INFLUENCER MARKETING FOR E-COMMERCE – PLAN FOR ACTION

Part 2. Choosing the right influencer

The next step is finding and selecting the right influencers for your campaign. This is the section that could make or break your influencer marketing efforts, so it is important to spend time to get it right. In this section, we’ll cover the different types of influencers for e-commerce marketing, where to find influencers, how to evaluate them and methods for building a relationship.

The 5 types of influencers for e-commerce

When choosing the right type of influencers for your e-commerce brand, you need to take into account your budget and your target audience. The different types of influencers can vary depending on the market.

Let’s take a look at a rough guide:

Mega-Influencers for e-commerce (1M+ followers): Mega-influencers have a high-profile celebrity status. They are generally really active on social media and offer brands a huge reach, but they are very expensive. Engagement is also lower than smaller influencers.

Macro-Influencers for e-commerce (500k-1M followers): With a smaller audience size than mega-influencers, macroinfluencers tend to be minor celebrities, athletes or thought leaders. They are less expensive than mega-influencers but they still command high prices for campaigns. Macroinfluencers have a more professional image than micro and nano-influencers.

Mid-Tier Influencers for e-commerce (50-500k followers): This bracket has a wide amount of variability. Usually mid-tier influencers don’t have a celebrity status but they still wield a lot of influence among their followers. For e-commerce brands, mid-tier influencers offer more engagement than macro and mega influencers, with more authenticity.

Micro-Influencers for e-commerce (10-50k followers): One of the most effective types of influencers for e-commerce brands, micro-influencers tend to have high engagement rates because they have a smaller following. Usually micro-influencers have a close relationship with their followers, they are able to spend more time interacting with followers every day and can bring a personal touch.

Nano-Influencers for e-commerce (1-10k followers): Highly targeted towards a niche audience, nano-influencers tend to have very high engagement but may be less professional than larger influencers. As they have lower numbers of followers, they tend to be much cheaper than other influencers.

Which type of influencer is right for your campaign?

When it comes to influencer marketing for e-commerce, follower count is not always the best guide for choosing the right influencers. Watch out for influencers who have purchased followers or engagement to boost their profile, as well as influencers who get low engagement on their posts. When selecting influencers for your campaign, it’s a case of quality over quantity. For instance, an influencer might only have 1,000 followers but if they’re getting 100 likes on every post, they are probably going to be more successful for your campaign than an influencer with 5k+ followers who only gets 200 likes.

Where to find influencers online

Once you have chosen your platform and defined your campaign goals, you can start to look for influencers who will be the right fit for your campaign.

Here are some easy ways to find influencers:

• Google search for influencers in your niche
• Use influencer marketing platforms like Kolsquare when scrolling through Instagram, YouTube
• Look at your current followers

There’s a high chance that you will already have nano and micro influencers in your followers who are engaging regularly with your brand. These are a really good option for influencer marketing. By working with content creators who already know and love your brand, you can skip a lot of the process of familiarizing them with your products. They might also be sharing your products in posts already, giving you an idea of what their paid content would look like. People who already shop with your brand are more likely to have followers that match your target audience too. They know the mindset of your customers because they are one!

Evaluating influencers

Of course, the hard part when it comes to influencer marketing isn’t finding influencers, it’s finding the right influencers. That means you need to look at the demographics and characteristics of an influencer’s followers to judge whether or not it’s the right match for your brand. You also need to take a look at their content to make sure that the influencer fits your brand values. Now is the time to start following them and monitoring the engagement on their posts, as well as the style of their content.

Here are some characteristics to look out for:

• Authenticity: It’s important to see what kind of promotional content the influencer produces. What are their other sponsored posts like? If they’re producing sponsored content that is obviously commercial and doesn’t seem authentic, you risk giving your brand a bad name.
• Values: Look for accounts that share your brand values. If you’re an e-commerce brand with a focus on sustainability, select influencers who advocate for a sustainable lifestyle and reject any who don’t.
• Engagement: By keeping your brand values at the front of your mind, you can make sure you choose influencers who will represent your brand in a positive way. When you spend time on an influencer’s profile, you can also see what kind of engagement they get on their posts. As well as looking at the number of likes, look at the comments too. An active comments section is a sign that their audience is involved and interested.
• Exclusivity: Beware of influencers who only post sponsored content or who work with a large number of different brands. This can reduce the credibility of influencer recommendations and may reflect negatively on your brand.

