The Role of Influencer Marketing in Nigerian Ecommerce

From Don Jazzy, with 15.2M followers on Instagram, to Mark Angel, with 5.6m followers on TikTok, the influencer marketing business in Nigeria is booming. Since COVID-19, the creator economy in Nigeria has exploded, leading to a boom in influencer marketing.

An excellent example of an influencer marketing campaign in 2023 was the #TakeChrargeWithNote30 challenge by Infinix. There were a ton of influencers who posted this challenge, leading to massive participation and awareness. If you want to implement an influencer marketing strategy this year, look no further as we explore how to do influencer marketing in Nigeria.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves a brand partnering with a niche-related influencer to create awareness or make sales. You have probably seen how Instagram and TikTok celebrities promote products on social media sponsored posts. Influencer marketing allows you to reach a wider audience but comes at a high price. 

In 2022, Influencer Marketing Hub reported that nano influencers (1000 – 10,0000 followers) earn above ₦40,000. 

Conversely, micro-influencers (10,000 – 100,000 followers) charge ₦150,000 and above. 

Meanwhile, macro-influencers (100000 – 1,000,000 followers) charge at least 700,000 per post, and mega-influencers (1M+ followers) can earn about ₦2,000,000.

Additionally, you may have seen brands rush to work with housemates from the Big Brother Nigeria (BBN) reality TV show. That’s because there are many eyes on the BBN housemates once they leave. Everyone wants to know what they are up to at every point. For example, Mercy Eke, the first runner-up, has worked with the Hawaii brand for four years, and her last post has 74,216 likes. 

An influencer with a massive following in fashion can help you create brand awareness. Your influencer marketing campaign should target the influencer who has built a gigantic audience in your niche. There is no point in building brand recognition if you will eventually not make sales.

Why is influencer Marketing Important for Ecommerce Business

17% of all ecommerce sales are projected to come from social selling by 2025. Also, the influencer marketing industry reached $21.1 billion in 2023. With influencer marketing, you can benefit from social selling and trust-building with the right influencer.

Partner with an influencer for your ecommerce businesses for the following reasons:

• Builds Trust and  Expands Your Reach: One of the tremendous benefits of partnering with an influencer is to build trust and credibility. Influencers are social media celebrities who have created an audience and seem credible in their niche over the years. When your influencer uses and endorses your products, it adds credibility to your brand. People are more likely to trust recommendations from influencers they follow. You will gain more exposure once the influencer shares your products with their followers who have similar interests and preferences.
  
• Driving Traffic and Sales With Original Content: After working with influencers, you will be left with shareable quality content even after the contract ends. Influencers are professionals, so they find it easy to create engaging stories around your product to convey your brand message genuinely. The success of your influencer marketing depends on the influencer’s efforts to drive traffic to your site.
  
• Cost-Effective Marketing Strategy On Different Platforms: Work with influencers who can help you based on your goals and budget. Micro social media influencers are effective for conversions on social media platforms. Since they don’t have a significant following like macro or mega influencers, they will likely put in more effort and hit the bull by the head with their content.
  
• Content Localization: Working with local influencers helps you tailor your content to a target audience similar to your potential customers. They can create content in Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa, depending on their native tongue, and you would still make a lot of sales. Also, handling deliveries to customers within the locality is easier, leading to faster deliveries. 

Influencer marketing and paid advertising campaigns and promotions are the best two social media marketing strategies to skyrocket your reach on social media in a shorter time. Through them, you can reach potential customers that are not easily accessible through organic advertising.

How to Find and Select the Right Influencers for Your Ecommerce Brand in Nigeria

It can be frustrating to hire the wrong influencer. So, it is essential to avoid waste of resources and efforts.

Consider the following steps when you want to work with an influencer:

• Create Your Marketing Plan With Goals and Requirements: You have to sit down and analyze where you are with your business. Is influencer marketing the next step? Can you afford it? These are questions to ask when deciding on your next marketing move. If you decide it’s the next step, you must draw out a plan and choose the most critical campaign metric.
  
