4 Ninja Tips for Ecommerce Influencer Marketing

Brands are drifting away from traditional forms of marketing and continue to invest more into influencer marketing. In 2019, 39% of marketers expressed their willingness to increase their influencer marketing budgets.

Influencer marketing helps brands generate high-quality traffic to their websites, drive sales, and increase their engagement rates. It can also help you improve your brand’s credibility and establish relationships with your target audience. 

Due to this reason, you can leverage influencer marketing to expand your ecommerce business. But how?

Let’s take a look at four of the most effective tips for ecommerce influencer marketing, which can help you grow your ecommerce business.

1. Ask Influencers to Create Testimonial Videos

One of the most effective ways to increase your ecommerce sales is to get influencers to create testimonial videos. Did you know that 72% of people like to read online testimonials and reviews? Honest and positive testimonials can help you drive high-quality organic traffic to your ecommerce website and increase your sales.

They will also help you win the trust of your target audience. That’s because testimonials from influencers are honest and authentic. And your target audience will be more likely to believe the experiences of influencers.

So, video testimonials can tempt your target audience to try your products as well. Hence, it’s safe to say that they have the potential to affect the purchase decisions of your target audience.

Popular makeup and beauty brands like Huda Beauty also leverage the power of influencer testimonials. Huda Beauty teamed up with beauty influencers to promote the brand’s new foundation product.

Chell Hendrix is a beauty influencer who tried the product and shared her experience with her YouTube followers. Below is a screenshot of the video and, to date, the video has received more than 1M views.

Image Source – YouTube

2. Offer a Discount Coupon Through Your Influencers

Another effective strategy to expand your ecommerce business is to offer a discount coupon via your influencers. It’s a simple, win-win strategy for you and your influencers. This is an opportunity for your influencers to acknowledge the support of their loyal followers. Also, it’s an opportunity for you to promote your products, expand your reach, and drive more sales.

You can ask your influencers to creatively place your products or services in their posts, videos, or blog posts. Then give your influencers a discount code which they can share with their followers.

For instance, Body Angel Activewear, collaborated with fitness enthusiast and Yoga teacher, Laura Kasperzak, to promote their brand. The brand offered 15% off on their activewear. As you can see, Laura posted an image with a discount code,“LAURASYKORA.”

Image Source – Instagram

Similarly, you can also offer a discount coupon via your influencers to promote your ecommerce business.

3. Leverage Micro-Influencers

If you are just starting up or you have a small ecommerce business, then it’s challenging to compete with big ecommerce businesses. Also, you may have budget constraints that make it difficult or impossible for you to collaborate with mega or macro-influencers.

However, you can team up with micro-influencers to promote your ecommerce business. There are some definite advantages of collaborating with micro-influencers. 

Studies have shown that even though micro-influencers have less followers, they can generate higher engagement rates. Micro-influencers can drive 7X more engagement than the average generated by macro or mega-influencers.

Another study showed that influencers with 1K or fewer followers get likes on their posts 8% of the time. Whereas, influencers with more than 10M followers get likes only 1.6% of the time.

And lastly, collaborating with micro-influencers is a cost-effective strategy to promote and expand your ecommerce business. On average, influencers with followers between 2K to 10K on Instagram ask approximately $250 per image. Whereas, influencers with more than 500K followers ask for $3,000+ per image.

For instance, makingupashlee is a YouTuber and beauty vlogger from Canada with more than 5.7K subscribers to her YouTube channel. She creates videos on beauty tips, reviews of new makeup and beauty products, and shopping hauls. 

As you can see in the screenshot below, she reviewed Dior lipsticks and shared her honest feedback with her subscribers. To date, the video has managed to receive more than 7K views.

Image Source – YouTube

Apart from startup and small ecommerce brands, you can also use this strategy if you have a shoestring budget for your influencer marketing campaign. However, make sure that you collaborate with influencers who are experts in your niche.

To make sure that the influencer is from your niche, you can use platforms like Influence.co. It enables you to filter influencers by niche. Just select a relevant niche from the list to see the top influencers on social media platforms.

Image Source – influence.co

4. Get Influencers to Give Honest Product Reviews

You cannot solely rely on your promotional strategies and expect your target audience to buy your products. It doesn’t matter if your products are the best in the market. It’s the very nature of consumers to be cynical. They will think twice (or more) before investing their hard-earned money in your product. 

So, how can you get your target audience to visit your website and encourage them to make a purchase? 

The key is social proof.

Instead of blowing your own trumpet, it’s better to collaborate with relevant influencers and have them do it for you. You can ask them to write an honest review of your product or service. Consumers rely on honest reviews and recommendations from influencers.

According to gen.video, 33% of respondents reported that influencers are the most trustworthy source of shopping recommendations.

Image Source – gen.video

It will help you get your target audience to visit your website and encourage them to make a purchase. Thus, it enables you to drive more sales.

Wondering how? The recommendations and reviews from influencers are unbiased, authentic, and honest.

You just need to share your product or services with your potential influencer and ask them to review. Encourage them to share their authentic and honest reviews, both negative and positive. Such reviews will motivate consumers to make a purchase. They will also help you build your brand’s credibility.

For instance, Marques Brownlee is a gadget enthusiast and YouTuber with more than 8.8M subscribers to his channel. He likes to review and share his honest feedback on all of the newest gadgets.

Recently, OnePlus launched their new mobile – the OnePlus 7 Pro. In a nearly 14 minute long video, Marques analyzed every aspect of the mobile and shared his feedback in detail. In just a few days, the video gained more than 5 million views.

Image Source – YouTube

You can also team up with a relevant influencer and ask them to share their honest feedback on your product. 

Final Thoughts

You can use the influencer marketing strategies mentioned above to grow and expand your ecommerce business. It doesn’t matter if you have a startup or an established ecommerce business. Influencer marketing is a cost-effective and powerful way to drive sales.

Do you know any other effective tips for ecommerce influencer marketing? If so, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.