Instagram’s platform provides the perfect stage for brands to spotlight their products through the lens of trusted influencers. Discover how you can find the perfect cast for your Instagram campaigns to bring big profits from the sea of available talent.

Chapters:

1. How Instagram influencer marketing drives sales
2. How to generate the highest ROI from Instagram influencer marketing
3. Successful Instagram influencer marketing examples
4. Leverage the Influenster app

How Instagram influencer marketing drives sales

Influencers’ grip on the modern shopping culture remains strong and profitable for brands. The global influencer marketing market value tripled since 2019, totaling $21.1 billion as of 2023.

According to a 2023 Sprout Social study, over 80% of social media marketers report that influencer marketing is essential to their strategy and that Instagram is the top influencer marketing platform for 86% of brands.

Influencers are so, well, influential because shoppers want to see content from real people they can trust over self-promotional content from brands. Influencers can range from celebrities with millions of followers to everyday customers with a smaller presence. Either way, consumers are more confident about making purchases when they see how real people experience and enjoy products.

Influencer content provides shoppers with social proof — the persuasive force that is word-of-mouth endorsements. This leads to sales, a lot of which are happening on social media. Our Shopper Experience Index found that 23% of shoppers purchased between one and five products on social platforms in the past year.

In addition to social proof, brands attract more customers and increase their visibility by reaching their influencer partners’ dedicated followings. They’re tapping into a new audience that matches their ideal customer profile.

How to generate the highest ROI from Instagram influencer marketing

There’s hundreds of thousands of Instagram influencers in the U.S. alone. That’s a deep pool of diverse creators in a range of different niches to potentially work with. Follow these best practices to get the most out of your Instagram influencer partners and marketing campaigns. 

Find the right match for your brand

While there’s a lot of influencers out there eager to collaborate, brands have to be discerning when establishing partnerships. To achieve meaningful results, your influencer partners need to be aligned with your brand values and audience interests.

There’s different levels of influencer follower sizes, and bigger doesn’t always mean better. The different influencer categories by audience size include:

• Nano influencers: Under 10,000 followers
• Micro influencers: Between 10,000 and 100,000 followers 
• Major influencers: Between 100,000 and 1,000,000 followers
• Mega influencers: Over 1,000,000 followers

In our survey of over 9,000 global shoppers, 72% said they don’t care how many followers an influencer has. They trust everyday influencers and subject matter experts more than those with massive followings. What matters is that your partners’ audiences are authentic and reflect the qualities of your target demographic. Authentic audiences are made up of real people, not bots or spam accounts, who are engaged with the creator’s content. 

When considering influencers to work with, you also want to evaluate their existing content. Ensure that they post regularly and that their content aligns with your industry and brand personality. It’s a bonus if they’ve already created content about your brand and products. 

Engagement rate is a big factor in selecting influencers to help drive sales. This is where smaller influencers shine. Our same research found that nano influencers earn over five times the engagement rate that mega influencers with over a million followers do.

Negotiate mutually beneficial partnerships

Once you’ve connected with influencer leads, be prepared to set your brand up for success while offering an attractive proposal. Be sure to include important project parameters in a terms-of-agreement document, such as:

• Timeframe: How long will the relationship run for? This could be over the course of a certain amount of Instagram posts, quarterly, or any other duration
• Volume and frequency: Include how much content creation you expect over the contract timeframe
• Usage rights: Clearly communicate how you plan to use, share, or reproduce the influencer’s content and for how long
• Content guidelines: Provide your brand style guide, quality criteria, editorial calendar, products and links to feature, and any other content-specific expectations. Keep in mind these expectations shouldn’t be too restricting or rigid, as creators prefer to have full creative autonomy
• Approval process: Provide instructions for submitting content, including photos, videos, and messaging, ahead of time for approval
• Cancelation clause: Include the option for either party to cancel the engagement before the contract end date with a certain amount of advanced notice

You also need to clearly explain what kind of payment you plan to offer. Many creators already have established rates per post, per hour, or per contract, so it’s up to the brand to approve. Otherwise, brands can offer their own payment details. 

Depending on the creator’s follower size and goals, you may agree to a different type of exchange. That could look like promoting them on any of your relevant channels or having them produce content in exchange for free products. When you’re sending your pitch, tailor your email outreach according to these best practices and templates.

Tailor campaigns to meet marketing goals

Collaborate with influencers on ways you can convert followers into customers to increase sales. Try these approaches to revenue-generating influencer content.

Product-focused user-generated content: Encourage your influencer partners to create authentic user-generated content (UGC) about your products. This can be in the form of product reviews, unboxing videos, product tutorials, product demos, or how products work in everyday scenarios. This is the kind of trusted, relatable content that modern consumers want to see.

Promote special offers and discounts: Work with influencers to share exclusive promo codes that customers can apply to purchases or links to discounted landing pages. These tools also give you a way to track the results of a particular influencer campaign.

Shoppable posts: Enable influencers to tag products directly in their posts using Instagram Shopping features or activate Like2Buy to create an in-app shopping experience. These seamless integrations reduce friction in the customer journey, making it more likely followers will convert into customers.

Collaborative giveaways: Create Instagram collab posts with influencers to host giveaways for your products. You can ask followers to participate by following both your brand and the influencer, tagging friends in the comments, sharing the post, or another call to action. The buzz generated by giveaways and engaging collab posts can significantly increase brand visibility and drive traffic to your product pages.

Share and repurpose influencer content

Amplify the reach and impact of your influencer content by sharing posts as a Story or reposting them to your Feed. This will provide your followers with social proof, and you can tag any posts featuring your products to make them shoppable. 

You can also repurpose your Instagram influencer marketing content outside of the platform on your own product pages or in emails. Enhance your e-commerce product pages with photo and video galleries, including your influencer content, to showcase your products in real life. You could also add relevant influencer content to emails to provide realistic, click-worthy visuals.

Measure performance to optimize your strategy

Evaluate the progress of your overall partnerships and individual campaigns by tracking your results. Find out who your most engaging partners are, what your best-performing content is, what’s generating sales, and the areas of opportunity to focus on. To measure the success of sales-driving campaigns, look at the following metrics:

• Product page link clicks
• Revenue generated per post
• Number of promo codes used
• Number of products tagged

Each of these metrics looks at a different way to view the results of a campaign. By using all four together, you get a holistic view of your campaign’s influence on consumer interest, revenue generated, sales finalized, and how much individual products were promoted.

Successful Instagram influencer marketing examples

Knowing how to create an influencer campaign is a good start, but seeing it in action can help you understand what to expect once your campaigns go live. Use these examples of successful Instagram influencer marketing strategies to prepare yourself and your campaign for success.

L’Occitane en Provence

Their Instagram collab with influencer byemmaleah showcases a successful giveaway campaign. It promoted the release of a limited-time product while garnering over 5,000 likes and over 6,000 comments. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by L'OCCITANE en Provence (@loccitane)

L’Occitane partnered with Bazaarvoice to streamline their influencer marketing program, which resulted in sourcing 53 authentic micro influencers and an earned media value of $23k.

AG1 by Athletic Greens

AG1 partners with a variety of creators who share their brand mission and values, like jiu-jitsu teacher cesagracie. This campaign showcases authentic product placement in a day-in-the-life style video about healthy habits. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by AG1 by Athletic Greens (@drinkag1)

Olive & June

Olive & June collaborates with influencers who have large followings, as well as everyday customers who share great content featuring their products.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Olive & June (@oliveandjune)

This post is a great example of the nail brand sharing a creator’s content, tagging them, and making it shoppable by tagging the featured product.

Leverage the Influenster app

One way to tap into a community of active, authentic consumers ready to create quality content for brands they love is with Influenster. 

Influenster is an online community that connects brands with influencers to get honest reviews and visual content about their products. This eliminates the sourcing and negotiating legwork. You can sit back and wait for the trustworthy content to roll in based on the products you want to promote. Find out more about Influenster and how you can get the most out of it.

LEARN MORE

Masterclass: How to update your influencer marketing program for 2024

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Every day, hundreds of millions of posts appear on social media. Consumers are often inundated with content from brands, while retailers and brands find themselves shouting into the void. 

To stand out among the marketers jostling to be heard on social media, you must be smart, not loud. The best strategy is leveraging user-generated content (UGC) creators from your ideal customers. This approach will help you go beyond the once-and-done buyers and reach consumers who shop again and again. Let these loyalists become your brand advocates. 

Consumers want to build relationships, connect emotionally, and support the brands they cherish, especially during a tough economy. You just have to guide them. Here are some strategies for targeting and nurturing loyal customers to become your brand advocates. 

What is a brand advocate?

A brand advocate is an individual who shares their positive sentiment and experiences about your brand with their followers and friends.

Brand advocates are true loyalists. They enjoy your products, interact with you on social media, and appreciate opportunities to share feedback with you. It’s more than just whether people are spending money with you — it’s about emotion and identity.

According to Leonie Brown, Qualtrics XM Scientist, “True loyalists understand your product and brand, believe your offering to be good value, and identify with your product on a personal level.” 

Why you need brand advocates

Brand-generated marketing is important in a healthy marketing mix, but it’s impossible to meet consumers’ demands for content with traditional marketing messages alone, especially when your marketing team has a lean budget. Consumers also actually prefer UGC created by their peers. 

Brand advocates, who are real customers and love your brand, are the mouthpiece you didn’t know you needed. Because brand advocates are just regular people and not affiliated with your company, they’re highly influential. 

Consumers trust other consumers more than anyone else. 100% of shoppers say they’ve purchased a product based on a recommendation from another shopper that they saw online, and 78% trust everyday social media users just as much or more than they did a few years ago. 

Most shoppers say they won’t buy anything without consulting UGC first. They especially seek out customer reviews and photos or videos from other shoppers. 

Encourage a peer-to-peer recommendation environment by tapping into your brand advocates. 69% of marketers today are working with smaller creators, like everyday consumers and social media users. Partnering with these creators brings higher engagement, trust, and authenticity than traditional marketing — and, it’s cost-effective, scalable content. 

The creator economy is booming and is currently valued at $16.4 billion. Over half (53%) of shoppers consider themselves to be UGC creators, according to the Bazaarvoice Shopper Experience Index. 17% of these creators actively create UGC, and 36% will do so when asked. 

5 ways to find brand advocates

Both shoppers and marketers are tightening their budgets these days. Activating brand advocates makes other consumers feel more confident shopping with you, and this strategy offers a high return on investment when marketing teams need to do more with less. 

Consumers are leaning more into the expertise of everyday social media users and subject matter experts to discover new products, learn about how something can meet their needs, and purchase with confidence. 

We’ve found that about 1% of your community — your loyalists — can produce about 90% of your content. You just need to target your brand advocates and harness their power. Here’s how to find them. 

1. In-person events

Events like in-store holiday activations, sports-themed contests, or awareness month campaigns are a fun way to engage shoppers in real life. In-person events can help you stand out by offering something unique and memorable. 

In-person events also help you get to know your most loyal shoppers. Pay close attention to those who show up, as well as consumers who make an effort to speak to you, ask questions about your brand or products, and purchase from you. 

Loyalists tend to show up organically to an in-person event. But, you can reward them and make them feel extra special by peeking into your shopper data and personally inviting them to attend. This approach will build and nurture relationships with brand advocates. 

Another way to leverage in-person events is to see who usually attends similar activations. For instance, we spoke to digital creator Marina Mitrakos, whose passion for fashion and beauty led her to create content for brands. One way she’s developed her business is by attending fashion and beauty events and posting about them on social media. 

2. Email list/newsletter

While people enjoy receiving messages from brands in their inboxes, sending a mass blanket email to everyone on your list isn’t the best way to find brand advocates. People stay on email lists for years and never actually interact with brands. 

So, go beyond the people that are simply on your email list. Instead, track engagement on email content, like clicks on coupons, responses to polls and surveys, or email replies. These interactions showcase the consumers who are genuinely interested and invested in your brand. 

Emails are also a great way to ask customers for feedback and collect UGC, ultimately turning them into brand advocates. Our Shopper Experience Index revealed that 43% of consumers prefer brands and retailers to use emails to ask them for their opinions on products they’ve purchased. 

