POPFLEX taps into Influencer-Founder-CEO, Cassey Ho’s persona, back-story and appeal to promote a new collection.
Influencer marketing has been growing in popularity over time and has become an increasingly popular component of a brand marketer’s arsenal and that’s simply because it works. However, you need to be strategic in how you go about influencer marketing if you expect it to deliver on ROI and desired outcomes. Moreover, it works better for some product categories than it does for others. And of course (like all your marketing moves) you need your influencer marketing efforts to have some sort of novelty value, excitement and relevance. This guide will take you through top trending strategies for influencer marketing in e-commerce in 2024 and best practices in influencer marketing ROI management. (While ensuring you color within the lines set by rules and regulations). Note that while some of the examples and moves we discuss below may not be new, they’ve never been more relevant than now.
6 Fresh Influencer Marketing Ideas to Ignite Your e-commerce Sales in 2024
- Collaborative Magic: Co-Created Collections & Products
This is the 2024 version of Nike partnering with basketball star Micheal Jordan way back in the ‘80s. Today’s brands leverage influencer marketing for e-commerce through similar collaborative retail projects. By partnering with influencers to co-create unique collections or special products, you tap into their creativity and loyal following.
Take one of our customers, Gaâla, for example. Their collaboration with Anastasiia Nova resulted in a wildly successful collection that resonated deeply with their target audience.
Gaâla featured special notes from Anastasiia expressing the influencer’s vision for her co-branded collection
Gaâla signed up Anastasiia to co-create a collection of stylish clothing items. The collection page features a prelude signed off by the influencer that covers the ideation and production processes, and what she loves most about the fabrics and the clothing. The brand has a series of these “collaboration collections” that allow it to promote trending ideals and connect with its audience on these emotional points. “Our collaboration collections offer a unique opportunity to connect with like-minded content creators, introduce fresh designs to our collections, and expand our reach by bringing our communities together, fostering a spirit of women supporting women, and creating timeless pieces that resonate with those who value elegance, sentiment, and the slow fashion movement,” says Irina Akelyeva, Head of E-commerce, Gaâla.
Brands such as aggregator, Revolve have mastered the art of influencer collaborations. Revolve frequently partners with top fashion influencers to create exclusive collections that generate massive buzz and drive sales. One notable collaboration is with influencer and fashion blogger Aimee Song, where the brand and influencer created a summer collection that left fans swooning.
Some key benefits of influencer collaborations include:
- A higher degree of involvement and investment in the campaign’s success and also the product’s success, as it is attached to their own name
- A unique spin and fresh take on your product line because with another voice in the mix, you have a little leeway to play around and veer slightly outside your brand’s template, if you like (no compulsion though!)
- Twice the brand credibility!
- Harnessing the Power of Micro & Nano Influencers
Gone are the days when only mega-influencers held sway over consumer decisions. In 2024, savvy e-commerce brands are tapping into the power of micro and nano influencers.
Micro influencers are niche-specific creators with over 10,000 followers, who boast highly engaged audiences who have grown to trust their recommendations and even subscribe to their content (which increases the likelihood of your content reaching the audience in the first place).
Incorporating these authentic voices into your influencer marketing strategy can yield impressive results. Instead of blowing your entire budget on a single influencer with a massive following, why not spread the love among a bunch of micro influencers? This wallet-friendly approach (you can sometimes negotiate and barter free goodies from your brand in exchange for content) can deliver similar or even better results.
Micro influencers can also help you reach niche segments by creating specific messaging for their audiences. This is to say that if your products work for 3-5 very specific niche segments, you might be able to find influencers that have audiences within these niches. For example, if your product can be used by an older audience demographic, why not pick older influencers. That’s where the rising stars of the influencer world—such as “granfluencers”—come in. A good example is Lyn Slater, a 67 year old professor and fashionista with over 700 thousand followers on Instagram. Another fine example is Grandma Droniak, a 92-year-old TikTok sensation with over 13 million followers who shares heartwarming stories and life advice.