Building a relationship with influencers

Finding and contacting influencers is usually the part of the process that takes the most time. If you haven’t already done so, make sure your brand is following the influencers you want to connect with. Engage with their content, repost to your account, you could even give them a shoutout. All these actions help to get your brand on their radar. This strategy shows that you have spent time considering a collaboration with your chosen influencers and makes it more likely that they’ll be receptive when you reach out to them. In some cases, you might find that the influencer contacts you first. Take time to build a relationship with influencers before moving on to the next steps.

Part 3. Executing your campaign

Once you have chosen the influencers you want to work with and you have spent time building a relationship with them, it’s time to send them your influencer brief and hopefully begin work on the campaign together. In this section, we’ll take a look at writing a brief, approving content and executing your campaign.

Your Influencer Brief

When you contact influencers, you are offering them the opportunity to collaborate. This means you need to sell your brand and convince them that you are a company they want to work with. In your messaging you should aim to be as genuine as possible. Make sure you tailor your message to the specific influencer, calling them by their real name rather than their handle and referencing examples of previous sponsored content that you liked. The more personalization you can give to your message, the better.

Your message should also include:

• An introduction to your brand
• A summary of your campaign – including purpose, theme and deadline
• An overview of the campaign goals
• Written and visual content inspiration
• An offer to collaborate
• Compensation details
• Extra rules and regulations

Check out our ready-to-use influencer brief template. Make sure that your influencer outreach also reflects your brand and your voice. Show them what makes your brand unique. It will probably take some negotiation on both sides to find the terms that you are happy with. This process usually involves back and forth communication so be patient.

The content approval process

Unless you are sending pre-written content to your influencers, they will usually design the content and send it to you for approval before posting. This is the time when you need to make sure that the post aligns with your brand requirements, especially your brand image and values. It helps to make this process a collaboration, working closely with the influencers to create content that will appeal to their target audience while delivering on your aims for the campaign. Remember that influencers know their audience well and interact with them on a daily basis. Though you might have set goals on what you want your content to look like, it’s also really beneficial to listen to their input.

Measuring your campaign success

When the content approval process has been completed, the influencer will then run the campaign at your agreed time. From here, it’s time to begin the measurement portion of the process. Best practice involves waiting between 30–60 days after a campaign goes live before you start measuring the results. While most sales happen within the first few days of posting, it can take time for customers to click through on affiliate links or use promo codes. Refer back to your original campaign goals and KPIs to guide the ways in which you measure the campaign.

Some measurement metrics include:

• Influencer campaign reach – calculated using traffic data
• Cost per engagement (CPE) – calculated by dividing your total expenditure by the number of likes, comments and shares generated by the post
• Conversions – could be calculated by click through rate (CTR) or number of sales

With specialist software like Kolsquare, you can measure influencer performance in minutes. Kolsquare allows you to track how much traffic your influencer marketing campaign generates, as well as how many purchases have been made without having to wait for updates from influencers.

Next steps

Working with influencers is not a guarantee of success when it comes to e-commerce. If your campaign did not provide the ROI you expected, that is a sign that you need to tweak your process for future campaigns. It is possible that you misjudged the audience or overestimated the influencer’s authority in their niche.On the flip side, if your influencer campaign met and exceeded your campaign goals, why not keep the relationship going with those influencers? This is a sign that your influencer marketing was a success and those influencers are a really promising option for future collaborations.Influencer marketing for e-commerce can be a hugely effective tool to increase your brand awareness and drive sales. With the right influencers and the right software, you can catapult your business to the next level.