As e-commerce companies compete for consumer attention, choosing the most suitable marketing strategy is key.
Among these, influencer marketing has proven to be one of the most effective ones.
Research shows that consumers are more likely to purchase products endorsed by influencers, making this marketing strategy highly effective for brands looking to enhance their reach and engagement.
Influencer marketing’s global popularity is surging at an incredible pace, with the market projected to reach a staggering $22.2 billion by 2025.
Before we jump into influencer marketing for e-commerce, let’s go over the basics first.
What is influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing allows businesses to work directly with social media creators with a sizeable audience to increase brand exposure, generate sales, and get attention.
Since influencer marketing is comparatively cheaper than most online paid ads, businesses gladly pay influencers to review their products or discuss their offers.
Undoubtedly, influencer marketing is rising as the creator economy is the new normal in today’s digitally connected world.
One of the major impacts of the growth of the creator economy is that kids follow their favorite YouTubers and TikTokers more than A-list celebrities.
Also read: How to Tell Your Brand Story: A 6-Step Guide
Why partnering with influencers can skyrocket your e-commerce success?
E-commerce brands and marketers try to squeeze every opportunity they can to get their hands on to generate sales or market their products.
One of the easiest routes to e-commerce success is influencer marketing. Here are the reasons why e-commerce brands partner up with influencers:
1. Underpriced marketing at scale
Influencer marketing turns out to be quite underpriced compared to traditional advertising or paid ads on social media. The fundamental reason for this is that a vast majority of influencers are willing to collaborate with brands, which paves the way for brands to get competitive pricing.
Furthermore, most small businesses and brands start with affordable micro-influencers to promote an e-commerce deal or specific product. So, that’s quite a reason for partnering up with influencers.
2. Meet the loyal influencers’ fan base
Social media influencers are known for their loyal and dedicated fan base, especially YouTubers and TikTokers. However, it goes for all major social media platforms, such as Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, and Pinterest.
Brands see this as an opportunity to get the attention of such audiences as die-hard fans of certain social media influencers. Collaborating with such influencers makes it easier for the brands to get traction and build trust with the audience.
No wonder brands, agencies, and organizations feel proud to work with influential social media creators across the globe.
Also Read: How to measure social media engagement: 12 crucial metrics
3. Diversity of the social media platforms
Companies are rapidly moving toward influencer marketing for many reasons, one of which is the diversity of social media platforms.
There are at least half a dozen mainstream social media platforms that allow brands to choose the relevant social media platforms and discover influencers on those platforms.
For instance, some brands are interested in Instagram influencer marketing for e-commerce opportunities, so they look out for Instagram influencers only.
4. Influencers have a longer audience attention span
The relationship between an influencer and their loyal audience is unique and fascinating. The audience is more likely to pay attention to their favorite influencer/creator than anybody else.
It turns out that the audience span is way longer on the social media content of their favorite creators than on other creators’ content. It gives e-commerce brands and marketers a chance to cash in on the longer audience attention span by sponsoring their videos or paying them to review their products.
Therefore, e-commerce brands are likely to benefit from such collaborations with influencers and content creators if they come across a perfect match for their brand.
Insider tips for discovering the perfect influencers for your online store
Connecting with the perfect influencer doesn’t happen on a whim. Brands and marketers have to analyze the market situation before they start to understand who they should reach out to and which creators to ignore.
So, here are the six tips for discovering the perfect influencers for an online store:
1. Explore social media platforms more than an average user
A powerful e-commerce influencer marketing strategy for a brand is based on a thorough market analysis. The best way to begin the influencer discovery is to start exploring the relevant social media platforms more than an average Joe.
What we mean by this is that an average user might have a short attention span or simply scroll the social media app for a few minutes and walk away.
On the contrary, a brand or individual looking for a perfect influencer from an e-commerce marketing standpoint should spend more time on social media exploration than an average user.
It’ll allow them to discover not just influencers for their online store but also new social media trends to capitalize on for social media marketing.
2. Hang out in the relevant social media communities
One of the underrated tips for discovering like-minded, relevant influencers for e-commerce marketing is to hang out in the social media communities. It could be Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, X communities, Reddit communities, Quora spaces, etc.
Just ensure you’re in the relevant community regardless of the social media platform. Keep your eyes open, talk to people, and try to learn from others. Chances are, you’re going to discover the industry’s top guns.
That’s a surefire way to discover influencers for your e-commerce business.
Also read: How to increase online sales: 17 Proven tips & hacks
3. Go through the related product reviews done by influencers
It’s important in digital marketing to do some competitor research and see what they have been up to. Utilize the same principle in your e-commerce influencer marketing strategy.
Try to find the product reviews done by influencers in your industry; it’ll allow you to see how the products have been reviewed, and you’ll stumble upon the influencers interested in your product line.
