Integrate your Shopify e-commerce brand and start your own influencer seeding program directly from Influencity
What Are Programs?
Programs are a new feature that allow you to integrate your Shopify e-commerce brand directly into the Influencity platform.
Eventually, we aim to offer several types of programs: influencer seeding, audience discounts, and affiliate programs.
In this first release, we will be focusing exclusively on influencer seeding.
What Are Influencer Seeding Programs For?
Influencer seeding (sometimes known as influencer gifting or product seeding) is when brands send out free product samples to influential creators in their industry niche. In return, these influencers post about them, sharing photos, unboxing videos, and their opinions on the gift. If you're an e-commerce site that wants to grab your audience's attention at a relatively low cost (you only pay for the product and the shipping), gifting your product to influencers with a relevant audience can be a great place to start.
When you create a gifting program, you can pre-select a product from your e-commerce store. The influencers that you choose to include in your gifting programs will then be registered as customers in your store and can use a special code that you create to redeem the free product and receive it free of charge.
The selected products will then be sent to the influencer through the your e-commerce platform so that the creator can try it out and share it on their channels.
Read the step-by-step instructions below or jump straight to our Troubleshooting section.
Create a Program
- This new feature is included under the Campaigns tab.
- To get started, click Create program.
- Before you can create your program, you’ll get a notification asking you to integrate your online store in Settings. Click Set up to continue and you’ll be automatically redirected to the Integrations page in your Settings.
- Click Set up
- In the side window, you'll be asked to copy and paste your Shopify shop domain (e.g. https://influecity-store.myshopify.com/) and Shopify API Key (see the step-by-step guide on how to generate this here).
- Return to the programs page and click Create program.
- This opens a side window where you’ll be asked to give your program a name and a description. Next, you’ll be asked to define the influencer benefits you want to include (Learn more about influencer seeding here).
- If you select Gifting, some additional fields will appear below.
- Code name - this is the code that influencers will have to enter when they navigate to your site to claim their free product. If you create the code SUMMER-CAMPAIGN-23, it will be valid for the first 100 influencers that you include in your program. Once you pass this threshold, you’ll have to alter your code a bit, for example: SUMMER-CAMPAIGN-23-1
- Products - these are the items from your store that an influencer can claim using the code above. The products in this drop-down list appear because you’ve integrated your Shopify store with Influencity.
- You can choose 1 product and all the influencers in your campaign will be eligible to receive it.
Tip: If you want to include multiple products in your gift, consider making a bundle in your Shopify store. For example, the “Minimal snowboard and anti-fog goggles starter pack.” This way, influencers will receive multiple samples within one gift.
- Lastly, select the dates that the gift will be eligible for redemption. If you do not select an end date, your influencers will be able to claim their free product at any time.
Caution: Your influencer benefits cannot be changed after the program is created. This includes benefit type, code name, product, and active dates.
Adding Influencers to Your Program
- Your new program will now be visible on the Programs main page. Open it to see your dashboard.
- To start including creators, click Add influencers.
- Select the influencers that you want to add to this program and click Add.
- Once you’ve added your influencers, your program dashboard will appear as below. Edit the name and description of your program on the left. View all the influencers in the center.
- Now that your influencers have been added, you want to enable their access to your online store. By enabling influencers, you are essentially using their contact email to register them as verified customers to your e-commerce store. This will allow them to visit your site and redeem their coupon for the product you selected.
- To do this, click Enable.
Note: Clicking ‘Enable’ does not notify influencers that they now have access to your online store. You will have to message them separately and indicate the code they should use.
- Only influencers with a valid email can become ‘customers’ in your online store. If you currently don’t have an email associated with this influencer, you will receive the warning below.
- You can add an email to an influencer by associating their various social media profiles or adding it manually by opening this influencer’s page in your IRM, clicking on the pencil icon, and adding information to the email field.
Troubleshooting
Let us answer your question here.
What Is Influencer Seeding?
Influencer seeding is a marketing strategy wherein brands send free products or services to social media influencers with large followings. The aim is to gain exposure and positive reviews from the influencers, who then share their experiences with their audience. This tactic leverages the influencers' credibility and reach to create buzz around the brand, generate brand awareness, and potentially increase sales. It is a cost-effective way for companies to tap into a wider audience and build brand loyalty.
Watch a video about influencer seeding here.
How Many Programs Can I Create?
Any subscription that contains the Campaign product (i.e., Professional, Business, or bundles with Campaigns) can create unlimited programs and include all the influencers that are stored in their IRM.
Users in trial can create 1 program until they upgrade.
Where Do I Find My API Key?
Your API Key (or API Access Token) has to be generated through your Shopify account. Read the step-by-step instructions here.
I Want to Offer Various Products As Gifts
In this first version, you can only select 1 product per program. If you want to gift multiple products, there are 2 options:
- Create multiple programs, each one with a different product (and corresponding code);
- Create a bundle within your Shopify store (for example, a summer bundle that includes a beach towel, sunscreen, and tote). You can then select this bundle when you create your program.
Where Can I See the Gifts that Have been Claimed?
Influencity does not show what gifts have been claimed. You can view this in your Shopify account.
Does Influencity Contact the Influencers When They Are Included in a Program?
No, influencers will not be notified when they are included in a program or enabled as clients in your Shopify store. To inform them, send them an email with your store link, code, and code expiration date (if applicable).
Tip: To learn how to send bulk emails to contact all the influencers in your seeding campaign at once, click here.
Does Influencity Ship the Products?
No, influencers redeem their gift directly on your e-commerce page. Once redeemed, it will be shipped by your store like any other customer order.
I Can’t Enable an Influencer
Only influencers with an active email account can be enabled. You can do this by associating a social media profile to this influencer (provided the account has a public email associated with it), or reach out to an influencer through direct message and save their email manually by going to influencers, opening the influencer’s page, and selecting the pencil icon.
Influencers from My IRM Don’t Appear
Remember that we differentiate between profiles – social media accounts, and influencers – the account owners. If you added a profile from a search, it won’t appear until you associate it with an influencer.
Learn how to do so here.
Do Gift Codes Expire?
Gift Codes only expire if you tick Set end date when configuring your program. If you don’t specify an end date, influencers can redeem their coupon at any time.
Can I Disconnect My E-Commerce from Influencity?
Yes, eliminate an integration by going to Settings, scrolling down to Tools, and clicking Integrations.