Shopping Links Blog

How Gifting Influencers Can Boost Your Holiday Sales

November 15, 2017
Brand, Agency
  
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With holiday sales expected to exceed $730 billion this year between American and UK retailers alone, shoppers are projected to spend more than ever before -- and they’re turning to influencers for ideas and inspiration. 


In a recent survey of 2,000 shoppers, 31.7% said they visit social websites more than once a day into the holiday season, with gift ideas as their primary reason for browsing. In a separate survey, 61% of shoppers rated Facebook as the channel they rely on most for holiday inspiration. Nearly 60% reported having purchased a product after reading an online review, highlighting the importance of peer-to-peer recommendations. 


For brands looking to capture the attention of customers who increasingly prefer authentic opinions over clever interruptions, influencers have become valuable collaborators. Blogger content not only offers a glimpse of products in real homes with real consumers, but it also inspires a feeling of familiarity that often translates into higher engagement and stronger revenues than campaigns with stock or in-house content. 


Moreover, gifting influencers is so cost-effective that even small and mid-sized brands can maximise their reach without dipping into next year’s budget, and it allows you to remain top-of-mind with content your audience is likely to share. Whether you’re an emerging designer or a global retailer, here’s how gifting influencers can boost your own holiday sales: 


Capture attention.     


Ad blockers usage is up 30% over the last year, with roughly one in five consumers now using software to bypass digital ads across all devices. This means that banners, pop-ups and promoted videos are no longer a reliable method for reaching your audience. If you want to capture the attention of your customers, you must let them come to you -- or rather, to influencers. Your customers actively seek out influencers for shopping advice, making them more receptive to learning about your products through bloggers they follow than brand-produced advertisements. 


Inspire organic conversations. 


Influencers allow you to keep your brand top-of-mind with content your customers actually want to share, and gifting provides solutions for every size of brand. If you’re a large retailer or designer with dedicated ambassadors, you still need an ongoing presence on social media to be remembered; gifting influencers allows you to expand the number of individual voices talking about your products. If you’re a smaller brand, product seeding gives you a cost-effective way to gain visibility and simply get the conversation started. For brands who already see a good deal of user generated content, influencer gifting allows you to reinforce your message, keeping conversations on-brand or try a new audience and demographic with minimal risk.


Inspire action with holiday time-sensitivity.


The holiday season gives you a time-sensitive call-to-action, which makes November and December particularly valuable months for sales-focused collaborations. To further incentivise bloggers to promote sales of your product, you can complement your collaborations with affiliate links, such as our own SLINKS option, which adds a commission on immediate sales generated during a particular collaboration for a blogger. Requesting that bloggers include a direct link in their blog post series, Instagram campaigns, or even Instagram Stories content can help to inspire immediate eCommerce sales by making the buying process more direct for consumers.


Track your results. 


One final benefit of influencer gifting is the opportunity to track specific results, which allows you recognize opportunities with specific demographics or influencers to run effective collaborations in the future. We offer complimentary Collaboration Results for three months with all Product Seeding collaborations, showing reach, engagement and sales generated through affiliate links by individual influencer. Starting at $895, our Product Seeding option allows brands to select 10, 25 or 50 Instagram influencers with at least 10k followers for holiday gifting collaborations with guaranteed results. Influencers are required to post within 30 days, ensuring timely brand exposure ahead of the holidays. 


No matter what your holiday targets, influencer gifting is one of your most cost-effective options for putting your product in front of the right customers, while creating organic conversations that keep your brand top-of-mind all season long. Get in touch at hello@shoppinglinks.com for help planning your campaign!