How to Manage Your Amazon Inventory Health

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Amazon recently introduced the Manage Inventory Health page to help sellers manage excess and aged inventory. You’ll need to be logged into your Seller Central account to access this feature.

Optimizing your FBA inventory can help you reduce costs and maximize your profitability. Let’s explore the benefits of using recommendations from Manage Inventory Health alongside FBA inventory management best practices.

Manage Inventory Health

You can customize the metrics you see on your Manage Inventory Health page with Table preferences. The available metrics are sales, fees, pricing, and excess and aged inventory. There are several filters that can be used to group products that have similar inventory characteristics. The search feature makes it easy to find products with similarities, such as “blue” or “small.” You can sort, filter, and take recommended actions on products directly from Manage Inventory Health.

Amazon recommends several possible actions depending on your inventory. You might be advised to improve keywords, create a Sponsored Products ad, lower the price, create a removal order, or take another action to improve your FBA inventory health.

screenshot of the FBA inventory management dashboard

The purpose of this feature is to help you avoid aged inventory. Aging inventory increases your FBA storage fees and can affect how much new inventory you’re able to send to the fulfillment centers.

How to Use Manage Inventory Health

Keeping your inventory in stock without overstocking is essential to running your Amazon business effectively. Storing inventory costs money, especially if you’re racking up long-term storage fees at FBA. You may also find yourself subject to restock limits, particularly during busy seasons.

One way to prevent storage limits from impacting your business is to sell or remove excess inventory. You can use the Storage volume metric on the Manage Inventory Health page to sort your largest-volume products, then filter by Storage type to identify the items with the most excess units and/or lowest sell-through rate. After finding these products, you can optimize your inventory by changing the price, adjusting your promotional strategy, or removing the items from FBA.

Amazon recommends having enough inventory at FBA for 30 to 60 days of anticipated sales. Your goal is to have at least a 2.0 or higher sell-through rate on your products. Amazon includes sell-through rate when calculating your Inventory Performance Index (IPI) score. If your IPI is below the current threshold, you may be subject to future storage limitations.

You can create a removal or FBA Liquidations order by checking the box next to the product you’d like to remove. Open the drop-down menu and choose Create removal order to enter your inventory into the workflow for removal or liquidation. You may remove or liquidate up to 50 items at a time.

Tips for Managing FBA Inventory

In addition to managing aging and excess inventory, you’ll want to follow other best practices to manage your inventory effectively and maintain your profits. Happily, these same practices can help you maintain a good IPI score and avoid storage limitations. Here’s what Amazon looks for when determining your IPI:

  • excess inventory rate
  • sell-through rate
  • stranded inventory rate
  • in-stock inventory

In other words, Amazon wants to see that you are selling inventory quickly (or at least steadily) and not stocking excess inventory at the fulfillment centers. Since stranded inventory cannot be sold on Amazon, it’s in your best interest as well as Amazon’s for you to resolve any stranded inventory issues as soon as you can. You also need to keep enough inventory in stock at FBA to fulfill orders without the risk of running out of stock.

Finding the right inventory balance is challenging. It also changes frequently depending on seasonal trends, holidays, supply chain delays for similar products (which could drive up demand for your item), and much more.

Using a dedicated FBA inventory management tool like RestockPro by eComEngine can help you keep your business running smoothly. You can manage suppliers, create purchase orders, track inbound shipments, build kits, and much more. Not only that, but you’ll also get customized recommendations for what to restock and when based on your inventory and business goals.

Sellers who use RestockPro for FBA inventory management along with Kickfurther’s inventory funding grow faster. We’ve partnered to make it easier than ever for you to request inventory funding. See how RestockPro simplifies Amazon inventory management.

a casual headshot of Becky Trowbridge from eComEngineBecky Trowbridge is the Digital Marketing Manager at eComEngine. Her mission is to empower Amazon sellers with the information they need to be successful in a competitive market. When she’s not creating content, she enjoys spending time outdoors, trying new recipes, and reading.

 

How to host an Instagram giveaway for your ecommerce business

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Instagram is an effective way to connect and reach existing and new customers. However, marketing on Instagram is not as simple as creating content and posting it. Giveaways, influencers, and paid Instagram ads are just a few ways to market on Instagram. Instagram giveaways can help companies reach customers, accumulate followers, and make sales, all while giving back to their fan base. So what are Instagram giveaway rules? Are there Instagram giveaway templates? Keep reading to learn how to do a giveaway on Instagram. 

