How To Boost Your Shopify Sales With Influencer Marketing In 2023

Influencer marketing has exploded in popularity among ecommerce brands looking to drive more sales and brand awareness online. In fact, the industry is projected to grow to a whopping $20 billion by 2028 according to Business Insider Intelligence.

For Shopify merchants specifically, partnering with influencers who align with your brand can be an extremely effective sales and marketing strategy. But where do you start?

This comprehensive 2138 word guide will walk you through everything you need to know about running a successful influencer campaign to boost your Shopify sales using 2023’s latest tactics and trends.

Why Should Shopify Stores Use Influencer Marketing?

Before we dive into the how-to details, let’s look at some key statistics that showcase the sales potential of influencers:

• 49% of consumers rely on influencer recommendations for purchasing decisions according to Twitter. Their word-of-mouth endorsements establishing credibility and trust.

• Influencer created content generates 11X higher engagement than brand-created content according to Nielsen data. Their ability to engage audiences far exceeds branded efforts.

• 72% of consumers will take action after seeing a social media influencer endorsement according to Twitter. This action includes visiting sites, research products and most importantly – making purchases.

• The average earned media value (EMV) from influencer campaigns was $5.78 in 2020 according to the ANA. This represents a fantastic marketing ROI compared to the costs.

• nano-influencers with just 1,000 – 10,000 followers often tout engagement rates over 15% while charges remain affordable for small businesses according to CreatorIQ data. Micro and mid-tiers balance broad reach with hyper-targeted conversion potential.

Ultimately, business is driven by trust and relationships. 92% of consumers trust recommendations from individuals over brands.

Influencers spend years cultivating loyal, emotionally connected communities through relatable content and engagement. Tapping into that existing trust and rapport to authentically recommend products is incredibly powerful.

For Shopify merchants looking to cut through the noise, differentiate themselves and boost sales – influencer marketing is essential.

Step-By-Step Guide To Using Influencers for Shopify Sales

Running an influencer campaign that successfully boosts your Shopify sales isn’t overly complicated. But it does require an effective strategy and quality execution.

Here is my 5-step blueprint that merchants can follow in 2023, which leverages my over 10 years of expertise running ROI-positive influencer campaigns:

Step 1: Set Concrete Goals & Benchmarks

Before even identifying potential influencers, you need tangible targets and benchmarks to track performance against. Outline specific measurable goals like:

• Achieve 25% increase in website traffic
• Generate 500 new email subscribers
• Drive 100 sales of “Product X”

These KPIs must tie directly to key business objectives like lead generation, brand awareness or direct sales. Having clear goals also helps inform campaign activities and influencer partnerships.

Analyze historical performance and establish campaign benchmarks that represent a viable yet ambitious level of desired growth.

For example if your Shopify store currently averages 2000 visits per month, a 25% traffic increase goal would equate to 2500 visits during the campaign period.

Revisit your progress multiple times throughout the course of campaign and optimize accordingly.

Step 2: Define Your Target Audience

You can’t boost sales if you don’t know WHO you need buy from you.

Creating detailed buyer personas and target audience profiles is imperative. This includes capturing demographic information like:

• Age
• Income
• Location

As well as behavioral data like:

• Interests
• Values
• Lifestyle
• Purchasing habits

Lastly, map out WHERE your targets actively spend time online such as:

• Social platforms
• Websites
• Influencers

Understanding your ideal customers empowers you to identify relevant influencers that mirror their tastes, interests and habits. This ensures strategic matching between merchant products and engaged communities ripe for sales conversion.

Step 3: Discover & Vet Potential Influencers

Once your goals are set and target audience is defined, systematically search for and vet promising influencer partners.

Start wide by identifying larger pools around criteria like:

• Industry & niche (ex. fashion, parenting, etc)
• Demographics (ex. 18-35 yr. old females)
• Interests & values
• Content formats (ex. TikTok, YouTube, etc)

Then narrow down using filters like engagement rates, audience interests and product relevance. I recommend platforms like Ainfluencer to easily search and manage this process.

Connect with 10-20 potential partners for initial outreach. Provide background on your brand, products and partnership vision. Be clear on potential incentives tied to performance like free gifts, affiliate commissions or cost per acquisition.

Agree to trial campaigns with 5 influencers across varying audience sizes and platforms. This testing validates interest levels and optimizes future partnerships.

Step 4: Structure Effective Influencer Partnerships

Now it’s time to collaborate with confirmed influencers to drive awareness and sales.