4. Follow social media influencers interested in your niche
It’s not the best idea to go on a follow-spree when eyeing social media influencers for your online store promotion. However, following some influencers who seem interested in your niche won’t hurt.
The benefit of following some influencers on Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn through your brand’s account is that they might notice your brand on social. As a result, it earns brands some profile views from influencers and eventually contributes to building a connection between the brand and the influencer.
Also read: Success guide to Tiktok influencer marketing
5. Keep an eye out for micro-influencers in your follower base
Another important tip for discovering influencers for your e-commerce store is never to underestimate the power of micro-influencers, especially if they get engagement and reach.
For instance, if an Instagram creator has five thousand followers, but this creator is getting 20k reel views on average or 3k to 4k likes on Instagram posts, then this micro-influencer is worth a try.
Besides, looking out for the big guys, don’t underestimate the small guys that could bring you some quality traction without breaking the bank.
6. Hunt for the influencers that worked with your competitors
One of the most tried-and-tested methods of discovering the influencers for social media marketing or influencer marketing campaigns is to check out the competitors’ social media accounts and see which influencers they’re tagging or resharing.
You’ll likely discover influencers that have closely worked with your competitors in the past. Feel free to reach out to those influencers and find out what they’re charging for promotional or sponsored content.
Must-have tools to streamline your influencer marketing strategy
Let’s discuss some essential online tools that come in handy in running an influencer marketing campaign and massively influence the outcome of an influencer and brand collaboration.
Here are the must-have tools to utilize for implementing an influencer marketing strategy effectively:
1. Replug
Replug is an advanced link management tool for marketers, bloggers, and brands. It empowers users to take their URL management to the next level. It’s a complete link management toolkit that allows users to create, manage, and analyze short, branded URLs for digital marketing campaigns.
It flawlessly integrates with several third-party tools, such as software management tools, email marketing software, lead-gen widgets, and retargeting platforms.
Key features:
- URL shortening
- Link analytics
- QR management
- UTM parameters
- Deep linking
- A/B testing
- Bio links for social media
- RSS automation
- SMS link previews
- Link rotation
- Retargeting pixels
Pricing plan:
- Basic plan: $19 per month
- Professional plan: $49 per month
- Agency plan: $79 per month
2. ContentStudio
ContentStudio is an all-in-one social media management dashboard for brands, marketers, bloggers, and influencers.
It’s a comprehensive social media tool that makes social media marketing easier than ever. It offers a complete suite for publishing, scheduling, managing, and analyzing social media and blog publishing.
Not only does it help publish and schedule content across all major social media platforms, but it also lets users post blog content on different blogging platforms.
Moreover, it easily integrates with multiple online marketing tools and platforms that improve product efficiency and effectiveness.
Key features:
- Influencer discovery
- Blog publishing and scheduling
- Workspaces (for managing multiple brands)
- Content planner
- Social media content publishing and scheduling
- Workflow approval
- AI-assisted tools for content creation
- Social inbox management
- Team collaboration
- Competition analysis
- Social media analytics
- Integration (with several tools)
- Free social media content generators
Pricing plan:
- Starter plan: $25 per month
- Pro plan: $49 per month
- Agency plan: $99 per month
Also Read: 30+ great SaaS tools in the market today
3. Canva
Canva is an online tool that helps users create images, videos, banners, infographics, logos, invitations, business cards, and other graphics designs. This is handy for designing social media, digital marketing, promotional, educational imagery, and video content.
Key features:
- Text animations
- Photo grids and designs
- Icons and elements
- Visual content templates
- Background removal
- Colors adjustment
- Picture effects and editing
- AI-powered photo enhancements
- Integration with third-party tools
Pricing plan:
- Canva pro: $55 per year (for one person)
- Canva teams: $50 per year (per person)
- Canva enterprise: Contact sales team
4. Capcut
Capcut is a popular video editing tool available for both mobile and desktop users. It has empowered millions of creators and brands to get their hands on video editing. After the huge success of Capcut on mobile devices, the desktop edition is competing with most video editing software for beginners.
This video editor is fully equipped to manage video, audio, and text editing. Moreover, it offers various AI-based generators to create e-commerce influencer marketing content.
Key features:
- Easy-to-use interface
- AI-powered tools
- Assets availability
- Image and video enhancements
- Mobile and desktop versions
Pricing plan:
- Capcut PC Pro: $8 per month (or $75 yearly)
So, these are some of the important e-commerce marketing tools to keep an eye on when getting into e-commerce influencer marketing.
The best platforms to amplify your brand with influencer partnerships
E-commerce brands strive to find underpriced marketing opportunities to put their brand name in front of as many people as possible without spending a fortune.
