It’s safe to say that most businesses and brands now understand the power of social influencers. Many are shifting their marketing strategies from traditional methods to influencer marketing.
Over the last few years, influencer marketing has gained great popularity. In fact, it is projected that spending on influencer marketing will be between $5 billion and $10 billion by 2020. Also, the number of searches for the term “influencer marketing” increased to 71.7% from 2017 to 2018.
So how can you leverage social media influencers for your own company?
Intro To Social Influencers
Influencers help brands create high-quality, valuable, and relevant content. Which, in turn, can help your brand generate more traffic. It also can also help you increase your engagement rate, establish relationships with your target audience, and improve your brand’s credibility.
One of the best things about influencer-generated content is that it doesn’t look too promotional. Which can help you attract your target audience and win their trust.
But how exactly can you collaborate with social influencers to generate more sales for your business?
We’ve four super effective ways to leverage social influencers to boost your sales. Let’s get started.
1. Organize Contests and Giveaways
You can leverage social influencers to organize contests and giveaways and boost sales for your eCommerce store. People love to win free stuff on the internet.
IDEA: Ask a relevant social influencer from your niche to organize a giveaway on your behalf or to promote your contest.
Through this tactic, influencers can successfully gain the attention of your target audience. This will also help you increase brand awareness. Come up with rules that are simple to follow, and don’t forget about Terms of Service for each social platform!
Also, don’t forget to offer a prize that is valuable to your audience. Otherwise, the contest or giveaway might not appeal to them. Make sure you clearly mention the eligibility criteria in the post itself.
For example, Rookie Humans, a playful and amazing crib sheet company, collaborated with Alexis Kaiser to organize a giveaway. Alexis announced $100 to the winner of the giveaway.
To enter the competition, the participants had to follow the company’s Instagram page and the influencer. They also needed to like the post and tag three of their friends.
2. Ask Social Influencers to Create Instagram Stories
Sharing stories with your target audience and building relationships is a great way to gain traction.
When it comes to sharing stories, Instagram Stories makes for an excellent channel.
There has been an increase of 7-10 minutes in the time spent by an average Instagram user daily. As of January 2019, there are 500 million daily active users of the feature.
When done correctly, Instagram Stories can not only increase the engagement rate and brand awareness but can also help you generate more sales.
For example, Betsey Johnson collaborated with influencers to promote her brand and content for Mother’s Day. All of the influencers were popular fashion bloggers like Ashley and Tricia. They talked about their favorite Betsey Johnson products they would like to give their mothers.
3. Get Influencers to Create Testimonial Videos
Testimonial videos from social influencers is another effective way to boost sales for your eCommerce business. 72% of people don’t take any sort of action until they have read online testimonials and feedback.
IDEA: Ask your influencer to create a testimonial video.
When your potential customers see their favorite influencer loves your product, they might also want to try it.
For example, Huda Beauty, the makeup brand, recognizes the power of testimonials. That’s why they collaborated with many beauty influencers to collect testimonials.
One such influencer was Chell Hendrix, who tried the brand’s Faux Filter Foundation in GingerBread 430. The video shows the dramatic transformation in an engaging manner. To date, the video has been viewed by more than 831K viewers.
4. Ask Influencers to Take Over
An influencer takeover refers to influencers taking over your social media handle for a certain period of time and posting content on your behalf. This strategy increases your brand’s visibility and you might even gain new followers and customers.
Also, this is a great way to interact with your followers and increase your engagement rate.
There are two ways to implement this strategy …
- You can give full access to your social media accounts to your influencer and they can post content on your behalf
- Or, you can ask your influencers to create the content for you and you can post it on their behalf
For example, My Modern Met collaborated with artist, Yellena James, and announced a takeover on Instagram. In the post, Yellena shared some details about the takeover like when it was going to happen and what she’d talk about.
Final Thoughts
If you are not yet using influencer marketing, you need to rethink your priorities.
Influencers can not only help you stand out from your competitors but can also help you generate more sales.
Our ideas …
- Collaborate with influencers who are experts in your niche and have them create relevant content for your target audience.
- Ask influencers to post testimonial videos for your brand.
- Plan a takeover where an influencer takes over your social media handles.
- Organize or promote giveaways and contests to raise awareness about your brand.
Which strategy would you prefer for your business? Do you know of any other ways to leverage social influencers to boost your sales? Let us know in the comments section below!
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