Shoppers often rely on unadulterated opinions of former customers to judge whether or not they want to make a purchase. This makes online reviews a key factor in people’s purchasing journey—and it’s why there are so many review websites where customers go to share their experiences with both local businesses and national brands.
\nAs a small business owner, collecting customer reviews is one of the best ways you can build consumer confidence and expand your market reach. Here are strategies for getting business listings on different sites and getting as many positive online reviews as possible.
\nTable of Contents
\nCustomer reviews benefit small businesses through the concept of social proof: The human tendency to base our decisions on the actions and opinions of other people. Specifically, consumer reviews can benefit businesses because they can help:
\nAllow customers to leave product reviews on your store
\nCustomers can rate and review products to help other people decide what to buy, and also provide valuable feedback to you.
\nEvery positive review—whether it’s posted on a popular review site or your own website—has the potential to boost your brand reputation. Still, there are certain third-party review sites worth prioritizing, since they get a lot of traffic and people already trust them. Here are 10 (plus your own) of the best review sites for online businesses.
\nWhen you set up a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), you get placement on Google Maps. You also get a forum for Google customer reviews, where anyone with a Google account can leave feedback about your business. Given Google’s continued dominance in online search and the number of people who rely on Google Maps to get around and find local businesses, it pays to have a presence on its platform. You can solicit Google reviews by directing people to your Google business listing.
\nYelp specializes in local search, so it’s particularly useful if your business has a physical location. But even if you work exclusively in ecommerce, Yelp reviews improve your online visibility. That’s because Yelp devotes a lot of attention to search engine placement, so your Yelp listing might show up in a search result ahead of your own website. Yelp encourages you to set up a business profile and let active Yelpers organically review your company.
\nFacebook is known for connecting family and friends, but it also functions as a review site for businesses. You can create a Facebook page for your business and encourage people to like your page and leave reviews.
\nWhile review sites offer value, there may be no better place to feature positive reviews than within your own ecommerce store. The Shopify Product Reviews app and the Shop App both let you display client feedback directly on your Shopify online store, providing on-the-page social proof to interested buyers. The app lets you publish, hide, filter, and manage reviews quickly and easily. It also lets you add review scores to your Google search results.
\nTrustpilot lets users write reviews about individual products and companies as a whole. This helps it stand out among business review websites, which typically only feature one of these review categories. Trustpilot operates on a paid subscription model, but even its free tier offers Shopify integration.
\nThe Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a nonprofit organization that rates companies on an A to F scale, and it offers accreditation, for a fee, which signals to consumers you’re an honest business. These ratings and accreditations can show whether a business is reliable and trustworthy, and whether it proactively addresses customer complaints. The Better Business Bureau’s own research says 88% of consumers said they were more likely to purchase from a business if it had an A+ or A rating, 78% of consumers said they were more likely to purchase from a business if it displayed a BBB Accreditation seal, and 68% of consumers said they were less likely to purchase from a business if it had an F or D rating.
\nIf you sell on Amazon, reviews are of paramount importance. Positive Amazon customer reviews can push your product to the top of a product search page, while negative reviews can relegate you to the bottom. Note that Amazon forbids the practice of offering people rewards for their reviews. One way to get more reviews on Amazon is to make a high-quality product and aggressively price it to gain market share. Later, when you’ve amassed a large number of reviews, you can consider raising your price to improve your profit margin.
\nAliExpress is a Chinese online marketplace with a growing presence in the United States. It is known for rock-bottom prices, which draw bargain shoppers. AliExpress is much like Amazon in that reviews can boost your listing on search results pages. AliExpress reviews tend to be shorter than those on Amazon, which may incentivize happy customers to quickly type a few words of praise.
\nAngi (formerly Angie’s List) specializes in local businesses and the service industry—think contractors, music teachers, and caterers. If you exclusively work in ecommerce, you may not need an Angi profile, but if you provide services or operate within a specific local area, a listing may help. Angi charges site visitors a fee to access its review listings. This means you can only request customer feedback from Angi subscribers.
\nFoursquare allows users to “check in” at a local business. It also provides a forum for customer reviews, which can be given on a scale of 1–10. While Foursquare reviews may not directly boost ecommerce sales, they can definitely improve the visibility of your brick-and-mortar locations. Its default view presents businesses in order of their customer ratings, so keeping a high score boosts your presence on the platform.
\nLong before online review sites transformed the retail market, shoppers found business by searching the Yellow Pages, a massive print directory that was delivered for free to people’s homes. Today the Yellow Pages name lives on in an online directory. Like Foursquare and Yelp, yellowpages.com (also called YP) emphasizes local listings and includes map views. If you’re rated by the Better Business Bureau (see item 6), you can feature that on your YP listing. You can also indicate how long you’ve been in business and how long you’ve been listed in Yellow Pages.
\n\nAsking people to leave you reviews on sites is a marketing strategy in and of itself. Here are four strategies for gaining positive ecommerce reviews.
\nOne of the best review-generating strategies is also among the simplest. Reach out to past clients via email newsletter, text, or phone, and ask them to review your business. Make it easy for them to do so by sending a link that takes them right to your review page.
\nSome clients struggle to summarize their customer experience in written word format, but they may be happy to record themselves talking and leave a video review. Sites like Amazon encourage video reviews, so you can remind your clients that it’s up to them to decide what format they want to use to leave feedback about your business.
\nRather than rely on general purpose sites like Google, you can focus on sites that cover your particular niche industry. Think of musical equipment reviews on Sweetwater, or pet supply reviews on PetSmart. You can also encourage engagement by joining forums like Reddit, where users may talk about your business. Although Reddit does not contain formal reviews, it hosts communities of like-minded people open to recommendations; you may have fans on there who welcome the chance to sing your praises.