It turns out that influencer partnership seems to be a reasonable option for most e-commerce companies to spread the word about themselves. Here are the five well-known influencer marketing platforms to collaborate with influencers:
1. Upfluence
Upfluence is an all-in-one influencer marketing platform that connects social media influencers with e-commerce brands.
The brands can go through the influencers’ listings and handpick the most relevant influencers to work with. Upfluence handles the payment via Upfluence Pay and PayPal.
Why does Upfluence work for both brands and influencers?
- It lets brands find suitable influencers via an influencer discovery feature.
- It makes influencer management easier than ever, thanks to an effective creator workflow.
- It works with e-commerce brands on Amazon, Shopify, Bigcommerce, and WooCommerce.
- It provides hassle-free payment transfers via Upfluence Pay and Payment.
- It lets brands send complimentary products to the influencers for reviews or testing.
- It makes influencer e-commerce statistics measurement rather simple, allowing brands and influencers to analyze campaigns’ performances.
- It seamlessly integrates with several marketing, email, and content-creation tools.
2. Grin
Grin is a top-notch influencer marketing platform that not only connects brands with influencers but also provides cutting-edge influencer marketing solutions to both parties.
This tool provides a platform to meet influencers, manage content, track campaigns, and make payments. All in all, it’s a comprehensive dashboard to run influencer marketing campaigns with ease.
Why does Grin work for both brands and influencers?
- Grin offers a creator discovery section that lets brands find suitable creators around the globe.
- It has a state-of-the-art content management system to manage social media content for influencer marketing campaigns.
- The platform pays attention to relationship-building between brands and influencers.
- Detailed reporting and analyzing monitoring allow brands to take a data-driven approach and make informed decisions.
- The creator payment system is as simple as one can imagine, ensuring smooth and quick payments for influencers.
Also read: How To Boost Social Media Conversion: 10 Proven Tricks
3. Traackr, Inc.
Traackr is yet another well-reputed influencer marketing platform that offers brands and influencers hands-on experience. It’s an advanced influencer marketing tool to find influencers, manage relationships, collaborate with creators, and analyze performance.
Undoubtedly, it’s a one-stop shop for managing influencer marketing campaigns for e-commerce brands and online businesses.
Why does Traackr work for both brands and influencers?
- Traackr ensures that brands find the influencers that are the right fit for the campaign.
- It assists brands and influencers in content collaboration, making influencer marketing more fun.
- It offers a reliable payment system for paying influencers for their work.
- The robust analytics section provides comprehensive reporting to analyze campaign performances.
- It has a seamless recruitment and onboarding procedure for brands to manage influencers.
- It provides insights into campaign data for optimization and scalability.
4. Klear
Klear is a robust, user-friendly influencer marketing platform designed to meet the most advanced needs with ease and intelligence.
It empowers e-commerce brands to streamline their influencer marketing efforts, offering an intuitive and powerful suite of tools to find, manage, and pay influencers for their collaborative campaigns.
Why does Klear work for both brands and influencers?
- Klear has an advanced influencer search feature to help you find suitable influencers for every brand.
- It has a powerful influencer relationship management system to stay connected with influencers.
- It showcases in-depth influencer analytics to the brands to ensure that they go through all major statistics of the influencer’s social media profiles.
- It offers an easy-to-manage campaign management section for accurate data monitoring and reporting.
Also read: From Likes to Love: Comprehensive Social Media Engagement Guide
5. CreatorIQ
CreatorIQ is the go-to influencer marketing platform for large-scale e-commerce and SAAS tools.
It offers a complete ecosystem for building the most authentic, engaging, and scalable influencer marketing campaigns. This tool is equipped with several advanced features to streamline influencer marketing campaigns effectively.
Why does CreatorIQ work for both brands and influencers?
- CreatorIQ allows brands to discover and manage influencers without relying on third-party tools.
- It allows brands to build communities after connecting with like-minded creators and influencers.
- It lets brands analyze trends to design their influencer marketing campaigns more efficiently.
- Team collaboration is a huge plus that ensures that the influencer marketing campaign bears fruit.
- Incentivizing the brands for their contributions hasn’t been this simple; the platform makes it easier to pay influencers without any hectic steps.
- It offers robust analytics for brands to analyze the campaign statistics to measure the ROI.
The highs and lows of using influencers to boost your e-commerce business
Before designing an influencer marketing strategy for brands or using influencers to boost e-commerce sales, it’s vital to know the good and bad parts of the strategy.
Let’s shed some light on the highs and lows of utilizing influencers for e-commerce businesses:
The advantages of using influencers to boost e-commerce business growth
Here we go:
- Brand visibility: One of the major benefits of using Influencers for e-commerce marketing is that they have established audiences that listen to them. Partnering with the right influencer can expose your e-commerce business to thousands or millions of potential customers, increasing brand awareness and visibility.
