Fortunately, he discovered Afluencer, a Shopify influencer marketing app that connects merchants with influencers who have followers that fit their target customers. Through Afluencer, Raphael recruited over 100 influencers to help him promote and sell his products.

Raphael represents a brand’s determination to overcome obstacles by utilizing every tool at their disposal. In this article, Brett Owens, Founder, and Chief Matchmaker at Afluencer, shares how to achieve your business goals through successful Shopify collaborations.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST: Brett Owens talks about Collabs on the eCommerce Fastlane Podcast

5 Reasons Why Partnering with Micro-Influencers Outweighs Mega-Influencers

Amidst the challenges of high CAC and disappointing return on ad spend, merchants are refusing to give up. They seek ways to be more efficient and cost-effective in acquiring new customers, recognizing influencers’ critical role in the creator economy.

Micro-influencers have emerged as a compelling alternative to mega-influencers. Here are some key benefits of partnering with micro-influencers over their larger counterparts:

1. Targeted audience: Micro-influencers have a smaller but more targeted audience. This audience distribution is better for companies with niche products or services that may not appeal to wider audiences.

2. High engagement: Micro-influencers typically have an engaged audience that values their opinions and recommendations. As a result, their content can carry more weight compared to mega-influencers, who may have a larger but less engaged audience.

3. Cost-effectiveness: Partnering with micro-influencers is a low-cost alternative to expensive mega-influencers, making micro-influencers a more accessible option for small and medium-sized businesses with limited budgets.

4. Better authenticity: Many people view micro-influencers as more authentic and relatable than mega-influencers, who may have a more curated image. This perception can build trust with the audience and lead to higher conversion rates.

5. Work ethic: Micro-influencers are eager to work with brands and ensure their campaigns are successful. They are more likely to create high-quality content than mega-influencers, who may produce generic content.

“You want to collab with someone who’s laser-focused on their interest and aligns with your product.” – Brett Owens

Using Afluencer to Find Shopify Influencers

After deciding to invest in micro-influencers, it is essential to know how to use the Afluencer app to find them:

• Add the app: Don’t be afraid to converse with an Afluencer representative to get help navigating the app.

• Post a collab: A collab serves as a job description and platform for influencers to connect with brands, outlining the partnership expectations. If there are many product lines, it is acceptable to establish more than one collab opportunity.

• Define requirements: Set a price range and use filters to narrow down preferred demographic characteristics.

• Review applications: Eligible influencers can apply after meeting the criteria to collab. Merchants will use metrics such as influencer engagement rates to find the best match.

Hire each influencer as a one-time opportunity, with the potential to continue working together if the partnership is successful. However, if the collab is not successful, move on.

“The goal is to establish a reliable group of partners who can be collaborated with regularly.” – Brett Owens

Managing User-Generated Content Rights

Demand for user-generated content (UGC) is high, as consumers prefer content created by fellow users. However, brands must navigate the issue of content ownership, as the content is, by nature, owned by the influencers who make it.

To get ownership of UGC, merchants should establish clear guidelines and compensation structures with Shopify creators from the outset. Offering additional payment to influencers for content ownership is recommended.

Here are two considerations for brands seeking UGC rights:

1. Clarify with influencers upfront the intent to repurpose the content they create. This discussion ensures that both parties are clear on content ownership and repurposing rights.

2. Give proper attribution to the influencer when using their UGC. It acknowledges their work and reinforces the authenticity of the content.

Picking the Right Way to Pay Influencers and Creators

Afluencer recommends merchants view payments from an affiliate marketing recruitment standpoint. By splitting up pay for recruitment and performance, merchants ensure that they are only paying for the actual results of the influencers rather than for their potential reach.

Here’s how it can be done:

• Afluencer is easy to use in tandem with any current affiliate app, with no extra tech set-up needed. Brands can use Afluencer to find their micro-influencer affiliates. The affiliates will then sign up with the brand’s preferred Shopify influencer tracking software. The influencer will receive their commission payment through the tracking app.

• Brands can also pay their influencers via product seeding; in return, they may receive a commission.

• Pay-per-post agreements can be paid via PayPal. Brands can opt to ship the product they want the influencer to review but hold off on payment until the influencer posts. This is because the product represents an upfront cost and effort. It’s also possible to negotiate a one-off price point based on the influencer’s size and the campaign conducted.

It’s advisable to have a basic agreement or template outlining how these payments will be structured. Having a clear structure can help to build trust and transparency.

