For all retailers looking for a more effective way to advertise, look no further. Influencer marketing over the years has proven itself to be an exceptionally successful approach. This article will showcase five different ways retailers can partner with an influencer to run an impactful influencer marketing campaign to grow their retail business.

The later was substantiated by a study conducted by Mckinsey where it was found that influencer marketing actually generated more than twice sales of paid ads!

With the rise of a new trend, it’s always good to know your options, that’s why we here at Crowd Analyzer compiled a list of 5 ways retailers can partner with an influencer:

1) Giveaways

Because it’s a relatively new trend, there is no concrete pricing mechanism set in place yet. Although it might not work with top tier influencer but still many influencer’s will be willing to promote your product in exchange for free samples. Giveaways are a great way to get your product out there and will give you great exposure especially if you choose an influencer within your niche.

• Giving giveaways to prospects through your influencer’s is also a smart move. Getting your product to the right influencer is a gateway into the hearts of your target audience; a short post about the product’s benefits or how they enjoyed using it can get people liking and sharing the post immediately in exchange for a freebie. People love giveaways and it’s a great way to avalanche publicity easily.

1. An example of such a partnership was made by makeup retailer John Freida who partnered with influencer Blair Fowler who posted pictures and reviews of products and encouraged her 1.7 million to like and comment to get a chance to win a set. This was a great way to access their target niche and gain brand awareness.

2) Competitions

A competition is always a fun and exciting way to launch a new influencer campaign, they create an instant buzz that can do wonders in increasing brand awareness. Influencers can be leveraged to host the competition or to simply announce it; anyway their reach and following will be sure to spread the word and get people engaged.

An interesting example of a competition was when Adidas launched their #MyNeoShoot campaign for their new line. They invited people to post a picture on Instagram inspired by Adidas and the winner would get to be featured as a model in the Adidas photoshoot! Adidas launched this campaign by partnering with mega influencer Selena Gomez; the #MyNeoShoot saw more than 71k mentions and addidas’s account gained over 41k new followers.

3) Exclusive events

Another interesting alternative is to give your partnered influencer VIP access to a product launch party. What better way to capture all the glamour and glitz of your party than to have an influencer fully cover your event and share the immersive brand experience with their audiences. Such an event gives your product a certain degree of prestige and allure making it the centre of attention and desire.

Burj Al Jumeirah hotel based in Dubai made good use of this strategy by hosting such an event and inviting selected influencers to an exclusive 2 day tour of the hotel. The combined reach of the influencers amounted to 18million users which gave the hotel a whooping 3.2million increase in their social following.

4) Influencer take-overs

A less traditional option that’s gaining increasing popularity are influencer take overs; where influencers basically take over your brand’s official social handles for a set period of time. Influencers gain temporary access to your account and create and share content on your behalf.

This type of arrangement is great for building lasting relationship with influencers as both the brand and the influencer benefit from the partner’s social following. Such methods usually entail a high rate of engagement because of the influencers popularity and the content also resonates more with the audiences as they view it as more authentic and more tailored to their tastes.

A remarkable example of this arrangement was when the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority partnered with DJ Khaled, dubbed the “king of snapchat”, to take over their Snapchat account. During the first two days alone the Snapchat channel gained more than 350k views.

5) Vlogging

One of the most popular things on social media currently is video content. It’s fun, it’s engaging and people love having a visual. Influencers often vlog as a means to document their daily activities and adventures and their followers seem to love experiencing things with them. Vlogging creates a bond between the influencer and his audience who feel engaged and involved in the influencer’s life. This bond creates a heightened sense of trust and credibility; accordingly sponsoring a vlog as a retailer can yield significant results.

In fact, according to Animoto’s study a substantial 64% of consumers made purchases after watching branded social video content! An example of this is when Maybelline teamed up with 13 beauty vloggers to promote their new Nudes Palette. This partnership enabled Maybelline to get over 1.4 million clicks!

There’s no right or wrong approach to influencer marketing; it all depends on matching your campaign goals with the approach that best serves your needs.