\nYou can offer past customers incentives (like a discount on their next purchase or a free item) if they leave you a review. This helps, as 73% of consumers say an incentive would make them more likely to leave a review. Ethically, you should offer the same incentives for any review, whether positive or negative. It’s unethical for businesses to only offer rewards for five-star reviews. Note that some sites, notably Yelp and Amazon, discourage soliciting reviews in any form. But generally, asking for a review—and not dictating what you’d like the review to say—is OK to do.
\nReviews are effective because they offer social proof about your business. Many potential customers rely on reviews from real people who’ve done business with you in the past to gain confidence before they purchase your product or service.
\nAYes, it’s wise to respond to reviews, both positive and negative. Responding to your customers on review sites demonstrates you are actively engaged in your business and care about the client experience. It also helps forge a more personal connection between you and those customers, and this can lead to repeat business.
\nFake reviews are a scourge of small-business owners, and they must be dealt with quickly before they can spread. Immediately report these reviews to platform moderators on the specific review site and follow up with them until the fake reviews are taken down.
\nWhen asking for reviews, avoid asking for specific language or star ratings. Reviews should reflect the customer’s honest opinion, not the business owner’s.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/review-sites
\nAs the world’s most popular search engine, Google has access to decades of information on what users are looking for online—and that information is accessible via the Google Trends tool. Researchers have used Google Trends search data for everything from predicting the stock market to monitoring the spread of disease. Read on to learn how you can put this powerful free tool to work for your business.
\nGoogle Trends is a website that shares anonymous, aggregated data about what people search for on the web. Using a random sample of billions of daily searches, Google Trends measures the relative volume of search queries over time, stretching back to 2004.
\nTake note: Google Trends only provides relative search volume, not absolute search volume—or the total number of Google searches a term received. Google Trends data is indexed to 100, meaning that the maximum search volume for a particular query over a set timeframe is 100. If you look at trends over time, 100 is the day with the highest search traffic for your keyword. If you explore Google Trends by region, the location with the most search interest within a set timeframe has a value of 100.
\n\n\n
As a business owner, you can use Google Trends for more than just staying on top of the zeitgeist. Here’s how it can help you with keyword research, competitive analysis, and more.
\nIf you use Google Ads, you know that Google provides you with the monthly average search volume for search terms on the platform. The difference between Google Ads and Google Trends is that Trends provides real-time data rather than a monthly average, so you can use it to pinpoint searches around particular events or to see how searches change over time. These insights allow you to plan ahead for seasonal marketing campaigns that promote products during the time when searches for related keywords spike.
\n“Hiking sandals” is an example of a seasonal keyword. Every year from 2004 to 2022, search interest for the term “hiking sandals” in the US peaked in June and dipped in November. To capitalize on this pattern, you can increase your ad spend in late spring and early summer, when most people search for hiking sandals.
\nYou can use Google Trends to see if your search term performs better on certain days of the week. For example, both “hiking sandals” and “walking sandals” receive the most traffic on the weekend, so consider running more ads and leaning into content marketing campaigns that land on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
\nYou can get more specific with search volume data by selecting a location and narrowing your parameters from, for example, worldwide to the US—or even further to just California. If you select California, you’ll see search volume sorted by metro area. For example, in 2022 the term “hiking sandals” had the highest concentration of searches in the San Diego metro region. You can use this information to localize advertising and to improve the targeting of your content marketing efforts. For instance, you might consider publishing a blog post on the top hiking trails near San Diego to promote your walking sandals.
\nUse Google Trends to conduct keyword research for SEO by viewing related search topics. When you use Google Trends to explore a term, you can scroll down past the “interest over time” and “interest by region” data to a section of related search topics. Toggle between “rising” (highest increase in search frequency over a given period of time) and “top” (highest overall search frequency) for a clearer picture of each term’s performance.
\nIn 2022, rising related topics for “hiking sandals” in California included “ankle” and “backpack,” while some of the top related topics were “sandal” and “hiking boot.” If you sell hiking sandals, looking at topics can help you brainstorm what other products your customer may be looking for—such as hiking boots and backpacks. You can click on those topics to assess if they are worth pursuing. Exploring trends by topic can give you additional information about search interest that you may not have discovered otherwise.
\nRising related queries usually have a percentage next to them, indicating how Google search volume has grown. However, some queries and topics won’t show a percentage increase in search volume. Instead, you’ll see the word “breakout,” which is Google’s way of indicating that search volume for this term grew by over 5,000%. For a search term to experience that much short-term growth, it likely initially had very low search volume. These newly popular keywords can be an important part of your SEO strategy.
\nGoogle Trends’ “compare” feature can help you choose the perfect phrasing for your search term. For example, in the US in 2022, “walking sandals” got slightly more interest than “hiking sandals”—except in Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, where “hiking sandals” was the preferred term. This feature can help you decide which keywords to prioritize in your marketing efforts. A brand selling sandals might use the term “hiking sandals” in the Southwest and “walking sandals” elsewhere.
\nGoogle Trends gives ecommerce store owners the option to refine search volume data by type of search. Web search is the default, but you can also see trends in image search, news search, shopping search, and YouTube search. Benefits include seeing how the trends for shopping search and image search differ from web search. For example, popular web searches for “walking sandals” include the word “best,” while image and shopping searches are more likely to contain the words “for women.” If you want to rank for web search, consider compiling a list of the best walking shoes. If you want to make sure your product page ends up on image and shopping pages, know that searchers are looking for products that work for their body and gender identity.
\nOne handy feature of Google Trends is the ability to compare up to four different search terms at once. Once you’ve decided on a region and time period for your first search query, click “+ compare” in the light blue box to the right of your original search term to see how these two terms compare. You can add up to two more terms, which can be helpful when conducting competitor analysis. Compare your brand name to your three biggest competitors to better understand your niche and improve your marketing efforts.
\nYes, Google launched Trends in 2006 as a free tool for the general public.
\nGoogle trends data is accurate, but it doesn’t provide absolute search volume. Since Google performs billions of searches daily, including every single search in its data set would take a long time. So, Google Trends uses a sample of searches. Google notes that its Trends data “is not scientific and might not be a perfect mirror of search activity.” Some searches will report with a search volume of zero, but that may mean that the search volume was too low for Google to consider it significant; the actual volume may be higher than zero—but still low.
