building solid working relationships with your chosen influencers, and creating a deal that benefits you, the influencer, and their dedicated followers.

What Is a Social Media Influencer?

Social media influencers are individuals on the internet who have a significant number of followers. Typically, an influencer has a high level of knowledge or experience with whatever topic they post about on social media.

For example, top-rated Instagram influencer Addison Rae made her name by posting dancing videos on TikTok. This content drew on her childhood experience as a competitive dancer. Another illustration is a YouTuber like PewDiePie, who has been recording Let’s Play video game videos for over a decade. With over 4,400 videos under his belt, most of them related to Let’s Play content, PewDiePie has acquired a significant level of credibility when it comes to video gaming.

Online influencers make regular posts about that topic on their preferred social media channels and generate large followings of enthusiastic, engaged people who pay close attention to their views. Brands love social media influencers because they can create trends and encourage their followers to buy the products they promote.

Different Types of Social Media Influencers

There are various levels of social media influencers, ranging from mega-influencers to macro-influencers to micro-influencers (who, despite the name, may represent the future of influencer campaigns).

1. Mega Influencers
2. Micro Influencers
3. Macro Influencers

1. Mega-influencers

Mega-influencers are usually people who became famous in a different venue (such as a sports star or a Hollywood celebrity) before joining social media. If an individual has over 1 million followers on a social media platform, whether it’s YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, or elsewhere, they count as a mega-influencer.

2. Micro-influencer

Macro-influencers have under a million followers but have still established a solid fanbase (say, upwards of 40,000-50,000 subscribers or followers). Macro-influencers can represent a “sweet spot” that blends the lower cost of micro-influencers with the greater reach of mega-influencers.

3. Micro-influencer

Micro-influencers have over 1,000 followers but haven’t reached the threshold of being a macro-influencer. Although their general reach isn’t broad, micro-influencers often possess specialized knowledge in a unique niche. This means the odds are good that a micro-influencer has a solid relationship with followers and a high level of creator-fan interaction.

Regardless of the size of the social media influencer’s reach, a company can use influencer partnerships to tap into their networks and successfully market their products to a wide range of potential customers.

By building these relationships, companies can create more meaningful marketing campaigns and develop brand loyalty among the influencer’s followers. With influencer marketing, businesses can leverage the power of people’s networks, reach a larger audience more quickly, and gain higher ROI than traditional marketing methods.

Benefits of Influencer Marketing for Your E-commerce Businesses

Influencer marketing offers many advantages to e-commerce businesses. To start with, it is a powerful marketing tool that can help to drive traffic from site visitors, increase visibility, and generate sales quickly.

For example, influencers often have large and highly engaged audiences who are likely to purchase the products and services that they recommend. This leads to higher conversion rates, better brand recognition, and increased customer retention and loyalty.

Another perk of influencer marketing is the fact that it helps create social proof for your brand.  Social proof is the idea that people tend to trust the recommendations of friends, family, or significant people they follow.

In marketing terms, this means that if an influencer promotes your product, they are essentially giving it a stamp of approval and making it easier for potential customers to make up their minds about buying. Sometimes, a nudge from a trusted party is all it takes for a prospect to make the decision on a final purchase.

Types of Influencers That Can Work with Marketing E-commerce Brands

When it comes to marketing for an e-commerce business, there are many different types of influencers you can talk to. These include social media influencers (including social media platforms such as Instagram or TikTok), bloggers, vloggers, content creators, and celebrities with a presence on the internet.

All of these individuals have the ability to reach their followers in unique ways and provide valuable marketing opportunities for businesses. Depending on your marketing goals, you should select influencers who are best suited to meet those objectives.

For instance, a social media influencer will likely be the most effective choice if you’re looking for maximum engagement. On the other hand, if viral marketing is your goal, then a celebrity may prove to be the better option.

You can definitely consider pursuing both options if you have multiple influencer marketing budgets. The trick is to make sure you juggle each pathway without giving either one short shrift.

Top Tactics to Use When Creating an E-commerce Influencer Marketing Strategy

Utilizing influencers for an e-commerce marketing strategy is a tremendous way to boost your website traffic, increase brand awareness, and take sales to the next level.

However, it’s important to develop smart tactics that will help you maximize the potential benefits of your marketing efforts. The best tactics are data-driven and personalized while also offering a win-win to everyone involved.

1. Research Potential Influencers for Your Target Audience
2. Develop an Engaging Campaign
3. Offer Value to Influencers and Their Followers
4. Track performance metrics
5. Incorporate Influencer Content Into Your Own Social Media Strategy
6. Utilize User Generated Content (UGC)
7. Revise Strategies According to Performance Data

Research Potential Influencers for Your Target Audience

Identifying influencers who have a large and engaged following in your target market is an essential part of any successful e-commerce influencer marketing strategy. The right influencers can make all the difference in the success or failure of your brand initiative.