Nano influencers are just regular people who post about their lives, pets, children, holidays, emails and outfits of the day for their own friends and family. However, before you dismiss the 100 to 150 views, and up to 10,000 followers they bring to the table, consider the fact that they have an engaged audience that trusts what they say. And they’re much more cost-effective to partner with. A shared wishlist in return for a freebie or small discount on their next purchase might actually get you considerable bang for your buck. You can even try asking them to have their referrals use a code for a bigger discount (so that you can attribute sales more accurately).
The advantages of working with micro and nano influencers include:
- Reaching targeted, passionate and engaged communities
- More authentic and relatable content that resonates with niche audiences
- Cost-effectiveness, as their rates are typically lower than larger influencers
- Higher engagement rates per dollar spent compared to macro-influencers, leading to better ROI
- Founders as Influencers: Leveraging Your Own Star Power
Consumers crave a personal connection with the brands they support. That’s where your founder comes in! Another emerging trend in influencer marketing for e-commerce is brand founders stepping into the spotlight as influencers themselves. This one’s been nascent in the past years and is only set to get bigger in 2024, following a mushrooming of celebrity-founded brands last year.
If you’re looking for inspiration, you might want to take a good hard look at Popflex, whose founder’s influence, Cassey Ho drives incredible engagement and brand loyalty. Cassey, a popular fitness influencer with almost 10 million YouTube subscribers and 2.8 million Instagram followers, leverages her own persona, back-story, and appeal to promote Popflex’s new collections. By authentically sharing her journey and passion for fitness, Cassey has built a strong emotional connection with her audience, which translates into unwavering support for her brand.
But influencer-founder-led businesses should also find engaging and organic ways to funnel their social audience to their email marketing lists, just like Cassey Ho did with the POPFLEX wishlist giveaway campaign we’ve showcased above. Cassey has formidable follower bases on YouTube and Instagram and while this is a great way market, these audiences would only be targeted on social and not via email marketing campaigns. With the wishlist giveaway campaign (that would get participants to share email addresses to possibly win everything in their $1000 wishlist), Cassey managed to open up her social audiences for email-based marketing as well. The results? The brand added 90,000 new prospects to its marketing funnel, including 45,000 new contacts.
Remember, people buy from people they like and trust. By stepping into the role of an influencer, you’ll create a powerful emotional connection with your customers.
By channeling your founder as the face of your brand, you can:
- Share your brand’s unique story and vision
- Humanize your company and build trust with your audience
- Showcase your founder’s expertise and thought leadership with your audience
- Grow your email marketing audience
- From Influencer Content to Ads: Unleashing the Potential of IGC
Influencer-generated content (IGC) can be a game-changer for your e-commerce marketing strategy in 2024. When influencers create authentic, engaging content featuring your products, it provides powerful social proof and elevates your brand’s desirability. Why, you ask? It’s simple—when a popular, envied, or aspirational figure gives your brand their seal of approval, their followers can’t help but take notice and want in on the action! By repurposing this treasure trove of content in your own advertising efforts, you can amplify your reach and credibility like never before!
Daniel Wellington taps into influencer power by featuring the most active small-to-medium influencers (wearing its products) on its page
A great example is Daniel Wellington, a watch brand that frequently repurposes influencer content across their social media channels and email campaigns. By showcasing real people rocking their watches, they’ve created an authentic, relatable vibe that resonates with their target audience. Their Creator Of The Week Instagram Highlights invite influencers to create content around their products and tag them to be featured. This ties in perfectly with our micro and nano influencers point earlier in this blog—smaller influencers will love the idea of being featured.
Another great instance of an IGC strategy in action is Glossier, a beauty brand known for its devoted community. Glossier often features IGC in their Instagram ads and stories.
Here’s why IGC should be a key part of your strategy:
- IGC outperforms traditional ads in terms of engagement and conversions
- Repurposing IGC across your marketing channels saves time and resources
- IGC serves as powerful social proof, boosting customer confidence
Psst… want to know a secret to supercharging your influencer content? Savvy brands are now restructuring their influencer contracts to include more opportunities for repurposing their content across multiple channels. Think traditional TV ads, email campaigns, digital ads—the works! For example, you can take an influencer’s social media post featuring your product and use it as a featured image in an email campaign or as a part of a digital ad on Facebook or Instagram. By emulating the engaging influencer marketing style of platforms like TikTok and using it to drive measurable actions, you’ll be leading the pack in no time!
