What are the key features to look out for in an influencer marketing platform?

Using influencer marketing to promote your brand can be a challenging task; selecting the right influencers, contacting them, briefing them about the campaign, and evaluating the ROI is plenty of work, requires a lot of time, and is still prone to human error. Influencer marketing platforms can carry a lot of workloads involved in influencer marketing and improve the overall results by a large margin. 

But using an influencer marketing platform with the most relevant and useful features is an essential part of the strategy, so we have compiled key influencer marketing features in this article for you to choose better.

Category and platform-based search

Creators chosen for influencer marketing should match the brand’s category and be present where your ICPs are. With category and platform search, you get exactly that.

This feature lets you search for influencers based on categories like:

• Art & Entertainment
• family and parenting
• Fitness
• Food & travel 

Across platforms like– Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.

Advanced Influencer search filter

Advanced influencer search filters provide brands with additional tools to refine their search and identify the most suitable influencers for their marketing campaigns. These filters go beyond basic category and platform searches and allow brands to consider specific criteria such as gender, followers, location, cost, engagement rate, and audience preferences. Here’s how these advanced filters can aid in hyper-targeting and boosting sales in particular areas:

• Gender – Some brands have specific gender preferences for their target audience or want to align their product or service with influencers of a particular gender like beauty brands prefer female influencers. The advanced influencer search filters enable brands to narrow down their search based on the influencer’s gender, ensuring a more precise match.

• Followers – Brands often have specific follower count requirements when selecting influencers. Advanced filters allow brands to set minimum and maximum follower count thresholds to identify influencers with the desired reach. This helps ensure that the selected influencers have a suitable audience size.

• Location – Localization is crucial for businesses targeting specific regions or cities. Advanced filters enable brands to select influencers based on location, allowing them to promote their products or services to a targeted geographical area. This can be particularly useful for driving sales in specific markets or creating location-specific campaigns.

• Cost and Engagement Rate – Advanced filters empower brands to set a cost range and select influencers with a desired engagement rate, ensuring that they get the best value for their investment and collaborate with influencers who have a track record of actively engaging their audience.

Influencer and influencer audience analytics

Influencer analytics provide valuable insights into an influencer’s content and performance across different platforms. These analytics help brands assess an influencer’s effectiveness and suitability for their marketing campaigns. Here are the key features and information typically available in influencer analytics:

• Metrics – Influencer analytics provide various metrics to measure an influencer’s performance. These metrics include average likes, comments, reel views (for platforms like Instagram Reels), engagement rate, and estimated reach. The feature lets brands analyze these metrics to gauge an influencer’s ability to engage their audience and estimate the potential reach of their content.

• Content Categories – Influencer analytics categorize an influencer’s content to provide a clearer understanding of their niche and the topics they typically cover. This categorization helps brands identify influencers whose content aligns with their brand values, target audience, and campaign objectives.

• Past Brand Collaborations – Influencer analytics provides data on an influencer’s previous brand collaborations. This information allows brands to see if an influencer has worked with competitors in the past, helping them avoid potential conflicts or overlapping endorsements. It enables brands to make informed decisions when selecting influencers for their campaigns.

• Brand Collaboration Categories – Analytics also categorize the brands that an influencer has previously collaborated with. This categorization helps brands assess the influencer’s experience and compatibility with specific industries or product categories. It allows brands to identify influencers who have successfully promoted similar products or services, indicating their potential effectiveness for a specific campaign.

• Platform-wise Analytics – Influencer analytics provide platform-specific insights, diving deeper into an influencer’s content and audience. This section includes content performance benchmark graphs, post-engagement graphs, and audience insights. 

• Audience insight – Audience insights typically include the percentage of the audience based on gender and location, represented in graphical form. This information helps brands understand an influencer’s audience demographics and geographic reach, facilitating better targeting and campaign planning.

By leveraging influencer analytics, brands can make data-driven decisions, identify the right influencers for their campaigns, and optimize their marketing strategies for better results.

