One of the ways to reach new customers for your dropshipping business is to work with influencers.
Today, Patricia Garay, a member of the Heepsy team, will give you some advice on using influencers to market your dropshipping store.
Some people think that this type of marketing is just for well-known companies and brands, but the truth is that influencer marketing can work for any industry, no matter how big or small they are.
What is an influencer?
Influencers are people, typically within a specific niche of the market, who hold power in getting consumers to act and buy products. Those niches tend to be fashion, food, video games, and fitness, but can also extend to beauty, travel, and many other markets.
To find influencers in your specific field, you can use influencer marketing platforms such as Heepsy, where you can discover more than 11 million influencers worldwide:
You should know that there are different types of influencers:
- Top Influencers are those who have over 100,000 followers. These are your most costly option when trying to promote your products through influencer marketing.
- Medium-Range Influencers have between 30,000 and 100,000 followers and still typically charge a set fee for their collaborations. They hold the attention of a sizable base of people.
- Micro-Influencers have 5,000 to 30,000 followers. They may charge a fee but are typically more disposed to accepting collaborations based on smaller fees and/or free products. While micro-influencers have fewer followers, they typically have a higher engagement rate.
Heepsy allows you to search for and access influencers, later verifying which one's are the best for your campaign.
Through their tools to check their authenticity, filters to categorize their niche and follower range, and contact information to connect you directly with the influencer, you can find the best influencers for your dropshipping store:
How does influencer marketing for dropshipping work?
On average, businesses can generate $7.65 for each $1 invested in influencer marketing.
So, if you do it right and find the right influencers, you can generate sales for your dropshipping store.
Since influencers have earned the trust of their followers, an endorsement mentioning your store or product increases the chance that these people will convert to customers.
Influencers usually collaborate with brands they are aligned with.
This is why it is very important to find influencers who share your brand's interests and who usually work in the same category as your dropshipping store.
If you decide to share a discount code with the influencer in your campaign, they will share it with their audience. If their audience matches your target audience, they will use that code because they will find it useful as something they need at the moment.
Taza, a mommy influencer based in New York City, usually collaborates with ecommerce stores by sharing the product and a link to their website, discount code, or promotion:
She is very authentic and engaged, which helps her audience find the products she shares easily.
How can I succeed with an influencer marketing campaign?
Influencer marketing does not happen without effort, tact, and support.
Fortunately, all three of those aspects can be streamlined with prior planning and knowledge of the topic.
Below are some tips for a successful dropshipping influencer marketing campaign:
1. Choose the objectives you want to reach with your campaign
What do you want to get from this campaign? Is it branding? Have more customers buy a new product in your dropshipping store? Increase traffic in a specific area?
Have a plan with estimations of what you want to obtain.
Do research on companies in the same industry as yours that have done influencer marketing. Also, check other companies that have done this type of work and have succeeded.
Learn from their mistakes and add those ideas to your plan.
You can also look at examples of Instagram shoutouts in this article!
Lastly, choose a type of campaign that fits your needs. There are many types of influencer marketing campaigns. From giveaways to discount codes, choose the best one for your dropshipping store.
If you are using a discount code, have a social media calendar to take advantage of different holidays that are happening around the year. Make sure you plan the campaign with enough time so you can launch everything before that holiday takes place.
2. Use an influencer marketing platform
Once you know your objectives, it’s time to find influencers.
You can do this manually on Instagram or other social networks, however, this may take a while. If you want to learn more about how to find them manually, then you can click here to learn more.
Many dropshipping stores save time by using an influencer marketing platform that lets users discover and analyze influencers very quickly.
Heepsy is one of the leading influencer marketing platforms for ecommerce stores, and it’s very affordable. You can also cancel anytime.
Use the different filters they offer to find influencers in a specific location, with a certain engagement, or within a specific category.
Check the analytics of the influencer so you collaborate with real influencers with good engagement.
For instance, a follower of a fitness influencer would be more likely to have their fitness equipment delivered through a company that the influencer promotes than that of someone they don’t routinely listen to and trust as much.
Check the brands they mention in their posts so you know what type of brands they usually work with. Furthermore, save those you want to collaborate with in lists and reach out to them.
Where do you want to launch the influencer marketing campaign?
Instagram is asuccessful channel for influencer marketing, and you can find millions of influencers.
However, you can also use Heepsy to find TikTok influencers or YouTube influencers, both of which can work really well too.
If you don't have an Instagram page for your dropshipping store yet, then you can click here to learn how to create and grow one!
4. Clearly communicate your proposal
Communicate your ideas to influencers and what you want to do in the campaign.
Do you need the influencer to share 2 posts and 3 stories? Be clear about that as well as timing.
Be patient with the influencer’s work. Sometimes, they might be busy with other projects or working abroad and not be able to share the content at the time they want.
When working with influencers, share the steps that they should follow when creating content, but let them be creative.
It is important that influencers create their own content and use their communication skills because that way they sound natural and more believable to their audience.
Always have an open communication mindset so there can be a long-lasting agreement that can result in recurring campaigns with the influencer to make it more authentic.
5. Track your results
The impact of the influencers you collaborate with on the marketing campaign is measurable and should be actively monitored.
These metrics are typically done through a few sources.
UTM codes that are included to reference links influencers can use, allow companies to measure the traffic of an influencer’s followers via platforms like Google Analytics. (This tool here will help you with this)
Promotional codes that further incentivize an influencer’s followers to try your product allow a similar type of traffic analysis through that influencer’s platforms.
Additionally, data can be collected on the original influencers’ posts that measure the “engagement” their followers have with it, using a combination of likes, comments, and/or reshares.
This can be accessed with appraisal reports directly provided by the influencer or as previously mentioned, a UTM code with Google Analytics.
Final thoughts
Influencer marketing can work for your dropshipping store and now it’s more important than ever.
A carefully thought-out and executed influencer campaign can bring many benefits to your business and drive conversions.
Want to learn more about Instagram?
Ready to move your influencer marketing for dropshipping to the next level? Check out the articles below:
