5 Ways E-Commerce Businesses Can Drive Sales Using Influencers

As competition bites harder in e-commerce business, marketers tend to think more of viable ways to stand up to competition and make more sales. Working with influencers is one of such viable ways. Influencers help marketers to bring their products in front of their large audiences. That’s where they become quite relevant in e-commerce marketing. Working with influencers is a scenario of people working with people for mutual benefits. It can be a very highly rewarding experience for marketers if they learn to work with influencers as people. Learning to do very simple things other marketers do but in different ways while working with influencers can at times make the real difference in enhancing sales. The following five ways are such tested and viable ways.

1. Make Things Simple: When working with influencers, it is best to adopt simplicity over complexity in everything you do. Buyers usually don’t have much time on their hands. Getting a simple message out to them through influencers can make things really easy for influencers as well as the buyers. So, if for instance you are trying to launching a marketing campaign using influencers, it helps if you can put yourself in the buyer's shoes. That way, you can discover how quickly and comfortably you can make it for them to purchase the products you are marketing. Making available to influencers the right affiliate links helps to make things really simple for them to push your products in front of their followers. This and any other simple things that can shorten the path to a purchase are desirable.

2. Focus More on Result:  Yes, most influencers always have a very large reach but that shouldn’t be the main focus. Even though desirable, results from the reach are by far more important for e-commerce marketers than the size of the reach. It is advisable therefore to always focus more on result than reach. Reach still matters no doubt, but in the fiercely competitive e-commerce industry, there's nothing more important than sales, sustainable sales. It is best therefore to carefully choose influencers who deliver results in terms of sales. Such partners must be results-oriented particularly in terms of sales and not just views.

3. Give Preference to Full-Fledged Partner: Partnering with an influencer tends to yield better dividends than using them for just a one-time ad channel. This makes it better to share with influencers not just a product description and goals, but results as well. If you partner with an influencer that shares your long-term vision for brand development, they help you to make more sales. You can share with them analytics and any insights that can help them better understand your processes. That way, they can easily buy into and help you build a sales strategy based on the data generated. This yields better sales results over the long term.

4. Encourage Freedom: To get the best out of an influencer, try to encourage their freedom to operate. Avoid any attempt to control what they do and how they do it. Always remember that they’re influencers and independent business persons in their own rights. That they’re partnering with you does not in any way mean they’re ceding their independence to you. Influencers as content creators know their audiences and their needs more than anyone else. As e-commerce business owner partnering with influencers, it serves your interest best to just give influencers direction and leave the rest to them. Just make sure the direction you give aligns with your goals. It is then left to the influencers to freely create content that's organic to their audience in alignment with your goals.

5. Always Think Long Term: When partnering with influencers, it is always better to think long-term instead of short-term. Most people never do things without taking their time to think things through. Making a buy decision takes a similar pattern. Long-term partnerships with influencer content creators help to build the much needed audience trust. That gives them ample time to get sufficiently interested in the products they’re promoting to earn real credibility in doing so. Their involvement therefore means the products are worth buying. This stems from long term trust building.

Bottom Line

E-commerce businesses that partner with influencers benefit in many significant ways. They mostly benefit from the large reach of influencers. This large reach helps with conversions and the opportunity to create long-term business value for the audience. This is why the content creator influencer economy isn't just about increasing visibility for a business. It involves tangible and measurable results too, particularly in terms of sales. It is hugely important therefore, not to see influencer content as just another element of commerce, but to effectively use it as one of the main pillars of traffic, conversion and sales.

E-Commerce Business Strategy: Effective Tips for Opt-in Email Campaigns

E-mail marketing remains one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies in e-commerce business. It is extremely easy to use too.  Opt-in email marketing is one great way to ensure that the subscribers on your email list actually want to be there. It is one of the most effective best practices you can deploy to help you build a responsive email list. Technically, opt-in email marketing is when customers or potential customers voluntarily subscribe to your email list. It is a marketing strategy that really looks like asking permission before you enter someone’s home. With opt-in email, users are much better off as welcomed guests and not like inviting yourself inside when you weren’t asked to come over. 

Opt-in email is a marketing strategy that focuses on content. This way, it quickly helps the business to build trust. Here is how it works. When users voluntarily subscribe to your email through opt-in, they’re directly signaling genuine interest in your business. This way, they’re more likely to open, read, and engage with your email messages. Opt-in email is a permission-based etiquette hence highly effective. Such permission-based approach helps the business owner to cultivate a stronger, more loyal audience while improving deliverability and long-term results. The real reason opt-in email is a very effective marketing strategy.

How Does Opt-in Email Marketing Work?

Through opt-in email marketing strategy, customers are required to voluntarily provide their email addresses. This they usually do through a sign-up form, landing page, or subscription box. They do this in exchange for updates, offers, or other content the business uses to entice them. Most marketers like to refer to opt-in email as permission marketing, since it relies on getting explicit consent before sending messages. Opt-in email sign-up forms provide a way for you to gain traction, clicks, and conversions from a more deeply engaged email list. This is very much unlike cold emails or email lists that you purchase and are more prone to sending unsolicited messages to spam folders of recipients. But, opt-in email marketing ensures everyone who subscribes wants to see your content. This greatly reduces the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam. This in turn helps to enhance your business and email sender reputation.

