Influencer marketing is a big hit right now. It’s a result of the social media revolution that gave people the option to turn themselves into a brand.
For a business, using influencer marketing is a powerful way to advertise. Why? Basically, influencers recommend (or do not recommend) products to their followers. It’s been reported that 1 in 3 people trust an influencer’s words more than what a brand says.
The reason why people put trust in influencers is quite clear—influencers give more honest reviews compared to standard ads that can sometimes be misleading.
There are 7 different types of influencers. According to the infographic by X-Cart, there can be:
- Advocates – 0 – 5K followers;
- Micro-influencers – 5K – 25K followers;
- Small influencers – 25K to 100K followers;
- Medium – 100K to 250K;
- Large – 250L to 1 million;
- Mega – 1 million to 7 million;
- Celebrity – 7 million+.
However (and it may come as a surprise), the higher the influencer level is, the less actual engagement he or she drives. Reportedly, advocates and micro-influencers have the highest engagement rates (8 percent and 4 percent respectively) and large influencers and celebrities have the lowest engagement rates (1.8 percent and 1.6 percent respectively).
Infographic by X-Cart
It’s obvious that advocates and micro-influencers are the best options for business. If your brand wants to try influencer marketing to increase e-commerce sales, you should start with micro-influencers.
They have a considerable amount of followers that you can work with, and they already have the necessary experience working with online brands like yours.
If you’re not sure yet, here are more reasons why your e-commerce business should work with micro-influencers to boost e-commerce sales.
1. Affordable endorsement prices
Influencer marketing can be ridiculously expensive. According to Buffer, the average endorsement prices vary from $5,000 to $10,000. These numbers depend on the number of factors, including:
- Social media platform where your product will be advertised
- Number of followers
- Engagement rates
- Specificity of your product
- The type of partnership (direct or involving a mediating agency)
Of course, such high prices can be overwhelming for an e-commerce business, especially if it’s a startup. And, when it comes to working with bigger influencers and celebrities, you don’t get good engagement rates even if their following base is enormous. That’s the paradox of influencer marketing.
So, this is the first reason why you should work with micro-influencers. X-Cart reports that the average endorsement price of a micro-influencer is around $200, which is a perfect fit.
Image credit: X-Cart
If you own a small e-commerce business, using micro-influencer marketing is a great sales booster: you save money on PR and get great brand exposure. Also, don’t worry about whether this investment will pay off—reportedly, the average ROI for $1 spent on the influencer marketing is $6.85. So it’s a win-win.
Pro tip: if you’ve found a micro-influencer you’d like to work with, you can check their endorsement prices by using the Instagram Money Calculator or Influencer Calculator tool.
2. More high-quality leads
The more leads you get, the better your e-commerce sales get. Working with micro-influencers is an effective way to get more high-quality leads that will boost your sales.
There’s one thing you need to remember: Micro-influencers don’t usually promote the products they don’t like. They’ve gathered their followers by being relevant and expressing their honest opinion. It’s essential for a brand to learn a bit about an influencer before working with them. It’s also important to think through your influencer PR campaign thoroughly, taking into account the demands of the influencer. After all, you’ll be business partners.
If the influencer likes your product and does a PR campaign for you, you will get a massive increase in leads. A study by Convince and Convert claims that influencer marketing brings more new customers to brands than any other outreach strategies ever could.
But what’s more important is that micro-influencers bring high-quality customers that are more likely to become loyal to your brand. Thus, they’ll be more likely to recommend your online brand to their peers, boosting your e-commerce sales.
3. Great niche expertise
Micro-influencers are specialized in a specific niche. They’ve chosen their own niche at the very beginning of the way to become influencers, so there’s no doubt that they are pros in it.
This means that they have a very specific target audience, which will be a great benefit for your e-commerce business. Depending on what your business is focused on, you can find and work with an influencer that has the audience tailored to your needs.
For example, Le Labo Fragrances, a luxury perfume brand, teamed up with a micro-influencer Christian Caro, who showcases the lifestyle of South California and its fancy lifestyle. His audience is interested in this type of lifestyle as well, thus, the influencer gives the brand access to his audience by elegantly advertising their product.
Image credit: Instagram/Christian Caro
Your e-commerce brand will definitely benefit from collaborating with micro-influencers. Apparently, 82 percent of social media users trust the influencers they follow. Besides, teaming up with a micro-influencer gives you access to a very specific type of audience that agrees with the audience personas that you would like to target. Having a right influencer to promote your product will guarantee you with more online exposure and better e-commerce sales.
Final thoughts
Of course, you can get a celebrity to promote your brand. But will it really boost e-commerce sales? Will their audience really trust you and your product? With micro-influencers, there’s no hit or miss. By working with them, you’ll be able to reach out to their loyal followers, turn them into customers and boost your e-commerce sales.
