Influencer marketing is one of the buzzwords of 2017. After years in the rearguard snubbed like a whimsical strategy with unproven ROIs, influencer marketing is now rising to prominence as an effective and economical tool in the promotional arsenal of brands.
Why Influencer Marketing is successful
In less than 10 years, social media have profoundly changed the way marketing works and influencers have become an essential part of it. The reach that used to be an exclusive indicator of the effective programming by large media corporations, is now a more personalized measure of large social footprints achieved by digitally active individuals. As brands recognize the increasing difficulties of B2C advertising -banner blindness, click fraud, while P2P marketing strategies are becoming more effective. After all word of mouth has always been one of the strongest purchase motivators, social media have just amplified its reach. According to Epsilon social media channels (owned or earned) are the top media sources for consumers considering the purchase of new products.
source: Epsilon Media “Digital Tools Create New Shopper Journeys”
In the age of visual marketing, where Instagram and Pinterest play an increasing role in consumer awareness and intent to purchase, influencer marketing offers also the added benefit of original visual content at the fraction of the cost they used to pay. Fashion is a clear example of this change. Once upon a time there used to be a pantheon of supermodel and star photographers that were paid small fortunes for global advertising campaigns which propagated the accurately planned and uniform brand image to the world. Now through social media and influencer marketing, we have a more kaleidoscopic view of the fashion brand through a multiplicity of perspectives. If well managed through an accurate selection of influencers, the intrinsic diversity (multicultural, multiracial, localized) of this approach guarantees a wider appeal.
And this brings us to the heart of the problem: How to select the right influencers for the message?
The answer is: with an influencer marketing platform. Influencer marketing platforms sift through influencers’ social profiles with proprietary algorithms to come up with the best solution for the brands’ marketing plan.
There are essentially two types of influencer marketing platforms:
- Open submission: the influencers (bloggers, vloggers etc..) can submit their profiles to campaigns.
- Analytics based: there are no submissions but powerful algorithms that identify the best influencers for the marketing objectives of the campaign.
Let’s see what are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
1. Influencer marketing platforms with open submissions
This type of platforms are more influencer-friendly, as anybody with a decent following can enroll and bid for campaigns.
PROS:
A large pool of talent. Do not underestimate motivated micro-influencers, the power of micro-targeted campaigns is definitely one of the growing trends in 2017.
Budget flexibility: brands do not necessarily need to commit large fees.
Openness: brands have access to all significant data from the influencer profiles (Google Analytics, followers on social media), so they can pick and choose the most suitable candidates
CONS
Time consuming micro-management: there are a variety of campaign management procedures depending on the platform, some offer better filtering options than others, but still the management process can be very
Here are some of the most popular influencer marketing platforms that feature open influencer enrollment.
Activate
Born from Sverve’s ashes after its acquisition by Blogloving, Activate was relaunched in February 2016 and it has quickly established itself as a leader in this market thanks to the integration with one of the most influential global blogger networks. A few months after the launch, this platform already boasted over a hundred thousand members and a half million followers. For the influencers to create an account on Activate and link it to the Blogloving profile is a matter of a few clicks. Once on Activate, the blogger can immediately see all the initiatives seeking influencers with detailed brief from the brand and request the participation to those that match her profile.
InstaBrand
With 100,000 subscribers, a customer portfolio that includes some of the most prestigious brands in the world, offices in USA, UK and Italy Instabrand is definitely a strong player in this arena. On the influencer side, the user experience is somewhat limited, the only decisions to be made here are whether to be included in the search for influencers and whether to allow direct contact by the advertising agencies. Their analytical approach is based on keywords and mentions through which brands can identify relevant influencers and filter them to fit their strategies.
Blogdash
Blogdash is the eldest kid on the block, founded in 2011 it specializes in blogger outreach. It currently counts more than 200k bloggers, but its model seems a bit outdated with a narrow focus on the written word and its profiling tools don’t include either Google Analytics, or Instagram and Snapchat.
Buzzoole
Established in 2013, this Italian startup is positioning itself as a leader in Europe. With offices in Italy and London, Buzzoole is preparing to expand into Russia, Spain, France and India after a recent round of investment. its portfolio of clients includes Unilever, Ferrero, Costa Cruises, Red Bull, Ford and Nissan, among others.
The influencer signup is very simple and by connecting social accounts and blog URLs, Buzzoole builds influencer profile including a very effective visual footprint. Its algorithm analyzes the profiles of influencers and recommends them to the brand according to the characteristics and purpose of their campaigns. Once the influencer is selected by the algorithm, she can see the details of the initiative and decide whether to participate or not. The campaigns are compensated with credits that can be then converted into Amazon vouchers. On the client side the minimum campaign budget is 500€ and brands are charged by published posts.
Linqia
An influencer marketing platform focusing on CPG brands in North America, Linqia aims to grow brand awareness and delivering quality traffic to their clients. Its pricing model is based on the clicks to the chosen landing page rather than on posts published.
Advowire
Advowire is a real social networks and market influencers, content creators and social media mavens. As on other platforms influencers have their dashboard to manage the profile and a blackboard with open campaigns, but here they can find something more: a feed to discover the work of colleagues and promote their own recent efforts and a marketplace where they can buy and sell different type of contents.
2. Analytics based influencer marketing platforms
Those applications are based on proprietary algorithms to identify the most suitable candidates for specific campaigns.
PROS
Range: these platforms analyze the entire web to identify the most suitable candidates for the campaign, not just those enrolled.
CONS
Higher costs: these products are geared to agencies and large brands.
Traackr
Traackr is a full-fledged influencer management solution aimed at large brands. The software identifies the influencers and the platform provides tools to measure, manage, foster and expand the relationships thus created.
Hyprbrands
An Israeli startup that is ramping up very aggressively also in the USA, Hyprbrands is essentially a powerfuly discovery tool. Its main strength is its database which includes 1 billion social media accounts and over 10 million influencers. The search is refined by audience profile using the standard set of marketing variables (age, ethnicity, location etc..). The final profile summaries are presented in a clean visual form that can be downloaded in pdf for presentation and planning purposes. Hyprbrands offers 3 pricing plans based on number of searches, exports and users and a custom “white label” enterprise plan for large users and agencies.