Hootsuite’s Digital Trends Report (2021Q4) states that “the average Instagram business account grows its followers by 1.69% each month.” That’s not a significant increase if you’re hoping to meet your quarterly MQL targets. Slow account growth may be one reason why you’re turning to influencer marketing, but one of the drawbacks is that influencer marketing can also be a long and tedious process — without the right tools.
Influencer marketing platforms offer a more effective alternative to manually searching for influencers who are relevant to your brand. Below, we’ve outlined some of the best influencer marketing tools so you can make the right choice for your business.
1) Popular Pays
Popular Pays is an influencer marketing platform that allows brands to find, vet, and collaborate with nano-, micro-, and macro-influencers at scale. It’s accessible to businesses of all sizes and provides personalized support. Request a free demo to learn how Popular Pays can help you optimize your influencer marketing strategy from start to finish.
Unique Features
- Get access to a team of creative strategists and client service professionals who guide your influencer marketing strategy.
- Select influencers from a database of over 65,000 active social media creators.
- Access content without the need for influencer partnerships through the Pop Shop (such as high-quality content for your Instagram Stories — which is important when 44% of people use Instagram to shop weekly!).
- Find influencers beyond Instagram content creators.
Pros
- Easily add creators you already work with to simplify the payment process for your influencer collaborations.
- Use filters to restrict applications from influencers based on follower count and other criteria.
- The content management tool makes it easy to repurpose high-performing content for sponsored posts, websites, and even print material.
- Account managers respond to questions and support needs quickly.
Cons
- There’s no revenue tracking.
- Instagram and TikTok briefs aren’t combined.
- The shortest deadline for influencer applications is 14 days. This makes it harder to get submissions within a shorter timeframe.
2) Instagram Automation by ManyChat
ManyChat is a conversational marketing platform that makes it easier to automate chats on Facebook, Instagram, SMS, and Shopify. Some marketers in charge of Instagram influencer marketing campaigns use ManyChat’s Instagram DM feature to automate their initial communication with influencers.
Unique Features
- Influencers get responses to commonly asked questions about your brand instantly, depending on the keywords they type.
- Segment Instagram influencers based on their responses to conversation starters.
- Capture emails and phone numbers from Instagram DMs and add them to ManyChat’s CRM.
Pros
- Start conversations from IG stories based on specific keywords.
- The free plan offers many great features that micro-business owners find useful, including unlimited custom flows and 24/7 email support.
- Google Sheets integration makes it easy to pull data (such as contact information) from Instagram DMs into a single spreadsheet.
Cons
- There can occasionally be issues with the chatbot because of Instagram’s API.
- Some users find it difficult to set up.
- Analytics need to be improved so that users can get richer data.
- Users can’t transfer Instagram bots between accounts.
3) Instagram Insights
Instagram Insights is the analytics tool already built into the Instagram app. It helps you learn more about your target audience to find influencers that appeal to your target demographic.
Unique Features
- It’s native to the Instagram app, so you don’t have to worry about a third-party tool not working well with Instagram’s API.
- Easily see how your Instagram posts, Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, and Instagram Live videos perform (viewers and engagement).
- Monitor how changes to Instagram’s algorithm affect content performance.
Pros
- Track the performance of your Instagram content so that you can set appropriate benchmarks.
- Influencers can share Instagram Insights of the content they create for your influencer marketing campaigns. You can then identify your top influencers and create influencer lists for those you’d want to work with again.
- Good for beginners who are already familiar with Instagram’s interface.
Cons
- Instagram Insights is only available for Instagram business accounts.
- Business posts often rank lower in people’s feeds in favor of posts from friends and family.
- The reports aren’t publicly available, so you’ll have to depend on your collaborating influencers to share Insights from their posts.
4) Aspire
Aspire is an influencer marketing platform that helps brands build communities of ambassadors, influencers, and affiliates at scale using automated workflows, influencer discovery, revenue and sales tracking, and much more. The platform’s reporting capabilities allow brands to see the full-funnel story of how influencers drive ROI.
Unique Features
- Contracts are built-in, and brands have access to all content from the creators they’ve worked with.
- Audience authenticity data provides a metric that compares influencers based on factors like the number of followers versus the number of people the influencer is following, number of posts, etc.
