Introduction
Influencer relationships are imperative for your brand, agency or influencer growth; the better a brand’s influencer marketing, the more awareness it would bring to the product.
IRM refers to Influencer Relationship Management, whereas CRM refers to Customer Relationship Management. CRM inspires IRM to create and curate testimonial advertisements and strategized relationships.
Basically the same thing but one is for managing customer relationships (CRM) and one is for managing influencer relationships (IRM). CRM encourages the parties involved to grow their professional relationship and strengthen their IRM to put out the best content or product for the customer/audience to consume.
How and why should you use Influencer Relationship Management?
It would be best to consider using a CRM over a method like a spreadsheet to increase your sales process and efficiently grow your target audience.
An influencer relationship management software helps you integrate different information and data in one place instead of on other platforms and eases the info you should follow up and update on; such as how many times an influencer posted in a day, week, month or year if they are meeting quota), what the engagement/insights of the post(s) is like and compare it to other influencers that you may be working with.
The cloud system, CRM software, allows different people from the same team to view the same (or other) data at the same time without losing it; you can make comments on files and documents shared between the team. On this note, your data is also secure as it can be password generated/protected; you can create a company email or login information that only team members have access to.
The benefits of an IRM are the same as a CRM, but instead of managing customers, you are managing influencers. Some benefits you can expect are:
An influencer relationship management software/platform often retains information from previous interactions with the influencer; communication between the individuals is easy as you can set up follow up/scheduled emails and appointment reminders both within the team and between the team and influencers. As your data is easily organized into a CRM platform, having an automated system helps you keep track of your campaign/strategies.
Data protection/privacy is also imperative; software is often created in a way that is meant to keep sensitive information private and secure; this includes conversations, passwords and contact information.
Another benefit is it pushes your marketing campaign; you are able to create leads that lead to sales opportunities that, eventually, lead to gross sales. What this means is that you are able to find and pitch/reach out to potential influencers (lead). If they choose to accept the pitch, then they will work with you (opportunities). Then it will be about cultivating the relationship in order to allow the campaign/project to grow/flourish short or long term (sales).
As a brand, you want to maintain (and grow) your influencer clientele. You need to be credible visible and have the potential to be referred – if you have already existing influencer clients, you need them to put in a good word for you. Both the influencer and the brand want to maintain the relationship as it means a continuous stream of income, followers and overall business.
You can increase your brand awareness and sales, revenue, and overall return investments (ROI).
An agency benefits similarly to brands. However, as an agency, you are working with many different influencer portfolios at a time.
You can handle multiple accounts effectively and efficiently on the IRM software/platform. The influencer can also access their portfolio even if someone from the team – their specific influencer manager – leaves. If the influencer ends the partnership or vice versa, you can still use the information from past campaigns with the influencer for future campaigns or pitches.
Influencers benefit by growing their portfolios and building relationships with a brand, agency, or other influencers. You can practise clear communication by utilizing the right strategies and tools. By cultivating a good, profitable relationship with clear communication, you can work together long term – and the long-term gains are the gains that you should be focusing on.
As with brands and agencies, the influencer will benefit from potential referrals or a long-term partnership/brand deal.
What is the difference between IRM and ‘traditional’ influencer platforms?
Whether it is the 20th century or the 21st century, finding an Influencer platform that works has always been essential for marketing. Some ‘traditional’ popular influencer platforms were blogging sites where influencers were paid to promote and talk about the products from the brands they were working with. This was referred to as ‘PayPerPost ‘ marketing.
Although there are paid ads or sponsored ads on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram, influencers now have an array of media, virtually/digitally, and in real life that they can consider.
In the 21st century, you can find influencer relationship management software that works for you.
Certain traditional influencer platforms act as marketplaces where brands, agencies and influencers can discover each other, communicate, invoice/pay, track content all in one place. However, this can be incredibly expensive to use whereas opting for an IRM is more accessible for a brand or agency that already has an influencer list to upload into the platform from another source – like from an article on selecting and reaching micro influencers.
What are some of the old tools that people used to use for IRM?
It is imperative to have a place to record the influencer’s campaign and have a place to record the influencer campaign’s progress; an influencer tracking spreadsheet is helpful and straightforward.
Before intricate codes and social media, when the internet and influencing were still upcoming, spreadsheets were used by brands/agencies to make realistic timeline goals and follow/update them as they went along with their campaign.
Brands, agencies and influencers used emails to communicate and reach out to one another. Some brands/agencies went a step further and put call-outs or advertisements in magazine spreads or television and radio broadcasts and interviews.
Here are some examples of ‘new age’ influencer platforms and software:
Conclusion
In this modern 21st century day and age, it only makes sense to adapt to current technology;
Customer Relationship Management inspires Influencer Relationship Management, and if your IRM is not strong, a brand or influencer may not be interested in working with you. Consider moving with the times, ditching the old-fashioned spreadsheets and opting for an Influencer CRM/IRM instead.