Sending an email after someone purchases from you to say thanks and ask for reviews and other UGC yields big results. We’ve found that review request emails increase review content by 4x to 9x, and sending a follow-up may lead to a 50% increase in review volume — or much more. Clothing brand MeUndies, for example, has seen a 218% increase in review collection since optimizing review request emails.

When requesting UGC, consumers like it when you tell them exactly what kind of content you want. For example, 60% will take a photo if you ask them to. 

Shoppers appreciate it when they feel like brands care about what they have to say and are listening and responding to their needs. They’ll be more than willing to respond to your request, create UGC, and become a brand advocate. 

3. Cause-related marketing campaigns

Cause marketing refers to marketing strategies that strive to increase revenue, while also taking action to improve society in some way. This might involve raising money or awareness for an issue or charitable organization or highlighting your sustainability or corporate responsibility initiatives. 

If your brand values a specific social, environmental, or humanitarian cause, be vocal about it — and take note of who’s interacting with content related to your cause. Consumers want to support and advocate for brands and retailers that also support the issues they care most about. 

For instance, if being eco-friendly matters to your brand, share your sustainability efforts and regularly promote that you’re cutting down on boxes and shipping to target customers who prefer to shop with sustainable brands. These efforts pay off. 

According to a Bazaarvoice survey of the Influenster community, 78% of shoppers said they prioritize using sustainable products across categories, and 77% will pay more for products promoted as “sustainable” or “clean.” 88% will purchase from new brands if they claim to be more sustainable. 

4. Pay attention to your social channels

Who are your most engaged followers? Most shoppers do follow their favorite brands on social media, but you should hone in on the followers who interact with you most. 

Knowing who frequently comments on your social posts, shares your content, enters giveaways, tags other users, and talks about your brand on social is crucial. These social media users make compelling brand advocates!

Social media is an amazing platform for starting conversations and getting noticed. Nearly 60% of shoppers discover new products and services on social media, where they research items and make purchasing decisions. Most shoppers also buy things directly from social media. 

Keeping tabs on who’s talking about you on social media is important, but don’t neglect people who are sliding into your DMs. Direct messages are an excellent place for one-on-one conversations and connections. 

Responding to any DMs, posts, or other customer feedback is crucial for relationship-building. Consumers expect a response from brands when they offer feedback, and responding heightens trust and showcases your authenticity. 

5. Targeted shopper communities

Using a product discovery and reviews platform like the Influenster App, gives you the opportunity to target the largest community of everyday consumers and skilled creators to generate the highest-quality UGC — including reviews, photos, videos, and social content. This, in turn, increases brand awareness, lets you reach new audiences, and helps you convert more customers across brand and retail. 

Influenster matches your product to your ideal audiences based on over 1,000 data points for each of the community’s 8 million global members. You can activate unique segments, such as loyalists and competitive users, members who shop at key retailers, and consumers with specific skincare or dietary needs. 

The ability to hyper-target consumers based on behaviors and other characteristics beyond typical demographics was a key benefit in choosing Influenster

Elizabeth Northrup, Associate Brand Manager at Kraft Heinz

Influenster members are also prolific content creators. Based on Bazaarvoice Sampling Community data from June 2023, here’s a look at what these members bring to the table: 

• 500,000+ new pieces of UGC each month
• 73 million total monthly impressions for Influenster social campaigns
• 34,000+ posts for Influenster social campaigns
• $5.5 million total monthly earned media value for Influenster social campaigns

One of the most effective ways to tap into the Influenster community and reap these benefits is through product sampling. This strategy gets your products into the hands of your ideal customers. In turn, they create authentic content about your brand in the form of social posts, reviews, photos, or videos. 

Beauty giant Rimmel sent its new Wonder Ombre Holographic Eyeliner out to target consumers through sending custom sampling boxes. This helped the brand collect over 1,200 product reviews, which are displayed on Influenster, the brand’s website, and syndicated across its retail partner websites. 

Rimmel’s sampling campaign generated real impact for the brand, including: 

• 44% higher sales lift versus benchmarks for average digital campaigns in the beauty category
• 69% higher sales life versus benchmarks in the product categories of the sampled products
• 73% of samplers said they would likely purchase something from Rimmel in the next 6 months 

Targeting your ideal customers to be brand advocates

One-time or some-time customers are great. But, marketing to all-the-time customers is a winning strategy. These shoppers are your ideal customers, who love your products, your mission, and the experiences you provide, both online and in-person. 

Finding and building relationships with your brand advocates builds trust with other consumers — helping you stand out and helping them feel confident and appreciated.

If you’re struggling to find advocates for your brand or you don’t know where to look, Bazaarvoice affable.ai is an AI-driven influencer marketing platform that lets you easily find your creators, manage collaborations, track your campaigns, and measure your performance.

LEARN MORE

Masterclass: How to find and activate brand-safe creators

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One nice side effect to this, though — aside from the constant influx of quality memes — is the sustained rise of social commerce. You saw your friend wearing that dress in Italy and now you want to wear that same dress so you can pretend you’re in Italy instead of just at brunch. 

Given that social commerce sales in the U.S. alone are expected to reach $145 billion by 2028, it’s time to start your social commerce strategy or risk being left behind in the middle ages of brand strategy.

Using the latest research and our unique insights, we’ve put together everything you need to know about the state of social commerce today.

Chapters:

1. What is social commerce
2. Why social commerce works
3. How to leverage social commerce
4. Social commerce brand examples
5. Getting started with social commerce

A lot of things in life get planned around shopping: weekends, vacations, back-to-school prep, and holidays, to name a few. We wander around shopping districts, malls, and neighborhood markets to window shop and find our next favorite thing. 

While shopping can be a chore, it can also be an adventure — one that has a strong social component. We ask salespeople and our shopping companions for their opinions on a daring pair of sunglasses, the right shade of paint for the living room, or a gift for someone who’s difficult to shop for. Those aren’t the only places we discover products anymore, however. 

70% of shoppers discover products on Facebook and Instagram

According to our research

“Pandemic-inspired shopping behaviors are sticking around”, according to our Shopper Experience Index. In response, brands continue to turn to social commerce to bring the fun of shopping onto digital platforms. Scrolling is the new window shopping, and it gives brands a new place to experiment to surprise and delight their customers. 

For the right strategy, you need to tap into the best available data. Bazaarvoice is fortunate to have a mix of behavioral data, research, and consumer insights sourced from the more than 7.5 million-strong community of shoppers on the Influenster App. What do they have to say about the state of things? 

Of those surveyed most recently, “50% agree or strongly agree that social media plays an active role in influencing the products that they choose to buy (only 24% disagree!)”, and “one in two shoppers have bought via social media in the past year”.

As social commerce increases, brands are experimenting with new ways to present content across social and expanding to new channels. Certain categories of shopping continue to shift from in-store to online.

But before we delve any deeper, what actually is social commerce? 

What is social commerce?

Social commerce is the buying and selling of products and services through shoppable content on social media and everywhere social media reaches.

With social commerce, users can shop directly through images and videos that showcase products without ever leaving the source. Let’s say you’re scrolling through Instagram, and you see an ad in which a model or influencer is wearing a new dress and accessories. You can tap on any of the displayed items for sale and be sent directly to the checkout page without ever leaving the app. The experience looks like this:

But social commerce doesn’t just influencers shoppers in-app. Or even on social media at all. Social commerce now influencers shoppers everywhere it’s displayed, at any touchpoint on the buying journey — on product pages, in emails, and even in-store.

The goal of social commerce is for brands to reach new audiences and let them make purchases with minimal friction. This, in turn, increases add-to-cart rate, sales, and engagement on social platforms and wherever social content lives.

Eight out of 10 respondents to our Shopper Experience Index have increased their time on social over the last year — and that has affected their shopping habits. “Three in four say their shopping behavior has been very influenced by social media”. 

Discovery is still the main drive: “65% use it for inspiration, 61% shop when they stumble across something mid-feed, and 60% shop directly from recommendations or links from influencers”. 

Why social commerce works 

Two words: social proof. Social proof is the concept of using the decisions our peers have already made to make our own decisions. 

For example, if you’re walking downtown in a city and see a busy restaurant, you’re likely to believe they serve great food. It wouldn’t be full otherwise, right? Or maybe you’re mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, and you see someone wearing a nice shirt. They look great. You decide you want to look great in this shirt, too. You buy it.

And there’s the primary benefit of social commerce: it exposes brands to new customers and customers to new brands in a casual, engaging setting (that digital window shopping). Shoppers can explore products without even intending to shop in the first place.

Social commerce reaches consumers on the platforms they already use instead of waiting for consumers to seek them out, enhancing the customer experience. It’s particularly effective on Instagram because, “you don’t begin your journey with a search, you begin with a scroll,” says Curalate co-founder Apu Gupta.

This is the kind of online shopping experience consumers crave — one out of two shoppers are buying on social networks regularly, and it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Statista estimates that 2023 sales via social media platforms globally will add up to nearly $1.3 billion. 

Extending the reach of social commerce

While social commerce starts on social media platforms, it doesn’t have to end there. Brands can take the concept a step further by syndicating shoppable social media posts to other channels, including product pages, blogs, and email newsletters. This offers more opportunities for customers to discover the engaging content that’s shared and created within brands’ social communities. Bringing social content to e-commerce has resulted in:

The key is making everything as frictionless as possible. 54% of shoppers say they’d be more likely to buy a product on social media if they could click the post and get product info directly there. 

Bazaarvoice’s social commerce tools are what make it possible for brands to distribute their shoppable social content on other sales channels, lowering friction across the brand experience. These tools can convert any image or video into one or multiple product pages. 

With this function, shoppers can hover over any of the products featured in a social post to learn more about them and click through to purchase. Brands can then use this media to post on various different channels.

Case study: River Island

International apparel brand River Island used the Bazaarvoice Galleries tool to share user-generated content (UGC) from social channels on its website, resulting in a 184% conversion lift and a 45% average order value increase. 

River Island was able to accumulate a ton of quality UGC by encouraging its customers to post their purchases using branded hashtags and tagging River Island on social media. Then, it turned that UGC into shoppable images to display on its website, including its homepage, product pages, and a full-page gallery.

River Island then took its social commerce campaign a step further, integrating a wish list feature that enabled shoppers to save items without interrupting their browsing.

How to leverage social commerce

Boost your own brand’s social commerce strategy with these tactics to simultaneously attract customers and drive social conversions.

Make social shoppable

The first step in social commerce is to convert social content that features your brand’s products into shoppable images and videos. The top social commerce platforms are Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok. The newest platform in the space, TikTok, “will gain 9.6 million social buyers in 2023, more than the net increase of Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest combined”, per eMarketer’s recent report. 

Here’s a quick overview of how social shopping works on each platform. 

• Facebook: Facebook Shops uses the same process as Instagram to set up an online storefront — by uploading products individually or importing an entire catalog of multiple items. Facebook Shops encourages shoppers to interact with sellers if they have questions using Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, or Instagram Direct. This makes it even more like an in-person shopping experience
• Instagram: Instagram Shopping allows brands to upload their product catalogs to link with Instagram photos and videos featuring catalog items. They can then be grouped in collections using the Instagram Commerce Manager. Followers can tap on images to purchase within the app. (The Instagram Shop tab was removed as of February 2023) 
• TikTok: TikTok Shop launched in the fall of 2022 and allows merchants and creators to showcase and sell their products to the community within the app via live shopping, shoppable videos, or a product showcase 
• Pinterest: Similar to Instagram, Pinterest Shopping allows brands to upload their product catalogs and then converts each item into shoppable Pins. Brands on Pinterest can also enable a Shop tab on their profile, consolidating all of their shoppable images and video Pins 

According to Pinterest, shoppers are willing to spend “80% more per month” on their platform compared to other social commerce platforms.

And while these four might be the top platforms shoppers turn to, they aren’t the only ones! Snapchat and YouTube both have their own place in the realm of social shopping.

Snapchat partnered with IPG MAGNA to conduct their own research on The Future of Social Commerce, surveying around 8,000 consumers across four different markets (the UK, Germany, the US, and Saudi Arabia). Their findings bolster other social commerce research – social media is key for product discovery, shoppers turn to their networks to aid in discovery, and social makes shopping easier and more convenient. 