\nGoogle Trends data shows global search queries, so it’s a solid option for international data. Depending on the region, you can search for data by country, state, or metro area.
\nGoogle Trends determines search popularity by taking a random sample of daily searches for a particular query and then translating that sample into a number out of 100. The term with the highest search volume at a particular moment in time is the benchmark for 100, and every other query’s popularity is shown relative to the most popular search.
\nIf you see the number “100” next to a search term, that doesn’t mean it has an absolute Google search volume of 100. Since Google uses normalized values, a score of 100 means the term in question has the highest relative search volume.
\nWhen you think of the word “pitch,” you may think of the TV show Shark Tank. There’s a carpet, a line of potential investors, and glaring lights as someone presents their idea in 90 seconds. However, pitching goes beyond seeking funding for your business—it also applies to communicating with potential customers, partners, and team members.
\nIf figuring out how to connect your business to these audiences seems like a tall order, know there are fundamental tips that can help you pitch your business—and yourself—with confidence. Here are a few to get you started.
\nTable of Contents
\nA business pitch is any opportunity for you to present, within a limited timeframe: who you are, what you do, and what problem your business solves. It can take place in person, over the phone, or even via digital channels such as your website or email.
\nAt the end, include an effective call-to-action (CTA), which is the action you want listeners to take after your business pitch, depending on the specific audience to which you’re speaking. Common CTAs encourage someone to buy from a business or to join as an investor or employee.
\nThe purpose of a general business pitch is to generate excitement and persuade your target audience to be involved with your endeavor. The perfect business pitch explains the problem your business can solve and the impact it will have on a market within an industry. From there, the hope is that your audience will want to join your business as an investor or employee, or become a loyal customer. Any relevant business information—such as the problem your product or service will solve and the business’s future financial outlook—included in your pitch may be the same across multiple audiences.
\nBusiness pitches take various forms, depending on your goal and target audience. Regardless of the type, each typically includes similar strategies, such as incorporating stories and stats to sell your business idea. Some of the most common types of business pitches are:
\nAn elevator pitch is a concise statement that can be the building block for other types of pitches. The idea behind an elevator pitch is that you can explain your business in the time it takes for a single elevator ride, or about 30 seconds. It’s considered a short sales pitch that is one to three sentences, including the value statement summarizing the value of your business and unique selling proposition.
\nIf seeking to employ top talent, you want to show that your company has promise. A business pitch that highlights the value of your business can persuade others to want to join your team.
\nA sales pitch happens when you’re speaking to a potential customer about a problem they have with their own life or business. An effective sales pitch convinces a potential client that your business could help fix their unique problem.
\nA partnership pitch highlights to another company how your business can benefit theirs, and vice versa. It usually occurs between businesses with shared markets or products. For example, if your business sells direct-to-consumer coffee, a partnership with a company that sells sugar or cream would be a good pairing.
\nThis is one of the most common types of pitches for small businesses because it combines an elevator pitch, employment pitch, sales pitch, and partnership pitch. Investor pitches sell the value proposition of your company and explain its financial future through a successful pitch deck. If successful, they help you secure investors or venture capitalists who inject funds into your business in exchange for an ownership stake, and they become part owners in your company and can impact business operations.
\n\n\n
Pitching skills are an art, not a science. They most often start with a personal anecdote, but there are other core skills that go into an effective pitch. These tips are some of the best methods to create a pitch that can clinch the deal:
\nAt the core of any business or product pitch are a variety of numbers that tell the financial story of your business: your customer base, cost of goods sold, annual sales, monthly website traffic, profit margin, previous investments, and start-up capital.
\nDepending on your business model, you may need other supporting figures. For example, as an ecommerce business, you need to know what your customer acquisition cost is between your advertising budget and sales so you can better assess what type of financing you might need.
\nA 2020 survey by Harvard Business Review found senior investors aren’t solely focused on the numbers behind your business—they’re also interested in whether you have the right experience. For example, if you’re trying to sell a new hose to fire departments, having some type of experience in the firefighting industry (and highlighting that in your pitch) can be more important to investors than how cheap you price your water hose.
\nThe talking points and messaging for your pitch may vary depending on the audience. For instance, angel investors may be more concerned that you have passion for your product or service when proceeding your business pitch, while a potential customer might be focused on how you address customer pain points.
\nJust as you would customize your business pitch, you too must tailor your CTA for your respective audience. The more targeted your pitch, the more persuasive.
\nPart of the pitch process is selling your team and emphasizing each person’s expertise. That’s why having multiple voices—instead of one—doing the pitch can make for a well-rounded presentation. If you have a partner, customer, or spokesperson who can amplify your message, try to include them in the pitch itself. Keep in mind: Any partner should uplift your brand.
\nConduct a competitive analysis to understand your competitors, the target market they serve, and key differences between their business and your own—so you’ll know what makes your offering unique. By understanding your competitors, you are better prepared to underscore what makes your offering unique in case this comment and question come up, “Your business sounds great, but this product already exists. Why do I need yours?”
\nMany pitches open with a simple, basic problem told through a personal story that’s easily relatable. Using storytelling to pitch your business can make it easier to connect with your audience and keep them engaged throughout—increasing the likelihood they will follow through on your CTA.
\nMaking eye contact with every person present during the pitch makes a positive impression and facilitates a stronger sense of connection. Practice by looking someone in the eye—whether it’s your partner, a friend, family member—even a pet, or watch yourself in the mirror.
\nMany businesses, as part of their pitches, prepare a pitch deck with key statistics and information about their company, especially if they’re pitching to potential investors. That way, an audience member can glance up and see key data points throughout your entire presentation instead of trying to jot down information as you speak.
\nInteracting with your audience, for example, by distributing your product to everyone in attendance to let them try it, can make the presentation more engaging. You could also act out a problem your product solves with an audience member, or include an interactive quiz or poll in the pitch deck’s slides and videos.