- Shop Reels & Live Shopping: The Future of e-commerce Engagement
Get ready to transform your e-commerce store into a dynamic, interactive experience! In 2024, features like shop reels with influencers and live shopping are gaining momentum in the e-commerce influencer marketing space. By partnering with influencers to create engaging, shoppable content, you can tap into their audience and drive sales in a more authentic and interactive way. The live streaming market in China alone is expected to reach over $800 billion this year. In Southeast Asia, platforms like Lazada and Shopee have seen tremendous success with their live shopping features, with some influencers generating millions of dollars in sales during a single session.
The Amazing Thailand Grand Sale, a two-month discount period at malls across key shopping destinations in Thailand, has mastered the art of influencer-led live shopping promotions. The sale’s organizers host a shopping race of sorts where influencers share live content with their audiences as they compete to bag the best deals faster than their counterparts.
With this type of influencer marketing, you can:
- Showcase your products in action, providing valuable context for potential buyers
- Create a sense of urgency and FOMO through limited-time offers and exclusive deals
- Engage with your audience in real-time, answering questions and building relationships
Just imagine the buzz and excitement of hosting a live shopping event with your favorite influencers, where customers can seamlessly purchase featured products with just a few clicks. It’s a total game-changer that will leave your competitors wondering how they missed the boat!
Social commerce is the new black, and platforms like TikTok and Instagram are leading the charge with their shoppable features. From TikTok Shop’s small biz-boosting power to live shopping extravaganzas hosted by retail giants like Walmart and Amazon, the future of e-commerce is interactive, engaging, and oh-so-exciting!
- The Power of Influencer List Sharing
No e-commerce brand is an island. Encourage influencers to curate and share product lists with their followers. This trending strategy for 2024 not only provides valuable recommendations but also streamlines the purchasing process. By making it easy for followers to shop for influencer-approved products, you can boost engagement and conversion rates. Swym’s Gift Lists & Registries app is a great tool to help influencers create and share wishlists with their audience, driving traffic and sales to your e-commerce store.
Look at how Tiffany & Co. partnered with Kendall Jenner to create a holiday wish list featuring her favorite pieces from the brand. By leveraging Kendall’s influence and style, Tiffany & Co. showcased their products in a way that felt both aspirational and attainable at the same time.
By teaming up with complementary businesses and sharing influencer lists, you can:
- Expand your reach and tap into new audiences
- Save time and resources on influencer discovery and vetting
- Foster a sense of community and collaboration within your industry
Measuring Success & Must-Have Tools for Influencer Marketing
As you try out new and trending influencer marketing strategies for e-commerce brand efforts, you need to know if they’re working as planned. That’s why it’s essential to track and measure your campaigns’ performance. Utilizing tools and platforms specifically designed for monitoring influencer marketing ROI can help you make data-driven decisions and refine your influencer marketing strategy; check out this updated list of tools and metrics to apply to your influencer marketing moves in 2024:
You may want to consider an influencer marketing platform like Influencer-Impact to manage and measure influencer marketing campaigns better
These are the essential metrics you need to keep track of
- 💬 Engagement Rates: Engagement rates are your bread and butter. We’re talking likes, comments, and shares—the holy trinity of social media success. These metrics give you a pulse into how your audience is interacting with your influencer content. But importantly, don’t stop here.
- 🖱️ Click-Through Rates & Website Traffic: You want to make sure all those likes, comments and shares are actually driving people to your site. Monitoring these metrics helps you better evaluate the effectiveness of your influencer partnerships. But the real proof of the pudding (or engagement, in this case) comes from the next point.
- 💰 Conversion Rates & Sales Generated: What good is all that traffic if it’s not translating into cold, hard cash? 💸 That’s where conversion rates and sales generated come into play.