Top reasons hosting a giveaway on Instagram can help your eCommerce business

Hosting an Instagram giveaway for your eCommerce business and your followers may be a surefire way to achieve some rapid growth for your business without spending a fortune. Traditional methods of marketing and advertising sometimes require larger budgets, a sizable staff, and lots of time spent planning and implementing a traditional campaign. A well-executed and simple Instagram giveaway can reach a much wider audience than a traditional marketing campaign and at a fraction of the cost.  Additionally, an Instagram giveaway can increase the number of followers your business page has simply by making it a requirement to enter the giveaway. Other requirements to be part of the Instagram contest may include liking a post, commenting on a post, and/or sharing a post. For Instagram users who are genuinely interested in participating in the giveaway, a simple like or share, or becoming a follower of the brand page is an easy trade-off to gain entry into the contest. It is through this trade-off that a business can increase its followers, increase its brand awareness, and potentially increase sales. People love free stuff, and if the giveaway is enticing enough, a business could attract some unprecedented attention. 

Here is a quick list of some of the reasons you may want to consider running an Instagram giveaway for your eCommerce business.

  • Increase the number of Instagram followers your business has.
  • Increase the number of likes a post accumulates and improve engagement with your followers.
  • Generate more traffic to your business website.
  • Grow your email subscriber list.
  • Promote a specific product or service.
  • Reward your most loyal followers and brand advocates. 

These are just some of the benefits that an Instagram giveaway can bring to your eCommerce business. If you are looking for something else, then you can shape the requirements of your content to fit those goals. The main idea is to have some predefined goals you are hoping to achieve before creating the giveaway. 

Examples of Instagram giveaways

However you would like to run your Instagram giveaway is up to you and your content creator. Aside from deciding what the prize of the giveaway is going to be and what the goals are that you are hoping to achieve with the contest, you need to decide how you are going to frame the giveaway to make it relevant. Relevant Instagram giveaways tend to have much more success than random ones. Here are a few examples of how some companies were able to make a giveaway successful and effective by making it relevant. 

  • Seasonal/Holiday giveaway: One of the easiest ways to tie in an Instagram giveaway to make it relevant is to make it about a particular season. Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving, Saint Patrick’s Day, 4th of July, Memorial Day, etc. By centering a contest around a holiday or a particular season, you can easily make any contest relevant.
  • Pick one giveaway: By creating a post with multiple products or multiple versions of the same product, you can encourage followers to vote for their favorite. By commenting on their favorite product and sharing the post, for example, you can bring awareness to the different products while creating a buzz on Instagram. A winner then is selected and the prize can be the product they chose as their favorite. 
  • Pick your prize giveaway: A smart way to encourage people to go to your business website and view all the different products or versions of products that you offer is to create a “pick your prize” giveaway. By requiring people to follow your business Instagram account, like a post, repost, and/or tag a friend in the comment section, you can then offer a choice of any product as a prize. Doing so will drive traffic to your website as participants browse your entire selection to dream about which prize they would choose if they won. 
  • Instagram influencer giveaway: By creating a giveaway in tandem with an Instagram influencer you can reach a large audience. Even better is the fact that the audience that is being engaged already sees the influencer as an authority on the subject and an almost instant trust and bond can be made between the brand and the influencer’s followers. 
  • Milestone giveaway: Is your business Instagram page a mere 400 followers away from reaching a milestone like 10,000 followers? You can create a contest that encourages people to follow your business page to help reach a specific milestone. Once the milestone is reached, then 5 lucky winners could be picked to win an exclusive merchandise box or cash prize. 

There are hundreds if not thousands of ways that you could develop an Instagram giveaway to promote your brand, increase the number of followers your business page has, and drive traffic to your website. For the most part, you are only limited by your budget and your imagination. 

How to host an Instagram giveaway for your ecommerce business

Creating an Instagram giveaway is an excellent way to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your business website, promote a product, generate new leads, increase engagement and the number of followers your business Instagram account has, and boost sales. This all can be achieved with a pretty small investment. However, before you launch your contest, there are a few things you may need to be aware of in order to run a smooth and successful Instagram contest. 

  • Set goals: Having clearly defined goals before you create an Instagram giveaway is critical. Do you want to increase the sales of a new product? Do you want to drive more traffic to your website? You can set any kind of goal that you would like, however, the main thing is that you have one.
  • Know your intended audience: The more that you know about your audience the better. By understanding which target demographics you are going after, you can better shape the content and choose the prize to cater to the interests and curiosities of your intended audience.
  • Choose a contest type: There is a magnitude of contest ideas out there that have proven successful for other brands and companies in the past. We discussed some contest ideas earlier including season/holiday giveaways, pick one or pick your prize giveaways, Instagram influencer giveaways, and milestone giveaways. Other contest types include hashtag contests, best photo contests, referral contests, and photo caption contests. Whatever you choose, make sure the contest type is relevant and that it is attractive to your target demographic.
  • Set the contest rules: Whatever contest type you choose, you will need to make sure the contest rules are specific and precise. Who is eligible for the contest? Which entries are allowed and which ones are not? How does someone enter the contest? How is and when will the winner be chosen? These are the details that are critical for a smooth and successful Instagram contest. Any ambiguity or confusion can have the contest backfire and leave followers with a bad taste in their mouths.
  • Choose the proper prize: Choosing the proper prize is essential. You want to choose a prize that incentivizes the goals that you have laid out before launching the contest. You want a prize that is large enough to attract attention, but nothing that puts a strain on your business finances. You also want to choose a prize that will entice your target audience and demographic the most.
  • Track and measure results: The last step is properly tracking and measuring the response to your Instagram giveaway. Doing so can help you learn what worked and what could be done better for a contest in the future. Also, you may want a way to quantify the contest’s impact to justify the expense of the chosen prize. 

