Running a small e-commerce business is far from an easy task. You’ve got a lot on your plate, and it’s all happening quickly. You need to be competitive on the market, offer products your target customers will want to buy, and make sure orders and customer communication is running smoothly. On top of all, you need to work on building a strong brand and creating a strong marketing strategy.
When it comes to online and content marketing, there are so many choices in front of you. But, one strategy seems to be standing out from the rest. It’s influencer marketing. If you’re not sure why influencer marketing could be beneficial to your business, or how to apply it, just keep reading.
Here’s everything you need to know about influencer marketing along with 13 super-convincing reasons to start using it in your small e-commerce marketing strategy.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Let’s start by explaining what exactly influencer marketing is and what it implies. By definition, influencer marketing is:
- the practice of using influencers to promote and convey messages on the behalf of a brand or business, to help them reach their business goals.
What does this mean? The influencer typically:
- promotes brand’s products and services
- shows themselves as a satisfied customer
- uses social media or their blog to raise brand awareness
- conveys the brand’s message using their own strategies and content
So, an influencer is a person who built a strong base of social media followers and uses it to promote the brand that hired them.
How to Choose an Influencer?
When it comes to choosing the influencer you want to do business with, you need to be very careful. The number of their followers shouldn’t be your top priority. Instead, you need to worry about:
- whether they’re an expert in your industry or niche
- whether your target audience will trust them
- whether their content is suitable for your brand
- whether they have certain qualities your target audience will appreciate
For example, your small e-commerce sells fitness and sports equipment. You want to find an influencer who is:
- active in any given sport
- expert in fitness, nutrition, or exercising
- a fitness blogger
Choosing the right influencer is crucial for the success of your influencer marketing strategy, so make sure to choose wisely.
As for the number of followers, you can choose between:
- micro-influencers (1.000-40.000 followers)
- macro-influencers (40.000-1 million followers)
- mega-influencers (more than 1 million followers)
Naturally, the more followers they have, the more expensive your cooperation will be. But, as small e-commerce, you can make huge success doing business with a micro-influencer. In fact, more than 88% of marketers prefer working with influencers who have less than 100.000 followers.
Why Should Your Small Ecommerce Use Influencer Marketing?
Now that you know what influencer marketing is and how you should choose the right influencer, it’s time to take a look at the true benefits of influencer marketing. Here are 13 convincing reasons why your small e-commerce should start using influencer marketing.
1. Raise Brand Awareness
The number one benefit of using influencer marketing for your small e-commerce is raising brand awareness. Your small e-commerce needs to find a way to expand its reach and have more people learn about it.
Influencer marketing can help you do it. Here’s how it works:
- you’ll get a whole new base of people interested in your e-commerce
- they’ll learn about you through the influencer they follow, trust, and like
- they’ll start checking out your content and receiving information about your business
Before you know it, your potential customer base will increase and you’ll have more interactions and a bigger reach.
2. Build Credibility
Without an influencer to vouch for you and openly speak about the positive sides of your business, you’re just another small e-commerce in the sea. And, today’s online buyers need something more to hold on to, to choose to buy from you.
But, with an influencer promoting your business, potential customers will start looking at you differently. This will help you:
- gain their trust
- build credibility
It’s one thing for you to praise your business and invite them to shop from you. But, when someone external to your business does it, it’s a whole different story.
3. Publish Fresh Content
As a brand, you’re creating and publishing content through your website, blog, and social media marketing. This content is typical of your strategy and reaches a certain group of your followers and customers.
But, there are other people who can be potential customers, who don’t find that particular content interesting or appealing. That’s where influencer marketing steps in.
Influencer marketing will allow your brand to:
- have fresh, unique content produced on its behalf
- reach new, different people
- get your message across using different strategies
Influencers will use their style and content creation skills to promote your brand. This will make your brand stand out to people you otherwise couldn’t reach.
4. Show Individual Products
As an e-commerce, you want to show your customers the products you’re offering. But, it’s always a better idea to show them through an actual customer or consumer than through staged images and videos.
Influencers should thus be:
- trying out your products
- talking about benefits
- giving honest feedback
- sharing advice on how to choose a product that suits the audience members individually
So, if we go back to the fitness expert promoting your fitness equipment e-commerce, they could share content about:
- using specific products
- choosing what’s best for them personally
- tracking their physical improvements
- sharing their “customer” journey
Here’s another example. Let’s say your e-commerce deals with selling school supplies, education gadgets, and technology for young professionals. The influencer promoting your brand could be a successful startup founder. They can talk about finding online tutoring and courses, building good study habits, and using the products that you’re offering. The products will be just a part of their overall online story.
