Social media has taken the online world by storm. According to the digital report of Kepios, 4.74 billion people or 59.3% of the global population are using social media in October 2022. Furthermore, these social media users spend an average of 2.5 hours per day. This continued trend gave birth to social media influencers who now play a crucial role in eCommerce marketing strategy.
Data from Statista showed that the global influencer marketing size has doubled since 2019. The industry has reached 16.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2022.
At this point, social media influencers have become a part of the core strategy of many online retailers to drive brand awareness, traffic, and sales. But what exactly is this social media influencer marketing, and how can you implement it into your eCommerce marketing strategy? Find out the answer by reading this article.
What is social media influencer marketing?
It may be safe to say that you already have an idea of what social media influencers are. But to make sure we are on the same page, let’s define what is an influencer.
In a nutshell, influencers are people who influence the behavior of others. They often have large social media followings and are both brand champions and niche boosters. From the perspective of marketers, influencers are individuals who work with brands to promote products or services to their target markets.
Now, this practice of working with a social media influencer to grow a brand is called Influencer marketing. It is one of the social media marketing strategies to reach the influencers’ audiences and increase exposure and sales. Influencers are compensated for endorsing or promoting a product to their audience, who, in turn, buy the product from the brand.
Why is influencer marketing important for your eCommerce business?
Influencer marketing has been gaining in popularity for years and became one of the top marketing trends in 2022. In fact, there has been a 465% increase in searches for the phrase “influencer marketing” on Google alone since 2016.
So, why is influencer marketing so popular among marketers? The answer to this is varied. For one, this social media marketing strategy is proven effective, especially in the eCommerce industry. In fact, it’s estimated that 17% of all eCommerce sales will be attributed to social commerce by 2025.
Social media influencer marketing as a form of eCommerce marketing is an effective way to build trust in your product. Consumers today are self-sufficient and like to do their own research on the brand and hear about it from some they trust. Influencers can easily influence potential new customers as they are already trusted by their loyal followers and fanbase. E-commerce businesses then can capitalize on this loyalty.
Social media influencers also add a human element to your virtual brand. This is important since e-commerce businesses work entirely online. They do not only recommend brands in Instagram ads, but they also insert themselves into the picture.
Influence marketing is a much cheaper strategy for eCommerce marketing. The prices vary depending on the size of the influencers’ following and their specialization. Mediakix’s study revealed that 41% of advertisers have saved a budget by incorporating content creators into their business development scheme.
How to build an effective influencer marketing strategy for an ecommerce business?
Ecommerce social media marketing continues to evolve in today’s technology-advanced world. Partnering with social media influencers can help you keep up with this everchanging competition. Here are a few tips on how you can boost your eCommerce business with social media Influencer marketing.
1. Understand your target market
Before you launch your Instagram ads, Facebook marketing strategy, or other forms of social media campaigns, you should have a clear idea of the audience that your brand is targeting. Try to step into their shoes and consider the topics, blogs, and videos that they might be interested in.
You can survey your clients to know more about them. Try going online and looking at the postings they like and paying attention to what they say on social media. This will help you in tailoring your social media influencer marketing campaigns to match the needs of your customers.
2. Setting up your campaign budget
Budget is critical to any marketing strategy. For eCommerce social media marketing, it directly affects the entire campaign’s reach. Influencers usually set their pricing based on the number of followers they have, market rates, and other factors.
Partnering with an influencer who has huge followers can easily cost you millions. Similarly, micro-influencers could be your option if you are on a budget.
3. Select the right media channel
Social media became a crucial tool, not only for eCommerce businesses but also for all types of businesses nowadays, to increase their reach and sales. For instance, TikTok marketing has been here for a while now. With billion active users worldwide in 2021, no marketers can ignore this social media reach. According to Statista, however, the majority of TikTok users are females which accounted for 57% of the platform’s active users. If you want to connect to female audiences, then you might want to work with TikTok influencers.
While TikTok marketing continues to soar in popularity, Facebook marketing remains in the spotlight for eCommerce marketing strategy. The platform continues to reign as the king of social media with 2.93 billion active users. It also ranks among the apps on which users spend the most time.
With 2 billion monthly users, Instagram has also become an important social media for eCommerce marketing. Marketers also saw a lot of opportunity for the Collabs feature, which allows influencers to collaborate on content and then leverage a bigger shared audience. According to the 2022 benchmark report of Influencer Marketing Hub, Instagram was used by nearly 80% of the brands that engage in influencer marketing.
4. Partner with the right Social Media influencer
Look for influencers that are a good fit for your brand. For bigger brands, you might benefit from partnering with Macro or Mega influencers as they have millions of followers. For smaller brands, working with micro-influencers, who have smaller but more targeted audiences, might be the way to go.
Aside from social media reach, always consider your goals and your target audience when choosing an influencer to promote your brand. Now, connecting with an influencer is not an easy task. Keep in mind, however, that you can also work with a social media influencer marketing agency. These agencies usually have a network of influencers that can promote your brand across different platforms.
5. Measure your ROI
Always measure your return on investment regardless of what strategy or content you have launched. This is critical especially in influencer marketing to know if your campaign and influencers are successful.
Pay attention to the impressions and engagement of your influencer content. While the content may have reached thousands of people, the likes and comments are important indicators of the effectiveness of the campaign. Good thing, you can easily access data analytics on the majority of social media platforms.
Measuring the ROI of your every campaign allows you to refocus your eCommerce marketing strategy. For instance, if your campaign in a certain channel doesn’t give you the result you need, you know when to change the platform, influencer, or strategy.
Don’t know where to start? Work with the best social media influencer marketing agency
Social media has become an important platform for brands in developing a more meaningful connection with their customers. We expect that there will be more diversified brand-influencer collaborations in the future. As an eCommerce business, you need to keep up with this trend to survive the cutthroat competition.
Whatever the case you have, today is the perfect time to develop your own influencer marketing strategy. Do you want to grow your social media following or convert sales? Be Global E-commerce Corporation is here to help you. We specialize in empowering eCommerce businesses regardless of the size and type of business. Through our network of influencers, we can help your products be seen by more people, more often.
Let us help you leverage your eCommerce marketing campaign to a new level. Contact us to learn more!