- 📈 Audience Growth & Brand Sentiment: Don’t forget about audience growth and brand sentiment! You want to make sure your influencer collabs are not only bringing in new followers, but also fostering a positive image for your brand. Monitor your audience growth from month to month, and be sure to observe whether an influencer collaboration causes a larger than usual spike in followers or engagement. Also evaluate brand sentiment to ensure your partnerships are building a loyal and enthusiastic customer base.
- 💸 Earned Media Value & Return on Investment: These metrics help you quantify the impact of your influencer marketing efforts and prove to your boss (or yourself) that you’re making smart moves. 😎 Quantifying the impact of your influencer marketing campaigns is key for demonstrating their value to stakeholders. Earned media value and return on investment metrics will help you justify your efforts and make data-driven decisions.
When shopping around for the perfect influencer marketing platform, look out for these game-changing features:
- 🔍 A comprehensive creator database with advanced filtering options so you can find your perfect influencer match. Platforms like Influencer Impact help you hunt down the right influencer for your brand.
- 🎯 Intuitive workflow management within a single, user-friendly platform
- 📊 Robust influencer program analytics, including in-depth campaign, creator, and content metrics
- 📧 Seamless email integrations and customizable landing pages to streamline outreach and manage inbound requests
- 🛍️ Powerful e-commerce integrations so you can automate product fulfillment, generate discount codes and affiliate links, plus track revenue attribution
- 📝 A centralized CRM to manage payments, product fulfillment, and creator contracts with ease
- 👂 Advanced social listening tools to discover, organize, and leverage user-generated content
Ready To Expand Your Influence?
While we’ve showcased a wide berth of influencer marketing best practices for you to take inspiration from in 2024, never forget that the key to success lies in authenticity, creativity, and a willingness to experiment. Don’t just copy-paste these strategies; customize them to your context, and use customer data to craft the right influencer marketing moves for your audience. Stay true to your brand values, foster genuine connections with influencers, and don’t be afraid to think outside the box.
As you embark on an e-commerce influencer marketing journey of your own, we leave you some food for thought:
- What are the goals of your influencer marketing campaign in 2024?
- What will success look like?
- Have you developed the team, the bandwidth and the budgets to sustain the campaign (and stay responsive to comments) for long enough to make an impact?
People Also Ask
Q: How do I choose the right influencers for my e-commerce brand?
Focus on influencers who align with your brand values, have engaged audiences, and create content that resonates with your target market. Look for influencers with high engagement rates, authentic voices, and a track record of successful collaborations in your niche.
The secret sauce to being a true influencer? It’s all about creating an unshakeable circle of trust. Authenticity, dependability, and sincerity are the key ingredients that make an influencer’s recommendations carry weight and drive real results.
Q: What are some effective ways to measure the ROI of influencer marketing campaigns?
Track metrics like engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversions. Use unique discount codes or affiliate links to attribute sales directly to influencers. Monitor brand sentiment, audience growth, and earned media value to gauge the overall impact of your campaigns.
Q: How can I build long-term relationships with influencers?
Communicate openly, provide value beyond monetary compensation, and involve influencers in your brand’s creative process. Nurture these relationships for ongoing collaborations. Offer exclusive perks, early access to products, and opportunities for co-creation to foster genuine partnerships.
Q: What are some common mistakes to avoid in influencer marketing?
Avoid focusing solely on follower count instead of engagement and alignment. Don’t micromanage influencers’ creative process or force inauthentic content. Failing to set clear goals and expectations can also lead to underwhelming results.
Another pitfall to watch out for? Being too eager and partnering with the first influencer who responds or charges the least. Take your time, be selective, and make sure the influencer is a perfect match for your brand. Trust us, it’s worth the extra effort!
Q: How can I scale my influencer marketing efforts as my e-commerce brand grows?
Leverage influencer marketing platforms and tools to streamline discovery, outreach, and campaign management. Develop a tiered influencer strategy that includes a mix of micro, macro, and celebrity influencers to expand your reach. Continuously analyze and optimize your campaigns based on data and insights.
