Want to start Influencer Marketing for your eCommerce business but don’t know where to start?
Then, you’ve come to the right place!
In a moment, I’ll show you step-by-step exactly how to start your influencer marketing campaign.
Complete with an outreach tracker and email templates that you can start using ASAP.
Keep in mind, these are the same formulas for success that we used to generate $22,000 for our clients within the span of 3 months.
Is influencer marketing right for you? And how do you hire the right influencers?
We’ll tackle all that and more. So if you’re itching to get started, keep reading.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- What is influencer marketing?
- Why you need influencer marketing
- How to choose the RIGHT influencer for your brand
- How to hire influencers
- Do’s and Don’ts of Influencer Marketing
- Why you need talking points
- What is a creative brief?
- 10 essentials elements to include in your creative brief
- Measuring success
- Conclusion
1. What is influencer marketing?
Say, you open up google to search for a topic. For example, “How to cook spaghetti”.
You click a Youtube video and a friendly face greets you and teaches you to cook spaghetti.
Bingo! You found an influencer in the food and cooking category.
Influencers are people with a following in online communities (especially social media).
Before Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, etc….
Brands usually tied up with celebrities. This could get costly and it may be hard to contact them because well… They’re celebrities.
These days though, you can find influencers on the internet on just about every category.
There are so many to choose from — youtubers, instagram personalities, bloggers, etc.
That’s why…
Partnering with influencers is a great way to build your brand awareness and trust. And your marketing budget will thank you!
People buy from who they trust. And the audiences of influencers are a readily-accessible market to tap into.
2. Why you need influencer marketing?
First, the creator economy is one of the biggest up-and-coming industries. Influencer marketing alone grew to $16.4 Billion in 2022.
And 80% of surveyed companies are including influencer marketing in their budget this year.
Let me list a couple of perks that come with using influencer marketing in your campaign.
It’s crazy what you can do while spending so little ad spend (compared to getting celebrities, of course).
1. Authenticity
There is a reason why the future of influencer marketing will be organic influencers.
Trust isn’t just earned; it’s nurtured. People buy from people. And that’s why putting a face to your brand increases your audience’s trust.
They tell authentic stories.
Customers view influencers like friends – authentic, relatable, and trusted. Because literally, influencers can come from any background, just like your audience.
What’s more?
You can tap into an influencer’s pre-established audience. If their audience aligns with yours, you’ve got yourself a captured market! It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
2. Making your brand #Relatable
Influencers are the modern-day bards, telling stories that connect with their followers.
You can have them showcase your brand. They can tell stories about how your product improves their life or solves a problem. In doing so, they’re making relatable stories.
These stories are like whispers with friends. And that includes the trust that the dime-a-dozen ad can’t gain.
3. Growing your influence
Brand Awareness is a journey. And you need a guide!
That’s where influencers come in.
Their content affects their followers’ lives, from beauty routines to travel escapades.
When influencers use your products in their daily routine (vlogs, GRWM, etc.), it shows your audience that hey! This product can be part of their daily life too.
Product placements gently nudge audiences to your brand with trust from a familiar face.
And shoppable content (where you make it easy for your audience to buy right away) will shoot up your sales.
3. How to choose the RIGHT influencer for your brand
So who should you pick?
5k followers, 10k followers, or 100k followers…?
Follower count isn’t everything. Picking the right influencer isn’t just about finding someone with a large following. They need to have the right audience that you want to tap into.
After all, even if you reach a large audience with the influencer of your choice, if their audience doesn’t fit into the market interested in your products, then you won’t get much sales.
In fact…
Niche micro influencer marketing might bring you better results than bigger influencers.
It’s not always about the quantity, but the quality of your potential leads.
A smaller but more engaged audience will be more interested in your product.
Now that you know how to choose the right influencer, here’s the next question:
Where do you find influencers?
You’ll find them on trending platforms. They can be youtubers, tiktok users, instagram influencers, etc.