“Affiliate marketing offers a guaranteed return on investment, as payment is based on commission or success.” – Brett Owens

Start Your Shopify Influencer Marketing Strategy

For those looking to get ahead, now is the time to invest in micro-influencers. Afluencer takes a unique approach to affiliate marketing by tapping into the up-and-coming micro-influencers. They often produce higher-quality content, making them great affiliates for merchants. It’s still an emerging field, so there are plenty of opportunities to grow and succeed.

The post Collaborate Your Way To Success With Influencers And Creators appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Enter influencer marketing.

Last year, spending on influencer marketing was over $3 billion, a 33.6% rise from 2020. The total spending on influencer marketing is projected to reach over $4.6 billion in 2023 in the US alone. This spending continues to rise, showing rising confidence in influencer marketing.

Beyond the proven ROI of influencer marketing, it also often offers higher engagement rates, warmer leads, and improved brand loyalty.

The question is: How do you get started with it? And how do you do it at scale?

Over 60% of Instagram accounts have more than 10,000 followers. If you’re thinking of sorting through the sea of influencers out there, it can take up a lot of your time. Reaching out to them, getting them on board, and planning the campaigns will also take time.

Instead of manually building an influencer marketing campaign from scratch, it makes sense to leverage Shopify influencer apps. These are designed to help you find influencers and create a campaign, so you can focus on the creative and the business side of things instead of spending hours on a spreadsheet.

What are Shopify influencer marketing apps?

Influencer marketing apps for Shopify stores are software that helps build influencer marketing campaigns from scratch by streamlining your workflow. This includes tools that help simplify communication with influencers, find potential influencers, and track campaigns, as well.

Some influencer marketing apps work by matching you with the best-fit influencers and helping you kickstart conversations. For example, these tools can have multiple filters (such as demographics, follower count, and industry) to help you find ideal influencer partners quickly.

Other influencer marketing apps help you turn your existing customers into influencers with the power of affiliate marketing, referral marketing, and more.

The difference between influencer marketing agencies and influencer marketing apps

Influencer marketing apps are entirely different from influencer marketing agencies. Influencer marketing agencies have creatives working behind the scenes to find suitable influencers for you to design campaigns and track sales—based on their deliverables.

With influencer marketing apps, you can choose the influencers you want to work with, create campaigns and brainstorm content ideas (like for the holidays or Valentine’s Day), track ROI, and more.

So why should you choose an influencer marketing app over an agency?

While it completely depends on your bandwidth and budget, remember that more than 68% of influencers prefer to work directly with brands instead of agencies. Some agencies take a cut from influencers, delay the payments of influencers, and can also delay the project.

For your brand, it can be cheaper to work with influencers directly via an influencer marketing app, as the agency will likely charge a hefty fee or take a percentage of your sales. With influencer marketing apps, you also have more creative control and can form stronger relationships with influencers (which matters in the long run).

Sounds like you’re ready for those Collabs to start rolling in. Now is the time to sit back and relax, and wait to see that ACCEPTED message, right? Nope, it is not.

That’s why we’ve created this guide on best practices for when you tackle those important Brand Collabs.

If you’re committed to growing your partnership portfolio and building solid relationships with brands, then you’re going to want to come correct once those invites to Collabs start flooding your DM.

Trust us, you’ll want the Collab section of your Afluencer profile to look something like that of food and lifestyle content creator, Nilsa Noel. Look at that response time and engagement rate!

Collab Best Practices

So, what should you do to not only make sure that you’re accepted to a Collab but are invited for more? Repeat business is where it’s at, y’all. We’ll break down the collab best practices for you.

1. The Numbers Don’t Lie

Other than creating awesome content, another way to help reel in that Collab is to show off your stats in your Afluencer profile. Brands love that stuff – undeniable facts as to why they should partner with you or not.

To show off your stats in your profile, you’re going to need to connect your socials… all your active social media accounts. We then work our magic and boom! Your stats are available for brands to see and easily read.

Take a look at fashion and lifestyle content creator, Patrick Van Negri:

By simply connecting your socials, brands get to see all this. Worth it, if you ask us.

2. Apply for Collabs that Match Your Profile

While applying for any and all Collab opportunities to increase your chances of being accepted may seem like a good idea, it actually is not. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. A best practice to lower your chances of rejection and increase your chances of being approved is to only apply for Collabs that are a match.

Simply click on the Collab directory on the left side of your screen. Select filter, then My Application Status, then match.

3. Accepted? Message the Brand!

That’s great! Congratulations! Although the brand has been going through your profile and social media, they have never had a message from you specifically for them. We highly recommend sending them a short message introducing yourself. This helps affirm your commitment to the partnership and lets them know you are proactive.

Once you’re done introducing yourself, discuss their promo needs and how you can help them.