What Snapchat adds to the discussion is the potential around augmented reality (AR) in shopping. According to their research, “2 out of 3 consumers said they would be even less likely to shop in-store if they got to virtually experience the product before purchasing it.” Regular Snapchatters were especially enthusiastic about this option. 

• Snapchat: This year Snapchat launched AR Enterprise Services (ARES) to help brands take advantage of AR and AI shopping options. This is in addition to their Shopping Suite, which allows consumers to virtually try-on products in real time and offers tools like a Fit Finder 
• YouTube: YouTube refocused its efforts on creators this year, discontinuing its beta program for creators to earn money by tagging products from third-party brands in videos with shoppable links, instead rolling out its affiliate program to all creators 

The focus on creator-curated products is significant, since eMarketer’s Insider Intelligence reported that, “a quarter of US consumers start their search on YouTube when shopping online, more than on Instagram or TikTok, per Jungle Scout.” 

Engage with shoppers

The point of social commerce is to facilitate a shopping experience in a space where people are already connecting and interacting. It’s not enough just to upload your product catalog and post shoppable content. You should work to enhance the digital shopping experience by engaging your current and potential audience in fun, dynamic ways. 

Social media users love new app features and the brands that know how to use them in interesting ways. Brands can easily engage with fans by playing with Instagram Polls, Reels, Stories, and Questions in their content strategy to captivate and entice followers. These are fun ways to get followers to interact with content while simultaneously getting feedback about products. Livestream shopping is another exciting new addition to social commerce platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and TikTok.

With Bazaarvoice’s Like2Buy feature, brands can contact shoppers who clicked the “link in bio” button but didn’t convert. This way, you can engage them after they’ve browsed your Instagram Shop with a thoughtful retargeting strategy. With this tool, brands can go a step further and create a lookalike audience based on their most engaged followers. That’s a surefire way to grow your customer base!

Focus on social content, not just platforms

Social commerce isn’t just limited to social media, contrary to its most common definition. Sales from social media only account for 4.4% of all e-commerce sales in the U.S., but its influence reaches beyond the confines of our feeds.

Brands can and should use the content created within their social media networks on their other sales channels, like e-commerce websites, emails, blog posts, and third-party retail sites. Tools like Bazaarvoice Galleries feed social content in beautiful displays on home pages, product pages, dedicated gallery pages, or anywhere else on a brand’s website.

By bringing photos and videos from social to website visitors and email subscribers, brands can share the social commerce experience with a wider audience and reduce friction across the brand experience. As a bonus, this repurposed content lets your team work smarter — saving the time and resources required to create fresh content for multiple channels. 

Let users create your content

What’s the secret to social commerce success? User-generated content, or UGC. Leverage UGC to attract shoppers with realistic, inspiring representations of your brand and products. While social commerce doesn’t always have to include UGC, it’s a powerful approach.

UGC is what makes social commerce more social, interactive, and authentic than traditional advertising. It also lends the authority of social proof: your real-life customers become the face of the brand and provide free marketing material out of genuine enthusiasm for your products. 

UGC creates organic engagement when the user tags a brand, uses a branded hashtag, posts comments, engages with a poll, etc. Then the brand can reciprocate with a repost, which it can use to sell products and syndicate on its website.

You don’t have to wait around for customers to post glowing content about your brand on Instagram either — you can proactively work with social media influencers. According to our recent Influenster survey, 60% of respondents said they shop from influencer recommendations. How often? 

• 69% sometimes 
• 18% all the time
• Only 13% rarely 

And if you’re wondering what kind of influencers those surveyed say they shop from, the breakdown is pretty fascinating: 

• 35% from people they consider “subject-matter experts”
• 25% from family and friends’ recommendations 
• 23% from social media stars
• 13% from none of them
• And only 5% from celebrities 

There’s a reason more and more brands are leveraging influencer marketing and even increasing their budgets for it. Influencer Marketing Hub found that 67% of those respondents that budget for influencer marketing intend to increase their influencer marketing budget over 2023 in its benchmark report. 

Tapping into the reach of the right influencer or influencers and their highly engaged communities can bring a good return on investment, especially compared to what it might cost to reach the same audience via traditional advertising on the same platform. 

Pro tip: Calculate the impact UGC can have on your ROI right here.

Which platforms should your brand concentrate on? Based on Influencer Marketing Hub’s 2023 Benchmark Report, TikTok is now the most popular platform for influencer marketing (56%), with Instagram right on its heels (51%) and Facebook (42%) and YouTube (38%) following. 

Find success with sampling

While influencers are more often paid directly now than through product samples, around a third of brands still do the latter. This works in favor of brands since the smaller influencers require less compensation but have higher engagement rates. 

Sampling programs streamlines the process of getting brand products into the hands of eager influencers. They then return the favor by producing valuable content.

Beyond visual media, reviews are another powerful form of UGC to implement in social commerce strategies. The likelihood of a shopper purchasing a product with five reviews increases by 270% than one without any reviews. Post reviews alongside social commerce content to boost your impact even further on your social media, emails, or website or by tagging or linking the corresponding products so followers can purchase instantly.

Boost social commerce marketing with ads

Promoting UGC with some advertising dollars can catapult your social commerce efforts. Paid ads that incorporate UGC get high conversions, and based on Instagram and Facebook’s algorithm, ads with high engagement like UGC get more exposure. Parachute, a bedding e-commerce company, increased its click-through rate by 35% and lowered its cost-per-click rate by 60% with UGC advertising.

Instagram lets you turn any post into an ad and choose your target audience by promoting it. The more advanced Ads Manager enables you to create ads across platforms and apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, for mobile or desktop. 

Pinterest has robust advertising capabilities, so you can promote image, product, and video Pins with direct links to checkout pages. TikTok offers a variety of advertising options, starting with the more standard in-feed ads and video shopping ads common on other platforms. TikTok also offers more tailored options, like the Creator Marketplace, which can match brands with the right creator to collaborate with, or the Creative Exchange, which provides end-to-end professional creative support. 

You can handily monitor your return on investment, too, since each ad platform also includes analytics for thorough performance tracking.

Use customer behavior insights

Conducting regular reporting using customer insights gives companies and brands a competitive advantage. Be sure you’re routinely analyzing engagement metrics, feedback, and reviews from shoppers to optimize the social commerce experience you’re providing. 

For those wanting to go even further, Social Analytics allows brands to to understand what their shoppers find most engaging, from visual themes to specific content types.

Discovering what consumers are saying and how they feel about products can inform and improve product descriptions and messaging for social commerce content. Digging into the popularity of products based on views, conversions, and reviews can determine which products to focus on for your social commerce strategy.

From a top-level standpoint, these insights can also help brands tweak the products themselves and develop new ones.

Social commerce brand examples

See it in action: these social commerce brand examples show how to combine UGC with social commerce to make shoppable posts that drive conversions.

MAM

During the pandemic, MAM UK found themselves with the same challenge facing many brands: creating an integrated shopping experience for their customers that brought everything brick-and-mortar online. Then as the pandemic wore on, translating back to a more intertwined dual experience. Today, many customers do their research online before buying offline (ROBO) giving UGC increased power in the shopping experience.  

MAM implemented Bazaarvoice Social Commerce with Galleries and Like2Buy — and that social proof ultimately doubled their traffic and conversion rates. In hard numbers, that turned out to be a 108% increase in conversion rate and a 58% increase in average order value. Using Like2Buy alone drove site visits up by 157% and generated an extra £96k in yearly revenue.

All of this proved the power of UGC in the social shopping experience for these premium baby products. 

Villeroy & Boch

A lot of lifestyle brands share the challenge of wanting to show off how their products will actually look inside of consumer homes and how they will realistically be used. UGC is an impactful, authentic way to do this that audiences connect with more than polished campaigns. 

With an abundance of UGC shared by consumers across social that they were already capturing, Villeroy & Boch moved to integrate it into their online store. Bazaarvoice Galleries allowed them to highlight this content across newsletters and hompages in a way that showcased how consumers were using and styling their ceramic goods. 

This ultimately led to a 275% increase in conversion rate among users who engaged with UGC!

Rael 

Personal-care and beauty brand Rael galvanized its target audience to spread UGC far and wide across social media with sample products from a new skincare line. It sent product samples to Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community to generate reviews and social content to support new product launches. The campaign resulted in 3,000 customer reviews and 9.8 million impressions from thousands of social posts, shares, likes, and comments.

The responses from the sample recipients also gave Rael instrumental insight into its marketing strategy. It identified a product it previously underestimated, which generated lots of positive reviews, and on that basis, it made it a focus of its future marketing.

Rael is now also equipped with a bank of UGC from a sampling campaign to repurpose across its marketing channels.

DSW 

One challenge major shoe retailer DSW faces is showing how its products look in the real world when customers can’t physically try them on — a common problem in e-commerce. The solution is where UGC comes in.

To procure a large volume of quality UGC, DSW launched a hashtag campaign prompting its audience to tag how they wear their DSW fashions with #MyDSW. Showcasing this content on its website and social media resulted in a 2x conversion lift.

Getting started with social commerce

What traditional e-commerce lacks in the shopping experience, social commerce makes up for in spades. Shoppers are the stars of social commerce marketing and inspire other real people to make enthusiastic, confident purchases.

Here’s our best advice for getting started with social commerce:  

• Turn social media channels into virtual storefronts. Upload product catalogs to Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest — and have some fun experimenting with how you present your products on TikTok! 
• Leverage UGC to get the most mileage from social commerce content. Create shoppable media using content from followers and influencers
• Social commerce extends beyond social media. Spread shoppable social content to as many marketing channels as possible, including your website pages and email campaigns
• Listen to how consumers are responding to social commerce. Insights from social interactions and reviews can help you develop strategies and products
• Put the social in social commerce. Use shoppable social media content to engage with followers by reposting their content, encouraging questions and comments, using interactive app features, and retargeting potential customers 
• Don’t forget TikTok. If your brand isn’t already on TikTok, now’s the time! It’s quickly grown to be the most popular channel for influencer marketing and is outpacing its predecessors for social commerce, too

Before all of that though, the first step is finding the right social commerce provider to work with. You don’t have to go it alone. The right provider will save you time, stress, and money. Below are some example questions to help you vet providers:

These are just a select view of the questions we recommend asking but you can find more here. Or if you’ve already started with social commerce and want to streamline your efforts, Bazaarvoice’s social publishing tools make social commerce easy. Brands and retailers can schedule and track content all in one place for efficient, streamlined execution that gives you everything you need to win on social.

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The ultimate guide to increasing social commerce conversion

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Wondering about the best moisturizer for dry skin? Or, which eyeshadow or nail polish colors are in next season? You might ask a friend or family member. The next best thing is usually to take the advice of a social media influencer. 

All consumers (that’s right: 100%) have purchased a product based on a recommendation from another shopper that they’ve found online, according to a recent survey of nearly 9,000 global shoppers.

Our research continues to emphasize the power of everyday shoppers to influence each other. 53% of consumers say user-generated content (UGC), like photos from real shoppers or customer reviews, makes them feel more confident buying things online. The reason: these influencers present more authentic content than professional photos, expertly written copy, and traditional marketing messages. 

But before we delve further into the influencer research, there’s a question that needs answering.

What is an influencer?

In influencer, often known as a creator, is a person (or animal, to be honest) who has the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on their social media platform, predominantly TikTok or Instagram.

There’s five types of influencer, each with varying follower counts:

• Subject matter experts: Beauty gurus, fashionistas, chefs, DIY’ers, and stay-at-home moms. These influencers are experts in a specific subject, which they tend to exclusively, or primarily, post about. They often recommend, sell, or post sponsored content for products related to their subject matter 
• Celebrities: These accounts give you a behind the scenes look at those with extravagant lives who have become famous for something other than social media. They can be actors, reality TV stars, musicians, athletes, etc. They often promote/recommend products that fit in with their lifestyle/aesthetic, or that they’re selling themselves
• Social media stars: These are influencers who became famous solely because of their internet presence. They don’t necessarily have a subject matter they’re experts on. They maybe have a very pleasing aesthetic, or an ability to do internet trends well, like TikTok dances. Sometimes they became famous due to a viral moment, and the fame just never faded. Other times they’re just everyday people who post outfit of the day photos and naturally amassed a large following. They’re often paid to promote products or will promote something they are selling themselves
• Everyday social media users: Your friends, family members, peers, or people you’ve never met but are connected to. They simply share day-to-day content (ratings and reviews, photos and videos) that they’re genuinely interested in. They don’t have an agenda to promote or highlight certain products
• Creators: Anyone who creates entertaining or educational material to be expressed through any medium or channel

Influencer research report key takeaways 

As you develop and refine your influencer strategies, here’s the top trends and takeaways to know, as revealed by our research. 

