Influencer Marketing for Shopify Dropshipping Stores

Sarah Donawerth

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What is Dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a business model in which the business sells products that they do not keep stock of. When an order is placed, it is passed to a third-party supplier who ships and fulfills the order of the business.

A dropshipping business can set up a store with very little overhead and start selling right away. Instead of keeping inventory, these online stores will work with suppliers to fulfill the orders directly. That’s the biggest difference between dropshippers and traditional ecommerce stores — keeping inventory. Other ecommerce stores usually keep inventory in stock at their own warehouse or retail location.

Dropshipping relies on product sourcing from suppliers that can ship the product directly to the consumer. To start dropshipping, you’ll need to find dropshipping products, add these products to your sales channels, and start building your ecommerce business from the ground up!

The Challenges for a Shopify Dropshipping Store

Dropshipping shouldn’t be considered a get-rich-quick scheme, but instead takes the same hard work of any ecommerce store.

Dropshippers will need marketing campaigns that help them overcome the challenges that every dropshipping store faces.

Being Unique

Dropshippers on Shopify and other platforms are typically using the same suppliers from AliExpress or Oberlo listings. However, this also means that every product a dropshipper sells is being sold in a handful of other places on the internet.

In order to set themselves apart, dropshipping stores will need to find ways to stand out. Branding and their message needs to be very clearly defined to stand apart from other dropshippers selling the same products.

Shopify dropshipping stores will also need to set themselves apart with their visuals. Instead of using the pictures provided by a supplier, dropshipping stores should use original product images that are featured exclusively on their site. This can help them stand out from their competitors. While this may require shipping a sample of each product to yourself, enticing product images will have a huge return on investment.

Creating Content

Creative assets and content are a dropshipper’s secret weapon. Creating content that can be shared on social media, used in product ads, and posted on your website should be your top priority.

However, creating content doesn’t have to be all on your shoulders. You can outsource content creation to an influencer team, a photographer, or users of the products. You should build a system of alerts so that you always know when new user-generated content is posted. This can help you track and use the content that is created for your brand.

Driving Traffic to Your Site

If you’re operating any website,then one of your chief concerns is how to effectively and consistently drive traffic to your site. You’ll need to use several marketing channels well in order to create a consistent flow of traffic.

Traffic should come from several different sources to prevent any hiccups in traffic if one channel doesn’t pay off. You should also be experimenting with different sources so that you can find what works best for your brand.

The Solution: Instagram Influencers for Your Shopify Dropshipping Store

Instagram influencer marketing could be the solution to all three challenges we listed above. Sending products to influencers so that they can share about your brand is an effective way to spread the word.

Influencer marketing can help you generate brand awareness and site traffic, as well as providing you with the creative assets needed to grow your brand. These images and videos can be transformed from sponsored posts by influencers to Facebook ads, product images, and more.

Instagram influencers are already content creators interested in working with brands. Partnering for influencer collaborations can help you get the content that your brand needs, while supporting an influencer’s creativity.

Ways to Partner with Influencers for Your Shopify Dropshipping

There is no one right way to work with influencers. Influencers are always discovering new and more effective means of partnering with brands, so try experimenting with a few different methods to see what works for your brand.

Add Unique Product Images with UGC

User-generated content and influencer that features your products can be used, with permission, on your website to help create a unique aesthetic that can help your brand stand out.

When you’re partnering with influencers, you may want to include some product photography that showcases the best features of the products so that you can use the images with your other product images.

Adding original product photography can help you differentiate your brand from your competitors. It can elevate your brand’s look and feel, so that you have more lifestyle images to feature on your site. Influencer content also allows you to have diverse imagery without the hassle of setting up multiple photo shoots.

Here’s how Pop & Bottle shared their UGC content:

Create an Ambassador Program for Your Shopify Dropshipping Store

An ambassador program can not only provide commissions for your influencers, but can also motivate influencers to share about your brand. Ambassadors can join your program, and receive a commission when they refer sales to your site.

Listing your ambassador program on your homepage allows site visitors who love your brand to share about your brand on their social media in exchange for commissions. Instead of recruiting influencers to share, site visitors will be able to sign up for your program in just a couple of clicks.