To find the influencers who are best suited for your marketing efforts, you will need to do some research of your own. Look at factors such as an influencer’s reach, engagement rate, and the topics he or she covers.

Additionally, it’s important to make sure that their followers are actually within your target audience. This will ensure a maximum impact from your marketing campaigns.

You should also consider whether or not the influencer in question has already worked with other businesses similar to yours. This may help you determine if the influencer would be a good fit for your unique company.

By doing this research upfront, you can save time and resources while also ensuring that you get the most out of your influencer-based marketing initiative.

Develop an Engaging Campaign

If you want your influencer campaign to “pop,” you need to create content that stands out, entertains viewers, and resonates with the influencer’s followers.

In general, influencers appreciate marketing initiatives that are relatively straightforward to understand. This will help them create content quickly, efficiently, and consistently. This maximizes their chance of engaging their followers with your particular brand.

For instance, during a YouTube sponsorship, you should provide your influencer with a basic script that covers the essential selling points for your brand. With that covered, you can give the influencer creative freedom to use his or her own personal brand of humor or content personalization to make the sponsorship their own.

Offer Value to Influencers and Their Followers

The best kinds of deals are those where everyone wins. You can accomplish this with your e-commerce brand by offering discounts, exclusive deals, or product giveaways that can help attract both influencers and their followers.

When influencers see that they have something to gain from working with your brand, they are more likely to accept the offer and produce quality content. This increases the chance of fostering a working relationship that can pay back major dividends in the long term.

By offering value to influencers and their followers, you can create a win-win situation for everyone involved. This will help ensure the success of your marketing efforts and your ultimate marketing objectives.

Track Performance Metrics

To determine the success of any marketing or advertising campaign, you need to establish clear, well-defined, and easily measured key performance indicators (KPIs). Influencer marketing is no different.

By tracking specific KPIs throughout the marketing process, you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and make adjustments as needed.

Like with most forms of advertising, the most important KPI to track during an influencer marketing campaign is the return on investment (ROI). This helps you determine if the marketing campaign paid off in terms of the time, effort, and cost that you invested into the initiative.

Other key metrics to track include increased traffic to your e-commerce site, sales conversions, engagement rate, and overall reach. Keeping a close eye on these KPIs can help you adjust your strategy in real-time and get the most out of your influencer.

Incorporate Influencer Content Into Your Own Social Media Strategy

Sharing influencer-generated content marketing on your own social media channels is a great way to broaden your marketing message while also giving influencers greater marketing exposure. These types of social media posts can help you reach a wider audience and drive higher engagement with your brand.

In addition, an influencer who receives exposure on your social media platforms may be likelier to view the influencer-client relationship in a more positive light.

When sharing influencer content, it’s important to focus on curating relevant, high-quality content that resonates with your target audience. Doing this will help you build a strong social media marketing message of your own while capitalizing on the influencer’s existing marketing efforts.

Utilize User Generated Content (UGC)

User Generated Content (UGC) is a smart tool that can be utilized to amplify your existing influencer marketing initiative. By encouraging customers and followers to share photos of themselves using your products, you can create highly effective marketing material without having to spend resources on implementing content marketing yourself.

Additionally, UGC helps build social proof and trust with potential customers and followers. This social proof will help to fuel your marketing efforts and drive more organic engagement. By leveraging influencer marketing and UGC together, you can create a marketing strategy that is both powerful and cost-effective.

Revise Strategies According to Performance Data

Although this tactic may seem similar to the previous tip about keeping an eye on KPIs, it actually represents a higher-level piece of advice (think overall strategy rather than individual tactics). Analyzing data from marketing campaigns on a regular basis helps identify areas of success and improvement.

It also provides valuable insight into how your marketing strategies are impacting your business’s target audience. By regularly reviewing marketing campaign performance data, such as overall traffic from website visitors, your e-commerce business can easily adjust its marketing strategies to optimize campaign results.

Don’t be afraid to get creative when discussing this data in team meetings. Take into account what has worked, then brainstorm new e-commerce marketing tactics and ideas that your team can use to improve existing influencer marketing campaigns.

Who knows? You could even come up with brand-new influencer initiatives as you analyze the campaigns that are already underway!

Conclusion

Influencer marketing is a trendy marketing tool that your e-commerce business can use to boost sales through broader audience appeal and greater engagement with your target market.

By utilizing influencers and UGC content, tracking performance metrics, and revising your strategy according to data analysis, you will be able to maximize the benefit of your influencer initiatives.

And if you want one less thing to worry about as you devise the ultimate influencer marketing strategy, contact the Locad team to find out how we can streamline your shipping and order fulfillment processes!

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