The ultimate guide to influencer marketing for retail brands

Learn how retail brands including Big Box, Department Store, Grocery, House Brand, Category Specific and Direct-To-Consumer work with influencers to boost online and in-store sales, improve online presence, and drive storefront awareness.

Want to discuss boosting in-store and online sales with influencer marketing?

OVERCOME RETAIL CHALLENGES

IMPROVE YOUR BRAND VISIBILITY

GROW YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE

DRIVE IN-STORE TRAFFIC

RAISE STOREFRONT AWARENESS

BOOST SALES AND PROVE ROI

ITERATE ON SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES

What is influencer marketing for retail brands?

Retail influencer marketing: when retailers work with influencers who are relevant to their products in order to drive product consideration, boost online sales, and drive traffic to their website or physical stores.

What is the most powerful marketing strategy in retail today? Producing visual content like photos and videos and making sure it gets in front of your target customers. Influencers are the new word-of-mouth marketing, spreading awareness and recommendations to thousands of followers and potential customers.

With robust historical data to guide your influencer strategy, you can get your brand in front of just the right people.

Top influencer trends in retail today

1. Content-first creator campaigns and influencer boosting are accelerating as they outperform traditional ad creative.
2. Co-op creator influencer marketing is accelerating as retail media groups grow.
3. Influencer Benchmarking is increasingly informing influencer strategy.
4. Gen Z partnerships are a top priority.

Partnering with influencers who appeal to Gen Z is a top focus for brands as they realize how heavily this group depends on influencers for their purchase decisions. The 2021 LTK Gen Z study found that 92 percent of Gen Z shoppers rely on influencers to inform their purchases across virtually every category. This, coupled with the influence Gen Z has on the general population, has brands disproportionately focused on the coveted audience.
5. Video drives greater engagement and conversions.

LTK has seen a significant rise in video content across social platforms and in its shopping app for its ability to dimensionalize creator content and make shopping more engaging. The social platforms most used by influential shoppers, from LTK’s 2021 Influential Shopper study, heavily revolve around video content and include 1) Instagram, 2) Facebook, 3) Youtube, and 4) TikTok.

TikTok in particular is performing well, as it allows creators’ short-form video content to remain up longer, giving creators more time to reach their audience. Additionally, video is driving significant engagement on the LTK App for shoppers.

CREATE CUSTOMER LOYALTY

DRIVE TRAFFIC TO YOUR PHYSICAL STORES

INCREASE BRAND AWARENESS

CREATE ONLINE VISUAL MERCHANDISING

TAP INTO CUSTOMER FEEDBACK

TRACK DATA AND TRENDS

HOLD SPACE IN THE ROBUST RETAIL MARKET

Which retail brands can benefit from influencer marketing?

Whether you’re a department store, retail chain, supermarket, or discount retailer, your brand can benefit from partnering with the modern day best friend.

Why Invest in Influencer Marketing Now

Helping small retailers brands grow

Smaller businesses are looking to maximize ROI at every turn, and influencer marketing by nature is measurable, as it’s built on data. As a smaller scale retailer, you may have a niche product or market, which means you need to reach specific customers who will be interested.

Influencers are in tune with their followers and know how to speak to niche products and services authentically. Influencer data tells us exactly how well they perform for your niche and industry. This increases the odds that you’ll reach prospects who are interested enough to purchase online or visit your physical store.

Influencer marketing can also help smaller brands make the most of their marketing spend through licensed influencer content. Over the course of your influencer campaigns, you’ll build a collection of licensed evergreen and reusable content that continues to convert across your owned channels.

Don’t have the budget for a full influencer campaign? LTK offers other placements at lower flat fees to help spread brand awareness.

LTK Most Loved Products

This year, we evaluated millions of Creator-linked products using LTK Benchmark™, our proprietary measurement technology to identify top-performing products based on consumer engagement, impressions, clicked links, items sold, and total sales. These are the most shopped, talked about, gifted, and worn products by leading trendsetters! Take a look at this year’s winners in each category.

SEE THE WINNERS

Helping larger retail brands scale

Larger retailers, like Walmart, Target and Nordstrom already have their name established in the market. Still, it’s critical for these brands to remain relevant in a quickly evolving landscape.

Retail influencers empower larger retail brands in real time to expand their current strategy and go beyond what they’ve always done. Some retailers are so big, they can’t hear their customers. Influencers gather customer feedback directly and empower larger retail businesses with fresh ideas for influencer campaign expansion.

These skilled content creators keep larger brands in tune with current customers and help them think differently about new audiences for increased reach and revenue.

Influencer marketing management helps you develop and maintain partnerships with the right influencers through a layered, full-funnel approach.

This helps you:

Scale your influencer marketing program with diverse influencers
Test new channels, verticals, and audiences
Create multi-channel campaign strategies

How to Utilize the Retail Influencer Network for the 2022 Back-To-School Shopping Season

In this on-demand webinar, get the inside scoop directly from LTK Creators in our retail influencer network who promote top brands.

PLUS! A full breakdown of the LTK National Back-to-School Shopper Study outlining demographics and consumer shopping trends.

