“A Brand Is No Longer What We Tell The Consumer It Is — It Is What Consumers Tell Each Other It Is.” — Scott Cook
What’s hot in the market?
Behold, the luminary known as influencer marketing!
Influencer marketing is currently a popular technique of online marketing. It has been a buzzword for a while now, and the mainstream media regularly refers to it. Yet, there are still people who don’t really understand what influencer marketing is all about. Indeed, some people come across the phrase for the first time and instantly ponder, “What is influencer marketing?” This blog has everything to guide you right in this arena.
So let us embrace this captivating force, this phenomenon that dances between the realms of technology and human connection.
Summary
- What is Influencer Marketing?
- Types of Influencers
- Influencer Marketing Statistics”Quantifying the Trends
- Influencer Alchemy: Unlocking the Power and Magic of Modern Marketing
- What works in Influencer Marketing
- What Influencer Marketing is Not
- Unveiling The Top 20 Influencer Marketing Software Of 2023
- My Take
What Is Influencer Marketing?
Influencer marketing campaigns can earn $6.5 for every dollar spent. 60% of youths follow the advice of social media influencers over celebrities for getting products or services from the brand. The Influencer Marketing Hub is now an established website with hundreds of articles explaining the intricacies of influencer marketing, along with other types of online marketing.
“True Influence Is About Leveraging Authenticity”
Influencer Marketing is a hybrid of old and new marketing tools. It takes the idea of celebrity endorsement and places it into a modern-day content-driven marketing campaign. The main differentiator in the case of influencer marketing is that the results of the campaign are collaborations between brands and influencers.
It is also important to realize that most influencers have systematically built a keen and enthusiastic audience. It is not accidental that these people follow influencers rather than a brand. The audience doesn’t really care less about your brand. They only care about the opinions of the influencers. Don’t try to foist rules and business practices onto your influencers. The audience is theirs, and they can simply walk away, taking their followers with them.
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Types Of Influencers
- Nano influencers (1K–10K followers)
- Micro-influencers (10K–100K followers)
- Macro influencers (100K–1M followers)
- Mega or celebrity influencers (1M+ followers)
Influencer Marketing Statistics: Quantifying The Trends
- Influencer marketing has grown to $21.1 billion in 2023.
- Businesses are making $5.2 ROI for every $1 spent on influencer marketing.
- There has been a 465% increase in searches for the phrase “influencer marketing” on Google alone since 2016.
- 90% of survey respondents believe influencer marketing to be an effective form of marketing.
- 67% of brands use Instagram for influencer marketing.
- 1360 Influencer marketing focused platforms and agencies entered the market in the last 5 years alone.
- 80% of marketers say influencer marketing is effective, and 89% say it works just as well (if not better) than other marketing channels.
- In 2022, 86% of marketers plan to continue investing the same amount or increase their investment in influencer marketing. (HubSpot Blog Research)
- Instagram is the most popular platform for influencer marketing. However, Facebook is considered the most effective social platform for influencer campaigns. (HubSpot Blog Research)
- 71% of marketers say the quality of customers and traffic from influencer marketing is better than other sources.
- In 2022, 71% of marketers plan to increase their investment in influencer marketing on Clubhouse. (HubSpot Blog Research)
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Influencer Alchemy: Unlocking The Power And Magic Of Modern Marketing
Considering 56% of young Americans have purchased a product after seeing a post from someone they follow, influencer marketing can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool for your brand. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, the industry reached $16.4 billion in 2022. This figure is expected to grow to $21.1 billion in 2023.
“Adding Influencers To Your Content Initiatives Helps Validate Your Own Good Content While Helping To Promote The Influencers In Your Industry. It’s A Win-win-win For You, The Influencers, And Ultimately Your Audience.” — Jason Miller
The report also explores how marketers are feeling about influencer collaborations for the new year.
Of those surveyed, 83% said influencer marketing was an effective form of marketing. The report also noted that 67% of marketers plan on increasing their budgets for 2023. And now that you know where we’re at in the industry, let’s examine some key issues marketers often face when navigating the world of influencer marketing.
