Influencer marketing is a billion-dollar business. If you own a Shopify store but you haven’t partnered with influencers to scale your sales, it’s about time that you do. Recent data shows that 94 percent of marketers consider influencer marketing as a key strategy — and that includes your competitors.
In this article, we’ve broken down the steps to partner with influencers to boost your Shopify store’s sales.
How to Partner With Influencers to Scale Your Shopify Sales
Did you know that businesses make about $6.50 for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing? You can join their ranks in no time in just five steps.
#1 Define Your Marketing Goals
Why do you want to partner with influencers in the first place? The first step is to define your goals so you can identify what metrics to measure. Brand awareness is a given, but what else do you want to get out of it?
One of the most important metrics to track is sales. In fact, that should be your main goal if you’re running a Shopify store. How much money do you want to get from the influencer campaigns? Do you want to add more opportunities to the sales pipeline?
After you figure this out, you can plan the nitty-gritty details of your campaign.
#2 Find the Right Influencers
Don’t make the rookie mistake of working with the wrong influencer. An influencer with 100,000 followers but who isn’t the perfect “fit” for your business won’t be able to scale your sales. To be absolutely sure you partner with the perfect influencer, you first need to identify who your audience is.
Ask yourself questions like:
- “Who buys my products?”
- “Within what age range are my customers?”
- “What are their hobbies?”
- “Where do they live?”
This information should point you toward influencers who are the perfect fit for your products. Who would your audience probably be fans of? For instance, if your product is gym gear, your audience would probably be fans of fitness influencers — not DIYers. As a rule of thumb, your business’ audience should be the same as the influencer’s audience.
Once you’ve found prospective influencers, check their channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Be wary of influencers with fake followers — they won’t be able to scale your sales, as there’s no one but bots to sell to!
#3 Write a Marketing Brief
After you’ve chosen your influencers, write an influencer marketing brief. That way, the influencer will know what they’ve gotten themselves into from the get-go. The brief should be as clear as possible and should go into the nitty-gritty of the collaboration.
It should be able to answer:
- “What content should the influencer create?”
- “What is the compensation structure for each post?”
- “How is the compensation calculated in the first place?”
- “What should (and shouldn’t) the influencer add to their post?”
- “When is the deadline?”
Give the influencer time to go over the brief. Remember, it should be a collaboration between you two. If there are things they don’t agree with, be open to negotiation. What’s important is that you get them on the same page.
#4 Decide on the Type of Content
It’s normal for influencers to want creative control, but ensure that the content is compatible with your brand. Remember that the campaign should be a collaboration between you two. If the influencer wants to do things “their way”, be open to it, but make sure they’re still on-brand. They can put their spin on things as long as the product is still the focal point of the campaign.
At this stage, you should also be clear about what you want (and don’t want) to appear in their post. Your brand’s reputation is on the line — if they paint your product in a bad light (or in a distasteful way), you’ll be left with nothing but a bad rep.
#5 Measure the Metrics
One of the metrics you can measure is the Click-Through Rate (CTR). This translates to the number of people who clicked the link back to your eCommerce store. To do this, you’ll need to provide the influencer with an affiliate link. This will give you insights into where the site visitor was before they got on your website. By tracking this link, you’ll be able to know how many conversions were a result of the influencer’s post.
You should also monitor the active opportunities by sales. In the sales pipeline, “opportunities” refer to people who are interested in purchasing your products. This shows your sales team whether or not there are deals that need to be closed.
What Types of Content Can You Use to Scale Your Sales?
There is a wide range of ways to collaborate with influencers to boost your sales. Let’s take a look at them so you can choose which one aligns with your goals.
Product Reviews
Did you know that 61 percent of people are more likely to purchase a product if an influencer promoted it on social media? Reviews are a great way to get people to want your products. This is particularly true for products that need to be smelled, tasted, etc. such as scented candles, candy, and the like.
Giveaways
Influencers love giveaways as it drives followers in their direction. It works like this: they talk about the product and then ask them to complete an action (e.g. follow you on Instagram) to get a chance to win the giveaway.
Discount Codes
This is one of the best ways to boost your Shopify store’s sales. When influencers share the discount code with their followers, you can track the number of times it was used. It also lets you get the exact number of buyers that they managed to bring in. Plus, since they can try your products at a discounted price, they’ll be more willing to purchase from your Shopify store.
The Bottom Line
By collaborating with influencers, you can boost your brand’s awareness. More importantly, you can scale your Shopify store’s sales in no time. Now that you know how to partner with influencers to scale your sales, you’re ready to kick off your first influencer marketing campaign!
