With the advent of social media in recent years, the opportunities for digital marketing have grown and are still evolving all the time. Influencer marketing is one of the newer forms of marketing, something that has been adopted not least in e-commerce – but what are the benefits, and what should one beware of as an e-retailer?
Social media profiles with a large following and high impact, or influencers to describe the phenomenon in one word – are now a common feature of the marketing strategy of many e-retailers. A brand can collaborate with influencers in a variety of ways; it depends on who the influencer is, what target group the company wants to target, and what they want to achieve with the collaboration. One of the most common ways is to have the influencer recommend a product or service in their channels, and present an offer to the followers in connection with this.
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What are the benefits of using influencers in e-commerce?
When using influencers to market their webshop, there are a number of things to keep in mind for it to be successful. A number of years ago, influencers were a grateful marketing channel, as payment was mostly made up of products – unlike today when all the biggest profiles can make millions.
This is hardly true for the majority, however, as a company, you can still profit from advertising via an influencer instead of traditional media channels such as newspapers or TV that charge significantly more for the marketing. You also do not need to employ the largest profiles, but there are a plethora of smaller profiles that do not charge as much but are still relevant to your target audience.
Adapt to industry and target group
When working with influencer marketing, it is of the utmost importance that you adapt to your online store’s target audience, and choose the influencers that have the audience you want to target.
The advantage of using influencers is that consumers tend to more easily accept recommendations from someone they like, and advertising is perceived as more genuine than, for example. a selling newspaper ad. The prerequisite for this is to work with an influencer who fits your product (and vice versa) for it to be credible – and the followers are interested. Relevance is the keyword in these contexts. Using an influencer who does not match the product or brand can have the opposite effect, and instead, cause the followers to become irritated and boycott some (or both) of the parties involved.
To think about before an influencer collaboration
Find out which laws and regulations apply – all forms of advertising must follow the Marketing Act. Whether the advertisement is done in text, image, or mobile material, it must be stated that it is advertising and who is the sender – the company and the influencer should agree together on how it should be done.
This is important not only to avoid fees, but consumers are now used to this type of marketing and prefer when advertising is clearly marked to reduce misunderstandings and to increase transparency.
Have a clear plan for collaboration – what is the goal? Increase sales, get more newsletter subscribers or greater visibility? Define clear and measurable KPIs to have a goal to work for, and be able to easily follow up on results.
If you have poor control over who you can collaborate with, how your marketing should be designed or how you can follow up on the campaign, you can use an influenza network to help you through the process, today there are a plethora of companies with different specialties.