- See the current stage of a creator’s process using Aspire’s workflow visualizations.
Pros
- Easily organize influencer campaigns and access campaign analytics.
- Automate influencer relations from the beginning to the end of the process.
- View the analytics of each content creator to determine if they fit within our campaigns.
- Keep all influencer communication in one place.
Cons
- Some kinks within the platform keep the customer service team busy.
- No app for quick communication with social media influencers.
- No screening feature to allow brands to narrow applications down to relevant influencers.
5) NeoReach
NeoReach is an influencer marketing platform specifically tailored to larger, more established brands and agencies. Therefore, NeoReach has a database of top-tier influencers who help larger brands achieve their influencer marketing goals.
Unique Features
- NeoReach includes fraud detection and reporting to protect your brand from working with fraudulent accounts.
- Easily syndicate influencer content.
- NeoReach’s Influencer Media Value (IMV) metric provides a clear picture of how influencers influence ROI.
Pros
- Use over 40 filters to find the right influencers with ease.
- Get influencer recommendations from the platform’s AI tool.
- Manage all aspects of your influencer marketing campaigns, from communication to payments and ROI tracking.
Cons
- NeoReach is more expensive than other influencer marketing tools, making it difficult for small- and medium-sized businesses to afford.
- Larger brands are the target users, so smaller brands may find that it doesn’t suit their needs.
- NeoReach focuses on macro-influencers, so it may not be ideal for brands looking for smaller influencers with higher engagement rates.
6) Julius
Julius is an influencer marketing platform that takes great pride in vetting its 2 million+ influencers before adding them to the platform. The platform has the largest network of nano-, micro-, and macro-influencers across multiple niches.
Unique Features
- Brands have access to a database of over 2 million influencers, each vetted by a Julius team member before being added to the platform.
- Tags on an influencer’s profile link directly to that influencer’s specific content. For instance, if an influencer has “cooking” as a tag, you can follow the unique link associated with the tag to view the influencer’s content about cooking.
- The social listening tool lets brands see influencers’ brand relationships and view past posts.
Pros
- Easily vet influencers to determine whether they’re the right fit based on company goals and their existing analytics.
- Access a wide range of micro- and nano-influencers.
- Perform highly detailed influencer searches with over 50 filters, including demographic and psychographic data for influencers and their audiences.
- Data visualizations (charts, graphs, etc.) are clear and easy to follow.
Cons
- The pricing for adding multiple users is high for small- and medium-sized businesses.
- Users can’t customize talent templates.
- External influencers can only be added by a Julius rep, which means you’ll lose time if you want to add influencers you already work with to the platform.
7) BuzzStream
BuzzStream is a CRM that keeps your outreach lists in one place. It’s great for keeping all influencer communication organized, unified, and accessible.
Unique Features
- BuzzStream is specifically tailored for outreach communication, making it easier to create an outreach email workflow.
- Easily organize details about your brand’s existing influencers and potential future influencer prospects.
- Tags and filters make it easy to find contact information for anyone in your database.
Pros
- Schedule email follow-ups automatically using the Sequence feature.
- The Chrome extension pulls information directly from whatever web page you’re on.
- Keep track of user activity when multiple people are working on a project.
- Upload your existing CSV files to BuzzStream’s database.
Cons
- The platform tends to slow down considerably when being used by multiple users.
- The tool can only do outreach — other areas of influencer marketing aren’t covered.
- Some users report a steep learning curve, with those users having to complete tutorials in BuzzStream University.
8) Creator
Creator is an influencer marketing platform for startups and other growing brands, giving them access to more than 500 million influencers in their database.
Unique Features
- Users of the higher-priced plans get access to a Slack integration which makes fast communication with influencers much easier.
- Creator focuses heavily on the creator economy. Therefore, they support nano- and micro-influencers committed to consistently creating quality content.
- The platform’s algorithm easily matches influencers with relevant brands so that marketing teams don’t have to worry about spending a lot of time manually combing through Creator’s database.
Pros
- Users get deep insights beyond what’s shared on other influencer marketing platforms.
- Identify other potential influencers among an influencer’s followers — which is great for expanding your pool of influencers.
- Subscription prices are affordable for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Cons
- Campaign reporting is limited to very basic metrics. There’s no psychographic data about who’s viewing and engaging with the content.
