Key Points
- Amazon influencers help drive purchases, brand awareness, and product launches
- Brands can enroll in the Amazon Associate Program to sell products and digital services online
- Amazon’s digital storefronts are a great venue for creators and brands to partner together to sell products with affiliate links driving additional revenue
- Amazon is poised to start up live shopping initiatives that will feature influencers as hosts
How Amazon Influencers Can Help Your Brand
Influencers are powerful partners to brands. With high engagement rates associated with creator content on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Meta, YouTube, and more, it’s no secret that brands are jumping ahead of their competition when they choose to work with creators while their rivals do not. But influencers don’t only exist on social media platforms anymore. Amazon, the e-commerce giant that has become a household name, has its very own influencer program that gives creators the power to monetize now more than ever before.
What Is An Amazon Influencer?
After influencers enroll in the Amazon Influencer Program, creators produce content that provides recommendations to inspire their audience via social media. To become an Amazon influencer, which is free, creators must have a YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook account at a minimum. Creators have reported a varied range of monthly earnings, from a few dollars to more than $1,500.
When the Amazon team reviews applications, they consider a creator’s follower account, engagement metrics, and more. But a micro-influencer or nano-influencer’s comparatively lower following won’t count against them if they’re applying alongside macro-influencers or invitation-only mega-influencers. Amazon makes sure to consider audience connections as a more indicative sign of influencer viability.
Amazon influencers are most effective when they combine their Klout to recommend, demonstrate, and promote Amazon products through personalized digital storefronts, bounties, affiliate links, and ambassador programs. Here’s how each method works:
About Digital Storefronts
A digital storefront is an online representation of a brand. Examples of digital storefronts include websites, social media channels, and Amazon stores. Essentially, it is any digital location where consumers can easily purchase products. Amazon’s digital storefronts are simple, clean, and have a user-friendly interface. Brands and creators can drive their audience to shop through digital storefronts and quickly check out using a variety of payment methods — including cryptocurrency, Venmo, Paypal, and debit or credit cards.
About Amazon Bounties
Amazon offers bounties on select products. This means that instead of earning commissions on product sales, the influencer earns a fixed advertising fee. Bounties apply to programs and services such as Amazon business accounts, Audible, Kindle, Amazon Video, and Amazon Pantry.
About Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a strategy in which creators can earn extra commissions by selling products on behalf of a brand. Brands will provide a special URL for relevant products that give creators a monetary reward for each person that successfully purchases the product via their link. While commissions may not be high on their own, lots of purchases over many different products can add up to pay high dividends.
Amazon has its own affiliate program that accepts all enrollees regardless of follower count or creator status.
About Brand Ambassador Programs
An ambassador program is a brand-curated opportunity that enlists influencers, customers, or employees to create content about the brand, with each ambassador rewarded with a monetary payment, discount codes, products, and more. Ambassador programs for brands are vital to influencer marketing strategies because they are a great source of social proof and credibility.
Can Brands Get Involved?
Brands have opportunities to get in on the Amazon action, too. They can drive their consumer traffic to Amazon to make purchases through custom, branded storefronts that showcase their full range of products. But in order to reap the benefits of Amazon’s business-friendly functions, brands should enroll in the Amazon Associates Program instead.
Chances are that your go-to creator partners also have an Amazon influencer membership. If not, encourage them to get involved and drive even more sales for your brand! With digital storefronts, affiliate marketing, and ambassador programs generating more passive income than ever, the benefits outweigh the lift.
Plus, Amazon provides yet another opportunity to repurpose existing content onto another high-traffic platform. While Amazon isn’t necessarily a social platform, its user base continues to grow, along with its e-commerce and live shopping innovations – and creators like what they see. According to a Mavrck creator survey completed by 414 respondents, 19% say that Amazon’s live streaming platform is their go-to tool.
Innovation Breeds Success
The growth of e-commerce isn’t slowing down anytime soon – in fact, more interactive shopping experiences are on the rise. As it stands, Amazon’s 2.2 billion monthly visitors worldwide are continually making traditional online purchases outside of the newer social commerce routes that are emerging. But Amazon is currently experimenting with live shopping and social commerce capabilities, meaning that you’ll be able to shop more frequently from a live broadcast hosted by a creator you may know.
You can get in on the action now by testing out Amazon’s emerging capabilities and compensating creators to work with you. By experimenting with Amazon technology, you’ll be able to identify the best ways to utilize it more fully in future campaigns while integrating these methods into your influencer strategy.