1. Everyday social media users resonate most 

Influencers with massive social media followings and big-name celebrities don’t resonate with shoppers like they used to. These days, consumers prefer the opinions and advice of real people. 

Our research found that 82% of consumers are purchasing more or the same number of products from the recommendation of everyday social media users. Shoppers are more influenced by everyday social media users, who might not have a large number of followers, than brands, celebrities, social media influencers, and subject matter experts. 

Everyday social media users are viewed as more trustworthy. 33% of consumers say their trust in them has increased over the past five years, while 45% say it’s stayed the same. 

As you’re choosing influencers to work with, know that 64% of people want brands to partner with everyday social media users more than anyone else. 

2. Trust in subject matter experts is increasing

Subject matter experts, like a doctor, esthetician, or someone else with official credentials, are also perceived as trustworthy and authentic. 

26% of consumers are most influenced by the opinions of subject matter experts when purchasing products. 33% have actually purchased a product based on an expert’s recommendation. 

Over the past five years, 86% of consumers say their trust in subject matter experts has increased or stayed the same. So, having these experts try out or otherwise showcase your products on social media builds loyalty and drives purchases. 

3. Consumers are more conscious in the ‘de-influencing’ age 

You’ve probably seen reports of Gen Z consumers embracing “de-influencing,” which is where social media influencers tell their followers what not to buy. 

While this term has trended on social media channels, our survey found that it hasn’t actually had much of an impact on consumer perception or purchasing habits. 73% of survey respondents haven’t heard of the “de-influencing” trend, and 38% weren’t likely to participate in a #deinfluencing activity.

Among those who have heard of it, 50% say it’s made them more conscious of how they interact with social media influencers online who are promoting a product. 38% say it’s inspired them to conduct more product research before buying. 

4. Consumers rely on influencers for authenticity 

Even though “de-influencing” is playing a big role, consumers want truthful, authentic viewpoints on products. That’s why they see just as much value in negative reviews as positive ones. 

Social media is where people go for product inspiration and information, and to purchase items. Facebook (25%), Instagram (23%), and TikTok (22%) are most used for new product discovery, our survey revealed. 

Shoppers use Facebook (28%), Instagram (23%), and TikTok (18%) the most for purchasing. 

Featuring everyday social media users, subject matter experts, and other influencers on these platforms builds trust. “They give me their honest opinion” is the main quality that people are looking for in influencers, according to 42% of survey respondents. 

They also appreciate influencers because “they share new products I’ve never heard of,” “they have a specialist area they share content, products about,” and they share “fun, engaging content.”

5. Consumers are content creators 

Browsing and posting on social media is a favorite pastime for most people. 82% consider themselves everyday social users, and about 50% spend up to 10 hours a week creating social content. TikTok and Instagram are their favorite social platforms. 

Nearly 40% of people in our survey want to be full-fledged content creators in the future. 41% haven’t done it yet because they don’t know where to start. 

People enjoy posting about products and brands. 79% at least sometimes tag brands in their posts, mainly because they’re fans and want to share their content with their favorite brands. 

Among consumers who are content creators, 49% have partnered with brands on sponsored content, but they’re focused on ensuring that their content is authentic. 62% have turned down brand partnerships, because the partnership didn’t align with their values or the brand wasn’t a good fit.

To maintain authenticity and creative control, they only work with brands and products that they use (26%), give their complete and honest feedback about a product (28%), say when it’s a paid partnership (24%), and only work with brands and products that align with their values (21%). 

6. User-generated content is the biggest influencer on purchasing decisions

One of the big takeaways from our influencer research was that UGC, including ratings, photos, and videos from real shoppers, influences purchasing decisions. Even after seeing something on social media, most consumers visit a brand or retailer’s website to read reviews. 

When they seek out reviews, the factors that ultimately help them decide whether or not to purchase include: 

• “The review includes relevant attributes based on the product (i.e., scent description for a perfume)” (36%)
• “There is a photo with a review” (19%)
• “There is a video with a review” (18%)
• “It includes information about the reviewer, such as skin type, age, size,” (15%) 
• “Length of review” (12%)

When shoppers encounter visual UGC on a product page or social media channel, 47% want the photo to show “the product being used in the way it’s intended,” such as clothing on someone who wears their size or a piece of furniture in a small apartment like theirs. 

Use research to guide your influencer strategy 

If you’re a brand or retailer interested in incorporating influencers into your marketing strategy, you probably won’t have to pay the big bucks. Sending free products to everyday consumers through product sampling and asking them to post their thoughts about your product on social media in return, can pay off dividends.

Or you can follow global brands like kraft Heinz and Rimmel and tap into the Influenster community of over 7.5 million engaged, everyday consumers. All of whom are ready to create content for you. Learn more about it here.

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How to create an effective influencer marketing strategy

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The more loyalty you show, the more you’ll receive. This definitely translates to the brand-customer relationship. Give consumers what they need to be inspired and informed, and they’ll keep buying your products. 

The trick to brand loyalty is knowing what consumers actually want. We know you’re not a mind reader, though, so we conducted our own brand loyalty research to help you. Bazaarvoice is uniquely positioned in that we can tap into our Influenster community of engaged shoppers, who are always on hand to provide feedback and insights.

We surveyed 1,000 members of our Influenster community in January 2023 to research and discover their brand loyalty sentiments. 

We found that shoppers continue to value user-generated content (UGC), like product ratings, reviews, and customer photos. 62% of respondents said they always look at reviews when shopping on a retailer’s website. And most consumers want to see UGC on social media too. 

As retailers and brands like you are grappling with inflation and shrinking shopping budgets, brand loyalty is more important than ever. You’re about 70% more likely to sell to a previous customer than a new one, and existing customers usually spend more. 

Brand loyalty research results

Here’s a deeper look at what our brand loyalty research revealed, including insights from other research peaks, to help you enhance your customer loyalty strategy. 

UGC makes you seem more authentic 

Experiences tend to influence customer purchases, even more so than price in many instances. Shoppers look to brands’ social media pages for something unique, like new products and inspiration for how to use them. 

And, when they find UGC on your social media channels, it can heighten brand loyalty. Consumers most notice a brand’s content from other users on Instagram (78%) followed by TikTok (55%).

UGC matters most to shoppers looking for skincare, haircare, and cosmetics. Influenster community members listed the brands that stand out in their use of UGC on social media as Fenty Beauty, Rare Beauty, Charlotte Tilbury, Dior, Kylie Cosmetics, The Ordinary, Lululemon, and Skims. 

A recent Bazaarvoice research peak revealed commerce is in the midst of an authenticity movement, and our brand loyalty research has only confirmed this. What shoppers like most about UGC is that it’s authentic. And that helps brands build trust and loyalty.

Shoppers want to see, “pictures of people using the products, how they use it, and people talking about real experiences, pros and cons,” according to our survey. One survey respondent offered an important suggestion for winning over shoppers with UGC.

Use real people (all body sizes, skin tones, skin texture). I want to relate — not compare against!” 

An Influenster survey respondent

Content should be quality over quantity 

Almost all members of the Influenster community say they look at star ratings and reviews on retailer websites, like Target.com or Walmart.com. 72% say they leave a star rating or review for a product they buy very or somewhat often. 

Ensuring that products have reviews is crucial for driving customer loyalty. But, the quality of those reviews resonates more than the quantity. Among the brand loyalty research survey respondents: 

• 90% would rather buy something with 50 reviews and a 4-star rating than a product with 200 reviews and 3 stars 
• 90% would rather buy products with both negative and positive reviews than something with no reviews 
• 70% would buy a more expensive product with higher ratings and reviews than a less expensive item with no reviews 

Visual UGC increases purchases, too. Three out of five respondents said they’d rather buy an item with 10 reviews that also has images from fellow shoppers than a product with 200 reviews and no images.

Shoppers expect incentives  

When you take steps to delight consumers by offering them something, they’ll reward you with their loyalty. That’s especially important today, as shopping budgets are stretched. But consumers will still remain loyal to brands if you: 

• Offer incentives, like sales and promotions (85%)
• Are transparent on product ingredients and materials (70%)
• Have strong brand values (55%)
• Provide great social content from other users (5%) 

Creating a loyalty program is a great way to track and incentivize shopping and reward customer loyalty. The more they spend and engage with you, the more they get in return. You benefit, too. 80% of consumers have spent more with brands to unlock a reward. 

Celebrity brands don’t always resonate with shoppers

Consumers often have a complex relationship with celebrity brands. Think: Kylie Cosmetics by Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Honest Company by Jessica Alba, or Kate Hudson’s Fabletics. 

Our brand loyalty research revealed that 73% of Influenster members said they buy products from celebrity brands. The reason? 

• The products are new and interesting (27%)
• They want to see what the hype is about (24%)
• A friend or family member recommended the item (17%)

But, it’s not all good news for celebs. Over 25% of shoppers don’t purchase celebrity brands, and it’s because they don’t follow celebrities or don’t trust them. Many consumers perceive celebrity products as lower quality or as a “money-grab” for the celeb.

This is amplified by a separate Influenster research peak we undertook, looking at what influence influencers have.

Consumers prefer content from everyday social media users (aka UGC) because it’s authentic. One respondent from our brand loyalty research said they’re most interested in brands created by people who are passionate, knowledgeable, and experienced about their product or industry. 

They noted, “Celebrities are not educated experts creating products inspired by many years of hard-earned experience. They are slapping their image on someone else’s very hard work.” 

Shoppers want UGC for private label brands 

With just about everything getting more expensive lately, 78% of consumers are purchasing more store brands or private labels, according to Reach 3 Insights. 

Consumers no longer view private label brands as generic or less desirable than name brands. Many private label brands, like Target’s Good and Gather or Walmart’s Great Value, are now considered on par or even better than national brands. 

Store brands increase revenue for retailers and can enhance customer loyalty. But, how can you motivate shoppers to buy them? 

One way is to collect and feature UGC for these products. Shoppers want to see reviews, videos, and images to get a sense of how the product works and can meet their needs in real life. And potentially how it compares to name brands they know. 

“Seeing people use the products on TikTok, showing their results, and then reading the comments of people that give their honest opinion and experience with the product,” reported one Influenster community member.

Boost brand loyalty with UGC 

Loyalty is a two-way street. Consumers expect you to provide information that helps them make better purchasing decisions and discover new, exciting things. When you meet those expectations, consumers will become loyal followers. 

As our research shows, UGC can help you drive brand loyalty. It’s a way to provide authentic, realistic content that informs and entertains shoppers. UGC also leads to better engagement and repeat visits to your e-commerce site. Ready to create a UGC strategy?

Use our free UGC Value Calculator tool to see the impact UGC can have on your brand.

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• Nano-influencers (1K–10K followers)
• Micro-influencers (10K–100K followers)
• Macro-influencers (100K–1M followers)
• Mega or celebrity influencers (1M+ followers)

This listicle features influencer marketing examples from across the spectrum, to help you decide on the right influencer strategy for your brand.

Chapters:

1. What is influencer marketing?
2. The best influencer marketing examples from 2022
3. Thrive in 2023 with influencer marketing campaigns

Think of the brands that captured your attention — and maybe your e-wallet — this year. Chances are, you remember the influencer marketing examples that got you to notice those brands in the first place.

From solopreneurs and startups to decades-old enterprises, companies have embraced influencers as brand partners. By the end of 2022, businesses in the U.S. spent a total of $5 billion on influencer marketing, according to Insider Intelligence. And they’ll spend another cool $6.16 billion next year.

What is influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is a type of digital or social media marketing that uses endorsements and product placements from influencers — individuals who have a large social media following or are experts within a niche. A few trends are driving the rise of influencer marketing.