\nIt’s easy to focus your entire pitch on why your innovative solution is the best in the market. However, if a listener doesn’t understand why your product is needed, you’re less likely to have success. Instead, try focusing on the problem you solve. Answer questions such as, “How pressing is this problem?” or “How many people encounter it?”
\nIt may be tempting to explain every detail you know about your business’s market competitors, demographics, history, goals, and more. Know this information if questions arise, but be mindful of what to share about your business. If listeners feel overwhelmed, they may be more likely to tune out, back out, and say no to your pitch.
\nAfter your initial pitch, open up the floor for questions, which can give you a chance to show how well-informed and prepared you are. This is also an opportunity to receive comments and feedback, which you can use to improve future pitches.
\nDuring a pitch, your voice should be warm, exciting, and welcoming, with enthusiasm that engages listeners. According to a 2022 Harvard Business Review article, increasing the volume on your voice during a presentation “supercharges” the message you’re trying to send—and what accompanies that is knowing when to accentuate certain words.
\nPresentation skills come naturally to some. For others, it takes practice to be able to deliver the most effective message smoothly and confidently. Practicing limits the chance that you’ll blow it on the big day. Practice explaining your business in a brief, straightforward way and start getting comfortable asking for what you want—whether it’s an investment or a sale. You can practice pitching to a friend or family member, or record yourself in order to give yourself feedback.
\nWhen you’re in the middle of your pitch, you may observe a change in your audience’s body language signaling your presentation is going well—or that you may be losing their attention. If you notice nonverbal cues such as shifting in their seats or glancing around the room, it may be time to bring your pitch to a close with an inspiring CTA. Otherwise,you risk boring and alienating your audience.
\nActively listen to your audience during the pitch process to give thoughtful, value-added (instead of canned) responses to their questions. Doing so can show that you have prepared and that you respect the unique differences of the group to which you are speaking.
\nPrepare for the pitch by memorizing facts and figures about your company, including its cost of goods sold, gross profit margin, price point, market research, and competitors. If possible, fine-tune your pitch by practicing on another person. Alternatively, practice in the mirror or record yourself.
\nYes, you should practice your pitch in advance. You could even consider a dress rehearsal the day before a big pitch to test the technology, ensure your clothing suits the type of pitch meeting, and confirm you have all your pitch information and materials.
\nFollow-up is crucial after pitching your business ideas, especially if potential investors have an interest in your business and want to move forward. Typically, email or contact potential investors within one to two days after your presentation to maintain momentum. Thank them for their time, and address any outstanding questions.
\nEvery business pitch should end with a call-to-action, or CTA, that states what action you want your target audience to take. Make the CTA inspiring and concrete so your audience knows exactly what you’re asking of them. Common CTA variations include: “Join our team,” “Buy now,” or “Learn more.”
\nYes, visuals like a slide deck, video, or PowerPoint slides can summarize helpful details about your business during a business pitch. You can provide figures on your company’s history, operations, financials, and growth in ways that are easy to digest. Be cautious, however, about sharing visuals that are too busy. Instead, focus on making all information clean, straightforward, and to the point.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/tips-for-pitches
\nWhile wellness has achieved buzz-level status, fueled by an estimated $1.5 trillion global market, it’s by no means a new concept. Upon its formation in 1948, the World Health Organization defined “health” to include mental and social wellness—not merely the physical.
\nThe wellness trend has brought more light to this facet of overall health. And that’s a good thing.
\nGlobal rates of anxiety and depression surged during the pandemic. For entrepreneurs, a group that already reports higher instances of certain mental health issues, the past few years have taken a toll on wellbeing.
\nHere, we’ll dive into mental health and wellness resources specifically picked for entrepreneurs. Use this list to explore community health services, podcast recommendations, and self-directed wellness strategies.
\nWellness conjures up images of yogi Instagram influencers and tiny $80 bottles of skin oil, but this is merely the commodification of a more basic concept. Put simply, wellness is the state of being well, and includes the act of maintaining healthy habits that care for all facets of well-being, from physical to mental.
\nAccording to the National Institute of Health, wellness is commonly split into eight components, or “dimensions of wellness”:
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/wellness-resources-fotness-nutrition.jpg?v=1683731071\")
Busy entrepreneurs often face stress, wearing many hats as they launch and grow businesses, often on their own. Stress is the enemy to wellness, as it often impacts not only mental health but physical as well. Business owners surveyed in one study reported that work-life balance and “more resources” were the top two things they needed to combat stress.
Tap into these resources before stress triggers more serious problems like anxiety or depression. This list contains both free and paid resources to help cope with the pressures of life and running a business.
\n![\"Three](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/wellness-resources-community-support-friends-families.jpg?v=1683732408\")
A strong tie to community is often cited as one of the best resources to prevent and manage mental health symptoms. These are incredibly important for entrepreneurs who may lack the built-in networks that often come with typical workplaces. Seek communities that contribute to multiple levels of wellness and offer support through group activities. For example:
![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/wellness-resources-online.jpg?v=1683732453\")
There are plenty of resources online to help you learn ways to prioritize your well-being and mental health. Explore a number of Shopify articles to inspire and educate you on everything from sleeping well to managing burnout. Here are a few to get you started:
![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/wellness-resources-alltrails_3e40fffe-89f7-47d6-a416-d2705caa75a5.jpg?v=1683732477\")
Sticking to your wellness goals can be challenging if you don’t have a lot of time or a community to keep you accountable. There are several apps—some free—that can help you develop wellness practices and transform them into healthy habits. Here are a few top-rated wellness apps to get you started:
\n![\"Portrait](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/wellness-resources-podcast-host.jpg?v=1683732514\")
Podcasts and audiobooks can teach you to manage your well-being, get in touch with your mental health, or incorporate wellness practices into your life. For busy entrepreneurs, auditory learning can pair with mundane tasks like driving or housework to maximize your time. Here are some of the top wellness and mental health podcasts:
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/wellness-resources-bestself-co_fa178458-5f82-4aa4-8bf0-f035e06cbe8a.jpg?v=1683733060\")
Enterprising founders have jumped on the trend of wellness to offer miracle cures for any ailment. Do your research to ensure that what you’re using and buying has reputable data backing it or extensive user reviews to validate the claims. Of the wellness products on the market, here are a few tried and true goods (all powered by Shopify) to try:
\n![\"Two](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/wellness-resources-counseling-services.jpg?v=1683732447\")
The financial cost of seeking professional mental health and wellness services can be a barrier for many. If you don’t have the benefit of accessing an employee assistance program—as many entrepreneurs will not—the onus is on you to foot the bill for your health care. In many regions, however, there are public programs or social assistance opportunities for those who qualify.