These are the most basic steps to creating your very own Instagram giveaway for your eCommerce business. There are many other things you may want to consider before creating your ideal contest, however, the most important thing to remember is that you have clear and precise rules for the contest.

About Kickfurther

As you uncover ways to effectively market your business, you should see sales start to explode. In some cases, the sales demand may increase quicker than expected. Always be one step ahead. Securing inventory financing can ensure that you have plenty of inventory available, thus ensuring that you never miss a sale due to a lack of products. As an eCommerce or small business, you may struggle to find inventory financing. Especially inventory financing that is affordable. Kickfurther is the world’s first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are unable to acquire through traditional sources. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Boost inventory levels and grow sales. . . secure inventory financing today!

How to transition from crowdfunding to eCommerce in 2022

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Crowdfunding is one of the most effective ways to bring a consumer product to market. There are multitudes of benefits like being able to generate marketing buzz and cheaper customer acquisition costs.

After you’ve earned market validation from a successful campaign, it becomes time to scale up to eCommerce.
But, in order to do that successfully, you need to do more than just build off of what worked during your crowdfunding campaign. You need a comprehensive eCommerce strategy.

Here at LaunchBoom, our eCommerce team (ScaleBoom) has led the charge for several of our partners who started their businesses on either Kickstarter or Indiegogo, including companies like William Painter and Xebec.

With ScaleBoom’s help, I’ve put together a list of the five most important tips you need to know before transitioning from crowdfunding to eCommerce.

1. Make sure backers get their products first

You’ve just wrapped up a really successful crowdfunding campaign where your product attracted six-figures in funding from thousands of backers. The first thing you should do is give yourself a big pat on the back because that is no small accomplishment.

The second thing you should do is get right back into the thick of it because your job is not done yet. You need to make sure before you do anything else that those thousands of people who backed your product will actually receive it.

We’ve seen small business owners who made premature transitions to eCommerce lose sight of the backers from Kickstarter or Indiegogo. People who crowdfund know there might be long wait times built in, but if they see that customers who are buying directly from your website are receiving products before they have, then you’ve committed a cardinal sin of customer service.

Our recommendation is that you take care of the crowdfunders first. Stay on top of your campaign page inbox. Answer every email from your backers. Show them that you care!

Once all of those orders have been fulfilled, then you’re ready to scale your business and start taking as many new orders as you can handle (more on this later).

2. Pick a platform

There are a lot of great eCommerce platforms to choose from like BigCommerce, Wix, or SquareSpace. They each have their pros and cons, but our ScaleBoom team loves and recommends Shopify. It’s perfectly designed to help you get to your first $1,000,000 in revenue.

Aside from being very user-friendly with over 6,500 apps and plugins to choose from, nearly half of those apps are free to use. These tools are essential for tasks like fulfilling orders, generating sales reports, and connecting to social media.
Something that adds to Shopify’s ease of use is its incredible customer service. Even our ScaleBoom team needs to contact customer support sometimes, and they swear by the quality of Shopify’s 24/7 service.

Another big advantage to Shopify is that it’s easy to scale. Since it’s one of the most widely used eCommerce platforms in the world, it’s convenient to have if your business grows to the point where you might want to sell it. Big eCommerce operations like having homegrown Shopify sites to work off of because the platform is easy to build upon.

Shopify Pros Recap:
Great 24/7 customer service
Easy to use without technical knowledge
Widely used and easy to scale

Once you have chosen your eCommerce platform, you can start thinking about directions for your creative. Designing and developing your site can seem daunting from a technical perspective, which is why LaunchBoom has in-house experts who can take care of that for you.

3. Inventory and customer service

After shipping out to every backer from your Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign, you might find yourself low on inventory. It might sound obvious, but it is vital to take your time getting your product back in stock. Understanding your fulfillment at this stage is more important than understanding how to increase your demand.

ScaleBoom has three big pieces of advice in regards to this principle:

Define your customer service standards

Something will inevitably go wrong. Sometimes transactions get botched or products malfunction. It’s essential to lay out how you’re going to respond to these problems before they start happening. You need to think about the best way to respond to customers that you can handle early on, whether that’s through email, chat, or phone. Customer satisfaction is one of the easiest ways to encourage them to become repeat buyers.