What Works In Influencer Marketing
- Carefully consider your approach to influencer marketing
- Be organized, put together a strategy, plan, and budget, and spend time on research
- Decide on your approach to finding influencers – find them organically, subscribe to a platform, or work
- through an agency
- Be patient and be human – people talking to people, not companies talking to companies
- Develop a schedule
- Does the influencer prefer monthly/quarterly/biannual calls or newsletters?
- Integrate with your PR schedule, product release schedule, etc.
- Send emails on behalf of key executives. Plan travel schedules for executives and arrange face-to-face meetings
What Influencer Marketing Is Not
Influencer marketing isn’t just about finding someone with an audience and offering them money or exposure so they can say good things about you. That’s what viral celebrities are for. Influencers are people who’ve spent time building their own brand and cultivating their audience; they will be naturally protective of their reputation and the people who trust them. They’re people who have the patience and focus to succeed in social media, one organic follower at a time—people like this aren’t interested in doing influencer marketing solely for the money.
Technology alone cannot provide a complete solution.”
―
Influencer Marketing is also not about quick results. It’s the same kind of slow-and-steady approach as Social Media and Content Marketing, where your campaign isn’t about directly selling your wares. Instead, it’s about demonstrating your authority, credibility, and thought leadership within your industry. It’s about becoming synonymous with whatever it is that you offer, like when people say they’re going to Xerox a document instead of photocopying it, or to hoover the floor, rather than vacuuming it.
Unveiling The Top 20 Influencer Marketing Software Of 2023
Due to the rising popularity of influencer marketing, various technologies and software have emerged to help businesses identify influencers and measure their success.
1. Grin
Grin is an end-to-end influencer marketing management solution designed for eCommerce. With Grin, you get the systems and data you need, while retaining complete control of your influencer relationships.
You go through a five-step process when you use Grin:
- Import your influencers – Upload your roster of Influencers, and Grin will build private profiles for everyone in your program. You can also discover new Influencers using their advanced search.
- Connect E-commerce, email, and Slack – Grin syncs all of your influencer communication, tracks revenue, and notifies you when important things happen.
- Aggregate content. Attribute revenue – Grin uses Google Vision to analyze and categorize your branded content, making it easy to find what you need. With your store connected, Grin attributes revenue across your entire program.
- Automate recruitment. Run campaigns – Publish landing pages to manage inbound applications and automate outbound to recruit new influencers. Run highly targeted campaigns while tracking everything in the process.
- Send product. Manage payments – Import your products and let your influencers choose their style, Grin will track the delivery. Collect W2’s, track, and manage payments at scale.
- Grin allows you to integrate much of your software, simplifying interactions with your influencers. This covers Shopify, Gmail, WooCommerce, Office 365, Slack, SMS, PayPal, and Magento.
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Key Features: Content Amplification, Search/Discovery, Influencer Lifecycle Management, Influencer Relationship Management, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Forms and Compliance,
Channels: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, YouTube
2. Creator.co
Creator.co focuses as much on creating content as it is on the distribution of that content. It offers two versions of its influencer marketing software. One is “full access,” much like most other influencer marketing platforms covered in this post. Here you build and post your campaign, search, filter, and invite creators, analyze and active creators, and then watch their content roll in. Alternatively, you can opt for more automated influencer marketing software services. You begin by onboarding with a campaign specialist and leave Creator.co to handle recruiting, negotiating, and execution. Your specialist will then recruit influencers for you, with you analyzing and activating those that interest you. Again, you can sit back and watch the content pour in.
You begin by defining and creating a campaign no matter which option you choose. You can either customize your campaign or pick a prefabricated type. For example, the ShoutOut campaign offers the exchange of free products for exposure (along with cash if necessary). The Giveaways campaign allows you to work with influencers to drive followers to your profile by running contests for free stuff.
In addition to self-serve and managed collaborations, Creator.co offers managed services, including paid ad management and social media management.