- Some users have expressed issues with their billing. One user reports paying for a monthly contract that increased to a three-month contract without his consent.
9) Hype Auditor
Hype Auditor allows marketing teams to find influencers, run and measure influencer marketing campaigns, and measure the performance of a campaign against KPIs. Like most other influencer marketing tools, Hype Auditor covers five of the top social media platforms: Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
Unique Features
- Analyze your competitors’ influencer marketing campaigns and observe industry trends.
- Hype Auditor has a robust fraud detection tool that can identify suspicious audience growth and bot-generated engagements.
- Hype Auditor’s Audience Quality Score provides a clear picture of an influencer’s follower authenticity.
Pros
- The built-in search engine allows brands to connect with the best influencers for their campaigns.
- Users have access to Hype Auditor’s database of over 50.5 million influencers, which is updated daily.
- Hype Auditor integrates with Shopify.
Cons
- Users can’t contact influencers directly from the tool.
- Reports are limited. You have to pay significantly more to access a wider range of reports.
- TikTok metrics can sometimes vary between what’s displayed natively on TikTok versus what’s displayed on Hype Auditor.
10) Lefty
Lefty is an Instagram-focused influencer marketing platform specifically for lifestyle brands, helping them build meaningful relationships with relevant influencers — and their followers.
Unique Features
- Lefty’s hyper-focus on lifestyle brands makes the platform niche-specific.
- Use hashtags to discover influencers quickly.
- The Lefty team regularly purges their database of influencers so that they only offer the best possible choices.
Pros
- Less manual work simplifies internal communications.
- Users get automated reporting on brand ambassadors and influencers.
- Lefty’s knowledge of the lifestyle niche makes it easier for brands to set the right objectives for their influencer programs.
- Retrieve and track Instagram Stories.
Cons
- Some features are inflexible.
- Lefty is an Instagram-only platform.
- Competitor analysis data comes at an extra cost — and is static and historical.
11) Traackr
Traackr is a data-driven influencer marketing platform that helps brands manage their influencer campaigns effectively. They’re a pioneer of modern influencer marketing and are also one of the oldest influencer marketing platforms, having launched in 2008.
Unique Features
- Traackr’s Influencer Market Benchmark metric provides insights into how a brand’s social media presence compares to other brands. The details provided in this report far outweigh what’s provided on other platforms.
- The Audience Attributes tool allows you to filter influencers based on the demographic and psychographic data of the influencer’s followers.
- Influencers are ranked on the platform using two metrics: reach and resonance.
Pros
- Segment influencers based on the stage of your relationship with them: Aware, Engaged, or Advocate.
- The team collaboration tools are easy to use.
- The platform provides a lot of useful data that brands can use to support campaign decisions.
Cons
- Sometimes, names have to be manually added to campaigns.
- Some users report a steep learning curve.
- The platform sometimes moves slowly.
12) PitchBox
PitchBox helps marketing teams streamline their influencer outreach. It’s mainly known as a link-building platform and can help brands build relationships with influential bloggers.
Unique Features
- Set up and run campaigns in a way that works best for your brand.
- Assign tasks to team members directly on the platform.
- Use milestones to keep track of the opportunities that matter most.
Pros
- Find influencers, personalize email templates, and manage influencer communications in one platform.
- Users get a dedicated representative they can email at any time with questions about how to use the software.
- New features are added regularly to improve the user experience.
Cons
- Some replies may go to the Spam folder. PitchBox doesn’t pick up on these replies and will continue sending automated follow-up messages.
- It’s most suitable for large businesses rather than mom-and-pop shops.
- Only annual billing is available.
- Email open rates aren’t displayed.
Grow Your Instagram Following With Popular Pays
Influencer marketing on Instagram helps increase brand awareness and transforms unaware prospects into loyal customers. But it can be tricky to manage an influencer campaign manually — especially if you want loyal brand ambassadors.
There’s a lot to keep track of, from identifying influencers to communicating with them, paying them, and tracking the success of your campaigns. Popular Pays is here to help make things easier. Our platform helps brands find, vet, and contact relevant influencers and makes it easier than ever to manage your influencer marketing campaigns. Request a demo to see what we can do for your brand!