Content creators are benefiting from the rise of ecommerce and social media to increase their income. Here’s how.
Over the last few years, social media has become paramount in every individual’s life. What started from Facebook has now had a trickle effect on Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and other social media platforms.
The popularity of social media also brought about the birth of content creators. Influencers or content creators are social media users with a large following who create content, such as videos and pictures for other users. The ecommerce world already knew the importance of user-generated content, so marketers started using influencers to increase exposure about their companies.
In the past five years, social media influencing or content creation has become an industry of its own, with a worth of $5 billion to $10 billion. While it’s evident that companies are benefiting hugely from content creators, is the lucrativeness mutual? It seems so.
Content creators are using Amazon and Walmart automation services to make money in this social media-dependent era. Keep reading to find out how.
How Can Content Creators Make Money?
In order to understand how content creators make money, you need to know how influence marketing works. Influencer marketing refers to a partnership between brands and individuals to raise brand awareness in a specific target audience.
Influencers then promote the company’s new product or service by endorsing it through video, stories, pictures, and other forms of media.
According to William Harris, the CEO of Elumynt, ‘’When you want to really scale and when you want to reach new audiences, you need content that makes people WANT you — and that comes from having great content. One of the best ways to get this content is from influencers – they know how to tell a story that fits the social media channel’s objective.“
Here’s how brands get content from influencers and how content creators make money in return:
- A brand or company, let’s say Amazon, partners with a popular Instagram influencer. Amazon will ask the influencer to endorse the new back-to-school necessities in its private label on the ecommerce website.
- In some cases, ecommerce companies also give influencers discount links to share with their followers. So, when followers shop through that link, they get 10% off their purchase or free shipping.
- The influencer will then make a video showcasing the different AmazonBasics items they use in their daily lives. Or, they may create a pictorial post, depending on the contract.
- Amazon will pay the influencer a predetermined rate or a commission for every sale made through the affiliate link.
Therefore, the more sales an influencer brings, the more they get paid. In 2018, a mere 39% of the marketers wanted to increase their influencer marketing budget, but the figure had spiked to 65% in 2020 as marketers saw the potential of influencer marketing.
Making Money Through Ecommerce
Apart from brand collaborations, influencers are also making money through ecommerce with the advent of services like Instagram Shopping. Influencers with a substantial following have created ecommerce stores where they mostly sell their own merchandise.
A stark example in this regard is Alexa Chung, who was previously a celebrity influencer due to her incredible charisma and style. Starting from her fashion influencer journey, she now has her own fashion line.
While some content creators have taken the same route as her, others have established Amazon and Walmart storefronts.
How Content Creators Create Multiple Sources of Income
To enhance their sources of income, content creators leverage partnership automation, such as Amazon automation. Partnership automation refers to software that automates contracting, payouts, discovery, recruitment, protection, monitoring, engagement, and other steps for businesses.
Companies can use these solutions to streamline the partnership life cycles across all channels, including influencer marketing and affiliates. An average content creator can generate multiple streams of income through content. These include:
- Brand collaborations
- Digital marketplaces
- Selling merchandise
- Ads
- Affiliate marketing
- E-Commerce Automation services
- Preset filter packages and more
According to a survey, 68.1% of the influencers make most of their income through brand collaborations. Meanwhile, 9.3% of respondents were earning more through affiliates, while 7.4% earned through ads.
Interestingly, 2.2% of the influencers said they were earning through digital marketplaces, such as Instagram shopping and Amazon forefront. So, how do they manage to run their Amazon storefront along with maintaining a social media presence on four to five different sites?
That’s where Amazon automation comes in. With automation, influencers can create a source of passive income while having enough time to manage their other business collaborations and scaling their social media presence.
Similarly, Walmart automation allows content creators to fully manage a Walmart dropshipping store and create a source of passive income. In fact, content creators partner with companies like Elite Automation to manage their stores.
How Complex Can Ecommerce Be?
Starting and running an ecommerce store is not an easy feat. From finding the right products to searching for legit manufacturers and devising a marketing strategy, a lot goes into making your ecommerce venture a success.
Also, setting up a storefront is not the only stop. Making ecommerce lucrative requires regular attention, researching the competition, and constantly providing efficient customer support.
For an influencer that has other partnerships to manage as well, ecommerce can be quite complex.
Partnering with Done-For-You Services Is Much Easier
Considering the learning curve that is involved in managing a Walmart or Amazon storefront, it is much wiser and more lucrative to partner with an automation service such as E.A.
It has the following benefits:
- Hands-free Operations: Content creators do not have to actively manage their stores since it is being done for them. All they have to do is some paperwork, and the partner takes care of the rest.
- Stress-free Onboarding: The onboarding process is also made simpler due to assistance from these companies. They educate you to make sure you have a full understanding and visibility of your business.
- Full Transparency: Even though a company is in charge of managing the storefront, everything from the sales to the analytics is highly transparent.
Rest assured, it’s quite impressive how some influencers leverage their followers’ count to increase their sources of income and earn more than most traditional jobholders.
