Technology has come to stay in the field of influencer marketing as well. But what is influencer marketing technology actually needed for?
In recent years, the number of social media content creators has exploded. In Finland alone, there are tens of thousands of social media content creators and influencers across various channels. In addition to traditional celebrities and major social media stars, influencer marketing now also utilizes smaller micro-influencers who have built their audiences around specific topics. By the time a marketer wants to distribute their influencer marketing budget among, for example, ten smaller influencers instead of one or a few large ones, they face the challenge of how to find influencers and how to manage and measure the effectiveness of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing technology offers solutions to these questions, among others.
The task of influencer marketing technology is to facilitate the search for influencers, communication, campaign management, reporting, and even payment of content creator fees. There are plenty of different technologies available. Some platforms focus on specific distribution channels or individual functionalities, such as finding influencers, while others operate across multiple channels. Solutions are available as marketplaces (Boksi), lightweight monthly-based SaaS services (Klear), and customized enterprise solutions – before acquiring technology, it is worth spending time and thought on defining your own needs and internal processes.
One of the fundamental challenges of influencer marketing is finding suitable influencers for a campaign or ongoing collaboration. Decisions are often made based on top of mind or personal Instagram knowledge, which doesn't necessarily lead to the best possible outcome. With influencer marketing technology, an advertiser can make data-driven decisions and quickly and easily examine an influencer's content and data behind the influencer.
Technology enables the search for suitable influencers using various parameters. The most common targeting methods are audience location, demographics, interests, or content themes. Technology also helps examine the quality and reach of an influencer's content as well as audience engagement and its composition and relevance. Influencer marketing technology also increases transparency when requests for quotes are made to influencers or their representatives. Technologies help marketers easily find influencer contact information and create an internal CRM.
When a marketer wants to conduct campaigns with multiple content creators simultaneously instead of individual influencer collaborations, they often face the challenge of efficient management of collaborations. Contact, negotiations, influencer briefing, and content approval take a surprisingly amount of time. Some technologies enable, for example, communication with influencers, viewing and approving influencer content within one platform, and tracking agreed campaign actions on influencer channels.
Many who work in influencer marketing quickly realize that reporting on influencer actions takes a significant amount of time. With technology, an advertiser can automate, for example, the tracking of influencer actions - this saves time for campaign analysis and future development. Some technologies also make it possible to measure and compare the effectiveness of content creators' various actions by utilizing tracking links connected to the company's online store. Some tools have integrations with, for example, Google Analytics and Shopify, and the most advanced tools also offer real-time reporting. In summary, technology can be said to be an important tool when influencer marketing is to be made a truly strategic part of marketing.
Technology and data alone are not sufficient, however; both must also be properly utilized and interpreted to achieve effective marketing. In addition, the marketer needs insight into how to make influencer marketing genuinely supportive of business objectives, and sufficient resources for implementing and analyzing collaborations.
Do you need help finding the right influencer or acquiring technology? We use the world's leading influencer marketing platform to search for suitable influencers. Get in touch with our team and let's talk more!
