Fame and Fortune: Will Influencer Marketing Work for You?
Celebrity sells, and even with your best efforts at focusing on conventional strong points for growing an e-commerce business, it may be time to cash in on the notoriety of big names.
That’s the reality for a lot of merchants, but not all. Your store might realize a so-so benefit from investing in this trend. Let’s look at the pluses and the minuses.
Influencer marketing typically harnesses the high-profile status of well-known (and sometimes surprisingly not so well-known) “influencers,” meaning people with immense followings on social media. Endorsements, product mentions, personal stories – they all attract interest. Whether it’s a big name like Kardashian, or a Johnny-Come-Lately who has grown a big audience and mass presence through clever marketing, leveraging this type of sales strategy can be lucrative.
Influencer marketing is also a form of branded content; not a one-size-fits-all concept. It’s hard to deny the effect of social media on virtually all consumer demographics, making sites like Facebook (Meta), Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and various and sundry platforms a critical asset to market products you sell.
Experts estimate that U.S. marketers will engage in some form of influencer marketing to the tune of nearly 73 percent in 2022. Want more stats? An estimated 14 percent of 18-to-24 year olds and 11 percent of millennials made a purchase within the last six months, strictly driven by influencer marketing. The concept is anything but new, and dates back to celebrity TV ad endorsements from decades earlier.
In 2022, influencers might be successful bloggers who have grown a following over the years. Parenting blogs, fitness blogs, foodie blogs, and fashion blogs are common examples. Non-famous individuals have built large audiences with sheer creativity and relevance. And even better, people trust them.
How do you absorb the cost of influencer marketing? Particularly in light of an imperfect method to measure metrics for return-on-investment, it’s an important question. What once was “paid partnerships” has morphed into “sponsored posts.” And for the privilege of hopping on board, the unspoken industry standard is $100 per 10,000 followers. Deciding between quality and quantity is another consideration: are you seeking a broad reach, or does your product line(s) call for a more tailored approach?
As Instagram is considered the gold standard for influencer marketing, start there. Influencers usually offer a press kit with the details you need to make a decision. A typical Instagram sponsored photo post caption might set you back under $2,000 for an influencer with fewer than 100,000 followers. To get started, you should start slow and build up.
Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you’re pitching on Instagram:
Live-action videos grab attention more often than still photography.
Sponsored posts that emulate advertisements might be overlooked.
Strive for casual, humanistic content/video material that relates to buyers.
A CTA (Call to Action) narrative is compelling and interesting, and adding tags that encourage continued reading is even better.
However you choose to move forward with influencer marketing, take care in crafting an effective strategy from out of the gate. Choose the right influencer for your inventory. Make your content attractive, concise, and enticing. You may be pleasantly surprised as you watch your sales grow.