Everyday more and more entrepreneurs are looking for ways to engage with influencers because they are beginning to realize the importance of the value that it can bring to their companies and brands.
A recent survey conducted by Influencer Marketing Hub showed that 28% of companies consider influencer marketing to be the fastest-growing online customer-acquisition channel, leaving traditional forms of advertising like organic search, paid search, and even email marketing trailing behind.
For online stores this marketing channel can become even more powerful as it can cut through the noise and drive traffic directly to your store not through advertisements, but suggestions and recommendations which your customers trust and depend on as they browse social media for hours every day.
The Benefits Of Influencer Marketing For Online Stores
Did you know that according to the Digital Marketing Institute, 86% of women use social media for their purchase advice. Can you imagine a better marketing channel than that to advertise your online clothing or beauty products store? Combined with the appeal of visual graphics that can be integrated using attractive influencers with creative minds, this can be a winning strategy for any e-commerce store specializing in female-related products.
According to another study by ClickZ, 22% of adults who are 18–34 years old have made a large purchase after seeing a sponsored post by an influencer. Combined with tags directed to your social media channels or links to your online store, this can be an extremely effective marketing tool to generate more of both; brand awareness and sales.
It is important to note that these statistics are also not limited to only large influencers and celebrities. Micro-influencers (influencers that have 10k followers or less), can be extremely influential to your specific target audience and can be used to generate great ROAS at low cost. According to an article published on Medium, 82% of consumers would follow a recommendation made by a micro-influencer.
Another benefit of influencer marketing is that it is a great channel to leverage when creating viral marketing campaigns, which are said to be 500-1000 times more effective than traditional marketing campaigns.
Using Infuencers For Viral Marketing Campaigns
A viral marketing campaign is rarely a thing of luck. Although luck may contribute to your success, behind every successful viral marketing campaign there is a history of planning and research that was done prior to the launch which fertilized the ground for growth before it was struck with the rain of luck.
According to Neil Patel, and his “Viral Marketing Cheat Sheet”, there are 7 elements to a successful viral marketing campaign:
- Stop Being Neutral - Developing an opinion while inspiring strong emotions
- Doing Something Unexpected
- Don’t Make Advertisements - Focus on the story and not on the business promotion
- Make Sequels
- Allow & Promote Sharing
- Connect with Comments
- Never Restrict Access
As you can see from this list, it aligns with a lot of the proper techniques and methods to launching a successful influencer marketing campaign. Half of this list just screams at you “social media”, while the other half focuses on specific, creative, branded promotion in the form of a story.
Can you imagine a better way to check off every single one of these than by running a successful influencer marketing campaign using creative content generated by experienced influencers? Instagram literally has an option of creating stories that can be used to combine numbers three and four from Neil Patel’s cheat sheet above to skyrocket your viral marketing campaign!
Top Influencer Marketing Channels By Industry
For every social media platform there are different demographics and industries that tend to thrive best in those individual environments and communities. There are many factors that influence this, however let us focus not on the factors behind these differences, rather on the outcomes and statistical analysis of such.
According to MediaKix, 89% of marketers consider Instagram the most important social media channel for influencer marketing. The following infographic shows social media marketing statistics for 2020 for various social media platforms in a little more detail.
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As you can see your social media platform choice is closely tied to your individual product and relevant demographics. If you run an online women's clothing store for example this data shows that Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook would be the best spots for finding influencers for your collaborations.
One of the advantages of Pinterest and Instagram is that due to its visual nature they are the perfect social platforms for industries like fashion and beauty, home decoration, fitness, luxury and travel. LinkedIn on the other hand would be the perfect network if you are selling courses or business seminars due to it's high connection to business and careers.
Of course there is a lot more data to consider and a number more social platforms which can serve of use when defining the best platform for influencer marketing campaigns. It is important to use an influencer marketing platform that can assist you with these choices and can provide you with a range of influencers to satisfy your needs.
Conclusion
With every generation of technology there are new trends that society follows and embraces which can be used to save money on marketing while acquiring more customers. In this age of e-commerce and social media, there are few things more powerful and harmonious than influencer marketing. Although this marketing channel is just beginning to show itself in its full glory, it has already become the best way to advertise almost anything sold online, and will surely continue to scale until it becomes one of the most dominant marketing channels on the planet.
Are you looking for influencers for your campaign? Try our free influencer search tool and find influencers perfect for your online store in any city!
