Traditional Marketing Has Died...
If you pick up any marketing textbook from 10 years ago and you’ll find they’re lacking so much. They don’t touch on new social media platforms or ones that are starting to grow.
Back then there was no talk about using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, or TikTok to market products and services.
Skip forward to 2024 where social media use is booming and we have to start considering a move away from traditional marketing tactics to new innovative ways to reach consumers.
So how does your brand reach its customers but also convert them?
With influencers.
Beautiful, simple reviews for your site
Easily collect, show & grow customer reviews, photos & videos for your business.Bring in the Influencers!
Working With Influencers to Grow Your Brand in 2024
We're into the new year! And if that (and everything else that is going on) doesn't strike you with some sense of fear and urgency...well, it should.
We're living in a social media and internet decade.
Technology advances and changes every year. So, as an eCommerce site owner, you've got to keep up with the trends to make sure your site and products stay relevant.
That means understanding influencers and how working with them can help to grow your brand.
Why?
Influencers will help your brand reach its customers, and also convert them.
Influencers Can Help Reach Customers and Convert Them to Shoppers!
For some reason, we trust others and their recommendations - even if we've never met them. Just to see someone else using the product or service or having a good experience makes us trust it more - that's why reviews are good social proof!
Using influencer marketing can help cover this aspect of social influence.
When you are looking for an influencer, try and get someone who matches your brand and fits into your brand story.
If you're selling kids clothes, you don't want the YouTuber who swears and is in their late 20s; you want the YouTuber making slime or reviewing kids' toys and games.
Finding someone who matches your brand and your message ensures that you're also finding an ideal audience.
Hopefully, one that will resonate with your message.
Influencer Marketing Can Reach Customers and Convert Them
We tend to trust recommendations from people we know-or actually even from strangers.
Just the fact that someone else tried or used something and had a good experience makes us more likely to try it out too. When it’s something where buying may be risky or pricey this becomes even more important.
Trust is the best currency to use in marketing.
If your brand or business doesn’t have trust or credibility then consumers won’t develop brand loyalty.
To make your business successful you need to reach consumers in an inspiring way that will help establish trust and grow a long-term relationship.
That’s where influencer marketing comes into play.
You can use influencer marketing at any stage of your business-whether you’re a startup, a medium-sized business or an enterprise.
One study on influencer marketing by Tomoson showed that this type of marketing strategy yields a $6.50 ROI for every dollar spent!
That’s insane to think of and its no wonder it’s the fastest-growing channel to gain customers online!
How Can I "Use" Influencers for My Business?
1. Pick the Right Influencer
Picking the right influencer is the most critical step!
You don't want to work with someone who isn't relevant to your business as your target audience won't know them, and their audience wouldn't be interested in your product.
Do your research by Googling or hashtag/keyword searching and seeing the top posts and accounts related to your search.
You can also use sites like BuzzSumo or Influence.co or even Viral Nation to help you get started.
2. Get Someone Relevant
To find the right influencer, you need to decide if they're suitable.
Ask yourself...
- Are they a leading voice or trusted source in your industry?
- Do they produce content related to the industry you're in?
If you work with relevant influencers, you can reach the audience that's most likely to use your product or service.
3. Engage, Engage, Engage
Next, you want to make sure your influencer is engaging.
People need to be liking, sharing and commenting on their posts. This isn't the same thing as the size of the influencer's following.
They could have millions of followers and people always liking their posts - but if there isn't any engagement of their audience, you won't be able to leverage them to sell your products or services.
You can calculate engagement rate with a bit of math:
Average # of (likes, comments, and shares) / # of followers
You also want to make sure that the influencer you are choosing isn't in an 'engagement pod' or inflating their engagement rates in other ways.
4. Keep Your Influencers Happy!
Give your influencers fair compensation!
This is the biggest issue for this type of marketing strategy.
Some micro-influencers may not charge you if you offer them some kind of lifetime discount or free products, but just make sure that they are being compensated for their time and following.
Also, let your influencers have some creative freedoms.
If you're too controlling, they won't want to work with you and don't forget this is their audience too, you don't want to ruin the campaign's authenticity or ignore the influencer's ideas.
The Most Important Thing to Remember
The most important consideration when choosing and working with an influencer is always to be kind and respectful.
You're not trying to use these people, and you want to maintain a partnership that can be beneficial to both of you.
Don't burn bridges; you never know when you may need to work with people in the future or how past connections can help you gain new ones.
People are always questioning authenticity, so the more genuine a relationship/partnership is, the better.
So always remember: be nice-influencers are in no way obligated to work with you 😀!
Beautiful, simple reviews for your site
Easily collect, show & grow customer reviews, photos & videos for your business.Make Sure Influencers are Benefitting You
The biggest advantage of this strategy is simply 'reach'.
With more and more people being online more and more advertising is becoming digital.
We’re bombarded with ads every second we’re online. Because of this, more and more people are finding ways to block such ads.
Almost 50% of online users have some form of adblocker.
This means it’s harder to share online so influencers can help you jump this hurdle.
They can also boost your SEO by getting your name, your brand, and what you do list online to rank well for SEO purposes.
For example, at Fera, we want our name out there with keywords like eCommerce, conversion rate optimization, product reivews, and the like.
Establishing an online presence is more important than ever and it has become key to successful, modern marketing.
Without it and the trust and credibility, you can curate your business may not fare so well.
Influencer Marketing Can Make an Impact
Using influencers to grow your brand is important.
Their reach will help you grow, and you'll be able to leverage their audience and turn it into your own if they're similar. It's hard to share and advertise online, especially when we're constantly bombarded with sales messages.
Adblockers are becoming commonplace, and influencers can help you bridge the gap.
They can share your products and services with their audience and share positive experiences, and you can reuse their content on your online store to sell more.
You can use the influencer photo content to display on your product page, the home page, or on other social media platforms!
This might even just help build traffic to your site and get you higher in Google searches, which is always beneficial.
It'll help grow your SEO and get your name and brand out there to the world.
Get Going!
Get out there and create an online presence!
See if you can find an influencer to share your message and get your brand recognized.
But don't forget you're representing this person, and they'll rep your brand, so be careful that your visions and mission align.
You want to help each other and keep the relationship beneficial to both parties!
So team up with influencers and watch your brand grow!