• Create a list of the most suitable influencers: When selecting influencers, consider their niche and whether they can help you reach your goals. Consider the demographics of their audience. Are they similar to your target age, sex, location, buying power or purchase patterns?
  
• Calculate your influencer’s engagement rate: Analyze their reach and engagement rate. Select a few branded posts to determine the average engagement rate on the influencer’s post. Then, divide the number of followers by the total likes and comments and multiply the result by 100. Do this for more posts to get an average engagement rate.
  
• Choose influencers who will be advocates of your brand values: Consider partnering with influencers who will not soil your reputation and share your values. If you see any indication that an influencer isn’t good for your brand, you should avoid them and choose a better-fitting influencer.

Influencer Marketing Hub reported that for every dollar spent on influencer marketing, brands would earn $5.78, but this is only possible if you partner with the right people. Beyonce may have the influence, but asking her to promote your fashion ecommerce to a Nigerian audience is not only not cost-effective but also a waste.

Tips for Creating Effective Influencer Marketing Campaigns

We have compiled some tips for you if you want to craft some of the best influencer marketing campaigns.

Below, we will review each one in detail, so you can get more information on the matter.

Try Out Different Influencer Marketing Campaigns

With influencer marketing, you can produce quality social media content and experiment to maximum potential. You could lay out a strong marketing plan for your influencers and tell them which concept to go for. The main point of influencer marketing is to delight, engage and convert their audience.

Take some influencer marketing ideas below as examples:

• Interactive quizzes;
• Eye-catching dynamic product hauls;
• Video contest to win;
• SKits;
• Interesting, informative videos;
• Enticing giveaways.

Product hauls have been known to drive conversion and help brands achieve success with influencer marketing.

Tailor Your Content To The Different Social Media Platforms

Understanding that influencer marketing on different social media platforms is different will save you from disappointments and wastage. You can hire an active influencer on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, which are video-dominated. However, the difference is that long-form videos perform better on TikTok, and shorter-form videos perform well on Instagram, so you should consider this fact when contracting an influencer.

On platforms like LinkedIn, where the majority are professionals, you should focus more on texts, and your messaging needs more seriousness, unlike Instagram. The audience on these platforms works from 9 to 5, so it is best to go straight to the point, even if you would be creative.

Influencers on LinkedIn and Twitter (X) are seen as authorities as they have provided valuable information to other audiences for years and have shown their reliability; if they’re promoting your brand, you’ll indeed find serious buyers.

Optimize Influencer Marketing Across Multiple Platforms

Below, we have broken down practices suitable for each social media channel to achieve an overall positive social media marketing result.

Let’s review in detail:

Facebook: You can use Facebook’s Custom Audiences to reach a broader audience and retarget people interacting with your influencer’s posts. Also, work with influencers for Q&As, product demonstrations, and Facebook Live sessions. 

• TikTok: In the past, TikTok prioritized short-form video format, but now the algorithm promotes long-form videos. Therefore, it is perfect if influencers create informative and harmful content to drive conversion. Use branded hashtags in your influencer marketing and, where necessary, engage in TikTok’s Duet feature.
  
• Instagram: Instagram is socially and visually driven, making it perfect for beauty, fashion, lifestyle and other aesthetic-focused brands. Post influencers on your story, showcasing how they use and find the products helpful. Create dynamic and intentional content with your influencers.
  
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn influencer marketing is the way to go if your target market is other businesses. Influencers are meant to create well-detailed posts to address the benefits of your products or services. Getting the authority to endorse your products shows your credibility in a professional setting.

Last but not least, comes X (formerly Twitter). X is the perfect platform to drive conversations. Many brands pay influencers to get their audience talking about them. They conduct giveaway activities to reach their audience to retweet, like, and comment on hashtags. Otherwise, the influencer asks brand-related questions, and whoever answers right wins.