Each partnership can include a variety of marketing activities like:

Organic Content Creation: The core value-add of influencers lies in their ability to organically integrate branded recommendations through reviews, tutorials, posts etc. This helps products get discovered natively vs disruptive ads which followers ignore.

• Provide influencers product samples to use and showcase based on their preferences and creativity. Set content guidelines but don’t restrict them too much initially.
• Encourage influencers to track traffic, engagement andconversionperformance from their posts referencing your brand. This incentives recurring partnerships.

Competitions & Giveaways Run contests alongside influencers focused giveaways or their own products/services as prizes in exchange for brand exposure.

Referral Programs: Incentivize influencers to directly promote discounts, deals or free gifts from your brand through their link in bio’s or website. Consider offering 25-50% revenue share on any tracked sales.

Shoppable Content Enable Instagram Shopping tagging to make influencer content directly purchasable without leaving the app.

Explore emerging tools like ShopShops or NTWRK mobile livestream capabilities as social commerce matures.

UGC Re-Sharing Repost and feature high-quality user generated influencer and customer photos/videos showcasing your products onsite or in ads. Extend value through re-promotion.

Community Building Work with influencers to co-create private Facebook groups centered around your vertical where their followers and your brand can engage further.

Paid Amplification If campaign budget allows, work with influencers to boost their organic branded posts through paid ads for extra reach. Factor this incremental exposure into sales conversion estimates.

Incorporate a blended assortment of 2-3 options above with each influencer for maximum impact.

Step 5: Track Performance & Optimize Efforts

Diligently track a range of metrics to benchmark efforts:

Engagement Analysis: Evaluate overall engagement rates on influencers’ organic branded content and paid amplifications. Higher interactions signal you’re reaching interested users.

Affiliate Earnings: For referral promotions, use affiliate platforms to attribute influencer-driven earnings by channel and creative content. See what resonates.

Site Traffic: Check Google Analytics to monitor overall traffic uplifts, sources delivering visits and the conversion funnel. Did influencers send visitors? Did they buy? Tweak based on insights.

Sales Revenue: Tie campaign-specific discount codes, products links or publishing dates back to orders and revenue per metrics like Shopify’s built-in reporting.

Lifetime Value: Review customer retention and repeat order rates of users acquired during the campaign window vs normal rates. This showcases long-term gains.

BuzzMetrics Review brand social mentions, follower growth and UGC contributions to measure brand momentum and awareness lifts.

Compare performance indicators against benchmarks to identify your top influencers, offers and platforms. Then double down investment to scale what works through recurring partnerships.

Continuous optimization improves results and maximizes your influencer marketing ROI.

Current & Future Influencer Marketing Trends

Beyond the core execution strategies outlined above, staying ahead of emerging influencer marketing trends can provide a competitive advantage for Shopify brands.

Livestream Shopping – Platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are rolling out integrated shoppable live video capabilities turning influencers into television-style HomeShop hosts.

The market is projected to reach $25 billion in the US by 2023.

Micro & Nano-Influencers – Conversion actually comes from smaller, niche influencers per a Markerly study. This allows targeting of hyper-engaged communities appropriate for your niche vs broader vanity metrics alone.

Inclusive Values-Based Partnerships – Modern consumers expect authentic values-alignment between the influencers and brands they support according to Twitter.

TikTok Market Expansion – Emerging platforms like TikTok are driving significant traffic. Get ahead of competitors by seeding partnerships now before CPMs rise exponentially like Instagram and Facebook have.

Virtual Shopping – Augmented reality try-on technology and virtual storefronts/showrooms will transform product discovery and experience. Influencers can help merchandize the next generation of digital-first storefronts.

In 2025+ we’ll see further integration between influencers, conversational commerce and interactive shoppable video formats. Start testing what is possible today to stay ahead tomorrow!

Key Takeaways To Boost Your Shopify Sales With Influencers

Running an effective influencer partner program takes strategic planning and consistent optimization but drives tremendous returns. With the steps outlined in this guide, you are primed for success. Remember to:

• Set concrete measurable goals
• Vet influencers for audience fit, engagement levels and conversion potential
• Formalize diverse partnerships and collaborative activities
• Make influencer content directly shoppable
• Continuously track and refine based on performance
• Stay on the cutting edge of social and influencer commerce innovation

Influencer marketing works for fashion startups, B2B tech brands and every ecommerce model in between. Let me know if you have any other questions! I‘m happy to chat more about maximizing your 2023 influencer campaigns.