3 Reasons Why Your Shopify Store Needs Social Media Influencers

Lexy Wright — December 9, 2016 Follow @lexywright

Marketing is continuously evolving– new channels and technologies are emerging and consumers’ preferred methods of media consumption are changing with them. One such shift in the marketing landscape is the increased popularity of visual, social channels such as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. These social sharing channels have allowed customers to play a larger role in shaping a brand’s message—for better or for worse. In turn, this has led to the rise of brand influencers. These influencers wield significant influence over your customers purchasing decisions, one Nielson study found that 92% of consumers rely on referrals from people they know above all else. With limited time and resources, Shopify marketers can use social media influencers to save on content costs and to build a more authentic brand.

While many marketers understand the value of influencer marketing at a high-level, many of even the savviest marketers aren’t sure why or how to incorporate influencers into their marketing mix.

Here are three reasons why your brand needs influencers if it wants positive word-of-mouth in the digital age.

1.The fame.
There are over 500 million active users on Instagram. Most of these users follow Instagram influencers for inspiration. It is no coincidence that these “insta-famous” users are called “influencers.” Influencers hold tremendous power over their fans and can encourage hundreds to purchase your products with a single curated photo of your product.

Shopify store, Quay Australia is a perfect example of a brand successfully leveraging influencers. With nearly 1 million Instagram followers and ‘A-list’ celebrities posting about their brand, Quay has built a tremendous influencer marketing program that drives the business’ bottom line.

2. The fortune.

According to Tomoson, businesses are making $ 6.50 for every $ 1 spent on influencer marketing. Influencer marketing is sometimes considered difficult to track, but there are ways to prove the direct correlation between influencer posts on social media and sales. Certain brands will give influencers a unique link to share with their fans, so that their marketing team can attribute sales to the proper source. Other brands watch their increase in followers on days that influencers post. If you’re interested in a more robust influencer analytics, there are also a variety of marketing softwares that can help you track the ROI of your influencer marketing program.

Another financial perk of using influencers in your brand marketing? It’s cost-efficient. With influencer marketing you can scale content creation and target an already built audience at a low cost. Studies show that content created by real users increases online conversions by 2x.

Shopify storefront, Jolyn is a prime example of how to use brand influencers to create impactful content for your brand. On its website, it features a “Shop our Instagram” section that displays their Instagram feed of both brand and customer photos that allows you to click-through directly to product pages. In a case study on its influencer initiative, Jolyn shared that this strategy has led to higher AOV and conversion.

3. The fans.
Influencer marketing is one of the fastest online customer-acquisition channels, beating organic search, paid search and email marketing. One contributing factor to the success of influencer marketing is its content virality. Influencer marketing is at its core about customer engagement. How can you encourage your fans to participate in building your brand? Contest and campaigns launched around an evergreen hashtag is a great way to build a loyal community around your brand. Shopify brand, Chubbies recently hosted a contest that yielded nearly 2,000 submissions.

Social media impacts the way that way that people browse and buy. Partnering with social influencers and incorporating social media influencers’ content into your ecommerce experience content into your ecommerce experience offers a myriad of benefits for your brand. ROI, brand identity, and customer loyalty are all factors that can be greatly impacted by successfully leveraging social media influencers. The benefits are clear, and the marketing software landscape has evolved to offer tools to help make this intimidating concept much more digestible. Now, go out and get the fame, fortune and fans that your brand deserves.

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