What is influencer marketing?

As a store owner, you understand the importance of Instagram for maintaining relationships with your customers. Instagram boasts an entirely visual layout and is typically thought of as being more creative than other social media platforms. This fall, if you’re looking to improve your Instagram marketing strategy consider working with an influencer to promote your brand and products.

Back in January, we posted about the top social media marketing trends for boutiques in 2019. One of the top trends we reported on was influencer marketing. But what exactly is influencer marketing and why does it matter for your store? Influencer marketing is when designated content creators, called influencers, share content about a specific brand or product on their platform. The goal of influencer marketing is to improve brand awareness and generate sales for a brand. 

For boutique owners like yourself, Instagram influencer marketing is an opportunity to get your unique inventory into the hands of key opinion leaders in the fashion and lifestyle industries. Millennials today trust the opinions of influencers greatly, so why not use that to your advantage for your individual store? In fact, more than 92% of customers trust influencer’s opinions more than they trust traditional paid advertisements. 

Let’s begin by unpacking the Instagram influencer marketing, the different types of influencers, how to find the best ones for your business, and how to enhance your Instagram influencer marketing strategy this fall!

Types of influencers

Brand influencers are easy to confuse with traditional brand ambassadors. Influencers are social media users who have a specific following that they engage with on a regular basis, using their platform to fulfill a certain purpose. Ambassadors are hired by specific businesses to help spread awareness of their business goals and mission. 

There are four different categories of influencers: Mega, Macro, Micro, and Nano. Mega-Influencers typically have 1 million or more followers on a social media platform. Mega-influencers include Hollywood celebrities or tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. Macro influencers typically have between 100,000 and 1 million followers. More than likely, as a boutique, you will work mostly with micro-influencers (1,000-10,000 followers) or nano-influencers (less than 1,000 followers). Although they do not have as many followers as macro-influencers, micro-influencers and nano-influencers are able to connect a more personal level with their followers, making the brand relationships they promote more authentic.

Finding influencers

Finding the right influencer for your store can be difficult. The most important part of Instagram influencer marketing is choosing an influencer that has similar style and values to your brand. Customers want to interact with influencers who represent authentic brands and stores. If your products don’t connect with who the influencer is as a person, it may be difficult for your customers to see why they should purchase your clothes. For example, if your store sells a variety of fun and trendy sunglasses, consider working with an influencer who does a lot of traveling that allows her to show off all different types of shades!

Finding influencers for your store or boutique can be a very time consuming process. You want to choose influencers who have a connection to your store and brand. Maybe they are local to the city you are based out of. Maybe they have expressed interest in your clothes before. However they interact with your brand, these hand picked influencers are an essential part of your marketing strategy. 

Even if you don’t have thousands of followers on Instagram, influencers are a great way to get the word out about your new products and styles. Influencers can endorse your products, do a try-on, or give a review of one of your products. 

With the help of influencers, you can make sure that your inventory is showed off beyond your Instagram store. Show the world what makes your boutique different by connecting with enthusiastic influencers on Instagram!

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Fall is a great time to get creative with your boutique marketing strategies.  We hope that our tips help you feel confident about the possibilities that influencer marketing can bring to your store! Shop Wholesale Fashion Square’s wide inventory for wholesale clothing and jewelry at a fraction of the cost!