• More brands now aim to attract Gen Z — the digital-native generation that’s entering the workforce and gaining more spending power — and millennials
• Nano- and micro-influencers have proven they can engage audiences and deliver high ROI, allowing businesses with smaller budgets to run influencer marketing campaigns
• Shoppers either buy online or are researching online before purchasing in person
• Tech like shoppable content has made it easier to tie influencer posts to sales

Influencer marketing is no longer a fad, it’s here to stay. And as we move deeper into the creator based economy, its value is only going to rise. But don’t worry, it’s never too late to get started.

The best influencer marketing examples from the year

Take a look at these examples of how brands used these trends (and more), to inspire your influencer marketing strategy for 2023.

1. Samsonite urges people to take their PTO and disconnect from work

In the summer of 2022, Samsonite launched its “Take What’s Yours” campaign after learning that 72% of U.S. adults had used less than half of their annual vacation days. The brand created videos that transformed vacation responder emails into manifestos to encourage people to take their paid time off (PTO). The manifesto videos, which showed people traveling with Samsonite luggage, got more than 3.4 million views on YouTube. 

Dozens of TikTok and Instagram influencers created content for the campaign. Some creators satirized PTO discussions between employees and bosses, while others gave pep talks. They encouraged viewers to take their PTO and claim their right to unplug while on vacation. 

Corporate Natalie, a creator of corporate comedy skits, created an all too relatable video where she passive-aggressively reminded her boss and colleagues that she wasn’t going to be working while on PTO. To date, it’s had over 66,000 views.

The influencers’ content featured Samsonite luggage and the hashtag #TakeWhatsYours. Audiences really engaged with the videos — comment sections showed viewers relating to the content and asking about the featured luggage. 

@corporatenatalie It appears the team is struggling to allow me to unplug. Take what’s yours this summer and set that OOO, log off and enjoy your PTO with @samsoniteusa #samsonitepartner #takewhatsyours #corporate #pto ♬ original sound – CorporateNatalie

During the campaign, the number of new users visiting shop.samsonite.com rose by 97% and branded searches for Samsonite increased by 78%. Samsonite also gained 35,000 new followers on TikTok.

In its earnings report for Q3 2022, Samsonite said that sales for its luggage and for the company’s other brands like Tumi surpassed pre-pandemic sales (Q3 2019) for the first time. The strong sales reflected people’s eagerness to travel again, as well as the success of Samsonite’s marketing efforts during the quarter, including the “Take What’s Yours” campaign.

Lesson learned: Encourage audiences to make a positive change with stories and sass

Samsonite’s campaign didn’t directly ask customers to buy luggage. Instead, the brand and its influencers encouraged people to do something good for themselves by taking the PTO they already own. The message was related to a cause — not a radical one, but one that improves people’s mental well-being. Even though the tone was motivational and light-hearted, the campaign sought to change the status quo of not taking enough time off.

This is movement marketing in action, a rising trend where brands fuel action among their customers to change things for the better. To inspire a movement, brands must evoke emotion and encourage audience involvement, according to Deloitte analysts. Marketers who focus on purpose and movements must be clear about the problem, the desired change, the brand’s stand, and the action they want to inspire.

Companies typically embark on movement marketing for three main reasons. When a cause,

1. Matters to their audience
2. Reflects their brand values
3. Gives their brand visibility

If you tick those boxes, consider rallying your audience to take steps towards a positive change — one they can achieve with your product’s help. 

Amplify the message by hiring outspoken influencers, especially those with a history of advocating for similar causes. Give them creative freedom to transform your message into content that’s consistent with their style and tailored to their audience’s tastes. 

Maintain an even tone when you deliver your rallying cry. A study of thousands of influencer marketing examples on Chinese platform Weibo showed that brands maximize the ROI of influencer marketing when they express a medium level of positivity, among other strategies. Samsonite hit the mark with its influencers’ mix of sarcasm, humor, and inspiration.

(The researchers chose to study a platform in China because the country has one of the world’s most sophisticated influencer industries).

2. Petco makes livestream shopping events fun and educational

For Halloween this year, Petco, a retailer of pet products, promoted its Bootique collection with a livestream shopping event on YouTube. The half-hour event took on a TV show format. Host Antoni Porowski — whom you might know from Queer Eye — met animals that needed adopting, interviewed a vet, took viewers behind the scenes of a pet photo shoot, and even paused for a commercial break. 

The event was both entertaining and educational. Porowski and his ‘guests’ shared tips on keeping pets safe and comfortable when out trick or treating, choosing costumes for animals, and picking out Halloween treats for your furry pals. Whenever Porowski showed a product for sale, a shoppable link popped up on the video and in the sidebar, and Petco’s team shared product links on the live chat.

Lesson learned: Experiment with livestream shopping formats to keep audiences engaged

Livestream shopping doesn’t have to be all about hard selling. Petco uses livestream shopping events as a chance to entertain, educate, and inspire customers, said Jay Altschuler, Vice President of Media Transformation at Petco, in an interview with Total Retail. 

When considering these events’ format, Petco looks at how they function as, “more than just a single moment in time. We engage pet parents and create excitement for our brand in the live event, then extend the experience to even more pet parents through a mix of organic, paid, commerce, and influencer marketing,” added Altschuler.

And consumers are here for it. In our survey of over 10,000 global shoppers, we found that 51% are most excited about livestream shopping compared to digital shopping experiences fuelled by AR, VR, and the metaverse. Revenue from livestream e-commerce in the U.S. alone is projected to grow from $20 billion in 2022 to $57 billion in 2025.

With many brands hawking products on livestream, you can stand out by experimenting with content forms. Add elements like stories, music, games, comedy, and live event coverage. Choose a format that clicks with your audience and showcases your products’ features.

Having a beloved influencer as a host will help build up hype for the event and promote it to a larger audience. For example, choosing an influencer with knowledge and enthusiasm will when marketing your products. Petco, for example, chose Antoni Porowski not just for his celebrity but also for his influence among the pet parent community. His rescue dog (Neon) has appeared on Queer Eye and has almost 100,000 followers on Instagram! That’s 99,435 more than I have.

Lastly, place shoppable links in several parts of the screen to make it easier for viewers to view product details and place orders during the live event. Viewers can also reserve items through live chat. Our 2022 Shopper Experience Index shows that 54% of consumers are more likely to shop on social media if they can click on a post and get product info without leaving the platform. 

3. Pegai reveals the secrets of its trade

If you’re a founder or solopreneur, your business is likely built on your skill or craft. That makes you a subject-matter expert in your industry. 

The same is true for Volkan Yilmaz, owner of Pegai, a leather goods company. Volkan goes by the name Tanner Leatherstein on social media. He posted his first TikTok video in August 2021 and has since gained over 530,000 followers.

In his videos, Volkan discusses the quality of leather and the craftsmanship that goes into making leather goods. He gained fame when he started literally dissecting leather bags on camera, including products by luxury brands, to find out how much they were worth. Viewers loved the honesty.

@tanner.leatherstein Feeling is the secret! -> -> -> = #leathermonk #shares #secrets #leathercrafts #leathergoods #feelit #quality #natureleather #smartshopping ♬ Feel It – Michele Morrone

Volkan has also used his channel to promote Pegai products. One premium product line, a bag made from three kinds of leather, sold out fast after he showed it to his followers. They’ve repeatedly asked him to launch a new batch. 

When Volkan promotes his own goods, he treats them with the same transparency as he does when inspecting other brands’ leather products. He tells you the types of leather he uses and how much the raw materials and labor cost. In July this year, Volkan moved Pegai into an 8,000-sq-ft warehouse to expand the business.

Lesson learned: Be your own influencer

For Pegai, educational videos work as a marketing tool because the brand needs to teach shoppers to see beyond trendy designs and recognize quality materials and craftsmanship. As Volkan said when he appeared on The E-Comm Show podcast, “Eventually people understand if you’re really trying to help them, then they come back to your brand, they trust you, they buy your stuff.”

If you have little budget for influencer marketing or need to educate your target market about your goods or services, try being your brand’s own influencer by sharing your knowledge as an example. In doing so, you build trust with your target market. Our survey of 9,000 global shoppers revealed that 39% of respondents trust influencers who are subject-matter experts (like Volkan) for their authentic content and product reviews. And 35% will buy products based on those influencers’ recommendations. 

You don’t need much equipment to start — you only need your phone’s camera and space to demonstrate your craft and knowledge. Your followers crave transparency and info, and overproducing the videos will achieve the opposite effect. 

Take it from Andrea Cheong, a TikToker with a searingly honest take on the relationship between fashion and sustainability. Andrea visits stores to check out clothing tags and educate her viewers on the quality and sustainability of the materials. As a journalist who used to work in the fashion industry, she knows what to look for.

In most of her content, Andrea simply holds her phone in front of herself, talks to the camera, and shows videos of clothing tags and details. But that doesn’t matter to audiences — it’s her opinions, knowledge, and advice that count, judging by her number of followers (222,000 on TikTok).

4. Chipotle finds a true fan in Corn Kid

In August, Recess Therapy, an Instagram-based show for kids, featured a boy who gushed about his love for corn. The clip of the seven-year-old kid, Tariq, went viral, and brands joined the conversation by creating memes about the Corn Kid — even though some didn’t have corn in their products. 

Chipotle didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon with yet another meme reaction. They reached out to Tariq and his mom and learned that he visited Chipotle weekly to get a rice bowl with roasted chili corn salsa, among other toppings. Chipotle had found a true fan who happened to be the star of the hour. The resulting ad was a fun but natural segue in the Corn Kid saga.

Wait for it pic.twitter.com/4ivkt8YJMy

— Chipotle (@ChipotleTweets) August 27, 2022

When Chipotle released the ad, it became the company’s highest-performing Instagram post ever. On TikTok, the video has now been shared over 265,000 times and liked by 9.2 million people, and is the brand’s most popular organic video. The ad also earned Chipotle over 1.7 billion PR impressions.

Lesson learned: Work with influencers who are true fans of your brand

Reactions to a meme and a trending hashtag give your brand visibility. But if you force the angle, your content can backfire. Neiv Toledano, the Social Media Manager at Chipotle, explained in an interview, “There has to be an ownable angle for your brand when working with viral influencers. The content must be authentic and provide real value to the creator’s and the brand’s fanbases.”

Make your reaction post relevant by getting to know the person at the center of the meme. Look for shared interests or aligned values to insert your brand into the conversation organically. One great way to find true fans is to search through influencer communities like Influenster. These communities already contain true fans of your brand, ready to create authentic content for you. Ask community managers for help with identifying your ideal brand partners.

5. Hugo Boss wins over millennials with the help of a TikTok superstar

At the start of 2022, Hugo Boss embarked on a high-stakes campaign to refresh its image in the eyes of younger consumers. It positioned its Boss brand for millennials and Hugo for Gen Z, and enlisted the help of over 200 celebrities and influencers — including Khaby Lame, a TikTok comedian with 152.4 million followers. The talents for Boss wore the signature Boss hoodie. Almost all 60,000 hoodies were sold during the campaign, making the item the best-selling single style in the company’s history. Global traffic to hugoboss.com more than doubled.

Every post is worth more than a Super Bowl ad in terms of impressions

Khaby stood out to Hugo Boss executives with his impact. Miah Sullivan, Senior VP of Global Marketing and Brand Communications, told Vogue Business, “When [Khaby] linked from his Instagram Reels to a post on Boss’s own Instagram, it received over 10 million views, which the brand didn’t pay to boost or promote. … Every post is worth more than a Super Bowl ad in terms of impressions.”

@boss @khaby.lame coming through: all doors open to this BOSS of style #BeYourOwnBOSS ♬ original sound – BOSS

As a result, Boss took their partnership further by launching a capsule collection with Khaby in June. They celebrated with a launch party in a nightclub in Milan so fans could meet him IRL. One item, a varsity jacket with an etched drawing of Khaby’s face priced at $645, almost sold out within a week of being released globally.

Lesson learned: Attract a large audience with an organic influencer superstar

If you want to introduce your brand to a new market and attract a large audience, work with an influencer who already has a massive following across your target demographic, inspires good vibes and affinity, and tackles a broad category of trending topics. An influencer like that can combine the network effects of fame and virality while maintaining the aura of a regular person who uses and loves your product.

