Dive Brief:
- Markerly, an influencer marketing technology firm, is releasing a new platform designed to allow marketers run influencer campaigns in-house without the need to outsource to third-party vendors.
- The new platform includes Influencer Search and Campaign Manager tools, and will tap into Markerly’s index of influencers.
- According to Markerly, the platform tracks two million influencers and analyzes 30 million posts per day.
Dive Insight:
Influencer marketing may still be in the emerging stage, but it is growing steadily. And recent reports point to why brands shouldn't dismiss the tactic so quickly.
Twitter this month unveiled a study that found 49% of users reported relying on influencers for product recommendations, compared to 56% who reported relying on friends. Recently Markerly released a study that showed brand marketers were seeing higher engagement with micro-influencer over other types of influencer campaigns.
Sarah Ware, CEO of Markerly, told Marketing Dive, "There are a few bottlenecks for marketers who want to activate influencers. The first is identification, the second is streamlining the activation and the third is tracking.”
She added, “Markerly's technology is able to help marketers identify the perfect influencers for their brand. Brands that limit themselves to influencers who have joined a particular network or limit themselves to searching for the largest influencers in a particular category are at a disadvantage and pay for content to be created by those who are not going to the move the needle for the campaign.”
Ware said the technology identifies celebrities, mid-tier and micro-influencers, extracts emails addresses, and allows marketers to build influencer campaigns in what she described as “minutes.” The platform’s tracking allows for proving ROI, compares influencer to influencer, and gives marketers hard data about the success of influencer campaigns.
Markerly’s self-serve platform for influencer marketing comes at a time when marketers are looking to more easily get into influencer marketing. Though the category has its critics, as it continues to evolve and gain traction, marketers will need tools to help them leverage this strategy.