Search for resources in your area similar to these examples:
\nStart your wellness journey by taking time to connect with your emotions and having awareness of the world around you. How can you create space for wellness? Where do you need support?
\nYour ability to show up for your business, your customers, and your employees relies on your well-being. Carve out time to pay attention to the needs of your body and mind so you’ll have more energy, focus, and support to strive toward your goals.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/wellness-resources
\n"}]},"page_header":{"background":null,"backgroundOpacity":100,"color":null,"fieldGroupName":"page_header","title":"Expert Wellness Tips","opacity":100,"position":"on","size":{"desktop":64,"tablet":null,"mobile":null},"spaces":{"top":null,"bottom":null,"leftright":null,"units":"em"}},"link":"/blog/25-wellness-resources-apps-and-ideas-for-entrepreneurs-2023"},{"id":"cG9zdDo1MjY0","title":"The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing in 2023","date":"24.05.2023","schemaDate":"2023-05-24","modifiedGmt":"2023-07-31T06:51:19","slug":"the-complete-guide-to-influencer-marketing-in-2023","acfSchemaPost":{"blogPostingImage":null},"categories":{"nodes":[{"id":"dGVybTox","name":"General Articles"}]},"levels":{"nodes":[]},"acfPost":{"fieldGroupName":"acfPost","excerpt":"Influencer marketing is a proven tactic to help companies reach new audiences, build brand awareness, and increase trust. If done right, an influencer marketing strategy can be one of the best ways to grow your business.","squaredImage":{"altText":"The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing in 2023","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#98a8a8","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/e8b3b685eeb56c8f84367605462d2832/b956e/influencer_20marketing.webp","srcSet":"/static/e8b3b685eeb56c8f84367605462d2832/d1fa5/influencer_20marketing.webp 750w,\n/static/e8b3b685eeb56c8f84367605462d2832/b956e/influencer_20marketing.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}},"metaData":{"title":null,"description":"Discover the power of influencer marketing and how it can help your business grow. Learn about the benefits, examples, types of influencers, and step-by-step instructions to set up an effective influencer marketing strategy. Explore real success stories and get expert advice"},"banner":{"title":"The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing in 2023","showTitle":true,"image":{"altText":"The Complete Guide to Influencer Marketing in 2023","localFile":{"childImageSharp":{"gatsbyImageData":{"layout":"fullWidth","backgroundColor":"#98a8a8","images":{"fallback":{"src":"/static/e8b3b685eeb56c8f84367605462d2832/b956e/influencer_20marketing.webp","srcSet":"/static/e8b3b685eeb56c8f84367605462d2832/d1fa5/influencer_20marketing.webp 750w,\n/static/e8b3b685eeb56c8f84367605462d2832/b956e/influencer_20marketing.webp 1024w","sizes":"100vw"},"sources":[]},"width":1,"height":0.4228515625}}}}},"timeToRead":null,"sections":[{"fieldGroupName":"post_Acfpost_Sections_ArticleRichTextContent","content":"Influencer marketing is a proven tactic to help companies reach new audiences, build brand awareness, and increase trust. If done right, an influencer marketing strategy can be one of the best ways to grow your business.
\nIf you run a business and know your audience, you can explore influencer marketing for your brand and products—no matter your size. For new brands on low budgets, emerging influencers often offer competitive rates in exchange for promoting your message.
\nAhead, learn how influencer marketing can help you meet brand goals, with step-by-step instructions to set up an influencer campaign. Explore real examples from top online brands and get advice from the pros.
\nLearn about influencer marketing 🎯
\nInfluencer marketing is the practice of brands working with influencers to promote a company, product, service, or message to their audience. These are often paid arrangements that involve the influencer creating digital content in partnership with the brand. Sometimes compensation is also delivered in-kind, often in the form of free products, cash, or discounts on expensive products.
\n![\"Woman](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-content.jpg?v=1683727145\")
Influencers are internet creators and celebrities who have built reputations around a specific niche or have built sizable audiences around their personal brands. Influencers create content across a number of platforms, including:
\nAs of 2022, Instagram still led the charge as the top platform for influencer marketing campaigns and is expected to hold the top spot through 2025.
\nInfluencer marketing is increasingly a popular and effective way for brands to reach potential customers authentically—through endorsements from trusted public figures. It’s no surprise, therefore, that the influencer marketing industry grew by more than $15 billion between 2017 and 2022.
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-customers.jpg?v=1683727185\")
According to one study, 87% of participants said, when choosing a product, they pick one recommended by an influencer. Influencer campaigns can help brands meet business goals like increasing sales, growing brand awareness, and building audiences. Here are a few other ways brands can benefit from influencer marketing.
\nInfluencers use authentic presentation and engagement to foster deeper customer relationships through their association with a brand. In recent years, this dynamic of brand ➡️ influencer ➡️ audience has become a solid staple of media consumption.
\nOf course, for deeper relationships to form, it’s a given that the influencer’s personal brand and your own need to match (values, industry, audience, etc.)—but your business should also provide value to their audience for maximum impact.
\nAnother obvious benefit to influencer marketing is the potential of increased reach from tapping into a wider audience. While the number of social media users across platforms continues to rise, TikTok is one that has seen massive growth. It’s expected that more than 955 billion people will use the app by 2025.
