With the arrival of the digital age, the concept of traditional marketing has undergone a total upside-down change. Because of this reason, the demand for influencers and the significant impact of influencer marketing came into existence. Influencers, AKA Content creators, are the key ingredients to making your customers fall in love with your brand and stay loyal to it, resulting in increased repeat sales.
Influencers are internet content creators and well-known celebrities who have gained popularity and built high reputations with sizable audience groups in a specific niche field promoting other brands and products or their personal brands, products or services. The rise of these creators has prompted Shopify, a prominent eCommerce platform, to develop and launch the Shopify Collabs app, specifically designed to help businesses manage their creators and their content.
Before moving with Shopify Collabs, let us have some insights about influencer marketing and the importance of this high-demand and highly effective marketing technique.
What is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing refers to the strategy that businesses use to collaborate with popular social media influencers to promote their brand, product, service, or message to their followers. Typically, these collaborations involve the influencer creating unique digital content on behalf of the brand.
Also Read: Boost your Sales with Social Media Marketing
In exchange for their services, the influencer may be compensated in several ways, including free products, cash payments, or discounts on high-end products. The ultimate goal of influencer marketing is to leverage the influencer’s credibility, reach, and influence to increase brand awareness and drive sales.
Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc., are the hotspots for influencers to post their created content and reach a huge audience crowd. Out of all these social media platforms, Instagram was the most used social media platform for influencers to run their marketing campaigns. In fact, it is expected that Instagram will hold on to this position till 2025.
Also Read: What is Influencer Marketing on Instagram for Ecommerce?
Major Benefits of Influencer Marketing
1. Builds Strong Relationships
Influencers build stronger relationships between brands and customers through authentic presentation and engagement. This brand-influencer-audience dynamic is now a solid staple of media consumption. For maximum impact, your business should provide value to the influencer’s audience and ensure that their personal brand aligns with your own.
2. Increases Audience Reach
Social media platforms have the highest number of users compared to any other online platform. As we discussed above, social media platforms are the hotspots for influencers to run their marketing campaigns, allowing them to leverage the wide audience base of these social media platforms.
3. Gain Higher EMV
Influencer marketing has a major benefit: it can potentially increase your earned media value (EMV). A higher EMV means that you are getting more social mentions and building stronger social connections, which can lead to more sales. By working with an influencer in your marketing efforts, you can improve your chances of increasing your EMV.
What is Shopify Collabs?
Shopify Collabs is an application developed by Shopify in 2021. The application is more of a marketplace where content creators and brand owners are brought together for their influencer marketing campaigns, resulting in the platform also being referred to as a creator marketplace.
Creators just need to sign up with Shopify Collabs, create their account and select the brand whose products or services they are willing to promote. At Collabs, creators are given millions of brands to work with. Also, creators are allowed to create a detailed profile including all their details, such as follower size, channels owned, engagement rate, views, and much more.
Shopify Collabs shortlists ideal content creators, meeting Shopify merchants’ needs and making it easy for them to find content creators, along with managing their influencer partnerships and performance tracking.
Benefits Offered by Shopify Collabs to Influencers
1. Huge Range to Choose From
Over 1.7 million merchants are having their stores built with Shopify. So, as a content creator/influencer, you have 1.7 million brands to choose your collaboration from. Shopify Collabs helps creators design standout profiles for better visibility and connects them with brands searching for partnerships.
Also Read: Shopify Statistics You Need to Know
Creators can apply to work with brands they like and increase their chances of getting lucrative collaborations that align with their interests. The platform ensures a win-win partnership for both parties, leading to a better ROI.
2. Benefits of Product Seeding and Affiliate-based Commissions
Product seeding is a great way to collaborate with small creators. It motivates them to create inspiring content that can encourage their audience to make a purchase. Shopify Collabs enables merchants to partner with influencers and creators by providing gifts, samples, and promotional items.
Additionally, Shopify Collabs also allows creators to earn affiliate-based commissions. Merchants can set up their commission structure and track all sales to calculate the commission value for their creators.
3. Earning and Data Tracking
Shopify Collabs offers a helpful data tracking and revenue management dashboard that allows creators to focus on their work while the app takes care of calculating their earnings, expected payments, and performance metrics.
The dashboard also tracks collaborations and earnings, making it easy for creators to follow up with pending payments. This dashboard stores all information, visualizes insights, and identifies gaps to improve performance, so creators don’t have to worry about managing data themselves.
Benefits Offered by Shopify Collabs to Merchants
Shopify Collabs benefits not only creators but also Shopify business owners. It can be difficult for marketers and solo store owners to find fitting creators for their brands. They face the challenge of browsing, vetting, and shortlisting the right creators, as well as giving them the appropriate exposure and building a healthy relationship with them.
1. Benefit of a large creator marketplace to select from
Shopify Collabs, a Creator Marketplace, is a large database of creators from different niches and channels that Shopify’s team has selected. This marketplace is beneficial for store owners who want to change the way they run influencer marketing campaigns. By setting up an account and making their store discoverable, brands can easily find creators who are a good fit for their brand. They can then roll out an application form for interested creators, saving time and effort.
2. Easily Hire and Manage Relationships With Creators
Shopify Collabs simplifies the process of finding, hiring, and collaborating with content creators for Shopify merchants. It provides valuable insights that can be used to improve marketing campaigns. Collabs is fully integrated with Shopify admin, allowing merchants to track the sales funnel across different channels and manage sales more efficiently.
3. Track payments and get more affiliate sales
Shopify Collabs streamlines your affiliate relationships, providing a clear view of each affiliate’s sales. The app automatically calculates commissions, and you can pay affiliates directly from the platform. Analytics are generated for each affiliate’s progress, allowing you to reward top performers and extend your collaboration.
Also Read: Best Shopify Affiliate Apps
Does Your Brand Need Influencer Marketing?
In today’s digital world, leveraging influencer marketing can prove to be a powerful tool for your business. By partnering with the right influencers, you can effectively reach and engage with your target audience, boost brand awareness, and drive sales.
It’s a smart way to build credibility and establish trust among potential customers while also increasing your brand’s visibility in a crowded market. With their ability to create authentic content and share personal experiences, influencers can help make your products or services desirable to a specific audience and, ultimately, contribute to the growth of your business.
By following this guide, you will undoubtedly increase your social media followers, boost your brand, and grow your online business. If you need more guidance for your Shopify marketing strategies, kindly contact us and get in touch with our Shopify digital marketing experts and improve your online existence easily.
Happy Shopifying!!!