1

Honesty and authenticity

Consumers are looking for honest reviews and recommendations– they don’t want to be sold to. They trust influencers as lifestyle tastemakers and opinion leaders. Influencers are on the pulse of what buyers want from retail products of all kinds. Let them be the honest voice behind the reviews.

2

Smart stores

With the e-commerce takeover, brick-and-mortar stores are serving as customer experience tools. How can you use your store space to augment the customer experience with innovative features? First, think from a digital enablement standpoint (tablets and self-service). Then, think aesthetics (post-worthy visuals and displays) and interaction (conversations, not just customer communications). From there, let influencers show their followers what they’re missing.

3

Convenient delivery and pickup

After they pay, consumers want it, and they want it now. Many retailers are delivering on this growing demand, while providing a seamless order tracking experience, free shipping and returns. The ones who do it right are worth talking about across social media and with friends and family.

4

Transparency

Customers want to purchase from companies that they can align with on their values. Be transparent about your business model. If you’re a sustainable retail brand, let the world know; there are many sustainable retail influencers who are willing to highlight brands doing good for our planet.

5

Relatable IRL demonstration

Since consumers are in-store less, they have to find other ways to see your product. Influencers not only give consumers the clarity they need around a product’s look and feel, but how they work for them and their lifestyle. For example, clothing brands work with influencers of different sizes to show customers how their products fit on all bodies. With access to a robust retail influencer network, your retail brand can align with many influencers of diverse backgrounds.

6

Low stakes

When influencers offer brand discount codes and promote quality guarantees and return policies, it’s even more likely consumers will buy. Once their followers become customers, it’s more likely they’ll come back for more.

Key characteristics of a retail influencer

The retail influencer is well-known in their niche. They have an established following based on their lifestyle preferences and offer their followers catered content they’re likely to be interested in.

As their followers look for new products to make their lives easier and help them self-express, they look to their favorite influencers for what to do and buy.

Influencers in the retail space:

Genuinely use the products and services they promote
Are in tune with their followers’ tastes and preferences
Create excellent visual and written digital content
Offer consumers aesthetic inspiration and entertainment
Are skilled public speakers and live event promoters
Demonstrate products effectively and in real time
Act as guides to help followers live their best lives
Are more influential than paid advertising according to LTK’s national shopper study
Easily adapt to changing trends and consumer demands

The LTK Brand Awards recognize brand excellence in Creator Commerce. Brands were selected based on their unique and impactful creator strategy and LTK proprietary benchmark data. SEE THE WINNERS

LTK Brand Awards

Brand of the Year

CREATOR CONTENT ON LTK APP AMPLIFYING REACH AND LINKING ACROSS SOCIAL CHANNELS

GIFT GUIDES

CONTENT WITH MULTIPLE PRODUCTS IN FEATURE

REELS ON SOCIAL CHANNELS

VIDEO FEATURING ITEMS IN MOTION

VIDEO DEMONSTRATIONS, UNBOXING AND KEY PRODUCTION INFORMATION

STATIC, QUALITY PRODUCT IMAGES

SOCIAL CHANNEL TAKEOVERS

PRODUCT ROUNDUPS

BEHIND-THE-SCENES FOOTAGE

BEFORE-AND-AFTERS

Q&AS AND LIVE STREAMS

DETAILED TESTIMONIALS

IN-STORE EVENT COVERAGE

GRAND OPENING CONTENT

SHOPPING IN REAL TIME

Brand alignment

Influencers work with brands who embrace their personal aesthetic and values. This helps them remain authentic and effective in selling your products. Working with an expert in influencer management helps you sift through the vast retail influencer network for a well-aligned partnership.

Content inspiration

Influencers are content creators, but they know that you have preferences for your brand. A mood board, along with any helpful messaging, can inspire the influencer to bring the content to life in a way that represents your brand identity.

Unique, trending products

Influencers are looking for the next trend to act on. Where possible, tap into your most unique services, products, and offerings to highlight across your influencer marketing campaigns.

Sustainable brands

Just as consumers are hyped about sustainable retail, influencers are too. Influencers can spread the word about how you’re impacting the world. This helps improve your brand perception and sets your retail business apart.

Creative empowerment

Influencers want freedom to interpret products through their creative lens. Allow your influencers to interpret campaigns and create content that balances your brand identity with their personal aesthetic.

Clear terms and conditions

Your contract is the start of a collaborative partnership. Provide your influencers talking points, brand information, and helpful tips for deliverables without being too prescriptive.

Choosing the right retail influencers for your brand

Casting influencers is a complex process. These tips should get you started on the right foot.

1 Don’t focus on followers

Micro-influencers, who have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers, are known for their high engagement rates. The micro-community is often underestimated by brands, but they are highly effective in their niche.

When choosing influencers for your retail marketing strategy, don’t ignore the impact micro-influencers have across critical communities.

2 Don’t sacrifice your brand

It takes time to find influencers who are a match– but they’re out there. Understanding what makes your brand stand out will make all the difference in casting.