They have also signposted upcoming upgrades to the platform, including a marketplace where brands can connect their store, list products, and invite creators, publishers, and influencers to promote the brand through their storefronts. In addition, Creator.co intends to let brands run affiliate programs through the platform. Here, you will link your store, pick the products, and set commissions. You will be able to invite your fans and other influencers to apply and build your community. The software will allow you to track all shares, clicks, and conversions from your affiliates, with commissions being instantly paid.
Key Features: Content Amplification, Search/Discovery, Influencer Lifecycle Management, Influencer Relationship Management, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Exportable reports,
3. Upfluence
With a focus on bloggers, Upfluence changes the way companies can plan, create, and deliver on their content marketing strategies. The software actually consists of two different products that can be used separately or together: Reachr and Publishr.
Companies that want to go a step beyond content marketing and delve into the world of native advertising can use Upfluence’s Publishr platform. Here, the particulars of the campaign are already defined and submitted to the community of bloggers to apply for. By using Publishr, companies can work with as many writers as they wish simultaneously. These are writers who’ve already got longstanding relationships with news outlets publishing sponsored content. Collaborating with each writer is centered on the platform, easing the process of evaluating and annotating each piece. As articles are published, brands can track and analyze performance.
Key Features: Influencer Search & Discovery, Relationship Management, Campaign Management, Third Party Analytics, Automated Recruiting, Influencer Lifecycle Management, Team Collaboration Tools, Content Review, Campaign Reporting, Audience Analysis, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Payment Processing, Social Listening,
Channels: Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Twitch, Tiktok, Twitter, Pinterest, Blogs
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4. impact.com
Aimed brands of all sizes as well as agencies, impact.com is truly a powerful end-to-end influencer marketing platform. Not only is it packed with features, but its user interface is also similar to how marketplaces operate.
It offers a number of storefront integrations, making it a great choice for eCommerce. These connections make it easier to share products and promo coupons with influencers. If you’re interested in going this route, impact.com will manage attribution, reporting, and rewards.
Alternatively, if you want to focus more on creating influencer-generated content (IGC) than generating sales, you’ll appreciate features like the media vault, its massive global opt-in network with qualified creators, and step-by-step workflows. After creators have shared their content live, impact.com will automatically gather all social metrics. You won’t need to look for statistics because of this. Combine this data with its machine learning-based fraud scoring and you can feel reassured knowing that you have quality assurance measures that you can rely on.
Key Features: Influencer Content Amplification, Search/Discovery, Automated Recruiting, Influencer Relationship Management, Influencer Marketplace, Team Collaboration Tools, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Forms and Compliance, Payment Processing,
5. LTK (formerly rewardStyle)
Giving creators a significant tech advantage to make themselves power partners to brands is what the founder of LTK had in mind when the service was designed. The technology company is hailed as one of the most trusted and successful influencer networks worldwide, with the capacity to drive billions in brand purchases. This is possible from LTK’s massive curated creator community, which is spread throughout more than 100 countries.
LTK has undeniably achieved in its core goal of being an industry leader in identifying the proper people for companies for generating great ads. LTK has achieved this by creating an all-inclusive platform that is designed to carry out all the tasks necessary to run campaigns, from finding and signing up influencers to post-campaign analysis.
LTK is the most qualified to assist brands in reaching their target audiences by creating premium content on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram thanks to its impressive roster of creators. LTK is well aware that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all when it comes to managing influencer campaigns and has thus adjusted its partner management skills accordingly. Customers value partners’ flexibility when it comes to overseeing branded influencer campaigns. They also like the freedom that brands and creators can tap into when working on content and deliverables.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Content Review, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Product/Gifting Tools, Forms and Compliance, Payment Processing,
Channels: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Blogs, LTK App
6. Brandwatch Social Media Management
Trusted by thousands of big-name brands like Unilever, Nestlé, and Delta, Brandwatch offers a number of features to help with marketing. With regard to influencer marketing specifically, it offers an end-to-end solution for discovering influencers, handling influencer relations, and managing campaigns.