- Targeted audience: E-commerce success comes when the e-commerce brand understands the target audience well and makes marketing strategies accordingly. Influencers usually cater to a specific niche audience. Therefore, by collaborating with influencers whose followers match your target demographic, e-commerce brands can significantly reach the right audience that might be interested in their products.
- Authentic experience: Conversion is tied to authenticity and trust. When influencers genuinely use and recommend your product, it feels more like a trusted suggestion than a direct advertisement, fostering trust and credibility with their followers.
- Higher engagement rates: Influencers often generate higher engagement rates than traditional ads. This phenomenon occurs because their followers are quite invested in their favorite creators’ lives, so they take action when influencers suggest they try something out.
Also read: What is lead generation: How it works & top tools for success
- Cost-effective marketing: Usually, there aren’t many types of influencer marketing. However, the term “micro-influencers” has popped up lately. The concept allows comparatively smaller creators and influencers with niche accounts and engaged audiences to work directly with brands, ensuring affordable alternatives to pricey PPC or social media ad campaigns. Plus, influencer marketing makes it easier for smaller e-commerce businesses to enjoy low-cost advertising facilities.
Most influencers are skilled content creators and can produce visually appealing and engaging content for your brand, such as social posts, video reviews, or product tutorials, which can boost e-commerce business sales.
The disadvantages of using influencers to boost e-commerce business growth
There are some hiccups to keep an eye on before going all in on influencer marketing:
- Affordability issues: Influencer marketing is not all sunshine and rainbows. While micro-influencers can be affordable, collaborating with top-tier influencers can be expensive, especially for small e-commerce businesses. So, there are always affordability issues for newbies.
- Little to no control over content: Usually, brands that work with influencers give their suggestions on product placement or mention it in the content. However, they still have limited control over how the product is displayed or presented in the content. So, it’s quite clear that e-commerce brands must rely on influencers to present their products in the content.
- Campaign authenticity: The authenticity of the offers matters a lot in the conversion. If an influencer promotes too many products or only collaborates for financial gain, their recommendations can feel less genuine, leading to skepticism among followers and lower trust in the promotion. It can massively impact the ROI of the influencer marketing campaign for the brand.
Also read: Boost Your ROI with Personalized Call to Action for a Website
- Hard to track campaign ROI: One of the challenges influencers face is measuring the campaign’s effectiveness. Unlike direct sales channels, the return on investment (ROI) from influencer marketing isn’t always immediately clear or quantifiable.
- Fake social media followers: Some influencers purchase social media followers to make an impact, but they cannot generate any traction with it. The artificially boosted follower counts using bots or fake accounts don’t last long, as sometimes social platforms crack down on those fake followers or remove inactive accounts.
Let’s conclude by explaining how to set up winning influencer campaigns!
Finding the right match for your brand is the secret sauce to setting up winning influencer campaigns.
There are three fundamental points when that play a pivotal role in making any influencer marketing campaign a success, which are:
- Understanding the brand’s strengths
- Team up with the best influencer to work
- Create an irresistible offer for the audience
Things start to roll when the conditions mentioned above are properly met in an influencer marketing campaign.
In every e-commerce brand’s journey, there comes a point where they have to decide whether to check out the influencer marketing platform or to find the influencer off the platform.
There is no right or wrong way of doing influencer marketing. However, some credible influencer marketing platforms do vetting before adding influencers to their network, which speeds up the process.
However, before deciding, one can always analyze the influencer’s content, publicly available statistics, engagement, and branding.
Remember that most brands opt for influencer marketing over other advertising mediums because it’s still underpriced compared to traditional online advertising.
Moreover, relevance is yet another essential angle to pay close attention to – if the e-commerce product line isn’t relevant to the influencer or their audience, the campaign will fall flat. So, bear that in mind when launching an influencer marketing campaign.
FAQs about e-commerce influencer marketing
Here are the commonly asked questions about e-commerce influencer marketing:
Is influencer marketing B2B or B2C?
Generally, influencer marketing is done to reach out to the audience of the influencer. Brands want to cash in on the traction influencers get on social media, which means targeting the audience. So, it’s safe to say that it’s B2C in most cases.
What is an e-commerce influencer?
An e-commerce influencer is a social media creator who has managed to create a brand persona around e-commerce. Plus, this creator must have a sizeable audience, at least on a single social media platform, to be qualified as an influencer.
How does B2B influencer marketing work?
B2B influencer marketing refers to the influencer marketing strategy that revolves around targeting businesses, unlike B2C influencer marketing, in which the influencers’ followers are the target audience.
What is the best influencer marketing platform for B2B?
ContentStudio does a pretty good job of finding influencers on social media. The feature is called “Influencer discovery,” which lets users find influencers in the niche.
