Influencer marketing is one of the most effective marketing approaches out there, according to the 2017 State of the Creator Economy study (SOCE). After all, recent research reveals that people are more likely to trust the opinions of others online, and that trust in the opinions of the general population is at an all-time high. For those who want to try influencer marketing for the first time or those who want to take it to the next level, you need software. How do you know when you’re ready for software? Introducing the influencer marketing software guide.
An influencer marketing campaign can only be effective and can only increase awareness of your brand if it’s handled in the right way. That means finding the right influencers, creating the best content possible, and having the means to measure and track that content, so that you know what works (or doesn’t) for the future.
Sure, you can handle all aspects of an influencer marketing campaign on your own, without any technological assistance. But sometimes, having help from an influencer marketing software guide can mean the difference between a “so-so” campaign and a truly effective and successful one.
Influencer Marketing Software Guide: How To Know You’re Ready
What You Need for a DIY Influencer Marketing Campaign
Whether you’ve been experimenting with influencer marketing for awhile now or are completely new to the game, it helps to understand exactly what goes into putting together a campaign on your own, without software. With the DIY approach, you need to:
Manually search for influencers, using Google or social search.
You then need to contact them, hope they respond, and otherwise engage in a lot of back and forth before you can move forward.
Develop a system for content creation.
Use your own content calendar and collaboration tools, or use existing tools that aren’t specifically designed for influencer marketing (such as Google Docs or email).
Figure out how you’ll pay influencers.
Will they invoice you? Will you collect Paypal info or bank account details for direct deposit? When will you issue payments?
Come up with ways to gauge how a campaign is doing.
Will you regularly check in to see how many likes an influencer’s post received, or will you create tracking codes to measure how many clicks or other actions a post generates?
Influencer Marketing Software Guide: Four Ways It Helps
The main problem with a DIY influencer marketing campaign is that it takes a lot of time. That might not be a big deal if you have lots of people working on a campaign. It’s also not a big deal if you have all the time in the world. But for the rest of us, an influencer marketing software guide can improve the process of creating a campaign considerably. Influencer marketing software helps both brands and marketers by:
Saving time.
Let’s face it, in this day and age, machines and AI can perform most tasks faster and more effectively than the average human. That includes everything from finding the influencer who’s the best fit for a brand or campaign to measuring KPIs and issuing payments.
Saving money.
When you use influencer marketing software, everything is in one place. Instead of paying several people to perform a range of tasks, you’re investing in a single software platform to handle those responsibilities.
Improving workflow.
You’ll never have to ask where a post is or whether or not your influencer has completed an assignment. You can simply log into the software to get a sense of how the project is doing, and whether your influencer is on or past deadline.
Scaling as your brand grows.
It might be that you don’t yet need all of the features offered by an influencer marketing software package. That’s OK, as you can scale the software as your brand grows, or as your influencer marketing needs expand.
Influencer Marketing Software Guide: Who Benefits?
The majority of influencers work in areas such as fashion, beauty, and other light “lifestyle” areas. And you’d be forgiven for assuming that influencer marketing is only for consumer-facing, B2C industries. Yes, some of the biggest influencers happen to be household names. So, you’d also be forgiven for assuming that only big-time brands or marketing companies with huge client rosters could benefit from influencer marketing software.
The truth is, influencer marketing can work for pretty much every industry, no matter the niche or size. For example, some influencers have made their names working with B2B companies like Salesforce. There’s also been the rise of the micro-influencer, or people with smaller but actively engaged social followings. Micro-influencers are often the perfect fit for smaller companies, or companies that specialize in a very niche subject.
How to Pick the Right Software Solution
Influencer marketing software comes in a number of different editions. Each offers a different range of features, at different price points. When choosing the right software, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you want or need the software to do?
- How much can you spend?
- Are you going to need help with setting up the software, or direct assistance figuring out how it works?
- What’s your role, and who are your typical clients?
Knowing the answers to the above questions will help you make an informed choice. And that’s exactly what you need when choosing an Software Guide.