4. Discuss Terms and Conditions

This is an important best practice to highlight if you’re going want your collabs to run smoothly. We believe in both parties providing clear and transparent details on what is expected of the creator. For example, if it’s in video format, how long should it be? Should you post to stories (temporarily) or your feed? How often?

When everyone is clear (make sure it’s in writing), it’s easier to move forward on the project while managing expectations. It’s also a great point of reference should there be any confusion later on.

Don’t be shy. You can do this.

5. Give It Your All

Make every effort to deliver your best. Be certain that your deliverables are in line with the brand’s goals for the campaign. Remember that the goal is repeat business. Wouldn’t it be great to know that you have locked down 2 or 3 brands to work with steadily? Create such fantastic work that it creates opportunities for future partnerships.

Collabing Done Right with Afluencer

It’s not that difficult, is it? By going that extra mile to dot your i’s and cross your t’s, you are putting yourself ahead of the pack, and that can make all the difference between approval and rejection.

Aside from the above collab best practices, we also recommend getting acquainted with the features on the Afluencer website and app. We are constantly updating our features to make life easier for you and our database of brands, so keep your eyes peeled for updates!

Also, remember to keep your profile up-to-date with any changes. Decided to open a TikTok account? Link it. You’ve switched from strictly fashion content to fashion & lifestyle? Make sure your profile has relevant keywords so that you pop up in their keyword searches.

With these tips and solid content, you’ll soon have more Collab invites than you’ll know what to do with!

So, you want to score brand deals and collaborations? Make it easy for brands to find you in the first place. Signing up with Afluencer is an awesome (super awesome) start. As part of our setup, we make it possible to connect your socials, like Instagram to your Afluencer profile.

Here’s how to connect your Instagram account to your Afluencer profile.

Connecting Instagram to Afluencer

One question we come across a lot is whether they can connect Instagram directly with Afluencer. Unfortunately, no. You do have to connect with Facebook first. Their rules, not ours.

The good news is that it’s super easy to get this done.

1. Creating a Dedicated Facebook Page

We’re talking about having more than just a personal profile here. The more professional your connected pages look, the better.

Log in (or sign up) to your Facebook account. Click the menu button (the 9 dots at the top) and click Create Page. Follow these simple steps to take it from there.

2. Setting Up an Instagram Creator Page

If you haven’t set up a creator page (which has more features than a personal or business page that help make it easier to manage and track your online presence), no need to worry. You can always convert your current profile into one. Follow the easy steps here.

3. Connecting Your Instagram Page to Your Facebook

As we mentioned earlier, this bit is necessary in order to connect Instagram to Afluencer. These steps are super simple as well. You can breeze right through them here.

4. And Finally… Connecting Instagram (and FB) to Afluencer

Log in to your Afluencer account. Click My Account on the left-hand side.

Click on Social Media, find Facebook & Instagram, click “Continue as…” your name and follow Facebook’s prompts to connect.

Benefits of Connecting Your Socials to Your Afluencer Profile

1. Show Up on Search Results

When, for example, you connect Instagram to Afluencer, brands searching for Instagram content creators and influencers will be able to find you when they input that information into the search filter. No link to Instagram? You won’t show up. #Boombambambopbadapopboompow. It’s that simple.

2. Detailed Stats

Check out these Instagram Stats for one of our influencers, Alexa Tarantino. You’ll see everything you need to know about her Instagram stats, from her engagement rate to a breakdown of her followers by gender and age, to top 10 countries by followers, and so much more.

These are the stats brands love to see as it helps them determine which influencer would be a great fit for their campaigns. What’s more, they’d rather not have to search high and low for this information. With Afluencer, all this information can be available to potential brand partners. All you have to do? Connect Instagram to Afluencer. Talk about making life easy – for both you and your potential Collab partner.

3. Qualify for (a lot) More Collabs & Invites from Brands

Many of the brands on the Afluencer platform require influencers and content creators to have verified social media. The only way we can do that for them (and you) – followers as well as engagement rates – is for you to connect your Instagram to Afluencer.

Setting Yourself Up for Success

By simply linking your Instagram & Facebook accounts to each other and connecting them to your Afluencer profile, a whole world of bigger Collab and invite opportunities opens up. Suddenly, landing that Collab doesn’t seem so difficult. What can we say? We want you to succeed and we want to make it easy for you. Watch as the Collabs start rolling in.

What better way is there to get selected for collaborations, land awesome brand deals, or maybe even score a feature on Afluencer (look at you making the big time)? At Afluencer, we understand that when you first get started, getting a brand to see you can sometimes be tricky. On our platform, brands can spot you faster than you can say “like and subscribe” and soon you’ll be rolling in that Collab money.