What is your retail category or niche? Who is your target audience(s)? What problems do your products solve in their daily lives? When you have a deep understanding of your brand, consumers, and goals, you reach the influencers who will help you succeed.

3 Embrace diversity

People buy things they can relate to and see themselves using. In such a diverse world, brands must work with influencers of all gender identities, races, and backgrounds to truly relate to the world we live in and not alienate consumers.

4 Embrace platform diversity

Work with influencers who produce content of all formats across many platforms and channels. While a live stream may drive engagement in one scenario, a single static image with a clever caption may get the shares you’re looking for.

5 Consider user-generated content

User-generated content is highly effective in promoting retail products from all industries. Work with lifestyle influencers who inspire followers to interact, repost, share, and tag content.

6 Leverage influencer data

You need influencer data to determine who will be effective for your revenue-focused strategy- and it’ll inform how to pay your influencers. Gain the highest level of influencer transparency about how they perform for your products by working with an influencer marketing management platform. LTK was founded by a creator to give creators a significant tech advantage to be a brand’s power partner.

7 Work with couples

Couples influencers are growing in popularity across platforms, and creators are sharing their spouses and families on social. LTK helps creators make their everyday lives shoppable, making it easy for creator couples and families to deliver more opportunities to shop in their posts.

8 Video, video, video

Video is the dominant content format for promoting all industries. But even more so, video is critical for capturing the function, uniqueness, and quality of an everyday product. Leverage influencers who value video in their storytelling to help your brand stand out in a saturated industry.

THE WRONG INFLUENCER RELATIONSHIPs

INCONSISTENT INFLUENCER OUTREACH

UNCLEAR INFLUENCER-BRAND COMMUNICATION

LACK OF ROI

MESSY INFLUENCER CONTRACTS AND PROPOSALS

LACK OF CAMPAIGN FOCUS

WASTED TIME ON THE WRONG METRICS

Tips for your retail influencer marketing strategy

Consider these tips as you’re strategizing your first influencer campaign.

1 Budget early

Set aside enough for a budget that will allow you to meet all your campaign goals. Don’t stretch a small budget, or you may not get the results you’re looking for.

2 Give generous incentives

Give your influencers a way to incentivize their followers to risk leaving the brands they know to try your product: discount codes, free offers, affiliate links, giveaways. Anything to get consumers on board. Just as important: let your influencers experience your products for a period of time before they’re scheduled to promote it.

3 Keep track of retail trends

Retail influencers have a direct connection to shoppers not only online, but also in your store. Shoppers connect with creators while in your store on their phone for reference and opinions. Influencer campaigns answering questions for customers about events and displaying multiple products work well for shoppers in your store.

4 Plan in-store events

As a retailer, a large part of your identity is your branded environment. Make your store post-worthy and bring your influencers in to promote the real thing.

5 Grow influence

When managing your influencer marketing campaign, return on ad spend and results don’t always happen instantly. Lifestyle influencers help you build your reputation and influence via evergreen data-driven strategies.

6 Consider geo-targeting

Geo-targeting branded content can be very beneficial for retail brands, especially those with physical stores.

7 Promote collaborations

Retail businesses are constantly collaborating with other retail businesses. People love to see it, so make these collabs a part of your campaign strategy. Your influencer and product partnerships will appreciate it. And with a second (or third) brand involved, it will lead to more engagement opportunities.

8 Promote your “community hub”

Humans value social connection- which is why social media marketing is so effective. For retail brands with storefronts, build a community around your brand and let influencers promote that in-person connection and interaction, online.

DETERMINE GOALS AND BUDgET

CONDUCT INFLUENCER RESEARCH AND CASTING

DETERMINE TARGET DELIVERABLES

WRITE AND FACILITATE CONTRACTS

NEGOTIATE INFLUENCER RATES

ENSURE CONTRACT FULFILLMENT

MONITOR BUDGET AND PROVE CAMPAIGN METRICS

At LTK, we help you and all of your departments every step of the way. As an influencer marketing platform designed for creator management, we help you do it all in-house, so you have the influencer intelligence to run effective influencer marketing campaigns without completely outsourcing to an agency.

Start your influencer marketing journey

You have just taken in a lot of information. If you're still not sure where to start, ease your way into influencer marketing with a test campaign. Influencer data should always guide your influencer strategy from the start; otherwise, iteration is impossible.

As the leading influencer marketing hub for the last 10 years, LTK has solved influencer marketing challenges through:

Amplified distribution through the largest creator shopping channel, the LIKEtoKNOW.it app (which has 5 stars and 8M+ shoppers)
Full-service creator programs that deliver on your unique objectives
Strategic planning based on historical brand performance data
Expert brand consulting, planning, executing, and reporting
End-to-end campaign execution and influencer casting
Access to the most successful influencer platform in the world
Licensed imagery from premium creators for your own marketing channels
Conference and event integration to build long-term relationships
Access to real-time measurable results on the top influencer campaign management software

During your test campaign, you’ll likely discover best-match lifestyle or other industry influencers who convert for retail in your product space. Consider our influencer marketing platform to help secure those influencers as your ambassadors.