People spend a seventh of their waking time on social media and that time is growing. So inevitably product discovery on social media is something almost all of us would have experienced first hand and this will continue to increase the more time we spend on our digital devices.
Influencer marketing contributes greatly to product discovery on social media which presents a strong opportunity to grow the eCommerce side of your business. You’re probably still asking, but how exactly do I harness this and make it work for my business? Read on for our insights, practical tools and examples.
eCommerce and influencer marketing are a match made in heaven. The powerful and authentic relationships influencers have with their specific audiences create the perfect avenue for brands to introduce their products to the right people in a way that they will respond to. The trending breakdown in trust in traditional advertising leaves us looking for new ways of reaching potential customers. A staggering 74% of consumers rely on social media when making purchasing decisions this cements influencer marketing as the obvious choice for savvy marketers who want to build relationships and see results.
How can businesses use IM to boost eCommerce?
Building brand awareness is a great place to start. Getting people talking about your brand and making sure everyone is aware of who you are through authentic and trustworthy influencers will build the foundations for a very strong relationship. Working with influencers to run competitions and giveaways has proven to be an effective way of reaching a large number of people and starting that conversation.
Driving consideration is another area that should not be overlooked. While this might be harder to track it is still a vital part of the path to purchase. Brands are able to educate, continue to build that trust and control the dialogue around what people are saying about them through influencer marketing. Influencers speak to their followers in a way that they find engaging and are able to truly understand, it’s a bit like hearing about an awesome new product from a friend. This means influencers are great at communicating more complicated messaging you might be trying to get across to potential customers to help drive consideration.
When it comes to converting those people into paying customers sometimes a trusted influencer posting about a product or service is enough. If people need an extra push, brands can utilise things like discount codes, these can also help to track exactly where conversions are coming from.
To ensure your influencer marketing efforts are working to boost eCommerce the best of their abilities it is important you have all your bases covered. Everything from ideation and strategy to choosing the right influencers and managing them these need to be done well.
It is important to remember that you’re not just working with influencers, you are collaborating with them, so the content you want them to create and share should align with their brand as well as yours. That is where we come in, we take all of the hard work out of managing this whole process right through to the end.
Examples
Book Depository
This UK based online bookstore was named the Online Business of the Year and Retailer of the Year in the UK Startup awards in 2012. As leaders in the world of online business and eCommerce, they know the value of influencer marketing. They worked with us here at The Social Club to execute an outstanding influencer marketing campaign in New Zealand that delivered some impressive results. Their vision statement is ‘All Books Available to All’ and with that in mind the team at TSC partnered them up with 8 different influencers across a range of different interests and audiences to reach a broader demographic. For the campaign, discount codes were utilised, more than 350 were redeemed over 2 weeks. The influencers created some incredible content that was warm, relatable and captured a moment involving the influencers new book purchases. While Book Depository is an international brand catered to the local New Zealand audience, for example, one influencer bought a Te-Reo book to help teach the local language to her kids.
TradeMe
Everyone in New Zealand has heard of TradeMe, the countries leading online marketplace and classified advertising platform. It is the go-to place for kiwis to buy and sell online. They were looking to run an influencer led campaign showcasing their four key markets, TradeMe – motors, property, marketplace and jobs. With the help of The Social Club, they achieved their objectives to increase awareness of those four key markets, direct high-quality traffic to the TradeMe Instagram page to help increase their following and engagement, while increasing ongoing consumer purchases and listings on TradeMe.
Logan Dodds was one of the influencers we worked with, he was selling his beloved campervan at the time which was the perfect fit for the campaign. The listing generated so much buzz that the online news outlet Stuff wrote an article about it.
Influencer marketing can work wonders when it comes to eCommerce. Incredible things can be achieved throughout the path to purchase and you should be taking full advantage of this. Feel free to get in touch with us at enquiries@thesocialclub.co with any questions you might have or tell us about the campaign you’d like to get started today!
