Rising ad costs and increasing competition for consumer attention mean leveraging the Creator Economy in your marketing mix is essential. However, streamlining the process often requires an influencer-matching platform.
While a variety of influencer marketing platforms are available, most brand marketers start their search with two questions:
- What are the benefits of an influencer platform?
- What features should brand marketers look for in a platform?
Benefits of influencer platforms
Implementing new technology within a marketing department requires research. You need to explain why a change is necessary. With an influencer marketing platform, you can:
- Find niche influencers that are right for your brand
- Review influencer profiles and performance metrics
- Enhance your creative process
- Communicate with influencers
- Manage your relationships in one platform
- Gather UGC
- Track your progress and ROI
Features to look for in an influencer management platform
When you’re ready to research your option, compare features.
Influencer discovery
Most platforms offer some type of searchable creator database, but they’re not all created equal. Advanced filtering tools help narrow your search.
Narrow your list by demographics, content themes, location, follower count, and performance metrics. After applying the right filters, you could find influencers that fit your campaign needs.
Influencer profiles with metrics
Profiles should include links to social channels, follower counts, audience demographics, performance metrics, and an overall description of their niche, channel, and experience.
Some influencer matching platforms include content listings so influencers can price and sell content directly to brands.
Ad placement
Look for an influencer matching platform that lets you search for influencers and recruit them to a specific campaign. With IZEA Flex, for example, brands can send offers to creators, draft contracts, ask for a limited license to reuse user-generated content, and more.
Whether you’re looking to recruit influencers for an ongoing ambassador role or need a handful of influencers to promote a one-time event, brands can place ads and ask influencers to respond.
AI tools that power content creation
No matter what industry you’re in, AI-fueled tools are being integrated into your daily routines. Given its myriad of applications and popularity, it makes sense to find an influencer marketing platform that embraces this technology and offers ways for your brand to harness it.
Look for platforms that provide AI-powered content creation tools. You could ask an influencer to use the tools to create generative art or a talking portrait, for example.
Generative sponsorships are an option for brands that push the creative boundaries. Using AI-powered tech, brands create a virtual version of their product and influencers create a virtual version of themselves, resulting in futuristic collaborations that capture attention.
Contracts
When you bring influencers on board, contracts provide a clear description of your agreement. While you can find contracts online, Flex provides customizable templates you can use.
A contract should outline the scope of work, set a timeline, and explain compensation. More specifically, the contract should include:
- Content deliverables: Format, length, and intended social channel.
- Content direction: Brand tone, hashtags, and mentions.
- Payment details: Influencer compensation, how and when it’s delivered.
- Content ownership: Usually, influencers maintain ownership, but lease the rights to a brand for a certain period of time.
- Approval process: Contacts and timeline.
- Posting timeline and comment management: Date to publish and monitor comments.
- Legal aspects
- NDA, cancelation clauses, ethical responsibilities
Look for solutions that offer customizable contracts to help you manage your influencer relationships.
Influencer campaign metrics
Consider influencer matching platforms that give you the ability to upgrade your services. Initially, you may only need a searchable database of creators, but in time, your brand may need more features.
With IZEA, for example, you can bundle offerings like creator listings, casting calls, and our comprehensive influencer marketing platform to enhance your process. By leveraging “Associations” within the IZEA Flex dashboard, you pull decision-making metrics with ease.
Ready to learn more about influencer matching platforms? See what IZEA has to offer.
Influencers:
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Marketers:
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