No longer than four weeks on pre-order

It used to be that we recommended no longer than two weeks for pre-order fulfillment, but that has changed due to the state of global supply chains. As mentioned earlier, crowdfunders expect there to be delays. Regular eCommerce buyers are completely different, so give them expedient deliveries as often as you can.

Do what you can for as long as you can

In the beginning, your operation should be small enough that you can handle most of the fulfillment by yourself. We recommend that you keep it this way as long as your business can take it. The amount of hands-on knowledge you will gain in regards to shipping, inventory management, and customer service is invaluable.

4. Define your goals and know your financials

A lot of entrepreneurs who are first starting out in eCommerce come in with lofty expectations. While having high hopes is good for motivation, it can sometimes do more harm than good. Ask yourself these questions very early on: What amount of money will I be satisfied with making? Where do I want my business to be at the end of the month/quarter/year? How much money am I comfortable losing?

After you’ve set manageable expectations to aim for, it’s time for the most important step in the process–knowing the costs.

A lot of success stories will brag about how they took their eCommerce business to seven figures in just one year. What they conveniently leave out, though, is that they had to spend nearly seven figures to just make that first million.

There are lots of costs associated with running an eCommerce business from how much you spend on ads down to credit card and agency fees. But, if you properly factor in the necessary expenses, you can reverse engineer your profitable sweet spot.

Truthfully, financial planning is a heavy part of starting any business venture, but your likelihood of failure goes up significantly without it. Our eCommerce experts at ScaleBoom can help you map out every cost associated with this business to get you to your goals.

If you’re dead set on building up by yourself, though, some key metrics I can share with you is to aim for minimum 60-65% profit margins at an average return on ad spend (ROAS) of 4-5x. This is a great general starting point to position new eCommerce stores for long-term success.

5. Prepare for growth

The eCommerce game is all about the long haul. No matter your aspirations, the road to scaling a business is not the same for everyone. However, when it comes to small businesses transitioning over from crowdfunding, there’s one approach to growing your business that works particularly well.

Most of our partners who work with us at ScaleBoom are first-time entrepreneurs with minimal resources, and the thing we always preach to them is to be prepared to “S.C.R.A.P.” This acronym stands for sessions, conversion rate, repeat purchases, average order value, and profitability. These are the fundamental building blocks for growth. Focusing on each one of these is what will drive the results of your business.

We will go into more depth on each of these in future articles, but for now, keep in mind that in order to successfully transition from crowdfunding to eCommerce you need to be scrappy! There may not be a one-size-fits-all approach for every business and product, but the basic principles of S.C.R.A.P will always apply.

Looking to grow your eComm business? Or tired of creating and managing your own ads? See how our partners at ScaleBoom together with Kickfurther helped TidyBoard finance and scale their business here.

For the first 5 eComm businesses that sign up to work with ScaleBoom, they are waiving the $15,000 setup fee for all KickFurther partners. Book a 15 minute call to see if your product/business is a fit here.

 

This is a guest post from Launchboom. LaunchBoom is a turn-key product launch system that uses proprietary, data-driven processes to ensure crowdfunding success. We offer a full suite of services to cover every need of a successful crowdfunding campaign. We ensure optimal product positioning through predictive testing systems before your product launches. Using feedback from the market, we create all necessary marketing assets: product photography, website funnels, email marketing campaigns, advertisements, and campaign videography.

How to Share Your Company Story Online

Posted on by Amanda Levine

What is a business story?

A business story is a form of communication that can be used to persuade other companies, sell something to potential and existing customers, help develop new marketing narratives, and position a brand or company in the market among its competitors. Using a business story to accomplish one of these mentioned goals is effective because a story actually engages a person on a much deeper level than simply stating the facts. A story can engage an individual’s brain in ways that facts and figures can not. When a person is reading or observing images that detail logical facts and figures, only the language-processing zone of the brain is activated. When someone is engaging with a story, up to seven different zones of the brain can be activated all at once. The language-processing zone of the brain along with other zones that are responsible for processing images, triggering emotions, and stimulating the senses of touch, hearing, taste, and smell, all are activated when someone engages with a compelling story. The zone of the brain that processes images can actually digest information up to 60,000 times faster than the language-processing zone. This is why using a business story can be a powerful tool in the arsenal of the marketing department of almost any type of business. A business story focuses mainly on the more human side of work, family, and life. Not only does a good story engage better with an audience, but it can also linger in the minds of the people who have engaged with the story for a much longer time than spreadsheets, facts, and figures.

What is the purpose of sharing a business story?