Why Sign Up with Afluencer – A Recap

Just as a reminder, here’s why signing up with Afluencer is a good idea:

• Bridging the Gap

Brands are looking for influencers and vice versa. We make it easier for you two to find each other… call us the Tinder of influencer marketing. You’ll have access to all kinds of brands from the moment you get started with Afluencer, helping ensure that everyone can secure a deal.

• Growing User Base

Our database consists of thousands of brands and influencers and continues to grow. Everyone is welcome. We’ve got brands and influencers from every corner of the globe.

• Start from Scratch

You don’t need to have thousands of followers to sign up with us. You can start from zero and eventually grow your influence with us. We feature influencers often and you could just be one of them.

• User-Friendly

In order to easily find brands and campaigns, you need to be able to know how to do exactly that! The design of our app and website ensures easy navigation. Among our many features, we’ve also got filters to narrow down your searches.

• Top-Quality Customer Support

From our newsletters to custom emails and so much more, we make it our top priority to make sure you get all the help and info you need. We’re also reachable via live chat, email, phone, and social media.

We have thousands of brands and influencers working with us from all corners with a growing user base. If you’re still not sure what makes us such a popular and loved influencer marketing brand then check these eight reasons why influencers love us.

#1 Everyone Is Welcome

At Afluencer, we don’t discriminate between talents. It doesn’t matter where you live or how many followers you have, we’re open to working with everyone.

We don’t only have influencers from major hubs like the US and the UK but also from growing markets such as India and the Middle East.

The platform is not only for big influencers but also for people starting to make a mark. You can join as a micro influencer and use our resources to increase your reach.

Hope Perkins, a microinfluencer who loves our platform says that she enjoys “how inclusive it is to everyone!” We believe in diversity and enjoy representing all groups of people.

Nelly, a fast-growing influencer appears to agree with us. She highlights how Afluencer “caters and cares for everyone.”

Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of followers, you can sign up and grow your reach by getting featured on our website. We have influencers from all walks of life using different social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Influencer marketing is one of the most receptive forms of digital advertising. Why? Because it’s not intrusive.

Businesses have finally realized what Tom Fishburne, the founder of Marketoonist, said years ago:

“The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing.”

As a result, influencer marketing is now a part of most marketing budgets.

However, finding the right influencer partner can feel intimidating. Should you aim for big names with blue checkmarks or focus on micro-influencers? Should you pay, send a free product, or both?

If you’re not sure how to start with influencer marketing, here’s everything you need to know to discover the best creators for your Shopify store.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a collaboration with influencers (also known as creators) to leverage their credibility and audiences to promote a brand’s products and services. It’s a form of social media marketing that relies on endorsements and recommendations from influencers and content creators to reach the target audience.

What started as a tool for raising brand awareness has evolved into a well-oiled revenue machine. According to The Drum, the influencer marketing business was worth $9.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow to $22.2 billion by 2025. We’re in the midst of an influencer marketing boom, and the numbers are mind-blowing. Data from Influencer Marketing Hub shows that the number of marketers who dedicated a budget for influencer marketing grew from 37% in 2017 to 75% in 2021.

The reason? It works. Ninety percent of marketers believe influencer marketing is an effective form of marketing, and customers back this up. As reported by Salesforce, Gen Z shoppers prefer marketing that shows real, diverse customers that are not overly polished.

Enter influencers and creators.

Why do you need influencers?

Wondering why all the buzz regarding influencer marketing for Shopify stores? Let’s look at the five key benefits that working with influencers can bring to your brand.

1. Increase brand awareness

Standing out in a crowded retail landscape can be challenging, but marketers have found a tried and true formula for success with influencer marketing. As reported by Influencer Marketing Hub, raising awareness is the main objective for running an influencer campaign for one-third of marketers. The two other reasons (with an almost equal split of respondents) are: increasing sales and building a library of user-generated content (UGC).

By working with influencers and creators, brands are able to reach new, relevant audiences at scale.

2. Reach your target audience

Marketing is all about delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time. But that’s easier said than done. The good news: Influencers offer a rare chance to reach a highly niche audience, and according to 72% of marketers, influencer marketing campaigns yield better quality customers than other types of marketing.

Micro-influencers often have smaller but more niche audiences. So in most cases, they are perceived as subject matter experts. This is why it’s no surprise that brands partner with micro-influencers 10x more than mega-influencers. (See also: it’s more affordable)

The chance to collaborate with a creator that has a specific set of interests (similar to that of your target persona’s) is a way to laser focus on your ideal customers. What’s more: Data from the Digital Marketing Institute shows that 49% of consumers depend on influencer recommendations. So instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks, you can focus your efforts and maximize the ROI of your marketing efforts.

