The influencer market is growing faster than ever. More and more brands have discovered the many possibilities that influencer marketing have. Both with the larger macro-influencers and the micro-influencers. And because the market is growing, the possibilities for you as a brand or an agency have also grown a lot so that you now have endless possibilities in networks, platforms, agencies and endless views on how to start using influencers.
One of the main questions you have to ask yourself before going into the marked is whether you will be using an influencer platform or an agency. There are pros and cons for both of them, but the main reason to for you to choose a platform is to save money for your company. If you want to save time, you should use an agency.
Agencies for beginners
Of course there can be reasons to choose one or the other, but of you are new to the whole influencer marketing, you might want to choose an agency to help you get started. There are people doing the work, who are there to help and guide you to find just the right influencer whether they should be big or small. Also, because there are real people behind you can be certain that they will find just the right group for your campaign.
But the main reason for you to choose an agency is for you to learn about the art of for example micro-influencing in a way, where you can ask all the questions you need. In the same time you save time, because the agency takes all the steps for you.
Platforms if you want to invest your time
Many start-ups choose the platform-model because they of course know their company and brand better than some agency. And if you don’t have the money, a platform is a way to go. But saving money is the main reason for you to choose an influencer platform, because it takes a lot more of your time and energy to learn how the marketing works and do the campaign. Maybe the platforms can help you find the right influencers, but they can’t do the campaign for you.
More and more of the bigger marketing blogs point out the risks of using an influencer platform. The biggest flaw is that there is very little human interaction on them. And even though humans makes mistakes, they can see stuff that a computer platform can’t see – like fake profiles or viruses.
To take an example, MediaFix made two fake Instagram accounts and got chosen to do two paid campaigns. You can read about it here.
So, you take some risks with you, when or if you choose a platform for your influencer marketing. But if you are willing to take those risks you can save some money and get started on your own.
If you want to get into marketing with micro-influencers in a safer way, check out what MINFLU have to offer.