Essentially, the purpose of sharing a business story for any brand or company is to provide your audience with the “why”. Why does your business do what it does? Why are you passionate about your product or service? Why should end-users believe in your brand, company, and/or product? The “why” is in a way your brand’s mission statement. People looking to engage with your brand most likely already know the what and how. They know what you produce or what you offer, and they most likely know how you do it. What they are dying to know is why you do it. This is where a business story can be the most effective way to share the why. The why, or the mission statement, is not only for potential customers and/or business partners, the mission statement is necessary for internal purposes as well. If you were working at a company, would you not also be interested in understanding the company, its core values, and its mission statement?  The purpose of sharing a business story is to explain to both your external and internal audience the mission statement of the brand and/or company. 

Why is sharing your business story important?

The main reason sharing your business story is important is because once you begin to share the personal, you can begin to attract your ideal customers and build real connections between your brand and those customers. Ideal customers are people who believe in the person and story behind the brand, business, and/or product. Millennials and Gen Z are far more invested in aligning themselves with and supporting brands that share their values and/or worldview. There may be many other brands and businesses that share similar products or services and competition can be fierce. By sharing your business story, you can help set yourself apart from the competition within your industry.

What are some examples of business storytelling?

When you are developing your business story, you may want to review some successful examples of how business storytelling has helped position a brand in the hearts and minds of the consumers within their specific market. Some famous examples of successful business storytelling include Land Rover, Burt’s Bees, Patagonia, Warby Parker, Pepsi, and Subaru. Some of their successful business storytelling campaigns may take one of the following angles.

  • Work-life flexibility: Work-life flexibility has become increasingly important in recent years. The importance of maintaining mental health and family/social lives while balancing a robust professional life is a concern of many millennials and Gen Z. Companies that support work-life flexibility for their employees have been advertising this and it has been not only attracting customers but good employees as well.
  • Community involvement: Many brands tout their community involvement and their work with charitable organizations. This approach can empower consumers to support your brand because they are also passionate about the organizations that the brand or business supports.
  • Global perspective: Brands like Patagonia have taken on global mission statements that target some of the largest issues facing the world. Patagonia has decided to tackle the climate crisis as well as environmental and species degradation. 

Whatever framework you want to choose to tell your business story, you may want to consider tying it to a larger idea that can further build connections with your intended audience. 

How to tell a compelling business story

The business story can be used by brands and companies to draft press releases, prepare internal and external presentations at meetings and/or conferences, create content for end-users or employees, and the business story can come in many forms. Whether it be an ad, article, presentation, internal memo, or video, the format of the business story will be much more compelling if it takes the form of a story rather than straight facts. When creating a business story, no matter the format you choose, there are three main approaches to storytelling in business. You can simply use the form of a story to present your message, you can tell a true story or anecdote based on past experiences, or you can use storytelling techniques to trigger the same engagement that stories do. For the first approach, using a story to present your topic can follow particular storytelling patterns. Patterns like overcoming adversity, the quest, the voyage, and the triumphant return, all are storytelling patterns that have been proven to work well to engage an audience. If you choose this first approach, you may want to follow one of these patterns to ensure the highest potential engagement from your intended audience. The second approach, telling a story or anecdote based on past experiences is one of the easier approaches since you are the expert on the events of the story. Also, people like to hear true stories and it could potentially increase their overall engagement if they know you are speaking from a place of experience. However, if you choose the approach of anecdote, make sure your story is relevant and that you can effectively tie your anecdote to the subject at hand. You may risk losing or confusing your audience if the story you are telling is in no way connected to the topic. Here is a quick breakdown of some of the ways that have proven to be effective when formulating a compelling business story.

Storytelling approach: As we discussed earlier, the storytelling approach has three sub-approaches that you will need to consider before developing your business story. It is important to either create a story, tell an anecdote or story based on your experience, or apply storytelling techniques to a different approach entirely.

Social Media: Social media is an excellent way to get your story to a wider audience. You may want to do some research about which social media platforms contain the audience that would best identify with your business story.

Infographics: Infographics are a great way to rely a lot of information in a way that is easy to understand and easy to digest.

Videos: Of course, captivating videos with vivid imagery can do wonders to engage and connect with your audience. 

There are many ways to tell a story. Humans have been telling stories since the beginning of the species. However you decide to tell your business story, remember that sometimes keeping things simple is the best way to reach the widest possible audience.

Learn about Kickfurther

People buy the why. Sharing your passion for what you do and how you built your business is a worthy investment. As you begin to grow sales, you may need access to affordable inventory financing. Kickfurther is the world’s first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are unable to acquire through traditional sources. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Grow your business today. . . discover affordable inventory financing at Kickfurther today!

Guide to Instagram Influencer Marketing for Ecommerce

Posted on by Amanda Levine

Instagram influencer marketing helps companies build relationships with customers while growing sales. Small and large companies can use instagram influencer marketing to grow their business and build brand awareness. Keep reading to learn how to use influencer marketing on Instagram.