You’ll also build a list of influencers who can generate sales for your brand. This list can be used to promote new launches and share upcoming sales.

An ambassador program creates a loyal team for your brand that can produce consistent mentions on social media that increases brand awareness and nurtures new leads.

Organifi features their “collective” prominently on their site:

Create Social Content for Your Shopify Dropshipping Store with Influencers

Social media content is essential to your brand’s growth. If you’re looking for new ways to share your brand online, influencers can help you create social content that performs well.

Instagram Posts

Posts to an influencer’s feed can help to spread the word about your brand. The influencer can organically and authentically share their true opinions about your products.

You should also ask permission to use and reshare these Instagram images so that you can use them in your ad content and in your other marketing materials.

Organifi has posted enough influencer content to fill their entire feed!

Driving Traffic with Instagram Stories and Swipeup links

Instagram Stories are now used more than any other feature on Instagram. If influencers use Instagram stories to spread the word about your brand, you’ll be seen by their followers in a casual and authentic format.

If your influencers have 10,000 or more followers, they can also add a swipe up link back to your website. This can help generate site traffic from their post.

Whenever an influencer shares about your brand with a Story, you’ll want to repost the content so that you can later create a highlight, but more on that next!

Instagram Highlights

Your highlights are stories that you can save to your profile. If you share all the influencer content to your own stories, then the post only lasts for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, you’ll be able to save your favorite Stories to highlights. With influencer content, you can showcase your collaborations and tell a story to potential customers who discover your profile.

Here’s how Kitsch has shared their influencer content:

Branded Livestreams

Influencers aren’t limited to photos and pre-recorded videos. If you meet an influencer with an irresistible personality, then you can do a live stream. Either the influencer can live stream to their audience about your brands, or you can let the influencer do a “take-over” of your brand’s profile.

Share about the products and your brand, go behind-the-scenes to your company, or even host a trivia contest. The key is to provide original content that will entertain the influencer’s audience, rather than just doing a commercial.

Ask the influencer to share about this live stream before it starts to generate even more views!

Ad Content

Influencer content can help power your social ads as well. With permission, influencer content can be repurposed into Facebook and Instagram ads that help you retarget audiences as you nurture your leads.

How to Find Instagram Influencers for Your Drop Shipping Marketing

Finding influencers is the first challenge to any brand’s influencer marketing.

Here’s the criteria for finding a top influencer for your brand:

Posts about the same topics and industry as your brand.
Has a good engagement rate (1%+).
Posts in a similar style or aesthetic as your brand.
Active on social media and consistently interacts with their audience.

You can find influencers by using a Shopify app, such as Carro, which finds all the influencers who already love your brand.

You can find Instagram influencers for your Shopify Dropshipping store by doing searches on Instagram, checking hashtags, or watching location tags for influencers who have been to your store.

So, what are the Best Instagram Influencers for Dropshipping?

The top Instagram influencers for Shopify dropshipping stores can find creative ways to share about your products and your brand, in a way that converts.

If you’re a new brand, you may not have existing content on your website or social media profiles. You’ll want to select influencers who can execute a creative vision and create a strong aesthetic perspective. You may want to work with them to determine what look would work best for your brand and for their content.

Set Yourself Apart with Influencer Marketing for Your Dropshipping Store

Instead of thinking of yourself as a storefront for other people’s products, you’ll want to start curating a brand image to go with your store. You are curating a collection of products that are based on your brand’s mission, messaging, and aesthetic. You’ll be immediately ahead of the rest of the dropshippers if you are undertaking the work to create a brand image.

Your influencer marketing should reinforce this brand image. The influencers you choose for collaborations should share your vision and your values so that their posts support your brand’s overall image.

Working with influencers should be a part of your overall digital marketing strategy and can help you to create the assets that you need for your different marketing channels. Growing your Shopify stores takes brand awareness and influencers can help you promote your Shopify dropshipping store online.

The best way to find your dropshipping Instagram influencers is to just get started. Dropshipping with influencers can help your brand get the traffic that it needs to succeed and start generating sales. Try different collaborations to find out what works for your brand, and what yields the best results.

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Influencer Marketing for Shopify Dropshipping Stores

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What is Dropshipping?