he influencer marketing industry is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $13 billion and will likely only grow in the coming years. In Q3 and Q4 of 2020 alone, influencer marketing campaigns jumped from 2,163 to nearly 2,901 among one group of survey respondents.
Further, in 2021, 75% of companies had a dedicated budget for such campaigns, which no doubt left room for top influencer marketing tools. What tools? We’ve put together a list of 12 of the best but, first, let’s briefly highlight why influencer marketing is worth doing in the first place.
Influencer marketing: What you miss out on by not doing it
Influencer marketing is partnering with people or brands who have the power to influence your ideal customers and who are willing to promote your company. The benefits of this are endless, including:
- Access to a pre-built audience and, specifically, your target audience if you choose relevant influencers
- Increased reach and brand awareness, especially if your company is still small or relatively new
- The ability to build trust with your target audience quickly because they already trust the influencer who recommends your company’s products or services
- More effective marketing since influencers are in tune with the wants and needs of your shared audience and, therefore, can get the message right without tons of trial and error
- Less pressure when it comes to creating content consistently since the individuals and brands you partner with would be responsible for their content creation
In other words, working with influencers can put you on the fast track to better digital marketing results and, ultimately, business growth. But only if you can approach it efficiently, which is where automated, AI-powered and organizational tools come in.
12 of the best influencer marketing tools
Deciding to invest in influencer marketing is a wise choice. But you’ll struggle to gain traction if you don’t have tools to help you:
- Find influencers for your brand and build lasting relationships with them
- Reach out to bloggers and content creators that you want to partner with
- Keep an eye on conversations in your industry, including discussions about your brand and influencer marketing campaigns
- Create content and copy for your influencer outreach and audience-facing marketing campaigns
Here are 12 of the best tools for influencer marketing that meet these needs.
1. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is one of the best influencer search tools out there. It enables users to:
- View “meaningful metrics” from millions of Twitter influencers, uncover your competitors’ strategies, and see who’s boosting their content
- Filter and identify creators based on their authority
- Identify and analyze top-performing Facebook pages, including your competitors’ pages
Pricing: BuzzSumo has a limited free plan and paid plans starting at $99 per month (inclusive of BuzzSumo’s other capabilities including content discovery and research).
2. Awario
Awario is a brand monitoring tool that can track mentions of your brand from across the web and social media. Its features include:
- Non-stop monitoring (in any language or location) so that you can see mentions of your brand or selected keywords in real-time
- Boolean search to be alerted of only the most relevant mentions
- Awario Leads for lead generation and social selling
- An inbox that allows you to sort conversations by reach so that you can prioritize engaging in the most visible, impactful discussions
- Analytics including sentiment analysis and white-label reports
Pricing: Awario’s plans start at $39 per month.
3. GroupHigh
A powerful content marketing tool, GroupHigh claims to have the world’s largest and most accurate database of blogs, which makes it invaluable for blogger outreach. GroupHigh features:
- A robust blog search engine to help you find publishers who distribute their content widely and have the most reach on relevant platforms
- A website research tool to uncover a URL’s full social footprint, traffic, and more than 40 different social, SEO, blog, and website metrics
- A CRM to help you build influencer relationships
- A tracker for brand mentions, including those generated as a result of your influencer marketing campaigns
Pricing: After a 7-day free trial, if you decide to stick with GroupHigh, you’ll be paying $179 per month.
4. Jasper
Content and copy play an important role in any marketing strategy. Influencer marketing strategy is no exception. Jasper—our AI marketing platform—offers several templates to help you churn out effective copy of all sorts simply by inputting a few details about your topic. For example, with the:
- Short Social Posts template, you can generate engaging content to support your social media marketing strategy (Pro tip: Add the influencers you work with to your Jasper account to make their content creation a breeze!)