3. Build trust

Back in the day, customers knew only what brands told them. Today, the customers are the ones in charge. Today, endless access to information gives customers the power to select a brand based on everything from price to ship times to their values and beliefs.

Earning the trust of your customers is a prerequisite for business growth. As stated in the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, 61% of respondents are prepared to advocate if they fully trust a brand, 57% are ready to purchase a new product or service, and 31% are willing to share personal data or participate in activities sponsored by the brand.

Unlike other forms of Shopify advertising, influencer marketing is built on the trust customers have in the creators they follow on social media. Google found that 4 in 10 Millennials say their favorite influencer understands them better than their friends.

4. Boost engagement

One of the most obvious benefits of working with influencers is more engagement. Likes, comments, mentions, new followers, impressions — influencer marketing can bring you closer to your target audience.

Impressive engagement happens with influencers because their followers feel more comfortable chatting, asking questions, and commenting on their posts because the relationship feels close and intimate. This is especially true for creators with a smaller audience. Micro-influencers have 22.2 times more conversations weekly about recommendations on what to buy when compared to an average consumer.

It works, too: For every dollar spent on influencer marketing, brands generate over five times as many impressions and engagements as paid advertising. To top it off, posts that get traction are even more favored by social media algorithms, ultimately increasing the reach and spreading your brand’s message.

5. Get more sales

According to Statista, 54% of Gen Z shoppers and 58% of Millenials think social platforms are a better place to find out about new products than online searches, while a Yotpo study found 89% of respondents said they bought something they first discovered on Instagram. 56% said seeing Instagram photos of a product increases their chances of buying it.

The rise of social commerce and features such as Facebook Shops, Instagram Checkout, and the Pinterest Shop tab has changed the way people shop online. Recently, Shopify even partnered with TikTok to bring organic product discovery and shopping tabs to the social network. Helping creators and merchants deepen their relationships with consumers.

As a result, influencer marketing is even more popular, creating a seamless journey for Shopify customers interested in purchasing. The ability to buy a product without leaving the social media app paves the way to the “add to cart” button.

How to find influencers for your Shopify store

Finding the right influencers can be challenging. But don’t worry — here’s a step-by-step guide for finding the creators who will meet your business needs.

1. Set goals

The only way to reach your destination is to know where you want to go. Before launching a campaign or investing in any influencer marketing efforts, make sure to have a clear, documented projection of the results you want to achieve.

One of the main reasons you need goals before launching a campaign or implementing an initiative is to have benchmarks to measure against. Marketers who set goals are 376% more likely to report success. Setting up a circular process flow means you always come back to the goals. Which then allows you to optimize for better results and take a data-driven approach.

As stated in Advertiser Perceptions’ Branded Content and Influencer Marketing Report, 41% of respondents think influencer marketing will be more important for achieving marketing goals compared to the past.

2. Study your target audience

In a recent Ipsos study, 47% of U.S. consumers ages 18 to 24 said they feel a personal connection to a brand when it’s used by a creator they like.

The question is: how to find influencers that align with your target audience?

The short answer: get to know your audience.

You can’t convey the right message or choose influencers if you don’t understand your target audience. Is your target persona a male or a female? What are their interests, hobbies, and consumption habits? What influencers do they look to for recommendations?

Creating a behavior pattern with information about loyalty, engagement, usage, and social media interactions gives you a deeper dive into customers’ purchasing habits. You can gather this information through customer surveys.

Another great way to understand what resonates with your target audience is to analyze competitors’ approaches to influencer marketing. And to then see what seems to be resonating within their approach.

3. Do your research

You defined your goals, you have the ideal customer profile — Now what? Here comes the tricky part: doing the research and building a shortlist of viable partners.

Almost every research starts with Google. But in this case, the number of search results you will get can be overwhelming. That’s why a good rule of thumb is to see who is already talking about your brand. Go to your social media accounts and check the mentions and tags.

“To find your first influencers, look at who’s organically sharing/talking about your product.” — Nik Sharma, CEO of Sharma Brands

It works, too: The personalized map prints and gifts business Grafomap managed to make $1.5M in revenue largely via influencer marketing.

How? They focused on building an Instagram audience, and whenever they noticed a relevant account, they would follow it. Next, they would follow similar accounts based on Instagram suggestions. This way, they were able to curate a list of highly relevant influencers that they could reach out to.