It’s especially helpful for finding influencers. Its Audiences product gives you a better understanding of potential influencers’ own audiences, helping you to choose the influencers that will resonate with the right crowd. It also includes a helpful proprietary Influence Score that distinguishes large followings from genuine engagement. Not only does its influencer intelligence make it straightforward to pinpoint the best matches for your brand, but it also helps you to discover smaller influencers that similar brands might have overlooked.
Brandwatch’s huge influencer database helps you even further with the influencer discovery stage. Millions of influencers on Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok are accessible through its network, and you can easily narrow down your search with the aid of a variety of filters.
In addition to influencer search tools, Brandwatch also offers a range of other useful features like streamlined workflows and real-time customizable reports to help with other stages involved in influencer marketing. For example, when FaZe Clan, a leading name in esports, started using the Brandwatch Influence product they managed to reduce the hours they normally spend on reporting by a massive 85%.
7. Traackr
Without an extensive network of influencers and a powerful analytics engine, no IM platform would be complete. Even though they don’t emphasize this in their marketing materials, Traackr does not fall short on either of these counts.
Instead, Traackr’s platform focuses on what they call Influencer Relationship Management, one of the few companies that acknowledge influencer marketing’s selling point: trust. Finding influencers to represent a brand is strictly a financial transaction with other software. A business gets linked with people who are authorities in a specific sector, and then it’s up to either an algorithm or one-on-one negotiation to set costs for sponsored content. And there’s nothing wrong with that for short-term campaigns designed to raise awareness of a single project or sell a product.
Traackr can do all of these things, but its primary focus is on the brands it works with earning “lasting influence.” The platform allows for social listening of its influencers, allowing brands to engage with them and their audiences in meaningful ways that foster familiarity and build trust. This focus, along with scores of data that can be used to visualize your influence network, can open up doors to still more influencers, upstream and down. You won’t just connect with audiences, but also the people who influence your influencers, opening up entirely new connections and networks you might otherwise have missed.
Companies like HP, Forbes, EMC, Intel, and Travelocity have all successfully expanded their reach using Traackr.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Influencer Relationship Management, Team Collaboration Tools, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Product/Gifting Tools, Forms and Compliance, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, and Competitor Research.
8. Aspire (formerly AspireIQ)
The AspireIQ platform takes a more hands-off approach than earlier entries on this list. The company describes it as a self-service platform that offers access to over 150,000 influencers across major social media platforms. This makes it a good fit for agencies, or brands that create their own marketing campaigns in-house.
Using a sophisticated machine-learning engine, AspireIQ is constantly adding information about its influencers based on their social media output. It gathers information on posts, content quality, engagement, and even the sentiment behind the comments—all of which drives the softwares matching algorithm. When agencies or brands hunt for influencers to suit their needs, all this information is analyzed as the machine matches them up. Once matched, the AspireIQ interface makes it easy to pitch ideas to hundreds of influencers at once and manage responses from a single dashboard.
Keeping with the all-in-one purpose of the platform, AspireIQ also has a significant focus on the actual development of content. The platform, known as the Creator Collaboration Toolkit, streamlines the interaction with influencers. While built-in tools help with the development and maintenance of each piece of content, roles, and tasks can be allocated. You can then track each campaign’s progress, monitoring its reach and the ensuing engagement with audiences.
Features such as Search/Discovery, Influencer Relationship Management, Influencer Marketplace, Team Collaboration Tools, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Forms and Compliance, Payment Processing, Social Listening, Competitor Research, Visual Discovery, and Influencer Content Amplification are among the key features.
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9. CreatorIQ
CreatorIQ is genuinely end-to-end, with an interface that’s polished and efficient. Its feature set is extensive and includes all the elements you would anticipate from an influencer marketing platform. It was named as Best Influencer Marketing platform at the 2019 MarTech Awards.