As long as they’re a content creator with an engaged audience, they can fit the bill.
4. How to hire influencers
Just like with most tasks, you can delegate growing your brand awareness to influencers.
Now, when choosing the right influencer to market your brand, there are several ways to go about it. Here, I’ll mention two of the best ways to hire.
The first way is hiring influencers directly. You could send them a message (or email) asking for a collaboration.
This is perfect if you already have influencers you want to work with.
Make sure you have a working template or sheet when you start so that you can track your outreach efforts.
I’ll show you the one we use. I’ll even give you a link to our template that you can copy and save so you can get started ASAP.
Here is the tracker we use in our Influencer Outreach efforts. It’s split into the Outreach Phase, Decision Phase, Acceptance Phase, and the Performance Tracking.
You can grab the template here so you can start with your influencer marketing outreach.
You can also use tools such as TalentSheets, SocialBook, or Upfluence, or StarAgent to automate the process for you.
This is perfect if you already have influencers you want to work with.
Make sure you give them the details. Influencers most likely receive many other messages asking for “brand ambassadors” (some of which are sketchy).
So it’s important to give a legitimate offer and provide details that will make you stand out.
Ready to start sending messages to influencers now?
Here is our tried and tested email template that you can use to start contacting influencers today.
The second way is through affiliate marketing.
What’s that, you ask?
Well, affiliate marketing is just like setting up a system that lets influencers come to you. With this way, you set up member links for influencers (affiliates).
It’s a bit technical, but if you have the know-how to setup affiliate links on your website and get word out to potential affiliates, it does most of the work for you.
If customers buy using the influencer’s link, they can get a commission for each sale they make.
This incentivizes creators to keep making content that will boost your sales since they get a cut of it too.
The catch is you may not be able to control the generated content they make for your brand as influencers will be making content at their own discretion.
So if you want more control over the outputs, the first method is ideal.
5. Do’s and Don’ts of Influencer Marketing
Dont’s:
1. Treating your relationship with influencers as transactional
Finding the right influencers means potentially finding a “face” for your brand. That’s why it’s better to maintain a good relationship with your influencers for more consistency in your branding.
A strong partnership helps you benefit long-term from the arrangement.
2. Neglecting your community
Influencer marketing is a great way to kickstart engagement with your brand’s community. But you’re missing out if you don’t reach out and interact with the community.
Remember, the best stories are those that unfold in a dialogue. Keep it up and you’re on the way to having loyal customers who are brand advocates.
3. Giving influencers your product with no direction
Without talking points and a story you would like to tell consistently, asking for content without a clear message to your influencer is like shooting in the dark.
It’s up to chance whether their generated content will actually be useful for your brand’s messaging or not.
Do’s:
1. Building relationships with influencers
Have a personalized touch when approaching influencers.
Influencers value partnerships they resonate with.
So get ready to build rapport. After all, genuine connection benefits both sides in the long-term.
Connecting creative freedom with brand guidelines will make for content that both sides can be proud of!
2. Proper Compensation
Don’t be one of those brands that pay in “exposure”. People need to eat and pay their bills.
So while you’re saving ad spend money by using your influencers’ fanbase, don’t take it for granted and compensate your influencers for the work they do for your brand.
In doing this, influencers will want to keep working with your brand, which is a great way to build relationship with influencers.
3. Communicating your message properly with your influencer
It’s important to sit down and talk with your influencers about what kind of vibe and message you want for your brand.
So they can come up with content that aligns with the kind of brand messaging that you want.
Plus, you can build a story with content from several of your influencers if you give them direction to work with beforehand.
That’s why…
You need a loud and clear way to tell your influencers what message you want to get across.
I’ll explain in a bit what talking points you need to score the right content to build your brand.
Specifically, what you need to include in your creative brief.
You might be wondering:
What’s a creative brief?
Keep reading, and I’ll explain it all in a minute.
6. Why you need Talking Points
It’s best to know the talking points for your brand if you want consistency in the generated content.