Consider Influencer-Led Newsletters

Influencer-led newsletters are a personalized and more effective way to drive conversions. It involves paying value-driven influencers to promote you through their newsletter. It’s a way of getting found by serious prospects willing to spend on quality products.

For example, Tech Cabal sends daily/weekly news where they promote tech brands towards the end of the newsletter to their ~100,000 subscribers.

Leverage Micro-Influencers for Better Retention

Macro isn’t always bigger. You shouldn’t simply hire a macro influence because they have the reach. It may not be the best way for you. They already have a lot of other big brands to promote; how will you stand out among other luxury and well-packaged brands? 

So, it would be brilliant if you chose micro-influencers with 30,000 followers. 

Hire a bunch of them for a higher conversion rate. Their engagement rate seems higher than mega influencers with millions of followers but lower audience engagement and interaction.

Initially, your main goal should be increasing your profits rather than brand awareness. Use the money you have gathered to hire mega influencers for brand awareness later.

Measuring the Success of Your Influencer Marketing Efforts

As a brand partnering with influencers for social proof, you can determine your success by measuring the performance of the collaboration. As mentioned, your marketing plan already contains KPIs which influencer marketing will play a part in achieving.

Some of these essential KPIs include:

• Impressions on social media channels: You don’t need to see an influencer insight dashboard to tell their reach. You can check the number of plays on their reels on Instagram and videos on TikTok. You can check cross-platforms to see how their viral posts are performing.
  
• Social media engagement rate: Pay attention to essential metrics like their comments. Ensure it’s not spam comments where they falsely pay people to comment on their posts for engagements. It would help if you saw real and relatable comments to confirm that the influencer holds power.
  
• Likes and shares: Calculate the engagement rate to see if the majority of their followers are not inactive. Some posts may have low reach but massive engagement, while others may have higher reach but low engagement. Consider the average result to decide.
  
• Give influencers a unique link, Depending on your aim for the campaign. Give each influencer a link, landing page, or a unique coupon code for sales. This way, you can track the influence’s performance regarding new leads and conversions. 

As a result of tracking influencer performance, you can calculate each influencer’s ROI by targeting specific goals like social profile growth, sales, lead generation, or brand name popularity. Your evaluation helps choose opinion makers with the best impact and let go of those who may not align with long-term goals.

Case Studies: Successful Influencer Marketing Campaigns in Nigeria

Nigeria’s influencer marketing campaign needs more highlights so newcomers can see that it works.

Let’s see two influencer marketing case studies below. With them, you can get valuable insights and get a competitive advantage when planning your influencer marketing campaigns.

Case Study #1: Pepsi’s No Shakin’ Carry Go Campaign

With over 22 million views and 76,000 user-generated content, Pepsi’s No Shakin’ Carry Go campaign is one of Nigeria’s most successful influencer marketing campaigns.  

Pepsi worked with six influencers, including Tiwa Savage and Wizkid, to create entertaining videos. These videos showed how influencers enjoyed Pepsi in their everyday life activities.

On August 17, Pepsi also shut down Lekki Tollgate. For an hour, by serving passerby Pespi at N100 per 50cl. #NoShakinCarryGo sent a message that people could get cool refreshments of Pepsi 50cl for just ₦100. Those were good times!

Case study #2: Big Brother Nigeria

Big Brother Naija All-Stars records 23m views globally. It’s not surprising, but the most brilliant fact about BBN is how they use influencer marketing indirectly. They get some housemates who willingly pay other influencers to promote them outside the house. This way, more people are hearing about BBN without them having to pay any influencers themselves. 

According to the analysis by P+ Measurement Services, a leading Media Intelligence Consultancy, Ilebaye, the show winner had 19% of the show mentions and in second place, Mercy with 18%. These people aggressively hire influencers to promote them while they are in the house. 

Meanwhile, BBN sponsors also gained media attention by partnering and sponsoring the reality TV show.