Khaby’s rise to fame was organic because people got his content. They shared his exasperation with overproduced social media videos while enjoying his silent comedy. This common sentiment, his quick reactions to viral trends, and the fact that his content isn’t confined to niche topics made him one of TikTok’s biggest — but still relatable — stars.

The scale of his celebrity hasn’t diminished his ability to engage viewers, either. On TikTok, mega influencers have slightly higher engagement rates (13.7%) than all other tiers of influencers. HypeAuditor, an AI-powered influencer analytics tool, estimates Khaby’s average engagement rate to be 11.47%. He gets 29.1 million views per post on average.

Hiring a mega-influencer is expensive, so choose strategically. A study of over 5,000 influencer posts showed that brands maximize influencer marketing ROI when they work with influencers who have a high follower count, post frequently but not daily, and create plenty of original content. Khaby fits the bill.

6. Casetify co-creates with celebrities and influencers of varied scales

Casetify is a hugely successful company selling tech accessories — think protective cases for smartphones, laptops, and earphone pods. The brand first became famous for letting customers personalize their phone cases. The cases appeared on many bloggers’ mirror selfies and proved their durability in recorded drop tests by vloggers. 

Over the years, Casetify has co-created capsule collections with celebrities, brands, and studios. The products attract long waitlists and sell out fast in their first release.

In 2022, Casetify also worked with smaller-scale creators like Vivian Ho, an emerging artist from Hong Kong with 33,000 Instagram followers, and Jayme, a digital art business owner from Canada who goes by the name Sleepydaze and has 28,200 YouTube subscribers and 112,000 TikTok followers. (Each has more followers than the average micro-influencer but is still considered a small-scale influencer compared to many of Casetify’s collaborators.)

On TikTok, video results for the search “Casetify Sleepydaze”, including content made by people who bought the cases, have amassed 1.3 billion views to date.

Lesson learned: Attract diverse audiences by co-creating products with influencers of all scales

Casetify already has a large customer base — the company has sold over 15 million cases since 2011 and is on track to earn $300 million in revenue this year. To find new audiences, they collaborate with influencers of all scales. 

Micro- and nano-influencers may not have massive reach, but they share specific interests with their audiences. They tend to have meaningful engagement on their social media accounts. And so large brands like Casetify can’t ignore them if they want to find new paths to growth. On YouTube, accounts with less than 15,000 followers have the highest engagement rates. While on Instagram, when we analyzed the performance of 516 of our clients, we found nano influencers have the best engagement rate.

When you co-create products with influencers, you gain new ideas, unearth the interests of your target buyers, and discover segments of your existing market that you’ve underserved. You also give influencers a more significant stake in the success of your campaigns, and they naturally want to tell their followers about the new product.

For example, give influencers the support they need to create and promote marketing collaborations with you. Casetify has an app where customers can sign up for waitlists for limited-edition collections. App users can also apply for priority access and join lucky draws for special editions of phone case designs. They can buy phone cases directly on the app, too.

Amplify the collections on social media and your website, especially if they were co-created by influencers with smaller audiences. Drive sales by making content shoppable on the platforms where you promote it.

As en example of turning an influencer marketing example into a strategy, Urban Barn, a furniture brand, inserts “Shop The Look” widgets at the bottom of webpages featuring influencer collaborations. The brand also makes images shoppable — a price tag symbol appears over furniture pieces in a single photo, and provides a pop-up with a link to product details when you click on the tag.

Urban Barn’s shoppable content

Thrive in 2024 with influencer marketing campaigns

Amid the chaos of 2023, brands have continued to sell, grow, and compete. That’s partly thanks to influencers’ help. Make the most of your marketing budget in 2024 by taking inspiration from these influencer marketing examples and the many invaluable lessons they’ve taught us. 

To get started, work with Influenster, Bazaarvoice’s global community of 7.5 million everyday shoppers who have built small but engaged audiences on social media. These shoppers provide authentic reviews, create FOMO for your events, and amplify your brand message to help you reach your ideal consumers. Learn more about this unique end-to-end influencer marketing platform here.

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What is Influenster?

Influenster is an end-to-end influencer and creator marketing platform, powered by everyday consumers. You might know of Influenster from their coveted VoxBoxes. Who better to explain it than Influenster themselves:

@influenster Allow us to reintroduce ourselves #greenscreenvideo ♬ Chrysanthemum Tea – Prod. By Rose

The Influenster community’s love for product discovery has led to over 55 million product reviews, growing on average by a million each month. This makes the Influenster App second only to Amazon in the online product review space. And with 98% of that content added organically and non-incentivized, Influenster App members are genuinely passionate about sharing the brands and products they love. 

The Influenster App empowers everyday shoppers to be influential for your brand. By tapping into the Influenster community your brand can build a solid, transparent relationship with the shoppers that matter most and empower them to become your biggest advocates.

Influenster App benefits for brands

Here’s a few ways your brand can utilize the Influenster App and connect with the everyday shoppers who are actively raising their hands to engage with brands, and empower your future customers to buy with confidence. 

Take advantage of existing, organic content 

Influenster’s wealth of user-generated content (UGC) includes shopper reviews, photos, videos, discussions, polls, and more — across a variety of product categories from beauty to baby to food and beverage.

Whether sharing their opinions on a new eye shadow purchase or finding the best organic pet food for their beloved cat, members are using the Influenster App to research and review products that make up their daily lives. 

Over 50,000 pieces of UGC are added to Influenster everyday but this activity doesn’t have to be siloed to just the Influenster App. What makes Influenster unique is the ability to take this content and syndicate it across different channels that inform their customer’s next purchase. 

For example, Pacifica Beauty used the Influenster App to supply 12 retailers with thousands of new, high-quality reviews. Within just months of leveraging existing UGC, Pacifica gained over 2,000 reviews across nearly 200 products.

Capturing UGC organically can be a challenge, but the Influenster community is highly engaged, and we saw this as a good way to drive purchase intent.

Michael Kremer, Chief Marketing Officer, Pacifica Beauty

Those organic reviews were distributed to become more than 10,000 syndicated reviews with a 4.5 average rating across 12 retail sites such as Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.

Find and connect with your brand advocates

The Influenster App provides an easy way for brands to foster advocacy through the ability to activate hyper-targeted audiences and form one-to-one connections that can be scaled across social and onto your product pages.

Members don’t pay to be a part of Influenster. Instead, by filling out a profile of age, interests and shopping habits, linking their social channels and reviewed products, they’re connected to the brands that matter most to them.

Brands can leverage this hyper-targeted network that stretches across a variety of categories to segment the exact shopper they are looking to reach. Using over 900 data points per member, brands can activate both loyalists and competitive users, members who shop at key retailers or those with specific dietary or skincare needs, to test their products and share their feedback. 

By connecting your products with the exact, desired audience your brand has top of mind you will not only bolster your UGC strategy with authentic content, but will build life-long brand fans. 

Activate the Influenster community with product sampling

Consumer trust in influencers has dwindled over the years. A study from Bazaarvoice reported that 47% of customers are tired of influencer content that appears inauthentic. And according to our recent survey of 10,000 shoppers, it’s actually the every day social media user, like you and I, that reigns supreme.

In today’s market authenticity is key. Shoppers are turning to social media to inspire their purchases but are much more likely to trust recommendations that come from voices like their own.

Hyper-targeted sampling solutions help brands connect with their ideal consumer and lets these engaged Influenster members build brand awareness for them. Not only do these turnkey solutions drive social content and reviews, but through a post-campaign survey, brand’s can get a look into their target consumer shopping behavior and preferences.

Product Sampling is customizable for brand OKRs, whether you’re sending product to their doorstep in a dedicated box or scoring valuable space in a non-competitive shared campaign.

In addition to building up brand trust, sampling helps create a strong relationship with your target consumer. Since the majority of members are everyday shoppers, they aren’t receiving PR packages or getting paid to review products.

When members receive your product at their doorstep, they’re engaged and excited to share their opinions. Creating this branded experience helps build relationships that last long after the program’s end. 

For example, L’Oreal brand Redken wanted to generate buzz and authentic word-of-mouth for a new hair care product. So they activated Influenster members via the app to target a specific audience, including women ages 20 to 46, who have oil-prone hair, frequently hit the gym, or have busy schedules. 

Redken sent out over 2,5000 boxes to these everyday influencers, and in return generated:

• 7.7 million impressions
• 1,700 organic reviews
• 84,000 posts, shares, and likes

But most notably, the campaign generated $567,000 in earned media value. “We didn’t spend that much, so the performance was incredible,” said Monique Salas, Director of Marketing for Redken at L’Oreal.

Better understand shopper preferences through data

Customer ratings and reviews are a crucial component of the shopping experience, impacting everything from sales to SEO. But, unlocking the meaning and trends behind UGC is often time-consuming and labor extensive. In fact, according to Bazaarvoice research, half (49%) of brands and retailers report that they don’t have the resources or tools to collect insights from their UGC.

With 50 million product reviews, Influenster can source robust first-party insights on brand and products. From an in-depth review analysis that helps brands better understand their target audience to custom surveys that help fill in data gaps, insights can help guide and improve brand strategy and inform product innovation.  

Shopper data from the Influenster App can also help inform and enhance ad campaigns and marketing efforts. Brands can leverage post sampling campaign insights to create testimonials and claims that bolster brand credibility.

Also, brands can leverage Influenster’s robust targeting capabilities and high-quality member content to power their paid media strategy. ReviewSource turns their top reviews and UGC into highly-targeted digital and social ad units, bolstering brand reach, and credibility. 

The Influenster App: Your next favourite thing

For brands not yet utilizing the Influenster App, there’s a goldmine of engagement and data waiting for them to take their business to the next level.

The ability to hyper-target consumers based on behaviors and other characteristics beyond typical demographics was a key benefit in choosing Influenster

Elizabeth Northrup, Associate Brand Manager, Kraft Heinz

Bazaarvoice can help you create and customize targeted campaigns that connect with the right audience of shoppers to build brand awareness, generate authentic UGC, and create lasting brand loyalty. Learn more about the Influenster App here. Or get in touch below to get started.

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Why? Because authenticity builds trust with consumers. 

Over 80% of shoppers won’t buy from brands they don’t trust, and 62% choose products based on a brand’s reputation. What’s more, 58% of people let their values and beliefs drive which brands they buy from. 

Working with authentic influencers helps you establish and solidify your reputation, highlight your values, and engage consumers in the process. But, with so much noise on social media, getting consumers to stop scrolling and engage with your content depends on sincere, relatable messaging.

Here’s how to harness the power of authentic influencer marketing. 

Why is authenticity important in influencer marketing?

Traditional advertising has long been a one-sided conversation, with your images and messages as the dominant voice. But, we are rapidly shifting towards an influence economy. Today’s consumers want more — they want to be active participants in that conversation. They want to interact with you by sharing their thoughts about your products and tagging you in their social media posts. 

So much so that the B2C industry might as well be the C2B industry. And in some cases the C2C industry, given that influencer user-generated content (UGC), like customer reviews and social posts, has more sales impact than branded content.

Influencers enable you to communicate with consumers in a more direct, relatable way, which establishes trust. 63% of consumers say they trust what influencers say about your products more than what you say about them, according to Edelman. And, nearly 60% have bought something based on an influencer’s recommendation. 

Trust is crucial for attracting shoppers, especially Gen Z and millennial consumers, who are twice as likely to trust influencer content as their older counterparts. 

Fashion brand Quiz for example uses micro influencers to collect authentic content for its website and social pages, which has led to a 154% increase in engagement.

The right influencer can help you deliver consistent messaging across channels that’s perceived as genuine, relatable, and engaging. The more authentic you come across, the higher brand awareness and engagement levels you’ll drive.

What are the four types of influencers?

When you think of influencers, you might think of one of the Kardashians or an A-list celebrity. These are certainly examples of influencers, but there’s so much more authentic influencer marketing to turn to.

Here’s a look at four types of influencers: 

• Subject matter experts: As the name suggests, these influencers are experts in a specific subject area. Think: chefs, DIY-ers, home decorators, makeup artists, and fashionistas. They post primarily about their area of expertise, and recommend, sell, or create sponsored content for related products. 