- Marketing Angles and Persuasive Bullet Points templates, you can write copy for your affiliate marketing program landing page (or sell a product or service if you’re an affiliate or influencer yourself)
- AIDA Framework template, you can write a compelling outreach message to an influencer you’d like to work with
To illustrate, let’s create an outreach message using the AIDA template. You could enter:
- Your company/product name
- A description of what you offer, why an influencer should consider promoting it, and what they’d get out of the deal
- A desired tone of voice for your message
In return, Jasper would generate several options designed to capture Attention, generate Interest, heighten Desire, and prompt Action, which is where the acronym AIDA comes from. Then, in the right-hand pane of your Jasper document, you could combine, edit or add to any of the AI outputs that you like until you’re happy with your outreach message.
Pricing: Jasper offers several flexible pricing plans ranging from the $39/mo Creator plan to custom Business plans for an enterprise-level solution.
5. Hunter
Hunter is a must-have if you’re manually building a list of influencers to contact. Or if you happen to stumble across content from a blogger or content creator who could be a great partner. With Hunter, you can:
- Find author email addresses in seconds with Hunter’s Chrome extension
- Find email addresses of people at a certain company using the domain search feature, which is helpful if you’re targeting decision-makers within a company instead of individuals
- Verify emails to make sure that your messages reach the right people
Pricing: Hunter has a free plan with limited search and verification credits per month, as well as paid plans starting at $49 per month.
6. Upfluence
Upfluence is an all-in-one tool used by more than 1,600 companies to grow their brands and drive sales. Its features include:
- Influencer discovery and matching to spot both your biggest fans and the most influential people across Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, and other social networks
- Automated outreach and relationship management to recruit powerful people and build lasting relationships that lead to lasting results
- Customized campaigns workflows for outreach and adding influencers to your affiliate program
- Payment management to make paying international content creators easy
- Reporting and analytics tools to measure the ROI of your campaigns in real-time
Pricing: You can use the Upfluence Chrome extension for free but will need to contact the team for pricing on its paid plans.
7. BuzzStream
BuzzStream is designed to increase your brand’s visibility through word-of-mouth marketing campaigns that create buzz, earn you backlinks, and increase your website traffic. This tool helps to:
- Build outreach lists quickly
- Personalize communication and build relationships via its CRM
- Track activity, conversations, and responses so that no opportunities slip through the cracks
- Measure your open rates, reply rates, placements, and team activity tracking so that you can optimize your campaigns and boost your ROI in the future
Pricing: You can try BuzzStream free for a limited time. Its paid plans start at $24 per month.
8. Klear
Klear, another leading influencer marketing platform, is an end-to-end, all-in-one solution that can simplify your work and save you time. With Klear, you can:
- Find relevant influencers with advanced search tools
- Review analytics, audience demographics, top content, and more to see if an influencer aligns with your strategy
- Manage influencer relationships through the Klear CRM and connect via in-app messaging in Klear’s communication portal
- Measure ROI and create campaign performance reports
Pricing: For pricing, schedule a demo with the Klear team.
9. Pitchbox
Loved for its simplicity and ease of use, Pitchbox is one of the best influencer outreach and link-building tools available. In addition to finding influential bloggers, publishers, and creators, you can:
- Do personalized outreach and follow-up to boost response rates, especially among your highest priority leads
- Build relationships and centralize data via Pitchbox’s SEO-centric CRM
- View reports for an in-depth look at campaign performance and to make data-driven decisions moving forward
Pricing: You’ll have to book a demo or contact the Pitchbox team for pricing.
10. Heepsy
Heepsy—another tool for finding influencers fast—has a lot to offer in terms of functionality. Not only does it offer solutions for several industries including eCommerce and startups but, with Heepsy, you can:
- Sort more than 11 million social media influencers across various platforms including Youtube, Instagram, and TikTok
- Filter by category, engagement, location, and audience to find the best potential influencers for your brand
- Access advanced reports including authenticity analysis
- Create influencer lists, export data, and start conversations
Pricing: Heepsy does have a free plan with limited features. You can upgrade to a paid plan for as little as $49 per month.