Potential Pitfalls to Avoid in Influencer Marketing for Nigerian Ecommerce

Now that you can create an influencer marketing campaign and measure its success, you will have to learn the things to avoid when executing your campaigns.

Below, we will review why it is always important to work with the right influencers, disclose any issues and avoid inaccurate metrics.

Choosing the Wrong Influencers

Nothing is more frustrating than choosing a set of influencers that don’t align with your brand messaging, target market, and values. Imagine paying macro influencers who, under the pretense of looking big and classy, have used fake engagement to attract brands. This means you will only get little conversion or awareness. Also, an influencer may lack authenticity. 

Some brands partner with some influencers only to find out that they are child abusers or love to cause controversies. Ultimately, you should carefully select them because their activities may end up tainting your good name and reputation. Lastly, don’t hire based on vibes; hire influencers within your niche.

Disclosure Issues

Influencers need to disclose sponsored posts, especially in industries where people can lose money based on wrong decisions. It would help if you were transparent with them so they don’t make misleading or false claims. You should have disclosure guidelines for your influencers so they do not share confidential information but are not misleading viewers simultaneously. 

Influencers are creative with their style, voice and messaging. They may eventually misrepresent due to their creativity, not following guidelines, or even accidentally endorsing your competitors. 

Sometimes, it is too late to correct the mistakes as these influencers have many clients and may not respond to your corrections on time. If they eventually mislead people, you will have to take responsibility for any legal action that may arise.

Inaccurate Metrics 

Some influencers may fake their engagement numbers by paying for fake followers, likes, and comments. Some even join POD groups to engage with other people’s posts in exchange for the favor. 

So, it is best to work with influencers who can prove their work. You should be able to hear testimonials from past clients. Also, some influencers can be unprofessional and rude, so choose wisely after researching.

The Future of Influencer Marketing in Nigeria: Trends to Watch

The influencer marketing business is booming in Nigeria and globally, as the market valuation reached $21.1 billion last year. By 2024, content marketing is expected to evolve, leading to the diversification of influencer marketing.

The following are some future trends that will rise in 2024:

• Sustainability Campaigns: Due to global warming and the depletion of the ozone layer, more influencers and brands are creating content to educate people about sustainability and social causes. Brands that are passionate about sustainability can have sustainability-oriented influencers.
  
• Micro and Nano Influencers: We will likely see more micro and nano influencers get deals because they get higher engagement rates and are cost-effective.
  
• Short-form Videos: Instagram reels and YouTube Shorts have encouraged creators to post shorter video content, emphasizing engaging and concise content.
  
• Real-time Engagement: Instagram, TikTok tok, and X (Twitter) encourage live streaming with influencers in live Q&A sessions, product launches, info sessions and behind-the-scenes content to build connections with an audience.

Also, don’t forget about long-term brand ambassadorship. The brand has partnered with influencers for over a year. This shows that influencers can work with long-term clients and may not take as much inconsistent work.

Balancing Influencer Marketing with Other Marketing Strategies

Below, we will see what are ways to balance influencer marketing with your overall digital and social media marketing strategies.

Let’s see them:

• Create a Plan and Define Your Goals: After drawing a marketing plan, you may need an influencer. However, sometimes, all you may need is paid ads, as influencer marketing could be way too expensive for you.
  
• Negotiate the Terms and Conditions: After finding the right influencer, you should negotiate the terms and conditions of the contract. Would it be a one-time contract or last for a month? You should also discuss the compensation, the timeline, the deliverables, the disclosure, the creative guidelines, and the reporting. In addition, consider the different ways to pay an influencer, such as free products, discounts, or commissions, especially if they don’t have enough funds.
  
• Monitor Your Performance: Track your influencer marketing performance to discover if you are reaching your intended marketing goals. Use Hootsuite, Sprout Social, or Mention to see how you perform with social media sales, reach, impressions, and engagement. 

Once you understand that you need influencer marketing and why it should be integrated with your entire marketing plan, you can find the right influencers quickly. You should also consider hiring active influencers within your marketing channels.