What is an influencer?

An influencer is someone who has gained a large following on a social media platform, website, podcast, or YouTube. They tend to be an expert or possess respected thoughts and opinions about a particular niche or industry. Because of this expertise, and because their followers respect their opinions, an influencer holds some clout with the potential target audiences that companies want to reach. An influencer has the power to persuade and directly affect the purchasing decisions of many individuals with a single post or piece of content. Because of this, many companies have found influencer marketing to be beneficial for their brand.

Different types of influencers

There are many different types of influencers that cover a variety of different niches and industries. The main types of influencers include celebrities like artists, athletes, actors, musicians, and pop culture icons. Influencers also include industry experts and thought leaders, micro-influencers and social media stars, and bloggers and content creators. All these different types of influencers use social media to inform, persuade, and inspire their followers on a variety of subjects. When they use their voice and their platform to inform and persuade their followers about specific brands and/or products or services, they then are participating in influencer marketing. Of all the different social media platforms, by far the most popular platform for influencers is Instagram. Here are some examples of some of the most popular and famous Instagram influencers from each of the previously mentioned categories of influencer types.

  • Celebrities: Celebrity influencers can be artists, athletes, actors, musicians, and/or pop icon stars. Some of the most popular celebrity influencers in the world include Cristiano Ronaldo, Selena Gomez, Kylie Jenner, Leo Messi, Kendall Jenner, Beyonce, Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, and the Rock. 
  • Industry experts and thought leaders: Industry experts and thought leaders are trusted sources of information for individuals looking for advice and recommendations within a particular industry or niche. Some of the most famous industry expert influencers include Tim “Shmee” Burton for automotive, Huda Kattan for beauty, Richard Branson for business, Chiara Ferragni for fashion, Jamie Oliver for culinary, Mark Fischbach for gaming and technology, Kayla Itsines for health and fitness, and Chris Burkard for travel.  
  • Social media stars: Social media stars are influencers who are only famous for their social media presence and not because they are an actor, musician, or television personalities. Their rise to fame came from their YouTube channels and/or their social media accounts. Some examples of social media stars include Whindersson Nunes a Brazilian comedian and YouTube Star, Eleanora Pons a Venezuelan-American social media star who became famous on Vine, and Nurset, the most popular cooking influencer on the web. 
  • Lifestyle bloggers: Lifestyle bloggers share blog posts about their everyday lives and interests. Because of this, lifestyle blogger influencers are seen by their followers as genuine and relatable. Some of the most famous lifestyle bloggers include Zoe Sugg, Lauren Conrad,  Julie Sarinana, and Jack Morris. 

Within these different categories of influencer types, there are also categories for what type of influencer someone would be considered based on the number of followers they have. Here is a breakdown of those categories.

  • Nano-influencers: 1,000 to 10,000 followers. 
  • Micro-influencers: 10,000 to 50,000 followers.
  • Mid-tier influencers: 50,000 to 500,000 followers.
  • Macro-influencers: 500,000 to 1,000,000 followers.
  • Mega-influencers: 1,000,000 or more followers. 

What is instagram influencer marketing?

Influencer marketing is when a brand leverages an influencer to drive traffic and conversion to its brand. Different companies and/or brands may seek the services of a variety of influencers to serve different purposes. Sometimes an influencer can be used to simply increase brand awareness, and other times influencers can be used to directly promote specific products and/or services. Some examples of influencer marketing include sponsored Instagram posts or stories, sponsored blog posts, and sponsored offline events and appearances like meet and greets, store openings, and conferences. 

How does Instagram influencer marketing work for eCommerce businesses?

When an eCommerce business already has an established product and their existing customers love it, they may seek out an influencer to help market their product to take their sales to the next level. Often, a company will send the product to the influencer free of charge, and depending on the magnitude of the influencer’s following, an additional payment may be made in exchange for their services. The influencer may make a “reveal video” where they unbox the newly acquired merchandise, or they could create another type of content like a sponsored video, Instagram story, or Instagram post. The purpose of their content would be to promote the product as well as provide detailed information about where and how the product can be purchased. Instagram influencers can be extremely cost-effective for eCommerce businesses that may not have the same large marketing budgets that larger corporations have.

Benefits of using Instagram influencer marketing for eCommerce

There are several benefits that an eCommerce company can take advantage of when they decide to utilize the power of influencer marketing. When an eCommerce company uses influencer marketing they can boost their brand awareness, build trust with an audience who may become new customers, reach a niche audience group, improve the quality of your link profile by generating natural backlinks, and prove easy to track performance markers. 

What should I look for in an influencer?

When considering which influencers may be best for your eCommerce business, there are several ways you can judge the effectiveness of the prospective influencer. Here are two of the most important things to consider when your brand is looking to employ the services of an influencer. 