It clearly targets big agencies or large businesses looking for a truly all-in-one solution. Although CreatorIQ doesn’t disclose its pricing details, it is clear from the clients it showcases, that its focus is clearly on large business and enterprises, rather than small and medium-sized businesses. It can boast a list of clients that includes: Disney, Tiffany & Co., Unilever, Dell, and Ralph Lauren.
Although CreatorIQ integrates directly with social platform APIs, it has access to much more information once you’ve chosen your preferred influencers than is generally accessible. It offers a white-labeled, fully customizable portal where invited influencers can register with you and go through an onboarding process. The influencers consent to give CreatorIQ access to specific data about their social media postings during this process, which gives CreatorIQ’s profiles a lot of information.
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As you build out your network, you basically create your own private marketplace. Influencers don’t log on to CreatorIQ to find opportunities; they log onto your portal to see what your brand has going on.
You can use your portal to create campaign briefs, broadcast them, move ahead with your campaigns, approve or deny content, and issue payments. It looks, feels, and acts like a private influencer marketplace. The portal is also the dominant mechanism for seeing campaign reports. These reports are dynamic, so you may filter and sort the information in any way you’d like. Reports are composed of widgets, so you can customize them to show what you desire.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Automated Recruiting, Influencer Relationship Management, Content Review, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Forms and Compliance, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, Payment Processing,
Channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitch, Blogs
10. Klear
Klear was initially developed as a tool to locate influencers on Twitter (named Twtrland). Its strength was the quality of its data, delivering insights into hundreds of million accounts on users’ posting patterns, popularity, and followers’ demographics. Over time, however, the platform has diversified to cover over 900 million influencers on many popular social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. They also offer free influencer analysis tools for Facebook sites and Twitter.
Deep analytics about influencers’ audiences are provided by Klear’s AI, which divides them into over 60,000 topic categories. Although data analysis remains their expertise, Klear has expanded to incorporate campaign management, tracking, and some critical listening capabilities to monitor competitors.
Contrary to popular belief, the “Monitors” section is more beneficial for influencer marketing. You can monitor your own social performance and those of your competitors, and your preferred hashtags. You can see how you compare in terms of mentions, engagement, and follower growth. Most crucially, though, the monitors you establish teach Klear’s algorithms the kinds of accounts and information relevant to your brand. Many of these monitors are set up by the Klear team as part of your onboarding procedure to kickstart machine learning.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Content Review, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Social Listening, Competitor Research, Paid Campaign Tracking, Report Customizability,
11. Kolsquare
Kolsquare is no stranger to connecting brands with influential names for marketing purposes.
Prior to changing its name to its current one (which, incidentally, stands for key opinion leaders), Kolsquare linked brands and celebrities. Fast-forward many years and it boasts clients like Coca-Cola, Danone, and Decathlon as well as a massive network of influencers (or key opinion leaders) on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.
Because of its pricing, it’s better suited for medium and large businesses, though. Thanks to its team collaboration features, bigger teams will also find it valuable. Through your user-friendly interface, you can directly edit the access restrictions for your team’s campaigns. Then, when it’s time to share your results, you can create a personalized link with your logo that the rest of your team can use to view day-to-day online reporting.
One of the key aspects that persuaded Fizzer to join Kolsquare is the ability to find influencer profiles pertinent to a particular brand. On average, they run one influencer campaign per month and have worked with over 100 key opinion leaders since turning to Kolsquare. Other features that some of their other happy clients have highlighted are its ease of use, reporting, and huge database.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Influencer Relationship Management, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, E-commerce Tools, Product/Gifting Tools, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, Payment Processing, Social Listening, Competitor Research.
12. NeoReach
NeoReach is still a young company, and they do appear to be trying to fully define who they are. One the one hand, they pitch their platform as a self-service influencer marketing software. On the other hand, they offer an option for “Managed Campaigns”; they design and run full campaigns on behalf of their clients, who are free to hop on to their dashboard and see how things are going. Their website also makes liberal use of images of YouTube’s most influential and recognizable star, Feliz Kjellberg (aka PewDiePie). Kjellberg has been pretty vocal about limiting his brand partnerships, and when he does do them he certainly doesn’t need a middleman to find him this kind of work.
