Utilizing Influencer Insights For Ecommerce Growth

Last month, Storylane drove over 700,000+ impressions through influencer marketing. And at the start of the year, I had no idea how to make this channel perform consistently. I had no playbook, no proven process, and no ideas. So, I experimented. A lot. And while we’re still figuring it out, here’s what I’ve learned so far: 1. Smaller creators are outperforming larger ones for us Smaller creators often produce better, more authentic content. They’re typically more affordable, work harder, and deliver results with a hyper-focused audience. Larger influencers charge a premium, and the content often feels average. Exceptions exist, but they’re rare. 2. Build a curated influencer portfolio. There are more great influencers out there than your budget can handle. Start small, experiment, and refine a curated portfolio of creators who align with your goals, budget, and audience. This takes trial and error, so don’t rush it. Your “go-to” influencers will emerge over time. 3. Three months is enough to evaluate an influencer. In three months, you’ll know if the partnership is worth continuing. It’s enough time to assess content quality, audience engagement, and impact. 4. Set up clear contracts with influencers Include everything in writing: - Who owns the content? - Can you run ads with it? - Will they engage with your posts? - How many posts will they deliver? Clarity now saves confusion later. 5. Influencer costs vary... a lot. Pricing is all over the place, but here's a starting point. For this platform, expect $500–$2,000 per post for influencers with fewer than 100K followers. Bigger names might quote $5K or more. The highest I’ve seen is $650k per post (no joke). Decide what’s worth it based on your goals and their audience quality. 6. Influencer onboarding matters. Hop on a 1:1 call to align. Share your knowledge, past successes, and internal data. Learn their creative process and set expectations. The better you collaborate upfront, the smoother the partnership. 7. Influencer program management is a full-time job. I tried juggling this alongside my other responsibilities, and it’s a lot. Between sourcing, contracts, payments, content review, and feedback, the workload multiplies with every creator. Bring in outside help if you can afford it or upskill someone internally. 8. Give creators creative freedom. Over-controlling a creator’s content kills authenticity. Work closely on the brief to give them all the context they need, but let their voice shine through. The results are far better when they feel trusted. 9. Ethics build trust (with influencers and your buyers) Always disclose influencer partnerships (FTC compliance isn’t optional). I see a lot of brands and creators not disclose these partnerships (on LinkedIn, in private communities, Slack groups etc.) and it's WRONG. Don't trick your buyers. Be honest. We’re still learning, but this channel is showing promise, and I plan to scale it further in 2025.

A few months ago I was on call with the CMO of a $25M+ brand. They had just wrapped up a 100 person influencer campaign. Guess how many were ROI positive? Seven. Just seven. This wasn't a failure of the other 93 creators. This was a clear indication something was fundamentally broken in how they did influencer marketing. We went through a simple 5-step checklist to that could be applied immediately. If you're a brand in a similar situation, here's how to go from "influencer marketing doesn't work" to "we need more creators!" 1. Introduce New Data Most brands model off of CPMs, never looking at actual performance. Use social commerce platforms to include actual conversion performance. Display it all against rates to sort by projections we actually care about: CPA, CPC, etc... 2. Measure Alignment Use this data to now measure actual alignment with your brand. Things like AOV, content relevance, messaging... The surface level connection is not enough. 3. Focus on Audience A creator's demographic matters less than their audience demographics. Look at the age, gender, geography of their audience. Plenty of creators that fit your demographic but have an entirely different audience demographic and vice versa. 4. Generate Creative Outlines from Creators Bring creators into the planning stages, letting them shape your creative outline. The right messaging and style is more likely to come from them than you. Then turn this into a content brief that provides direction but is not a script. Let creators do what they do best. 5. Treat Content as the Asset The reach you get from a creator is valuable, but the content they've created is far more valuable when used correctly. Setup whitelisting, repurposing to your own socials - get the most utilization out of every single video. -- Creator marketing works. But it's not 2017 anymore - sending product and seeing what happens is not a strategy. Dig in. Build the right strategy. Find the right creators. Let them do their thing. Maximize their content.

How Influencer Marketers Can Support Their Growth and Media Buying Teams Instead of Just Focusing On Organic Social Awareness. Most influencer marketers only focus on strengthening brand and awareness with their influencer partnerships and are sitting on unfound revenue. Here are the two most powerful campaigns that influencer marketers should be focusing on to strengthen brand AND drive revenue: paid influencer affiliate + whitelisting campaigns. Here's why this combo is crushing it for DTC brands: 1. Unlock a new high margin revenue channel through affiliate Make sure that influencers have a high engagement rate, engaged community, and have experience driving affiliate sales for other brands. Pro tip: Negotiate hybrid payment terms for MINIMUM deliverables that gives them a path to earning more than their standard rate Here's what that looks like.. - negotiate a fee equal to 50% of their standard rate - 20% commission on sales - bonuses that ladder up for hitting revenue targets - auto renewal for hitting an ROI target. This will protect you from spending budget on influencer partnerships that don't deliver a healthy ROI. With commissions, bonuses, and and auto renewal - most influencers will post more content until the targets are met. This will lead to developing long term relationships with paid affiliates that drive high margin revenue for your brand. 2. 50+/mo High Converting Whitelisting Ads → Run ads directly from creator accounts → Higher trust + lower CPMs → Authentic social proof at scale → Higher ROAS Now your team will see you as an ad production funnel producing them fresh creative monthly that's high converting while testing new angles, concepts, and formats. This is the best way to widen your ad creative diversity with storytelling and social proof. - The more opportunities you can provide to creators to monetize their content the happier they'll be. Influencer marketers are usually sitting on influencer relationships that would be a good fit to drive affiliate or whitelisting revenue. The blocker is breaking down walls internally so that your efforts can support your paid/growth team. Schedule a meeting with them and show off your top influencer partnerships, content, and a plan on how you can start funneling them high converting influencer whitelisting ads monthly. A simple meeting could bridge the gap to getting more budget or a path to driving revenue from your influencer marketing strategy.