Influencer contact detail

Contacting influencers can be a challenge for marketers, especially when there are no direct means of communication and uncertainty regarding receiving a response. The influencer contact feature can benefit marketers greatly. Here’s how:

• Direct Communication – With influencer contact details, marketers can reach out to influencers directly, bypassing intermediaries. This enables more efficient and personalized communication, as marketers can convey their campaign details, collaboration proposals, or inquiries directly to the influencers.

• Building Relationships – Contacting influencers directly fosters the opportunity to build relationships. Marketers can establish a direct line of communication, engage in ongoing conversations, and develop a rapport with influencers. Building relationships can lead to more successful and long-term collaborations as trust and understanding between the marketer and influencer are strengthened.

• Customized Collaboration – Direct contact with influencers lets marketers discuss collaboration details more personally. They can tailor their proposals or campaign ideas based on the influencer’s preferences, strengths, and audience. This level of customization increases the chances of creating impactful and authentic content that resonates with both the influencer and their audience.

• Negotiation and Agreement – Contacting influencers directly provides a platform for negotiation and agreement on collaboration terms, such as deliverables, timelines, compensation, and disclosure requirements. This direct communication streamlines the negotiation process, reduces misunderstandings, and ensures that both parties are on the same page before entering into a partnership.

Influencer cost details

Obtaining reliable influencer cost details can be challenging. It’s often difficult to find accurate and up-to-date pricing information for influencers, as the rates can vary widely based on factors such as an influencer’s reach, engagement, industry, and overall demand. However, having influencer cost details is essential for strategizing an influencer marketing campaign. Here’s how the influencer cost details feature can benefit marketers:

• Budget Planning – Knowing influencer costs helps marketers determine a realistic budget for their influencer marketing campaign. By understanding the expected expenses associated with collaborating with influencers, marketers can allocate resources appropriately and ensure that the campaign aligns with their overall marketing budget.

• Cost-Effectiveness – Having influencer cost details allows marketers to assess the cost-effectiveness of potential collaborations. By comparing the rates of different influencers, marketers can evaluate the estimated return on investment (ROI) and make informed decisions about which influencers offer the best value for their budget.

• Negotiation and Avoiding Overcharging – With influencer cost information, brands can enter into negotiations with influencers more confidently. They have a better understanding of the market rates and ensure that they are not being overcharged by influencers. This knowledge empowers marketers to negotiate fair and mutually beneficial collaborations based on the influencer’s value and the campaign’s objectives.

Advanced Reporting

Reporting is arguably the most important part of an influencer campaign, as it shows how all the hard work worked out in the campaign. Here are some key benefits and elements typically associated with this feature:

• Performance Evaluation – Reporting provides a comprehensive overview of the campaign’s performance, showcasing the impact and outcomes of the influencer collaborations. It allows marketers to evaluate key metrics such as reach and engagement. This data helps assess the campaign’s effectiveness in meeting its objectives and informs future strategies.

• Real-time Monitoring – Live reporting enables marketers to track the campaign’s progress and results in real-time. This allows immediate action if any issues or discrepancies arise during the campaign. Marketers can identify underperforming influencers or content and make necessary adjustments to enhance the overall results before the campaign concludes.

• ROI Calculation – Reporting includes each influencer’s return on investment (ROI) from the campaign. Influencer marketers can assess the campaign’s cost per view (CPV), cost per engagement (CPE), or other relevant metrics against the total spend on influencers. This information helps determine the campaign’s financial effectiveness and provides insights into the campaign’s overall value.

Overall, reporting in influencer campaigns is crucial for evaluating performance, optimizing strategies, calculating ROI, and providing valuable insights for future campaign planning. It ensures transparency, accountability, and the ability to make data-driven decisions to enhance the overall results and achieve marketing objectives.

Conclusion

The features mentioned in this article can help you run an effective influencer marketing campaign every time. But as a customer, we recommend you do your own research before getting an influencer marketing platform. You can start by checking G2, a peer-to-peer review platform that helps customers choose better SaaS products, or take a free demo from the influencer marketing platform–Qoruz.

Qoruz is a reliable influencer marketing platform trusted by top brands and agencies like Marico and Dentsu. We are also India’s only influencer marketing platform to be featured in the G2 Influencer Marketing Grid and awarded G2 “Users Love Us” badge.