Over the years, they managed to build relationships with dozens of influencers and grow both our revenue and social media following. Founder Rihards Piks is now building new businesses, and he’s using the same tactic.

4. Start outreach to your ideal partners

Once you’re ready to start doing outreach to influencers for your Shopify store, you’ll need to have an influencer marketing budget and a basic proposal that serves as guidelines and a scope of work for these efforts.

Keep in mind that over time, as you increase your influencer marketing budget, you’ll need a more streamlined process for this work.

That’s where influencer marketing platforms come in handy. Using these go-to directories, you can find influencers, see the number of followers they have, examine their engagement rates, study the number of likes they receive on average, and so much more.

Using Afluencer, it’s easier than ever to go through influencer profiles, compare engagement rates against the average, and see a snippet of the performance of their latest posts (including likes, comments, saved posts, impressions, and engagement information).

As you scale your business, the manual process of engaging with influencers can become daunting. Luckily, now you can define criteria based on interests, followers, and channels, and get personalized suggestions for influencers that best fit your needs.

Advanced influencer marketing platforms let you post collaboration with defined criteria and get applications from creators that want to work with you.

Brands on Afluencer

The clean skincare and makeup brand Berla Beauty leverages Afluencer for influencer marketing to reach its target customers. On the platform, influencers can check the brand’s profile to find more information, see a product feed, and find a direct link to the Berla Beauty Shopify store.

Berla Beauty also posts collaborations on the platform, where influencers can see the criteria/perks and apply if they’re interested. Using influencer marketing platforms like Afluencer, Shopify brands can define criteria such as location, interests, channels, minimum followers, age group, and gender. This way, brands can promote their program as a pay-per-post opportunity, an affiliate program, or a combination of the two.

Recently, Berla Beauty posted a collaboration looking for ambassadors who are into skincare and beauty. In the collaboration details, they explained what is expected from influencers, what type of content they are looking for, and what the benefits are for influencers.

The collaboration gives creators the freedom for the creative part but they expect a plug to follow them on Instagram, a mention or link to drive website traffic, and to use the hashtag #berlabeautyme.

5. Test, measure, repeat

Influencer marketing should be results-driven. Always remember to measure results. Compare with the goals you had in the first place. Then test and optimize again for the best possible results.

You might be surprised, but one-third of marketers don’t measure the ROI of influencer marketing. For those who measure success, the conversion rate is the most favorable measure — 38.5% of marketers believe that an influencer marketing campaign should be measured by the conversion/sales it drives.

While measuring the ROI can be challenging using tracking links, coupon codes, and affiliate programs can help you get quantitative data.

You should also monitor engagement metrics such as likes, comments, and saved posts. As well as website traffic, as they provide valuable insight into your campaign’s reach.

If you decide to use an influencer marketing platform, access to performance data should be one of your top priorities.

“The real secret sauce is finding a partner (tool or agency) that has data and information for how successful historical partnerships have been”. — David Hoos, B2B Performance Marketing Manager at The Outloud Group

According to eMarketer, measurement is the number one challenge with influencer marketing. To overcome this issue, Shopify merchants should focus on partnering with a data-driven solution that will deliver performance reports. The bottom line is that if you want influencer marketing to become a credible channel within your Shopify marketing mix, then you have to measure results and ROI.

How Vela recruited more than 100 fitness influencers in just a few months

After developing and producing high-quality fitness resistance bands, Vela founder Raphael Velazquez was looking for a way to help spread the word. As a result, the fitness accessories brand Vela was on the lookout for fitness influencers to promote its products.

Using Afluencer, Vela was able to find more than 100 fitness influencers in just a few months. The access to influencers made it easy to accept potential collaborations and build partnerships.

“Afluencer has helped with attracting influencers from many walks of life. It’s been a great way to bridge the gap and connect people to the brand and product.” — Raphael Velazquez, CEO of VELA fitness accessories

Afluencer helped Vela build the influencer team and generate revenue from this marketing channel.

What’s next?

There you have it — everything you need to know to find the ideal creators for your Shopify store’s influencer marketing campaign. And guess what? We’ve only scratched the surface when it comes to influencer marketing. In 2024, US brands are expected to invest in over $7 billion in influencer marketing.

Ready to jump on the bandwagon? Now you can unlock the power of influencers without the heavy lifting. Get the Afluencer app for Shopify.

The post The What, Why, and How of Influencer Marketing for Shopify Stores appeared first on AFLUENCER.

Thousands of influencers are waiting.  Ready to connect.  Ready to whip out those hashtags and hot posts?  And ready to promote your brand.

All that’s needed is for you to drop a hot collab offer through our newly released Afluencer app.