This way, your other customers will see how your products work in real-life situations and will find it easier to buy something for themselves. Showing products as used by everyday people is always a great way to increase their popularity.
5. Sharing Educational Content
If you made the right choice and found an influencer who’s educated, skilled, or experienced in a field related to your industry, you can team up with them to create and share educational content that your target audience will love. Educational content implies sharing:
- tips and tricks
- tutorials
- how-to-videos
- expert advice
- shopping advice
People will appreciate having someone guide them through the process of shopping and decision-making. For instance, a fitness expert could teach about basic at-home equipment for beginners, or help people choose the right weight for their weight-lifting sessions.
Educational content has a powerful impact on customers and gives them a sense of security and peace of mind when shopping at your e-commerce.
6. Offer Promo Codes
Influencers can help boost your sales and get more people to shop from you by using promotional codes that you assign to them. Not only will people get a great deal out of it, but they’ll be more willing to keep following the same influencer as well as your brand for future collaborations.
So, here’s how it works:
- your influencer promotes your e-commerce and the products you offer
- they offer the followers the option to use a special promo code with their name
- the code allows them to shop with a discount
It’s simple yet super effective.
7. Drive More Sales
Naturally, the ultimate goal of your small e-commerce is to see a significant increase in sales. Influencer marketing can make it happen when done properly.
So, why do people consider buying from you, when an influencer recommends you? Here’s why:
- people want social proof
- they see it as a friend’s recommendation
- they trust the influencer
In addition, with a wider reach and more people learning about your e-commerce, more people will decide to become a customer. So, influencer marketing relies on several strategies and marketing tricks to get more people to buy from you and thus increase your sales.
8. Relate to the Influencer
When you’re looking for the right influencer to advocate your small e-commerce, you need to do extensive research and try finding the perfect fit. That means you need someone who:
- shares the same values as you do
- is well-respected among your target audience members
- is someone your target audience relates to
- is someone who doesn’t promote any brand or product they offer them
Choosing a person who does nothing but sponsored posts and endorsements will have zero value for your small e-commerce. Instead, you need to choose someone your target customers will want to relate to. This will make each of their posts, pieces of advice, and recommendations far more powerful and effective.
9. Engage Your Audience
Engaging your audience is another top priority any brand should focus on. An actively engaged audience will build a closer relationship with your brand and feel more comfortable buying from you.
Influencer marketing will help you engage your audience in different ways, and have them openly share their experiences on social media. For example, influencers can:
- ask them to comment on a product they bought from you
- ask them for an opinion/feedback
- create fun polls and surveys
- communicate with them through comments, DMs, or stories
Boosting the social media engagement of your followers is significant on so many levels. An influencer can bring out a new side to your business and give people a chance to speak their minds, ask questions, and exchange experiences.
10. Stay Relevant
One of the principles of successful content marketing is always staying relevant, and updated. You want your business to be following all the social media trends, keeping up with the events, people, and news from the industry.
On the other hand, an influencer has to do exactly the same, if they want their followers to keep reading their posts, blogs, and stories, and watch their videos.
So, when you team up with an influencer, their posts and online presence will help your business stay relevant, keep in touch with your audience and continue being interesting and fun.
11. Versatile Content From
Versatility is another spice that you want to add to your mixture to make your marketing strategy stronger and more powerful. And, when it comes to influencer marketing, it can really bring out the versatility in your small e-commerce.
Most influencers operate on Instagram since it’s the strongest influencer platform today. Still, they share content in all kinds of forms:
- images
- videos
- stories
- polls
- surveys
- shoppable posts
- live videos
- IGTV
Instagram provides a wide variety of choices and options for the influencers to choose between. This way, they can promote your brand through various types of content and ensure there’s something for everyone.
This strategy will increase your reach even further and get you more followers and customers.
12. High ROI
Investing in influencer marketing is a smart decision. The return of investment is reportedly higher than with any other form of marketing through any other channel.
On average, the ROI per $1 invested is around $5 but can go as high up as $18.
13. It Works
Influencer marketing is one of the surefire ways to reach your marketing goals and launch a successful campaign. In fact, 91% of companies using influencer marketing report it to be effective.
Therefore, if you do it right ad find the right person to represent your brand, you can rest assured you have nothing to lose. You can only expect a high ROI and smooth goal accomplishment.
Final Thoughts
If you still haven’t tried influencer marketing for your small e-commerce, now’s the right time to do it. Influencer marketing is only growing stronger in 2024 so you need to hop on board.
Above, we’ve shared the 13 convincing reasons influencer marketing is beneficial for your business. Hopefully, we’ve managed to show you just how powerful of a tool it can be for the success of your small e-commerce.