NeoReach’s concentration is on this form of management. It maintains a database of over 3 million influencers across major social media platforms. While competitors provide access only to influencers who’ve signed on to work through those platforms, NeoReach puts no such exclusivity limits on the talent pool. Instead, thanks to its robust search engine, brands can now filter searches based on a variety of factors, such as any existing brand affinities, social performance, and the demographics of their followers. Companies can then manage all their influencer relationships through NeoReach, including the negotiation of rates, creating campaign briefs, approving posts, and managing payments.
Key Features: Campaign Management, Search/Discovery, Influencer Relationship Management, Team Collaboration Tools, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Forms, and Compliance,
Channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat
13. Mavrck
The typical influencer marketing platform collates a database of people it believes are influential on social media and/or through blogging. As you can see from the other profiles, some platforms ask influencers to apply to join them, while others use a fully automated system to do so. Usually, when a firm uses a platform to locate suitable influencers, they will come to the platform in search of people in their vertical who look to match their style and have sufficient followers and influence.
Mavrck takes an altogether different approach, however. They have the idea that instead of a firm seeking for acceptable influencers to acquire customers, they should instead make their best existing customers into influencers who would laud the brand’s virtues. The main benefit of doing this is that you don’t have to convince an influencer who has never heard of you that you have a product worthy of their promotional efforts.
Any customers who are considered sufficiently influential are offered social activities to undertake and can earn rewards for completing them. So far, Mavrck has discovered 10.6 million micro-influencers for its database, with 102.3 million social profiles. In many ways, Mavrck’s influencers are people who don’t know they are influencers. From their point of view, it’s like being in an upgraded loyalty program, where they receive rewards for sharing content.
Key Features: Search/Discovery, Influencer Relationship Management, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, E-commerce Tools,
Channels: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest,TikTok, Twitter, Twitch, Blogs
14. Refersion
If we are being nitpicky, Refersion isn’t an example of influencer marketing software; it offers affiliate marketing services. However, Refersion also solves many of the needs of organizations looking to engage in influencer marketing.
With many influencers now participating in initiatives that drive sales, the distinction between affiliates and influencers is becoming increasingly hazy. It has not taken much for Refersion to adapt its offering to include influencer marketing software services. These include integrations with Upfluence, #paid, and Cohley. In addition, Refersion is exploring more influencer-specific features, like discovery and campaign management, for future updates.
If you have an eCommerce platform, integrating it is the first step in setting up Refersion. All of the top e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magenta, Stripe, and Chargebee, are supported by Refersion apps. You next upload the details for all your existing influencers and affiliates.
You can set up offers in the Refersion marketplace, which is much like any influencer marketplace. However, the platform gives you the option to logically organize your offers for each campaign.
Influencers can sign into an influencer portal to see all the details of your offers, including any specific requirements they have set before they are willing to make payments.
- A resource library of sorts with all the visual materials your influencers utilize is one useful aspect of Refersion. If a brand wants to update and repurpose the content, they can make any changes they want.
- For example, changing an ad on the platform automatically changes it downstream on an influencer’s website.
- Scalable affiliate management made incredibly simple
- Multiple ways to structure commissions
- The content library connects directly to affiliate websites (edit locally, advertise globally)
- a few specific kinds of on-demand reporting
- Organization of affiliates and influencers based on performance is challenging.
- No on-platform payment processing
- Ideal for: Large to Medium E-commerce Brands
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15. Influence.co
Influence.co, which has been operational since 2016, is frequently referred to as the LinkedIn of influencer marketing. It functions as a distinct type of social media platform, which distinguishes it from practically every other influencer platform. This aids companies in developing and maintaining the kinds of genuine, long-lasting relationships that are the foundation of influencer marketing.
influence.co is now a social network and marketplace with over 250,000 members, 150,000 of whom are influencers, and 70,000 businesses, including well-known brands like Amazon, Jack Daniels, Bumble, and Dyson.