\nDespite this potential, algorithm changes, ad fatigue, and privacy concerns all contribute to lower return on investment (ROI) on some forms of advertising. Influencer marketing allows brands to reach audiences through creators that already have organic reach.
\nDepending on your goals, influencers can help you broadly reach more people (think large audiences) or reach very specific people (those with small, niche audiences). Naturally, higher reach also typically leads to increased social engagement.
\nGreater social engagement often also leads to higher brand awareness, since social platforms show posts your network engages with. Also, if your brand is seen to be well communicative, using the language of the audience, you’ll often garner more brand advocates through influencer marketing.
\nIf engagement is one of your goals, choose your partnerships and channels carefully. One report showed the engagement rates differ across various platforms and influencer audience sizes. In particular, micro-influencers typically have higher engagement rates than their mega-influencer counterparts.
\nThe last major benefit of influencer marketing is the potential for higher earned media value (EMV). EMV refers to the ROI gained from third-party responses to marketing activities.
\nA higher EMV generally means you’re getting more social mentions and you have more meaningful social connections (which can lead to increased sales). When you involve an influencer in your marketing activities, you stand a better chance of increasing your EMV. One survey found businesses are making $6.50 to every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
\n\n\n
\n
Explore some of the companies that successfully work with social media influencers to reach potential customers and meet business goals. Get inspired by their tried and true tactics and apply their learnings to your own influencer marketing efforts.
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/healthish.jpg?v=1683727236\")
Health product brand Healthish actively uses influencers to promote its products. To launch the brand’s signature water bottle, co-founders Emily Chong and Nathan Chan worked with Instagram influencers to promote the product.
\n“We’re in a fortunate position where the product is relatively low cost,” Nathan explains. “We just send out [products] to many subsections of the market.”
\nHealthish’s influencer marketing strategy involves sending free products to relevant influencers like fitness vloggers, fashion influencers, and other groups related to its target market. These creators then share images and videos of its products online—but only if they love the product. “We don’t even ask people to post if they don’t want to,” Nathan says. “We just say, ‘If you love the products, we’d love for you to share it with your community or fans or audience.’”
\n🎧 Listen: To learn more about the influencer marketing approach that turned Healthish into a million-dollar brand, check out the founders on the Shopify Masters podcast.
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/nominal.jpg?v=1683727330\")
Nominal is a jewelry brand that blends culture and fashion to create meaningful accessories. Founded by business and life partners Lena Sarsour and Akram Abdallah, Nominal grew from idea to seven-figure business in a short period of time, thanks to influencer marketing.
\n“Influencer marketing has been huge to us,” Akram explains. “From the very beginning, we, of course, had no budget at all. We couldn’t afford anybody.” So what did Akram and Lena do? They gifted influencers free jewelry. If the influencers enjoyed the products and found them sharable, they would post about the brand on social media.
\n\n
\n
Nominal would even ask influencers if they could repost their content on the brand’s feed. “Although we didn’t pay them, now we have [branded] content that a lot of people follow and see. We build that credibility through a famous person wearing our product.”
\n🎧 Listen: Learn more about Nominal’s marketing strategy by catching the founders on the Shopify Masters podcast.
\nExplore more influencer marketing examples from Shopify store owners:
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/video-youtube-tiktok-creator-music.jpg?v=1683727501\")
\n
Everyone uses slightly different definitions for influencer types, but they typically fall into five tiers of social media influencers: nano, micro, mid, macro, and mega. When developing an influencer marketing strategy, be sure to find the right influencer at the right level for your project.
\nNano-influencers are everyday people with emerging personal brands. They often have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers on social media. Their feeds aren’t glamorous or polished, and photos are typically not edited. Being an influencer is not their full-time job.
\nHowever, nano-influencers are excellent to work with for growing ecommerce brands for two reasons:
\nData shows that nano-influencers have noticeably higher engagement rates than bigger accounts, averaging 5% per post compared to the average rate of 2.2%.
\nMicro-influencers are social media accounts with between 10,000 and 100,000 followers. This group makes up 47% of all Instagram creators
\nMicro-influencers often have more compact and targeted audiences than larger accounts. They have a loyal following they engage with regularly.
\nMicro-influencers may be more expensive than nano-influencers, but they still provide the same one-to-one feel when it comes to promoting your business.
\nMid-tier influencers are those who have a community of between 100,000 and 500,000 followers across their platforms. Despite having hundreds of thousands of followers, mid-tier influencers have a well-segmented audience. For example, if you are a fitness brand, you’d likely collaborate with a mid-tier influencer for maximum exposure.
\nThis group is also more affordable and is easy to contact than bigger influencers. Sometimes when you work with maco- or mega-influencers, you have to contact them through representatives or agents.
\n![\"Two](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-self-care-content.jpg?v=1683727543\")
Macro-influencers are individuals with between 500,000 and one million followers. These influencers make great brand collaborators because they have a lot of experience in the space. They know their target audience and what they like, and they won’t jeopardize their followers’ trust by partnering with the wrong brands.
\nWorking with macro-influencers brings a handful of benefits:
\nWith all this experience comes a price tag that, depending on the platform, one source estimates to be between $1,000 and $10,000.
\nYou’re probably already familiar with mega-influencers. These are the social media celebrities with audiences of more than one million followers.
\nMega-influencers like Ryan Trahan, Mr.Beast, and Unnecessary Inventions can provide massive reach for your brand. These superstars also lend a level of credibility to your products because of their reputation. The cost to work with a member of this group on a single collab can run from $10,000 to six figures, depending on the influencer.
\n![\"A](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-entrepreneur.jpg?v=1683727579\")
Finding a social media influencer and agreeing on a collaboration with them can be a time-consuming exercise that’s difficult to scale. For best results, use this process to stay on track:
\nThere is so much you can learn from other brands’ influencer marketing approaches. Discover what works for them, get inspiration from the different types of content they post, and look at what types of content get the most engagement. Use a tool like Hootsuite, which lets you see metrics on your Instagram account and then compare it with others.