  • Content quality and relevance: Finding an influencer with a large number of followers is a good thing, however, you do not want to be blinded simply by how large the influencer’s following is. Ask yourself if the influencer reaches the people who you consider to be your target audience. Are they relevant to your industry or niche? Do they create quality content that is free from spelling and grammatical errors and that is aligned with the values of your brand?
  • Audience engagement and post frequency: How often does the influencer post content? Do they engage with their followers, or do they only offer one-way communication?  Do they post too much content causing their posts to get lost in the noise? Do they post so infrequently that their followers are disinterested? Audience data that tracks website traffic, time spent on site, and pageviews, can be extremely helpful when making your decision about an influencer.

Lastly, you will want to make sure that the influencer is professional, responsive, and that they understand your goals and expectations. In return, you will want to make sure that you pay them what they are worth. Influencer marketing can have a high return on investment if done correctly. To attract the best influencers within your niche or industry, a fair compensation package should be expected. 

Instagram influencer marketing tips

When considering influencer marketing for your brand and/or eCommerce business you should remember the following quick tips. Remembering these Instagram marketing tips may be the difference between a mediocre and a wildly successful influencer market campaign on Instagram. 

  1. Find an influencer with expertise in your industry or that is relevant to your niche.
  2. Consider asking an agency to find the right influencer for your brand.
  3. Set out all your goals and expectations from the very beginning.
  4. Effectively communicate these goals to your influencer. 
  5. Track all Instagram campaigns closely using all the provided metrics. 
  6. Check out all past campaigns and collaborations that the influencer has worked on.
  7. Make sure the followers of your influencer match your target audience.
  8. Choose an influencer that fits your brand. 

These quick eight tips are simply the most basic steps you can take to increase the chances that your Instagram influencer marketing campaign will be successful. Ultimately, it boils down to finding the right influencer for your brand and the goals of your campaign. 

Learn about Kickfurther

Instagram influencer marketing can raise awareness and boost sales for your company. As sales increase, you will probably need to stock more inventory. The more inventory you need, the more cash you will need. To avoid cash flow problems or lost sales, you may need to access inventory financing. Kickfurther is the world’s first online inventory financing platform that enables companies to access funds that they are unable to acquire through traditional sources. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Accelerate your growth, unlock affordable inventory financing today at Kickfurther!

Guide to LinkedIn Ads for eCommerce Businesses

Posted on by Amanda Levine

LinkedIn ads for businesses can help you connect with customers and employees or future employees worldwide. LinkedIn offers a professional platform that allows individuals and businesses to network and grow professionally. If you have been considering LinkedIn ads for your eCommerce business, keep reading to learn more.

What are LinkedIn Ads?

LinkedIn Ads can be an effective paid marketing tool that utilizes the social networks within the LinkedIn platform to help companies build B2B connections, follow up leads, develop online recognition, spread brand awareness, and share content. LinkedIn Ads consist mainly of sponsored posts, however, there are a few other methods of advertising through LinkedIn that companies have found to be effective. LinkedIn is not only for building B2B connections and spreading brand awareness in the professionals market, it can be used to increase sales, find new talent, and be part of the social media scene for any given industry you choose to be a part of. By utilizing LinkedIn, a company, small business, or individual can grow their professional presence and image online naturally and organically.

Why should an e-commerce business consider using  LinkedIn ads?

If you have an eCommerce business, you may want to consider using LinkedIn Ads to generate leads, recruit new employees, increase sales, and connect to other businesses within your industry. Connecting to other businesses within your industry could prove beneficial to help create future partnerships and mutually beneficial transactions. Additionally, LinkedIn Ads can be used to connect to your target audience within the professionals market. LinkedIn as a platform hosts more than 575 million professionals worldwide. Aside from the previously mentioned uses of LinkedIn Ads, generating leads, recruiting employees, increasing sales, and connecting to other businesses within your industry, there are other benefits that we should examine a little deeper. 