This is expanded upon in the Pro plan as you might anticipate. You get multiple profiles, advanced searches, unlimited results, unlimited lists, advanced searches (including by demographics), unlimited campaigns, campaign management, campaign reports, team members, and campaign promotion.
Influencers also offer a free Basic plan and a premium Pro plan. The primary distinction is that users of Pro accounts have access to 30 member contacts per month, 30 brand campaigns per month, limitless results and lists, Instagram follower statistics, and the ability to view who has viewed their profile.
Key Features: Influencer Relationship Management, Influencer Marketplace, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Search/Discovery, Automated Recruiting,
Channels: Tiktok, Amazon, Patreon, Snapchat, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and
16. Hashtagpaid
Although #paid operates similarly to other influencer marketplaces, there are two significant differences. First of all, Whitelisted Ads are permitted. For use with paid Facebook and Instagram ads, you can whitelist particular content producers and creators. #paid connects with Facebook Ads Manager and allows these ads to be pushed into timelines and feeds under the creator’s actual handle. This makes audiences feel more attracted to these posts. You can reach your target audience without being restricted to just those who follow your influencer.
Secondly, #paid offers you a hand raise. Influencers can “raise” their hands in this area to show interest and wait for brands to contact them. Creators who use Handraise post a message explaining why they think their campaign will be a good fit for the platform and why. #paid has a team of people who vet each Handraise.
Creators set their rates upfront, so there’s no time wasted going back and forth negotiating. Brands create a content schedule, such as two Instagram posts and two Instagram stories. This makes it easy to see where their budget’s going.
#paid has taken the foundation of what a marketplace is and transformed it into something much more. Large companies with sizable marketing budgets are their target clients.
Key Features: Influencer Marketplace, Automated Recruiting, Content Review, Content Library, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, Payment Processing, Influencer Whitelisting, Creator Marketplace,
Channels: Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube
17. Influsoft
Influsoft was established by the premier influencer marketing agency, Viral Nation. The agency had operated a full suite of digital marketing services since 2014, as a marketing agency, a talent agency, and a creative & media agency. Viral Nation created in-house software tailored to their particular needs during that time – a collaboration tool to manage each segment of a marketing agency or department, individually or combined.
Viral Nation is one of Influsoft’s clients today as it runs as a separate business. Activision Blizzard, Tencent Games, Canon, Facebook Oculus, and Elite Model World are some additional clients. Because Influsoft focuses on the enterprise market, its pricing is individualized based on various elements related to the size of a brand and its marketing requirements.
With the help of Influsoft’s Discovery module, you can browse through millions of influencers, focus and filter your searches using more specific criteria, gather a wealth of information about each individual, and then compile lists of influencers you might want to collaborate with. However, influsoft considers the first-party data you get when you start working with influencers to be more critical. Therefore, the software ingests all the data that each social channel’s API allows, with each influencer’s permission.
Influsoft’s primary functions divide into three categories: Plan, Measure, and Listen. All of the initial campaign-related tasks are completed in the Plan module, effectively transforming it into a top-notch project management tool. The Measure section displays all the analytics relating to your campaign’s success, comparing actual performance to the goals you set for the campaign. The examination of your campaign continues in the Listen section.
Key Features: Social Listening, Competitor Research, Fake Follower/Fraud Detection, Influencer Relationship Management, Campaign Management, Campaign Reporting, Influencer Analysis, Audience Analysis, and Team/Collaboration Tools.
Channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok
18. Business manager NEXT
An influencer platform called NEXT Business Manager was developed by Post for Rent to provide comprehensive information on the effectiveness of your company’s influencer marketing. It was Post for Rent’s “next” project after creating their self-titled influencer platform.
NEXT is still developing. Businesses can still apply for their chance to launch a product while utilizing NEXT Business Manager for a free trial period of 60 days to manage all of their contracts, payments, team productivity, content, reports, and documents in one location. By the time you read this post, it is worthwhile to confirm that this offer is still valid.