How to Make Your Opt-in Emails More Effective

Consistently A/B test your CTAs and Offers

You can rely on consistent A/B testing: A/B testing is when you compare two methodologies to see which one is more successful and can make a big difference in conversion rates. The results delivered by any methodology used matter the most not just because you like the method and it is easy to use. This is why you should always consider testing different offers, copy, design, opt-in process, and location by using the following approaches:

Make the Design Simple: Try making your CTA stand out with font size, contrast in colors, and placement. Avoid putting it at the very bottom of the page, since users may not scroll long enough to see it. Endeavor to keep your layout simple and mobile-friendly. Carefully test sign-up forms to see how effective they are. Try to find out how much information people are willing to share in the opt-in process. Reason being that many people are usually not willing to give away too much of their personal info online. Some customers may feel more comfortable giving you an email instead of a name, email, and phone number.

Carefully Use Catch Phrases: Always make sure the Call-To-Action; CTA inspires users to sign up by motivating them with an offer. That’s why it is termed CTA. Carefully craft sign-up forms with clear CTAs like “Get Your Free Gift,” or “Get Your Discount Here.” A/B testing phrases like “Join Our Mailing List” or “Join Our Community” can show you what resonates best with your potential opt-in subscribers.

Segment Your Audience for Personalization: Personalizing email messages to resonate with certain audiences can improve the odds of more engaged opt-ins. Email segmenting allows you to offer value to your customers by giving them personalized content they actually want.

Consistently Experiment with Location and Timing: Do not neglect to test communications beyond emails, like pop-up timing and placements, to see if they improve engagement. By testing these potential points of friction, it is possible for you to get a better understanding of your customers and what they want. This type of information allows you to effectively iterate and improve your overall marketing strategy.

What Makes a Good Email Opt-in Form?

Here is what to look out for. A good email sign-up form must set clear expectations about the types of future emails subscribers can expect to receive, how often, and why they’re valuable. It must directly relate to the products you are marketing. It must be concisely detailed and enticing enough to attract a click. A savvy opt-in email sign-up form must promise to reward subscribers with benefits that make them feel special. So, the form can for instance include welcome emails, newsletters, promotions, event offers, and even discounts. These serve as effective CTAs.

How to Differentiate Single Opt-in and Double Opt-in Forms

Marketers use both in varied degrees. When a user enters their email into your opt-in form, there are two main ways for them to gain access to your email subscription. In a single opt-in approach, users provide their emails, and you add them to your list. This frictionless sign-up approach helps your list grow faster. Providing an email does not however mean that the user is really interested in what you are offering. This means you’ll have a higher risk of unengaged subscribers and unwanted spam complaints down the road. This makes the double opt-in option necessary.

In a double opt-in approach, you add one additional step to the process. So, after the subscriber shares their email address, you send them a follow-up email to double-check that they want to be on your list. The double opt-in process helps eliminate bots and invalid email addresses, and it also confirms subscriber interest. In addition, it opens warmly and maintains a friendly tone throughout, which shows customers they’re immensely valued. That you are checking for consent also communicates to the subscribers that they won’t get spammed. This can deepen trust as well. 

Effective Practices for Opt-in Email Campaigns

Most email users routinely check their inboxes at least once a day. They prioritize checking their email boxes over news and social media. This habit is quite significant for digital marketing purposes. Crafting engaging emails is one of the main reasons people habitually and routinely check their emails daily. Following are some of the best opt-in email practices that can help you create an engaged and responsive list of email subscribers.

Avoid Spamming

Most email subscribers dislike spam messages. This is why you must always make sure your customers understand they’ve signed up for your emails and why. It is therefore hugely important to get their explicit consent by way of opt-in consent. Always make sure your emails comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This helps to protect against spamming. Spam mails are always a turn off for most customers. Higher spam complains can have a negative impact on your business, the reason spamming must be avoided at all costs. If you send emails only to people who’ve consented to them, you’re not only reaching the audience you want, you are building trust significantly.

Keep Your Emails Short, Concise and Captivating

For effectiveness, make sure your email sign-up form is simple. The info you really need is, a name, email address, and checkbox. The more simple and basic the form, the easier it’ll be to amass opt-ins. This also makes the form easy to design for multiple screen sizes, like a desktop/laptop, tablet, and mobile devices.

Offer Very Clear Value Upfront

At a glance, subscribers must be able to know exactly what they’ll receive and you must endeavor to deliver on that value consistently. If well crafted, any tangible offer can become an instant lead magnet. This can be some sort of perk or incentive that encourages users to willingly share their personal information. Such perks can be in form of discount code, weekly tips, or exclusive content. You can even follow through with more offers each week. This way, you can easily build trust by signaling to your customers that your business is real and capable of offering them consistent value.