In this Getting Started Guide, we’ll walk you through all the steps on how to get your collab posted on Afluencer:

1. Complete Your Brand Profile First
2. Create a Collab
3. Influencer Criteria
4. Influencer Perks
5. Matching Mode
6. Publish Collab
7. Next Steps

So let’s jump straight into it.

1. Complete Your Brand Profile First

First things first, you’ll need to get your brand profile completed before posting a collab on Afluencer (skip on to the next step if you’ve already done this).

What is your brand all about?  What products or services do you sell?  And where can influencers check your brand out?

Make it easy for influencers to answer these questions through your brand profile.

1. Log into your Afluencer account here (If you don’t already have an account, then you can sign up here).
2. Click on My Account > Brands > Create a Brand.
3. Upload your Profile Photo (ideally your logo) & Cover Photo (a showcase of your products).
4. Fill in your Brand Name.
5. Enter your Location.
6. In the About section, provide information about your brand and also the kinds of products or services you sell.
7. Select your Category Interests relevant to your brand.
8. Link your brand’s social media accounts.
9. Remember to hit the Save button.
10. To see your brand profile, click on View Profile at the top of the page.

2. Create a Collab

And now for the fun stuff. Creating a collab on your Afluencer account!

1. First things first, sign in to your brand account right here.

2. Click on My Account > Collabs > Create a Collab

3. Enter your Collab Name – a catchy title that attracts your target influencers.  You could mention your niche and the type of products your brand would like promoted.

4. Select Brand (the brands you’ve registered on Afluencer will appear here, so select the brand you’d like to link this collab to) and hit Create.

5. Upload a Cover Photo for your collab.  Take this opportunity to display your brand’s products or services – so influencers can see what they could potentially be promoting if they collaborate with your brand.

6. Fill in the About section.  Consider this your pitch to influencers.  Before you can get influencers to promote your brand, you need to win them over first.  Highlight all the appealing things about your products.  Make your target influencers excited to collaborate with your brand.

The great news for premium members is that you can use the brand feature coverage created by our team in this section.

Should you have detailed requirements and influencer deliverables for your collab, you can also include them in the About section.

Do you want influencers to create product flat lays?  Should influencers create videos?  Should they write a blog post?  How many pieces of content do you require them to publish?  In the About section of your Afluencer collab details, you should highlight the key expectations you have of your influencers as well as entice them with all the benefits of collaborating with you.

3. Influencer Criteria

In this section of your collab details, you’ll need to set the minimum requirements of the ideal influencers you want to partner with on Afluencer.  Be careful not to overshoot reasonable criteria as you run the risk of losing potential influencer fits.  And on the flip side, if you don’t set essential criteria you could be mismatched with the wrong influencers.

Keep influencer criteria as practical as possible.

Remember that the goal of setting influencer criteria is to match your brand with the right influencers in order to create successful collaboration partnerships.

Locations

Here’s where you can recruit influencers based on their location.  You can leave it blank to set it as worldwide, or you can select specific countries.  The influencer location you set essentially should be in line with your target customer location.  Keep in mind your shipping destination capabilities as well as limitations on products in certain states or countries.

In other words, your influencer location should be the same as your customer location.

Interests

Select the influencer interest categories that match your brand’s products or services.  Most of the time, this can be pretty straightforward, especially when selecting primary categories.  However, do consider the possible secondary categories that could compliment your target audience’s reach.

Note: The Interests selection is limited to free users.  Upgrade your account to enable more categories.

Channels

Select all the social media channels that you require influencers to be active on.  More social platform integrations are being added to this list.  If there’s a particular platform currently not on the list that is important to your collaboration, you can highlight this influencer requirement in the About section.

Minimum Reach

Here’s where you can set the minimum number of followers you require influencers to have.  Are you looking to reach nano influencers, micro-influencers, mid-tier influencers, macro-influencers, or mega-influencers?

Not sure?

Here’s a short summary of the types of influencers and their benefits:

Nano-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers).  These influencers are new and experimental with their content creation.  Their audience is small, however, they may have high engagement rates.  Nano-influencers are generally the most affordable group to collaborate with.

Micro-influencers (10,000-100,000 followers).  These influencers have a growing following around a particular interest and have developed a relationship with their community of followers.  Engagement rates with micro-influencers tend to be very good making them favorable to work with for brand collaborations.  These influencers are cost-effective to work with.

Mid-tier influencers (100,000-500,000 followers).  These influencers have more experience up their sleeve – from their content creation capabilities to their brand collaboration portfolio.  Whatever their niche, they have a strong and growing audience around it.  Mid-tier influencers give brands an opportunity to reach large audiences, thus making them an affordable alternative to macro-influencers.