\nIt’s also a good idea to research other brands that are not your competitors but perhaps share a similar demographic. Say you run a watch brand like Shore Projects. You may keep an eye on backpack and accessory brand Herschel Supply Co. While the two brands sell different products, their customer base is similar. You can watch and see which influencer campaigns are working for the brand and pull inspiration for yours.
\nYour campaign will be more successful if you give the influencer creative freedom to produce content they know their audience will love.
\nIt’s better to trust them—the experts of their own audience—to create an authentic and engaging campaign for you rather than assigning the exact image, caption, and hashtag list you want them to use.
\nHowever, it’s also important that your brand is still represented in the right way. Supply the influencer with an outline of your expectations, a primer of your brand, or even a mood board to inspire the campaign.
\nOnce you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve, the next step is finding relevant influencers. Getting this wrong can be expensive, so it’s worth investing a bit more time to make the right decision.
\nThere are influencers within every market. Whether it’s fashion, lifestyle, travel, or fitness, you’ll likely find more than a few good options. One of the main ways to identify influencers that fit is doing an Instagram hashtag search to find the top hashtags in your market and look for the posts with high engagement.
\nA tool like Shopify Collabs is a great place to start your influencer marketing journey. You can find influencers who are open to collaborations with brands and search them by industry and other categories.
\n“A lot of people will make the mistake where they’ll spend money or send products to just about any influencer, anybody that has a lot of followers,” says Akram. “It’s not the best strategy, and also a waste of time and money.”
\nTo get a sense of the fit between your brand and an influencer, ask yourself these questions:
\nThe better the fit, the more authentic their endorsement will feel. And the more authentic the endorsement feels to the influencer’s audience, the more likely they are to follow that recommendation.
\nThat’s the power of a good fit between a brand and an influencer, like this example of a creative partnership between Tosh Snacks and popular nutritionist Amanda Holtzer.
\n![\"Screengrab](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-instagram_6ea90ea2-35a8-4704-8e5e-d2b65c2f6ea6.jpg?v=1683727643\")
It’s not just about audience size. The influencer’s audience needs to be engaged. Genuine positive comments are a more valuable signal of a strong social following than likes alone.
\nThe biggest mistake a lot of brands make at this stage is not knowing how to reach out to the influencer or, if they do know how to reach out, not positioning their brand correctly in their pitch.
\nTo properly set up an influencer marketing deal with a macro-influencer, you need to work with their representatives, most likely their agent and their manager:
\nIf you’re not sure who to contact, there are celebrity contact info databases you can use to find out contact information for the agents, managers, and publicists of the influencers they’re targeting.
\nOne of the benefits of targeting micro-influencers is that you can just reach out to them directly without going through their representatives. In fact, this direct access is one of the reasons why some brands prefer to work with micro-influencers.
\nOf course, because micro-influencers aren’t as well known as macro-influencers, the challenge usually isn’t knowing who to contact but finding relevant micro-influencers in the first place.
\nTo do that, try BuzzSumo, Shopify Collabs, or another influencer marketplace.
\nThese influencer marketplaces let you search for influencers based on keywords in their social media bios, and they’re a great way to identify micro-influencers and narrow down potential matches based on interest, industry, and audience size.
\nThe best way to reach out to larger influencers is through agents or managers with a brief and concise email. If you’re reaching out to micro-influencers, you can usually do so directly or via a social media DM. Your goal is to answer all questions in one message so they can decide whether or not to discuss the opportunity further. Limit your first email to the key details:
\nYou need to show them that there’s a good fit between your brand and the influencer. Remember, managers are focused on their client’s long-term career, so be prepared to sell them on why a partnership with your brand is a good career move for the influencer.
\nBoth influencers and their representatives are busy, so if you don’t hear back right away, don’t get discouraged or assume they’re not interested. It’s perfectly OK to send a follow-up email to jog their memory.
\nJust make sure you time it correctly—if you send it too soon, you’ll risk seeming pushy, and if you send it too late, it’ll seem like you’re not all that interested in working with that influencer.
\nA good rule of thumb for following up is five to seven business days after your first email; if another week goes by and you still haven’t heard back, move on to the next influencers on your list.
\nIf you’re partnering with a macro-influencer, their agent will handle the contract. With micro-influencers, you’ll usually work with them directly. In either case, assuming you’ve clearly communicated what you expect the influencer to do and what they’ll get in return, the paperwork should be straightforward.
\nOnce you’ve found the influencers you want to work with you’ll need to reach out to them and agree on a collaboration structure. There are typically six key aspects you’ll want to negotiate around:
\nGet additional value out of sponsored Instagram content by repurposing it for other channels. Here are three ways you can maximize influencer content value:
\nThese best practices ensure you don’t get burned when working with influencers:
\n![\"Close](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-contract.jpg?v=1683727694\")
Let’s look at the most common payment structures and considerations for influencer endorsements on social media.
\nThe standard format for an influencer marketing campaign is for the influencer to post about a brand or product on their own social media account. You might think that you own the rights to that post, since your brand or product is featured in it. However, it’s actually the content creator who owns it.
\nIf an influencer made a post on their account promoting your brand, you may have to pay a licensing fee to reuse their content on your own social media account. It may be possible to work out a deal that gives your brand ownership or unlimited use of the content.
\nThe most typical payment arrangement is known as “pay per post.” With these deals, you pay the influencer a certain amount of money for a set number of posts. The pricing for these deals can fluctuate based on a few factors, with the biggest one being the size of the influencer’s audience.
\nThe cost per post can also vary depending on what kind of post the influencer is creating. For example, a travel blogger with more than 100,000 followers charges $1,000 per “static” (no video, no slideshow) post on Instagram, but only charges $200 for an Instagram Story post.