• Celebrities: This is where the Kardashians and A-listers come in. Actors, reality TV stars, musicians, athletes, and other famous folks may give you a behind-the-scenes look at their lifestyles and promote products that fit into that. They might also promote their own brands or products they’re selling. 

• Social media stars: These influencers don’t necessarily have an area of expertise, but might stand out on social media because of their aesthetic or ability to jump on internet trends. They often became well-known solely for their online presence and are often paid to promote products. 

• Everyday social media users: These are regular people — your family, friends, peers, or others you’ve never actually met, but follow on social media. They share day-to-day content, like ratings and reviews, photos, and videos, that might feature products, but they don’t have an agenda to promote the items. 

We wanted to know what influence these influencers have, so we asked 9,000 global consumers to find out which type of influencer they followed the most. It may be surprising, but they said:

What makes an influencer authentic? 

What makes consumers perceive someone as an authentic influencer depends on several factors. And, as above demonstrates, it’s not always being a household name or having millions of social media followers. We’ve found that 72% of consumers don’t care about follower counts. 

And referring back to our influencer survey of 9,000 shoppers, nearly 40% of consumers think everyday social media users and subject matter experts share the most authentic and genuine content. More than 30% feel that these two types of influencers were most likely to provide unbiased reviews of the products they promote. Users are most likely to buy things recommended by an everyday social media influencer. 

This further highlights the value that user-generated content, or influencer-generated content, can bring to your authentic influencer marketing strategy. According to our 2022 Shopper Experience Index, 53% of shoppers say UGC, such as social images from real customers, makes them feel more confident in purchasing a product than professional photography. And 40% say reviews, photos, and other content from real shoppers entice them to buy something from an ad. 

To be considered an authentic influencer, consumers expect them to disclose whether they’ve been paid to post about a product. 83% of shoppers trust content that influencers haven’t been paid to promote, including UGC.

How can you check the authenticity of an influencer?

The first step in deciphering an influencer’s authenticity is to follow them. Pay attention to how often they post, the kinds of content they post, and how their followers react. Conduct audits to make sure their follower-to-engagement ratio is in check — do they have tons and tons of followers but very few likes or comments on their posts? If so, they may have a slew of fake followers. Then you may want to reach out and make contact yourself.

Make sure, too, that any influencer you work with follows the rules about disclosing whether posts are sponsored or not. Shoppers expect this, too. Norway announced new regulations in 2021 to legally require influencers to disclose if their photos are altered. And Bazaarvoice research shows that 80% of consumers think this should be a rule everywhere. 

Everyday social media users and consumers are some of the most authentic influencers. Your authentic influencer marketing strategies will be most effective when you use user-generated content from these individuals, as well as subject matter experts — instead of just relying on branded content. 

82% of consumers trust organic content posted by influencers the most. Not only that, shoppers who interact with user-generated content are 2x more likely to convert. Most consumers also actively look for content from other shoppers to find inspiration about which products to buy and ideas for how to use the items. 

What makes an influencer a good fit for a brand?

It’s simple: a willingness to be authentic. Find and partner with authentic influencers who align with your brand’s values, style, and point of view. Most often, that’s everyday users who post organically about the products they love. 

Even when you directly reach out to subject matter experts and everyday users for direct collaborations, avoid placing too many brand restrictions on the content that they post. Consumers are most receptive to messaging that feels honest and relatable, and not too staged or scripted. 

Research shows that “nano-influencers,” or those with 1,000 to 10,000 followers, can experience engagement levels of 8.8%, while “mega-influencers” with more than a million followers see only 1.6% engagement. 

Don’t just take our word for it though. Look at how L’Oreal partners with Bazaarvoice’s Influenster community to find the right hyper-targeted audiences for its products.

L’Oreal brand Redken wanted to build buzz and word-of-mouth in an authentic way so they used the Influenster community to target a hair care product to specific groups, including women ages 20 to 46, who have oil-prone hair, frequently hit the gym, or have busy schedules. 

Redken sent out 2,500 boxes of products to everyday influencers and earned a whopping:

• 7.7 million impressions
• 1,700 reviews
• 84,000 posts, shares, and likes
• $567,0000 earned media value

And on Instagram, the brand gained 69,000 likes alone and 6.2 million impressions. 

This example demonstrates the power of the authentic influencer. Customers trust what they have to say, enjoy engaging with real people, and feel confident in purchasing based on their recommendations.

Like with Redken, Bazaarvoice can help you find the right influencers for your brand to up the ante on your authentic influencer marketing. Learn more about how the Bazaarvoice Influenster community can help support your authentic influencer marketing goals. Or skip the middle man and get in touch directly below. 

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In 2018, Warby Parker began working with Warby Parker-wearing musicians, authors, chefs, and other creative individuals to showcase what its customers accomplish.

In addition to making sponsored posts, the influencers were featured on the brand’s Wearing Warby page, where customers could learn about the influencers, watch them try on various frames, and get product suggestions to help them create a similar look.

The campaign began with just seven influencers and resulted in more than 55,000 likes on Instagram and an average engagement rate of nearly 3.5%. It was such a success that the #WearingWarby campaign continues today.

Why was it so effective? Because it’s authentic and mutually beneficial for both Warby and influencers. The brand specifically reached out to influencers who were already fans of the brand and had made non-sponsored posts featuring its product. And it gave them the freedom to make their #WearingWarby posts using their own voice and aesthetic, so it fit organically into their feeds and appealed to their audiences.

8 ways to reach out to influencers

If your brand wants to follow Warby Parker’s example and launch a successful influencer campaign that’s truly a partnership, you first need to know how to reach out to influencers and make them an offer that piques their interest. Here’s how to do it

1. Follow them

When it comes to influencer outreach, it’s important to take the time to establish a relationship before making contact. Especially if this is the first time you’ve reached out to that influencer.

So, once you’ve identified the best influencers for your brand, follow them on the social network you’d like to work with them on. This shows that you’re a fan of their work, and it gives them a heads-up that their content has caught your brand’s eye. It’s also best practice to familiarize yourself with the influencer past collaborations, voice/tone, and to put yourself in the perspective of the audience. 

2. Engage with the influencer’s content

Start by liking your desired influencer’s posts and leave comments, especially on posts that caught your interest because they’re a good fit for your brand. This illustrates that you’re not only familiar with the influencer’s work but that you’re also a fan.

Influencer Nikiya Palombi, who has more than 9,000 Instagram followers, says it’s especially important to her that a brand leaves comments. “It shows that a brand actually took the time to look at my photography style and makes me feel like they are truly interested in what I bring to the table as a creator and not just mass emailing,” she says.

3. Contact them via email

Just because an influencer’s amazing Instagram content is the reason you want to work with them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s where you should contact them. If you want to reach out to influencers, do it properly. Ini Ikpe, the creator of SuitGrid, politely begs brands, “Don’t slide in my DM. Right now, I have about 35 messages I haven’t even looked at.”

“In the past when people have DM’d me, it doesn’t feel professional,” says Dan Whalen, whose food posts have amassed him more than 13,000 followers. “If I love a brand or concept for a partnership, I am happy to work with them no matter how they reach out, but emails have always been more professional and ended up in stronger relationships.”

Plus, if the influencer isn’t following your brand, your DM will end up in their “Request” inbox and may go unnoticed.

To find an influencer’s email address, check their Instagram bio or their website. If you can’t find contact information, comment on one of their posts and ask them to share their email address. Your DMs are not the place to discuss budget, usage or exclusivity. Influencers are running a business and email is the best place to get aligned on all aspects of a collaboration.

4. Craft a compelling subject line

Influencers, even micro-influencers, receive many inquiries.

So, make it easy for them to scan your subject line by mentioning your brand and “collaboration” in the headline, suggests Ikpe. These keywords help the influencer quickly understand the nature of your request, so they’re more likely to open the message and respond to it.

Additionally, the subject is a great place to disclose that this collaboration is a sponsored opportunity, which stands out to an influencer who might not be open to working on unpaid collaborations. 

5. Send a clear, enthusiastic message

Some brands may try to pique an influencer’s interest by holding back details, but this is a common frustration for influencers. After all, no one better knows how to reach out to influencers than influencers themselves. “I like brands that provide the details right away so I know what the whole offer is without having to ask questions or confirm things,” says Mikaela Heilman, who has over 10,000 followers.

While you don’t have to delve into all the details of the campaign in your initial message, be upfront about what you’re proposing. Explain if the campaign is paid, what you’re asking of the influencer, and what your timeline is. Make sure to specify the deliverables, the platforms you wish to collaborate on and what the goal of the project is. Also be sure to share overall messaging about your brand, or the brand you’re working on behalf of, along with the brand’s social channels so that they can explore independently and gauge their interest.

Your message should also communicate enthusiasm about your brand, the influencer’s content, and a potential partnership. Influencers want to participate in exciting collaborations, so the tone of your message should convey that this is an opportunity they don’t want to miss out on.

Influencers are like artists, so when you reach out to them, what you’re offering has to feel cool,” says David Dundas, founder of HelloConvo. “You have to craft a message that sells your brand, and you also need a clear call to action like, ‘Can we send you this product to try out?’ Make it easy for the influencer to say yes. Then you’ve already secured a micro-commitment.”

6. Share compensation details

When you initially reach out to your prospective influencers, be upfront about how your brand will provide compensation.

“Making it really clear if it’s a product exchange or paid is important in the first outreach,” says Anie Delgado, who has more than 39,000 Instagram followers.

While you can detail the exact amount you’ve budgeted for a sponsored post, for example, you don’t have to. Simply convey that the sponsorship will be paid and ask for the influencer’s rates or let them know that pay is negotiable.

And while money is important, it isn’t everything. The one thing every influencer we interviewed agreed on is this: The brand has to be a good fit.

“For me the ultimate decision comes down to the product and if the brand is inline with my personal values,” Palombi says.

7. Provide product samples without expectations

Offer to send an influencer free products to help them get acquainted with your brand and its offerings — and don’t ask them to post about it for free. Creating content requires an influencer’s time and work, and that’s an exchange of services that most will expect to be paid for.

“I hate when a brand reaches out to me and says something like, ‘We’ll give you X products, a code, and all you have to do is pay for shipping,’” says Palombi. “If you can’t pay for shipping, you’re not taking yourself seriously and you’re certainly not going to take my time seriously.”

If your brand wants to send your products to an influencer, do so with no expectations other than to introduce them to your company. Offer them a few product choices beforehand to show that you value their opinion. Plus, if it’s a product that already piques their interest, they’re likely to post about it.

“I usually like to look at the brand to see if we’ll actually use their products and if the brand resonates with us,” says Karen Nguyen, whose cat Waffles () has more than 9,000 Instagram followers. “We love brands that reach out to tell us that they want us to try their products and to browse through their site to see if there’s anything that we find interesting.”

The product sampling stage is crucial, as in this stage it’s important to give influencers an easy out. If an influencer finds through a product trial that this particular product isn’t the best fit for them, be understanding. For influencers and for the brand, it’s crucial to allow influencers to speak authentically. The influencer’s following is familiar with how they speak about and present a product they love — it’s obvious when an influencer is only working with a brand because of the compensation attached.

If an influencer doesn’t love a product, revisit their partnership for a different campaign and try to find an influencer who is a better fit.

8. Give influencers creative freedom

Influencers spend a lot of time and effort curating their own brand’s voice and look. So, it can really turn them off to have a company dictate exactly what to say.

Delgado says she appreciates it when a brand lets her express herself and her opinions in her own words. And she says her followers can definitely tell the difference between a caption she wrote herself and one meticulously crafted by a brand.

“If I am rambling off things the brand told me to say, my audience can tell it’s not as authentic,” she says.

And when a post doesn’t seem authentic to an influencer’s followers, it’s going to impact your partnership. For example, the post may get lower engagement and affect your overall ROI. In the worst case scenario, the influencer might face backlash from their followers. 

If you enter partnership with influencers, let them know the features and benefits of the product up front and then work together on a concept that allows the Influencer to breathe their own life into the content. Provide key information that an influencer may lean on, but do not provide a script.

Knowing how to reach out to influencers is key

The power of social media influencers is undeniable. In fact, 89% of marketers say the ROI from working with influencers is comparable to or better than other marketing channels.

But to get the best results out of your brand’s partnerships, you have to know how to reach out to influencers.