You can tell a compelling story using influencer marketing but only if you’re able to give them the proper directions.
Storytelling lies at the heart of effective influencer campaigns. Influencers have a knack for crafting narratives that engage their audience. You can use this storytelling skill to make campaigns that convert.
You can use content formats, from Instagram posts to YouTube videos and live streams to add variety to your campaign.
Now, having your talking points ready is all well and good.
But it gets better…
When you package your talking points into a concise and detailed “creative brief”, you can quickly communicate your brand’s messaging.
That will help your influencers understand what content will align with your goals.
7. What is a creative brief?
A creative brief serves as your brand roadmap where you can summarize your talking points. It’s a great tool to achieve an impactful partnership with your influencers.
What does a good creative brief accomplish?
- Set expectations
- Show the campaign direction
- Establish consistency
- Provide metrics for success
Why you need a creative brief?
- It standardizes your brand message
- it sets the creative peg for your content
In short…
Having a creative brief leaves the guesswork out of working with influencers. It ensures that important questions are answered. You increase the chances of generating the content you want.
Most importantly, your influencers will have a clear picture of the content you want.
10 essential elements to include in your creative brief
What to include in a creative brief for influencers if you are an ecommerce brand?
1. Information and background about the brand
Your influencers should have a background of your brand and what your goals and values are.
2. Descriptions of the items they will receive
Your influencers can prepare the kind of content they will make with your products beforehand if you give them descriptions of the items they will receive.
This gives you a chance to highlight features of the product you want them to mention.
3. Campaign objectives
Each campaign is different. A starting brand might want to increase their brand awareness, while a veteran brand might want conversions right away. Telling your influencers what you want to accomplish lets them tailor their content to your marketing needs.
4. Visual or shooting guidelines
You can set the tone for the kind of visuals you want influencers to include. This can be as simple as requesting a plain background to specific backgrounds or lighting.
5. Key message and talking points
This is the most important part of your creative brief. This tells your influencers what message to focus when showing your product.
6. Content Format and Platform
Include this so you have a clear understanding of the platform and format the content will be posted in. Most influencers run multiple platforms. So it’s best to agree on what platform and format the content will be posted in.
7. Timeline and deliverables
This helps to keep your influencers accountable. Projects run smoothly when everyone knows when the deadlines are for submitting content.
8. Compensation and terms
You should definitely have a sit-down and make an agreement with your influencer on their compensation. It’s also a good opportunity to discuss the terms you’d like them to follow.
9. Contact Information
No good communication would be complete without contact information. Let your influencer know where to contact you for questions, feedback and if they need help.
10. Additional Resources
If there’s anything else your influencer needs to know about your brand, put it here.
9. Measuring success
Once you’ve sent your creative briefs, it’s time to get the outputs. It’s best to have a cloud storage tool where they can upload their video files.
Here are some tools that you can use to get started: Dropbox, WeTransfer, Google Drive.
Got your influencer videos already? … Cool.
But wait…
Making content isn’t the end all, be all. Marketing success depends on one thing:
There needs to be measurable results.
KPI’s can include: engagement rate, reach, click rate, and conversions.
Looking out for these gives insight if your strategy is working.
That way, you can make improvements to your current or future influencer campaigns.
Many platforms come with built-in analytics tools.
These can help you figure out how your content is doing. So make full use of them.
10. Conclusion
Keep authenticity at the forefront! Customers love social proof, as it builds trust.
So keep telling your authentic story using influencer marketing to grow your brand awareness.
And if you have shoppable content, those sales will keep rolling in.
Remember…
The influencer landscape is always growing.
And building relationships with your influencers is a long-term investment.
One that can lead to steady profits.
Now that you’ve seen the full process of using influencer marketing, you have three choices:
You can go ahead and put it to practice.
You can hire a freelancer to do it for you.
Or…
Partner up with us. We’ve mastered the art.
If you need help getting started with influencer marketing, go here.
