Right now online retailers are seeing incredible profits thanks to simple technology geared to amplify sales – and enable nimble marketing.
But did you know that a large part of the success of online shopping in the past few years is due in part to influencer marketing, specifically?
According to Shopify, “influencer marketing is expected to generate $13.8 billion in 2021, with 67% of brands using Instagram for this type of marketing.” And this is expected to expand exponentially over the next five years.
That means if you’re not leveraging influencer marketing in your own sales plan, you’re missing out on what could potentially be a major boost for sales and brand awareness.
And the good news is, influencer marketing is both a long and short game. There are simple hacks you can do right now to get started with influencer marketing – as well as prepare for future optimization.
Simple Hacks to Get Started with Influencer Marketing Right Now
1. Go narrow and deep.
Where do you run your marketing? With traditional digital marketing, brands often cast a wide net, hoping to catch as many leads as possible. But with influencer marketing, you have the ability to turn that net into a laser pointer.
A simple way to get started with influencer marketing right now is to recruit influencers with niche interests and audiences. Oftentimes, this “narrow but deep” approach yields astounding results.
For example, there’s industry chatter right now about how KOA (a sugar-free, calorie-free fruit juice that looks exactly like water) gifted a month’s worth of product to seven aligned, health-conscious influencers. Without spending a dime of marketing budget, over 483,000 people were introduced to the brand. And KOA experienced an immediate 200% increase in sales.
Why did this campaign work so well?
Two reasons:
- KOA took a narrow but deep approach, recruiting authentic, relatable creators whose values aligned with their brand mission.
- They asked the influencers to promote based upon the product’s merits – no specific talking points were dictated.
As a result, the influencers’ enthusiasm was genuine, which translated to their followers.
Finding the right influencer to work with can mean a straight line to conversion, if you partner with aligned creators.
2. Create a collaborative relationship with creators.
Finding the right influencers means you can more precisely understand and cultivate your audience – and curate the products you offer strategically.
Since your influencer is in direct and constant communication with their audience, they’ll know exactly what people are seeking. By leveraging this valuable insight, you can co-create campaigns, messaging, and offers that will resonate with your prospective customer’s needs and wants.
Unlike traditional advertising and sponsorship, influencer marketing works best when the promoters are part of the creative process. Authentic creators care deeply about their community – they’re not willing to destroy the trust they’ve built for a gig.
To ensure your influencer marketing is set up for success, create a culture of collaboration with your creator partners. After all, influencer marketing is all about relationships – so treat your content creators as partners rather than vendors and watch how quickly your campaigns show results.
3. Optimize your data tracking systems.
Now that you’ve found your influencers and gotten your product offer nailed down, it’s time to dive into analytics.
Many brands still rely on the current model of influencer marketing reporting: using third-party analytics and deciphering what they hope is an accurate accounting of results.
Unfortunately, this method is rife with trouble. For example, were you to go this route, you’d quickly discover how often data among platforms doesn’t line up. One platform may show 1,000 impressions, but your internal systems show 500.
Instead, set yourself up for success by investing in a platform that offers first-party attribution. Not only will your analytics be streamlined, consistent, and accurate, but your data is also available in real-time so you can make agile marketing decisions.
Creatable is the premier platform provider for brands that want to leverage influencer marketing effectively.
Using first-party attribution, you’ll want to measure these key metrics in determining the success of your influencer marketing initiatives:
- Impressions - the number of views a creator campaign generates.
- Traffic - how many people land on your creator’s custom landing page (a best-in-class feature Creatable offers clients).
- Conversion - how many people purchase directly from a specific influencer’s efforts.
- ROI - tracking (down to the penny) which influencers drove dollars and which have a ways to go.
Calculating these key performance indicators is made easy through Creatable's dashboard. Instead of wasting hours pulling together metrics from various sources and hoping they’re right, you’ll be able to spend your time optimizing campaigns.
Best of all, Creatable natively integrates with your e-commerce platform. This streamlines efforts and ensures you have clean, accurate data. Brands that use Creatable report 3x higher conversions.
Not only that, but also Creatable offers a robust Creator Marketplace, where you can source authentic, relatable creators for your brand – making Creatable your one-stop shop for all your influencer marketing needs.
To find out more about how Creatable will simplify your influencer marketing endeavors and generate intentional, scalable ROI across your campaigns, schedule a demo here.