  • Engagement:  LinkedIn is a platform that allows your brand and/or company to market the people behind the brand rather than specific products and/or services. A LinkedIn business profile allows a brand to engage with followers, potential clients, and potential partners, while at the same time expanding a business through finding new talent and marketing a company. By promoting your brand through LinkedIn Ads, you can build business connections while giving potential customers and/or business partners an introductory glimpse into your brand’s business story and/or mission statement rather than simply promoting a product or service. 
  • SEO: Since LinkedIn business profiles are extremely authoritative in the Google algorithm, having a profile for your business can have a strong impact on your search engine optimization. When you link your business website on your LinkedIn profile, it can help your business reach better rankings in Google search results. This can help bring your website up from deep in the search results to hopefully in the first few pages of results. 
  • Access: The LinkedIn platform is a network of professionals that is home to almost 575-million users. The LinkedIn professional network can give your brand access to a great number of people to introduce your brand to. LinkedIn also allows a business to easily research and identify companies that they may want to establish direct contact with. The platform can also help businesses follow industry leaders who may host conferences, offer access to educational seminars, and who can offer guidance either directly or indirectly. Access is also about generating leads through the LinkedIn platform by networking within different communities, answering inquiries and giving advice to other businesses within a given industry, and by demonstrating your expertise and extensive knowledge regarding topics that concern your industry. 
  • Content creation: There is a plethora of amazing content on LinkedIn. From presentations to in-depth blog posts to educational seminars and infographics, LinkedIn is an excellent resource for learning more about trends within your industry. Additionally, if you are able to create compelling content yourself, then you can help establish your brand and/or company as an authoritative figure in your industry. LinkedIn provides an atmosphere that fosters the exchange of knowledge and interactions. Additionally, LinkedIn allows you to keep up on all the latest news concerning your industry through the content that is created by other businesses. 
  • A platform to display your business story: If you are looking for a place to showcase your business story or mission statement, LinkedIn can provide you with the perfect platform to do so. A LinkedIn business account is similar to a business card. What is it that you want people to know about your business? Do you want them to know your origin story? Maybe you would like to share your business’s community engagement and general ethos? LinkedIn is an excellent platform to display your business story and the reasons why your business does what it does. 

These are just a few of the many reasons why creating a LinkedIn business profile is an intelligent move for any eCommerce business looking to spread its brand awareness and establish connections within its industry. 

Types of LinkedIn Ads

Once you have created a LinkedIn business profile for your eCommerce business, you can begin to use LinkedIn Ads to create content to increase brand awareness, among many things. Here are some of the main types of LinkedIn Ads that are used on the platform.

  • Text ads: Text ads are an excellent tool if you have a tight marketing budget. Text Ads are displayed along the top and right-hand side of the desktop feed of the intended audience.
    Sponsored content: LinkedIn sponsored content can come in the form of carousel ads, single image ads, or video ads. These sponsored content ads will show up in the LinkedIn feed of your intended audience. 
  • Sponsored messaging: Sponsored messaging lets you create carousel, single image, or video ads that are sent directly to the inboxes of your intended audience. 

These are just three of the main types of LinkedIn Ads that can be used on the platform. Additionally, there are a few other options including dynamic ads. Dynamic ads show up on the right-hand side of a user’s feed and the ads are personalized for the user.

How to use LinkedIn ads for ecommerce businesses

Once you have created a LinkedIn business account,  the first step is to sign up for the LinkedIn campaign manager. After you sign up for the campaign manager, then it is time to create your first campaign. First, you will need to set a clear objective. For example, you can choose from objectives such as brand awareness, website visits, engagement, video views, lead generation, website conversion, or job applicants. After your objective is set, then you need to determine who your target audience will be. You can choose your target demographic by setting a location, language, age range, gender, education level, job experience, and interests. You can even target a specific group within a specific company or industry. Next, pick the format in which you would like to advertise. This is where you choose between sponsored content, sponsored messaging, text, or dynamic ads. Next, create a budget and a schedule. For the budget, you can put on ad spending limits that are daily, campaign total, a combination of daily and campaign total limits, lifetime limit, or a combination of daily and lifetime.  For the schedule, you can choose the dates that your ad campaign will begin and end. Lastly, you will then set up how you would like to track the performance of the ad. Tracking performance can help you make future ad campaign decisions. In a nutshell, these are the most basic steps of creating a LinkedIn Ads marketing campaign. 

How to run an effective LinkedIn ads campaign

One of the most effective ways to create a LinkedIn ads campaign is to create compelling, creative, and engaging content in combination from using the built-in tools that LinkedIn already provides. The campaign manager tool allows you to get very specific about who you would like to target and how much money you would like to spend promoting content. That is the easy part. The LinkedIn Ads campaign tool is effective and efficient in its design, however, if you create uninteresting content, then it does not matter how many people see your advertisement, it will not engage. This is where investing in employing the services of an expert content creator can go a long way to ensure that you are running the most effective LinkedIn Ads campaign possible.

Learn about Kickfurther

As you grow your eCommerce business, you may encounter cash flow problems. If you do, this is probably a high quality problem, especially once you discover affordable inventory financing at Kickfurther. Kickfurther specializes in providing inventory financing for small businesses. We connect brands to a community of eager buyers who help fund the inventory on consignment and give brands the flexibility to pay that back as they receive cash from their sales. This alleviates the cash-flow pinch that lenders can cause without customized repayment schedules, allowing your brand to scale quickly without impeding your ability to maintain inventory or financial flexibility.

Take your eCommerce business to the next level. . . visit Kickfurther today!