So, approach every influencer mindfully and thoughtfully, regardless of the size of their following. This will not only increase the chances that the influencer will accept your offer, but it’ll also set the tone for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Now that you know how to reach out to influencers and get a yes in return, it’s time to put strategy in action. The best way to get started is to tap into an existing community of influencers.

The Influenster App, an end-to-end influencer marketing platform of over 7.5 million members, can pair you with the exact influencer for your specific requirements. Read more about it here or get in touch directly below to learn more.

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Chapters:

1. What is a brand community?
2. Benefits of a brand community
3. How to build a thriving brand community
4. Brand community examples
5. Build your business-driving engine

If you’re a millennial or older, you know what a fan club is. Maybe you were even a member of your favorite band’s fan club at some point. Maybe you still are. If so, you know the thrill of getting access to early releases, pre-sale tickets, exclusive material, stickers, and other free swag. And who could forget the chance to geek out with other like-minded individuals who shared a common passion?

Brand communities are like modern-day fan clubs for consumers. A strong brand community is a very good indicator of how loyal and engaged an audience is, which is a big factor in the overall success of your brand. But just like fan clubs, brand communities need dedicated nurturing and maintenance for long-term success.

Discover the many ways brand communities can help your brand and how to launch and manage one for the best results. 

What is a brand community?

A brand community is an online meeting space for customers (fans) of a brand to interact with each other and the brand, while gaining access to exclusive content and offers. Members of a brand community are dedicated customers who want more of what your brand has to offer. They’re galvanized by the lifestyle, values, benefits, and impact the brand represents. 

Benefits of a brand community

Brand communities are great for boosting qualitative feel-good KPIs like brand loyalty and emotional connection, but they also have very real, practical functions. There’s multiple positive outcomes of a brand community, each with its own specific ROI.

1. Foster an emotional connection with customers

Customers involved in brand communities feel strongly enough about a brand to be a member. In other words, they’re your brand’s most loyal customers. Like old-school, die-hard fan club members, these customers have an emotional connection with the brand and are usually the biggest advocates. This is a special quality in a customer base and not always easy for brands to cultivate. So you should hold onto it tightly once you have it. 

Emotional connection has a direct impact on consumer behavior. A Motista study of over 100,000 consumers conducted over two years found there were significant benefits in emotionally connected customers. These customers:

• Spend double or more with their preferred retailers over other retailers
• Have over 300% higher lifetime value
• Are loyal to brands longer, and recommend brands at a much higher rate

The community aspect is another important factor. Forrester reports that, “the desire to form a bond with fellow shoppers around a certain brand is one of the strongest drivers of consumer interest in DTC brands.”

2. Provide an outlet for product, marketing, and concept testing

Brand communities also create a venue for testing ideas and products with a captive audience. This can lead to product development and improvement and drive innovation. If you’re wondering how your target audience will respond to a product, service, marketing campaign, or anything new and different from your brand, ask members of your community directly.

You can also gauge their current sentiment and satisfaction with your existing offerings. According to a GRIT Report, online communities are the top method of market research, accounting for 59% of responses.   

A very useful function of establishing a brand community is having a group of target customers you can send product samples to. A product sampling campaign is an extremely effective way to get customer feedback about newly released products, updated products, and older products that need to be reintroduced to shoppers. By providing product samples to your community members, you can get back honest feedback from the people who know your brand the most. 

This can lead to changes and updates to improve the product and help make official product launches more successful.

3. Generate user-generated content

Brand communities also serve as another source of user-generated content (UGC). They offer a space for community members to share reviews, feedback, and visual UGC, like photos and videos of your brand’s products. UGC has the power to influence other customers within the community. And, with permission, you can share that content on your e-commerce website and social media channels and reach a larger audience.

Showcasing visual UGC on product pages can significantly increase conversion rates, and customer reviews influence purchase decisions for 97% of shoppers. 

4. Create an efficient and effective customer support channel

The thing about customer service issues is that if one customer has a question, chances are many others do, too. That’s why forums like Quora and Reddit and Yahoo! Answers (RIP) are popular sites for people to ask questions and troubleshoot problems with other consumers. Brand communities can provide the same resource but on the brand’s own platform. 

There’s no question that brand communities require money, time, and maintenance. But a Harvard Business Review contributor wanted to know if the investment was worth it from a customer support standpoint, so he conducted an experiment to find out. After hiding a client’s brand community for four months, he realized that using the community to communicate with customers and resolve issues was 72% cheaper for the client compared to its other customer support channels. Furthermore, customer satisfaction scores “plummeted to one of the lowest levels on record” when the community was inactive. 

5. Improve SEO value

That same experiment also revealed that 93% of traffic to the client’s brand community came from search engines. This shows that consumers, whether they’re already part of a community or not, are finding answers to their questions in the brand community via Google search (or using a different search engine). So, the keywords they are using in their searches lead them to discussions in the brand communities containing similar keywords. 

By appearing in search results, brand communities are organically attracting more visitors to the communities. As well as the brand’s website (or platform) that hosts the community. In the experiment, hiding the client’s community decreased its organic traffic by 83%. It also resulted in a 58% increase in customer support tickets and calls, which consequently overwhelmed the customer service department. 

How to build a thriving brand community

You need to put thought and effort into planning your brand community to do it right. Make your decisions with your business goals and customer satisfaction criteria in mind. Your brand community can be a part of your marketing department, or you may want to allocate dedicated staff to run and maintain it.

Choose your brand community platform

When planning your brand community launch, consider what platform makes the most sense for it to live on. This can include a section of your website, a social media group or separate account, or your brand’s mobile app. 

Forrester predicts that communities on brand and retailer websites will, “become more prominent.” Website-operated communities have their advantages, including access to more customer data and more administrative control, and encourage further exploration of the website. You can also add a questions and answers feature to provide your brand’s responses to customer inquiries within the community in addition to product pages.

Alternatively, your brand might already have an active audience on Facebook or Reddit. In that case, it might make more sense to use one of those channels as the community hub. Whichever platform you choose, other channels can promote and support your brand community, adding to the omnichannel experience. If your community is on your website, you can tease tips, feedback, and content on social media and vice-versa. 

Make it customer-centric

This might seem obvious, but communities made up of customers should serve the customers. They should provide a space for interaction, conversation, customer service support, and offer exclusive benefits. By engaging with customers, you can learn more about them and how they feel about your products. Then you can use that feedback to improve your products, services, customer experience, and create loyal advocates.

A thriving and self-sustaining brand community also needs to empower your customers to get involved with the brand and each other. LEGO Ideas is an example whose primary purpose is for customers to actively participate with the products and new product development and encourage each other in their own LEGO-related endeavors. With its brand community, LEGO gives its customers a chance to be collaborators. The LEGO Ideas community hub also includes its own dedicated blog, FAQ page, and links to customer service resources.

Part of having a customer-centric brand community is finding your audience’s niche and tailoring the experience for them. LEGO’s target customers are made up of creators and hobbyists of all ages who are motivated to make their ideas come to life. They then share them with others, contributing directly to the brand.

Apparel brand Uniqlo’s community craves the latest fashion trends, so the brand keeps them interested and engaged by partnering with new and cutting-edge designers and artists. 

Engage with your community

Brands should regularly engage with their community to boost customer retention, loyalty, and involvement. The chance to venture beyond a transactional relationship with a brand is a top motivation for customers who want to be a part of a community. 

That can mean offering membership perks like discounts and early releases. Also exclusive access to product and brand experts, stylists, personal shoppers, or other professionals your customers can chat with. Making sure you answer any questions brought up in discussions and providing quality customer support are some of the best ways to maintain engagement.

Engagement can reach beyond the community’s digital space to other virtual or in-person experiences. Other ways to connect members with each other and your brand can include live shopping events for community members, group exercise classes, and other organized in-person events.   

Make your community accessible

Just as you’d market any of your products, you should prominently position and promote your brand community to attract more customers to it. If your community is located on your website, make sure it’s easy to find from the home page or menu. 

Other website category pages can point to the brand community for relevant searches and content. For example, if a customer types a question on a customer service page that’s already been answered in a community forum, they can be prompted to go to the corresponding community page. 

Brands can also attach a branded hashtag to their community (#LiveBV anyone?) so customers can share questions and content related to that community on social media channels. Not only can brands continue community conversations on multiple channels, but they’re also able to expose a larger audience to their community and attract more customers.

Brand community examples

If you’re new to setting up a brand community, there’s a variety of different brands that have already done it successfully. Take notes on these active communities, all with their own approaches and niche audiences.

Nike Training Club

Nike Training Club is an example of a brand community with long-term success. It was Nike’s very first iPhone app that launched over a decade ago, and to this day, it’s one of its most popular digital channels. NTC owes its popularity and longevity to the fact that it puts the customer at the center of its mission. Originally created to solve two specific customer needs – motivation and training guidance – the app presents both its products and the surrounding community as solutions.

The community includes workouts by renowned athletes and a social aspect that allows users to interact with and support each other.

Sephora Beauty Insider Community 

Sephora has one of the best loyalty programs, Beauty Insider, that offers customers rewards based on points earned from purchases. The Sephora Beauty Insider Community is an extension of that brand, where beauty consumers can post questions and tips and share styles with the community. Anyone can access the community hub, but only members can post content and respond to other members’ posts. 

Sephora’s community is teeming with UGC, from photos of members’ makeup looks and product reviews to tons of tips and questions and answers about products and how to use them. The following video shows how members can successfully sign up and participate in the community.

Influenster

Influenster is Bazaarvoice’s very own consumer community with over 7 million members. It’s a destination for finding customer reviews on a massive amount of products from a wide range of consumer brands. The brand community is housed on its own Influenster website, and it just launched the Influenster mobile app.

Participating brands can send members product samples in exchange for reviews and visual UGC, which they can use to elevate their e-commerce product pages. This is an example of a focused and intentional way to manage a brand community for a large group of brands, although the same principles and strategy can be applied to a single brand community as well. 

Dole, a major fruit brand, leveraged Influenster to increase awareness of its full range of products by sourcing over 2,000 reviews from Influenster members in just a few months. This generated customer reviews for 74% of Dole’s product pages and a 64% increase in conversion rate among shoppers who saw the reviews.

Portland Leather Goods

Portland Leather Goods is an accessories brand that hosts its Portland Leather Insiders brand community on a private Facebook Group. The official PLI group is for customers and fans to get sneak peeks, early access, special giveaways, VIP discounts and exclusive content from the PLG team you won’t find elsewhere. It also encourages members to share their photos, reviews, tips, and other content with each other.

Intuit TurboTax + Mint Community

Taxes aren’t the most intriguing topic, but it’s one that all adult citizens (sadly) have to contend with. Especially around the annual filing deadline. There’s a lot of intricacies and details to keep up with, which is why accountants, tax agents, and tax attorneys exist. That’s also why TurboTax was created: to give individuals the option to file their own tax returns with support and guidance from the platform.

The TurboTax + Mint Community emerged as an additional service for TurboTax and Mint users to ask any and all of their tax and personal finance questions, and do their own research year-round. The community empowers its members to educate themselves and help others with any problems they might encounter. It features different discussion forums related to taxes, debt, investing, self-employment, and more. It highlights handy resources on the main community page and has links for access to customer support representatives and tools.

The community also features a leaderboard that showcases the top contributors who actively engage on the site. They receive “cheers” for answering questions, offering solutions, and posting their own thoughts and questions.

Turn your brand community into a business-driving engine

Other than attracting avid, loyal customers, your brand community should meet business goals. First, identify what those particular goals for your brand community are. Common goals include:

• Driving leads and conversions
• Increasing your customer advocacy
• Generating UGC as part of your marketing strategy
• Providing more cost-effective and efficient customer service 

Your goals will guide how you’ll structure the community and how you’ll measure the progress toward those goals. And the results of your brand community efforts will also reveal how it can support and collaborate with other departments, like demand generation and customer service.

As with all of your marketing initiatives, make sure you’re analyzing the performance of your brand community on a regular basis. Pay attention to metrics like member growth, conversions, UGC collected, website traffic, and anything else that’s relevant to your business goals. 

Want to see how one leading, global brand does it? Join Taylor Alston of J.P. Morgan, below, for a conversation on innovative community-building strategies.

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