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Post for Rent says that NEXT will boost your team efficiency by 150%, cut your talent and campaign managers’ administrative chores by 50%, and increase team output by 20%. They observed that, particularly for large businesses and agencies working with hundreds of influencers, the administration is frequently the most frustrating aspect of influencer marketing.
NEXT is incredibly detail-oriented, which is to be expected from a product with an administration focus. Its dashboard contains all the crucial information, including a list of all open tasks and who is in charge of them. Additionally, the menus give you access to almost all of the data you require to manage a campaign, including contact information, contracts, content, and campaign specifics.
Many of the documents required for an influencer marketing campaign are included as templates. You can create contracts in NEXT, have everyone sign them electronically, and even store them there, backed up to Google Drive (along with the rest of your influencer documentation). This is made possible by integration with DocuSign.
Similar to setting up a contract, creating a campaign involves choosing from a variety of options and brands and going through a set procedure. As part of the campaign-building process, bonuses and incentives for influencers can also be established. The financial tracking is taken care of by NEXT if your campaign is sales-based.
19. BrandConnect (Formerly known as Famebit)
It is immediately apparent that BrandConnect (formerly Famebit) is targeting a younger audience when you visit their website. or at least trying to draw in brands that target a younger audience. BrandConnect (formerly Famebit), which features vibrant colors, a contemporary-looking font, and images of attractive 20-somethings having a blast, stands out from the other solutions on this list. Which is perfect, because they’re doing things a little differently than all the others.
Most importantly, BrandConnect can be used for free. It’s a genuine self-service platform where businesses and agencies publish “sponsorship opportunities,” which are essentially open requests for content and create profiles. Influencers, or “Creators” as BrandConnect (formerly Famebit) refers to them, can browse listings to find something that piques their interest and submit a bid to produce sponsored content of any kind. These can be for content as simple as social media mentions or as complex as comedy sketches featuring a product or brand. Whatever the final product, BrandConnect’s (formerly Famebit’s) main goal is to make brands entertaining and engaging to younger consumers.
BrandConnect asks for some background information from creators when they submit proposals, including the number of followers on each social media network and the demographics of their audience. With BrandConnect (formerly Famebit), the objective is to distribute interesting material to as many people as possible. The analytics aren’t as in-depth as with other possibilities. With BrandConnect (formerly Famebit), you pay only per project, with a $100 minimum, so it’s likely that you’ll spend a lot less money.
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20. Webfluential
You can’t be everything to everyone, goes a well-known adage. Webfluential, at least in the world of influencer marketing, is disproving that. Yes, the platform provides brands looking for their ideal influencers with matchmaking services. It also provides tools to encourage creative collaboration and post-campaign analytics. What differentiates Webfluential from its competitors, though, is the amount of thinking they’ve put into the influencer side of the equation.
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Most of the platforms listed here will vet their pool of influencers thoroughly, with the best ones getting through the application process and receiving a listing in their database for their troubles. Webfluential goes a step further by giving influencers the tools they need to actively seek out opportunities rather than passively waiting for one to come knocking on their virtual door. They can display their rates and a portfolio of prior works on the platform by visiting their profile page. Additionally, Webfluential gives creatives access to their own analytics and reporting so they can use the data as part of their profile. They can send comprehensive proposals to any brand searches thanks to quote-building tools, which are not just for currently active campaigns.
My Take
“Is artificial intelligence less than our intelligence?”
—Spike Jonze
I Think Influencer Marketing Is Going To Have A Golden Era Of A Decade. Influencer marketing has been popular recently. Google searches for “influencer marketing” have surged 1500% in three years. Influencer marketing has a bright future.
More firms are investing in influencer marketing as they realize its benefits. Social media especially. Each specialization gets a power center. Many niches overlap, linking the influence centers. Take sunblock lotion. Such a brand should contact fashion, beauty, and lifestyle influencers. Travel and sports influences are another options. Influencer marketing will focus on specialty interconnections, primarily via social media.
[To share your insights with us, please write to sghosh@martechseries.com]