11. Socialbakers
Socialbakers—an AI-powered social media platform—has several tools and features that can contribute to successful influencer marketing campaigns. They include:
- Social listening to uncover trends and get a better understanding of your audience and competitors
- End-to-end influencer marketing tools for everything from discovery to tracking to reporting
- Social media management to make content distribution and management across channels as painless as possible
Pricing: Socialbakers’ pricing starts at $200 per month.
12. Keyhole
Keyhole has two closely-related areas of focus—influencer marketing and social listening. Its influencer marketing features are similar to many of the tools we’ve talked about so we’ll focus on its social listening features, which include:
- Tracking of direct and indirect brand mentions, volume and virality predictions, and AI sentiment analysis to understand how people feel about your brand and influencer marketing strategy
- Industry trend and competitor analysis
- Influencer analytics to identify your most influential brand advocates for partnerships
Pricing: You can try Keyhole free for a limited time but will need to contact the team for pricing info.
Influencer marketing FAQs
What is influencer marketing and how does it work?
Influencer marketing is a form of marketing that focuses on using influential people to promote a brand's products or services. These influencers typically have a large following on social media platforms and are seen as experts or trendsetters in their respective niches.
By collaborating with influencers, brands can reach a larger audience, increase brand awareness, and drive engagement. Influencer marketing works by leveraging the influencer's credibility and relationship with their followers to endorse or recommend a brand's offerings, ultimately influencing consumer behavior and purchasing decisions.
What is the premise behind influencer marketing?
Influencer marketing hinges on the concepts of trust and authenticity.
Consumers are constantly bombarded with ads and marketing messages on a regular basis. This constant exposure has led to an increase in skepticism and a decrease in trust towards almost all forms of advertising.
However, when a product or service is recommended by someone that the consumer knows and trusts, such as an influencer they follow on social media, it carries more weight and credibility. Influencers have built their personal brand and reputation through their content and engagement with their followers, making them relatable and credible sources for recommendations.
Influencer marketing also taps into the power of social proof. When people see others using or endorsing a specific product or service, it creates a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and drives them to want to try it out for themselves. This type of marketing can be especially effective in reaching younger generations, who are highly influenced by their peers and social media.
How does influencer marketing work?
To run successful influencer marketing campaigns, follow these steps:
- Define Your Goals: Start by outlining what you aim to achieve with the influencer marketing campaign. Whether it's increasing brand awareness, driving sales, or reaching a new audience, setting clear objectives is crucial.
- Identify the Right Influencers: Research and identify influencers who align with your brand values, target audience, and campaign goals. Consider factors such as follower demographics, engagement rates, and authenticity to ensure a good fit. It’s during this step that influencer marketing software is crucial, empowering you to create a ‘hit list’ of influencers to reach out to.
- Establish Partnerships: Reach out to selected influencers and propose collaboration opportunities. Clearly communicate your campaign objectives, expectations, compensation (if applicable), and any guidelines or creative briefs.
- Plan Campaign Strategies: Develop a comprehensive campaign strategy that outlines key messaging, content formats, posting schedules, and collaboration details. Ensure that the influencer's content resonates with their audience while promoting your brand effectively.
- Build Relationships: Cultivate long-term relationships with influencers who prove to be valuable partners. Nurture these connections to foster ongoing collaborations and amplify your brand's presence across different platforms.
By following these steps, you can effectively execute influencer marketing campaigns that resonate with your target audience and drive meaningful results for your brand.
How much does influencer marketing cost?
Influencer partnerships vary in cost depending on how large of an audience an influencer has built up and also by the industry or niche that the influencer is a part of. For example, if your audience is mostly investors or startup founders, influencers will likely charge more than if they were a general entertainer or someone in streetwear fashion.
According to surveys conducted by Shopify, here’s a general guideline you can use to gauge the cost of influencer marketing:
Put influencer marketing tools to good use
With tools such as the ones we’ve covered and other top tools for affiliate marketing, you’ll have all you need to find the right influencers for your brand, establish connections with them, create content that generates more revenue for you, and track the performance of your campaigns. And the sooner you start using them, the sooner you can start seeing results.
So why not start today with a free trial of Jasper?