\nIf you’re not sure whether you can afford a traditional pay-per-post deal, a temporary post can be a cost-effective option. But you get what you pay for—since Instagram Stories last for only 24 hours, odds are your campaign will have less visibility with your influencer’s audience.
\nWith link-in-bio deals, the influencer includes a link to your brand’s site in their social media bio, which stays pinned to the top of their account page, or on their profile, and can drive direct traffic to your site. You can set up your own custom link page to display in your social bio using Shopify’s Linkpop.
\nThe pricing for these can be difficult to predict, but since a link in an influencer’s bio increases the visibility of your campaign even further, most influencers charge up to 40% more for that add-on.
\nIf you’re targeting an influencer with a large following on multiple social media platforms, you should also consider a multi-platform campaign, where the influencer shares one post on all their social media accounts. This can increase your visibility, and many influencers offer bundled pricing for a multi-platform campaign.
\nThis arrangement typically takes more effort to set up because not only do you have to find an influencer who you think is a good fit for your brand, you also have to find one who genuinely likes your products. Most larger influencers expect payment and will not accept in-kind-only offers.
\nAnother option is to pay the influencer a commission, which usually comes in the form of pay per sale, pay per lead, or pay per engagement. So instead of paying a flat fee for access to their entire audience, you only pay if their endorsement leads directly to a sale, a new referral, or engagement—whatever metric you’ve decided to use to measure success.
\nThe commission structure helps ensure that you’re only paying for results, but most influencers prefer not to be paid on a commission basis. The way they see it, why put in the effort to endorse a brand without a guarantee they’ll be compensated for their work?
\nFinding the right creator partners remains one of the biggest challenges for brands that run influencer marketing campaigns. As influencer marketing became more popular, companies and apps to help simplify the process continue to pop up.
\nMany offer additional features like affiliate program management, marketplaces, analytics, and relationship management software to run campaigns better.
\nHere are a few of the best platforms for finding influencers that are a good fit with your brand:
\n![\"Screengrab](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-shopify-collabs.jpg?v=1683727733\")
The platform offers a range of tools to help you build authentic relationships with creators. You can send them products and discounts right from your Shopify store and create unique discount codes and referral links to track sales driven by creators.
\nShopify Collabs allows you to find creators who align with your brand and invite them to apply to your affiliate program. Creators can also apply directly from your application page. With easy-to-understand analytics, you can track the performance of your affiliate program and keep tabs on the creators and products that are driving sales.
\n![\"Screengrab](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-grin.jpg?v=1683727767\")
Grin offers relationship management tools to nurture authentic relationships with influencers, as well as everything from reporting and analytics to content management and payments. It also integrates with Shopify to handle shipping logistics for sales made through influencers.
\n![\"Screengrab](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-upfluence.jpg?v=1683727789\")
Upfluence also helps you identify influential customers and fans. It collects data when a visitor is shopping on your site, analyzes their social data, then adds them as affiliates for your campaigns. Whether you’re a large or small business, Upfluence will help you run campaigns more efficiently and maximize your influencer marketing ROI.
\n![\"Screengrab](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/influencer-marketing-creator-co.jpg?v=1683727808\")
Creator.co is a newer influencer marketplace with more than 500 million influencers to choose from. It’s known as an automation software for young brands to connect with the right influencers online.
Creator.co offers a self-service option where you can find influencers manually. It also offers a “hands-free” option where you define your ideal influencer and campaign, then its automated system finds the best fit.
\nThere’s no doubt that influencer marketing can benefit your business. It can help find potential customers and influence purchasing decisions to drive sales for your business. Influencers can also build your brand image and make your products desirable to a target market.
\nWith this guide in hand, you’ll be well on your way to growing your follower count across social networks, building traction for your brand, and growing your business online.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/influencer-marketing
\nAnaita Sakar and Vik Davé came home one day to find their kids playing in piles of plastic wrapping material left over from their business. They were disgusted. “It made me feel sick,” Anaita says. “I knew we had to do something differently.”.
\nThe couple couldn’t find any sustainable alternatives, so they experimented with their home compost bin and different materials. The result? One hundred percent home-compostable shipping packages and a new brand, Hero Packaging.
\nAnaita and Vik’s idea has been such a hit that just last year the company received more than $1 million in investment funding, and served their 50,000th customer.
\nAhead, discover Anaita’s three tips for marketing a new and innovative product that nobody had ever seen before.
\n\n![\"Three](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/Heropackaging_finaledit-42.jpg?v=1684786005\")
In order to get a sense of the demand, Anaita and Vik ran targeted Google Ads. “Anyone who was typing in ‘sustainable packaging’ was hit with our landing page,” Anaita says. This helped Anaita and Vik determine there were more people out there like them searching for more sustainable options. And the ads drew more traffic to their website before they’d even launched a product.
\nAfter driving traffic to Hero Packaging’s pre-launch site, the founders offered a free sample to anyone who showed interest and signed up, thereby building an email list. “In a week, we got a thousand people signing up [for a free sample], and that was the first sign where we said, ‘people are really interested in this,’” Anaita says.
\nWith enough demand for compostable, plastic-free packaging, Anaita and Vik were able to start production with the confidence that they would hit their goals.
\n![\"An](\"https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0070/7032/files/3_1_089676c3-3fb8-4c78-a771-3b12bb36130f.png?format=webp&v=1684786353\")
Hero Packaging uses the real questions customers and businesses send them to create impactful, informative, and eye-catching content for social media channels, blog posts, and the brand’s FAQ page.
\n“It is critical that we are just pumping content—whether it’s educational or just product base—to every platform at any given point in time,” Anaita says. This approach has helped Hero Packaging draw in almost 100,000 followers on its Instagram page.
\nThrough the successful growth of Hero Packaging, Anaita has learned the power of having strong, targeted content that educates and excites the audience.
\nTo learn more about the unique marketing strategies behind Hero Packaging’s success, tune in to the full Shopify Masters episode.
\nhttps://www.shopify.com/blog/hero-packaging-marketing-product-launches
\n