Macro-influencers (500,000-1M followers).  Want to reach larger audiences?  Then collaborate with macro-influencers.  These influencers have established content creation capabilities, and professional collaboration skills, and have developed a reputation in the industry.  These influencers are in demand and you’ll more than likely need to offer competitive perks to collaborate with them.

Mega-influencers (1M+ followers).  Determined to get your brand in front of as many people as possible?  Then you need to go big with mega-influencers.  Their potential reach is millions and these influencers come with the most expensive rate cards.  They’re popular, may even be celebrities, and are very selective with the brands they choose to work with.

A general rule of thumb regarding influencers:

The greater the number of followers, the more experience the influencer has, and so the more money you can expect to pay them per post.

While on the flip side, the smaller the following, the higher the influencer engagement rates as they are more accessible and they’re even more affordable.

Age Group

Select the audience age group preference of your influencers.  Again, keep in mind the age group of your brand’s target customer reach.

Gender

Select the applicable gender categories that best represent your brand’s potential customer base.

4. Influencer Perks

The influencer criteria you set determine how you choose your influencers.  Meanwhile, the influencer perks you offer determine how influencers choose your brand.

A great reward package will attract quality influencers to apply for your collab.  So try to offer top perks to get top influencers.

1. Pay-per post.  Select the budget range of what you’re willing to pay per post.  This is a favorable reward method to attract influencers with quality audiences.  The higher your budget, the better-skilled influencers with sizeable audiences you’ll attract.

2. Commission.  Would you like to reward influencers with commissions on sales?  Then try setting a percentage or a fixed amount as your commission offer.  This method is an ideal offer for nano-influencers.

Alternatively, you can offer both pay-per-post and commissions as your influencer incentive package.

Do you offer influencers other perks?

Highlight all the rewards on offer in the About section of your collab details.

5. Matching Mode

Here’s where you can set up how the Afluencer system will permit influencer applications for your collab.

Select “only users who match the selected criteria can apply” provided that you have well-defined your influencer requirements.  Influencers that do not match your criteria will not be permitted to apply.

If you’d like to manually sift through applications at your discretion, then you can select “anyone can apply” to open your collab up to any influencer.

NOTE: PRIVATE VS PUBLIC COLLABS

Brands have the option to set their collab as Private or Public.

A Private Collab is invite-only where brands can invite influencers to apply directly.

A Public Collab is visible on the Afluencer platform and is promoted to all qualified Afluencers on the Brand’s behalf.

6. Publish Collab

Great news!  Your collab is now only a click away from going live.

All you need to do is set it to Active and hit the Save button.

Your collab will then be published and visible to our Afluencer network of influencers searching for collab opportunities.  And if you’re a premium member, then your collab will get priority coverage throughout the Afluencer network.

Not ready to go live?

If you’re not ready for action just yet, you can set it to Inactive and hit the Save button.  You can find all your existing collabs available for you to edit under My Account > Collabs.

7. Next Steps

Congratulations!  If you’ve activated your collab, then it is now LIVE and ready to start receiving applications from influencers on our Afluencer platform!

View Influencer Applications

You’ll be notified via email as and when influencers apply for your collab.

View applications under My Account > Collabs.  Select the collab and click on Applications.

Here you’ll be able to view and manage all influencer applications.  Decline or approve applications, or engage with influencers directly to discuss the collab further.

Invite Influencers to Your Collab

If you’d like to fast-track all the action, then you can personally invite influencers to apply for your collab.  To do this, make sure you are signed in to your Afluencer account and then click on Influencers.  Browse and filter through influencers as you like, select the influencer profile you’re interested in, and hit the Invite to Collab button.

Select the collab you’d like to invite the influencer to and you can also include a custom invitation message.

The influencer will receive a notification of your invitation and if they’re interested in your collab they will apply.

Note:  Free members have limited daily influencer invitations (1 influencer per day).  Upgrade your account to access more influencers.

Premium Brands on Afluencer

Due to the high number of collabs posted on the Afluencer platform daily, we offer priority visibility and reach to our premium members.  Premium members will enjoy boosted coverage throughout our network with priority category listings, increased collab capabilities, as well as increased access to influencer applications and influencer invitations.

A premium account is ideal for brands looking to level up their influencer marketing efforts with superior coverage.  View available offers here or under My Account > Subscriptions.

Need Help Posting Your Collab on Afluencer?

If you need further help with posting your collab on Afluencer or have any questions, then you can contact our support team.

The post GET STARTED: How to Post a Collab on Afluencer appeared first on AFLUENCER.