I want to let you in on a secret; we intended to build an influencer marketing network to diversify traffic away from Google, but in the process, my team created the best way to get links that I've ever been apart of. Considering I've been in SEO since 1997 hopefully that tells you something.
Intellifluence
One of the fastest growing influencer networks on the planet
E-commerce sales, links, and more...
As for writing this post, Intellifluence has 26,000 influencers. Now, this isn't some sort of database that was scraped and cobbled together with string and untested emails. No. Not even close. We have 26,000+ and growing influencers that have JOINED our network because they want to review products, services and give you reviews and links. We've made the perfect matchmaker network for marketers and influencers.
How big is 26,000? Several months back our aggregate audience eclipsed Kim Kardashian's audience.
Why is this growing so fast? And what does this mean for you?
We're growing fast because we understand that everyone has some influence to offer. I'm very serious about this. The college student with a few hundred Instagram followers and a Tumblr account might be dismissed by those that don't understand how influence works, but we do know, so we grab them. We grab all of them. And now you can use them in whatever way makes the most sense to you.
Social Proof
If you're starting a new project and want to make it seem legit you can, of course, do the "As seen on..." headers that we all used to do 2007. It may still work a little, but not nearly as well as throwing a couple bucks to that attractive looking young person to hold your product. Real, organic looking customers holding your product is what we all aim for, and it is EASY to get. Does this sound like you? Stop reading and
sign up now.
Social Sales
The next step up after establishing social proof on your landing page is to send converting traffic to it. You're going to need to understand who your buyer is and I've written a ridiculously long guide on this that I can PM you a link to if you want, but once you know you can apply filters on Intellifluence to find their peers and use those peers to target your ideal customers. Filter by social network or blogs, by geography, audience size, expected compensation type (product or cash), and expected compensation amount.
Don't take my word for how easy this once you have your customer persona dialed in. Read about how Shoplo used us in a couple use cases for social sales:
http://en.shoplo.com/blog/ecommerce-tools-to-increase-online-sales/#Being internet famous
Links, Links, Links
I didn't anticipate this. I should have, but I didn't. The guy that was sometimes TLA's biggest customer, spending $250,000/month didn't realize he was building a link network.
Ok, I'll back up. It isn't a link network, per se. What has happened is by bringing blogging influencers into our network and having pitches occur entirely within our platform we have reduced a few barriers. I'm going to talk more about the psychology of this at
UnGagged Las Vegas in November 2017, but here's a short overview...
What do you think will have the better response rate:
Marketer A cold emails blogger offering to write a guest post, buy a post, or whatever it is that cold pitching marketers like to do (come on, you know).
Marketer B contacts blogger through Intellifluence with a pitch: As a fashion influencer, I'd love for you to review our new line of t-shirts. They are organically sourced from leaves that fall in the moonlight 10 feet from the Berkley campus. Since you mention wanting cash or product, I'd like to offer you $20 for your time and send you the shirt.
Marketer B is going to win everytime, because this marketer knows in advance what the blogger wants. PLUS, the simple shift of being asked to apply influence, on a platform the blogger willingly signed up for, increases the close rate.
Does it actually increase the close rate? Oh yeah. Most digital agencies that have signed up as brands use us primarily to work with bloggers. I just didn't expect it, but it's fantastic and creating a win / win situation for both parties. I'm not going to share which bloggers are in our system; it looks like 5,500 with blogs right now...real people with blogs, writing real posts.
You can do the same and put them to work, starting at $39/mo. Not good enough? How about a free trial? All our plans are currently set to let you use them for 14 days, free. We use Stripe to manage payments and sign-ups, so we will ask for a credit card -- it's the best way to control fraud and keep our network of influencers growing happily.
Amplification
The final use case I've seen which I find interesting is amplification. Let's say you've already done a lot of work and done plenty of marketing, but just want to pop that special post again, get some more social juice, etc.
It is SUPER easy to pitch low cost, higher audiences in non-US markets to tweet/retweet/Facebook share/Linkedin Share/Pinterest pin whatever project it is that you're working on. We've already got people arbitraging in the platform to make use of geographical / economic shifts where a big audience size in Brazil or Spain might not be recognized and utilized as quickly as it is in the US or UK. It's crazy, and a valid use of the platform. If this sounds like you? Go amplify your projects!
Let's talk influencer marketing
This is a sales thread, but too many people seem to be approaching influencer marketing wrong and I want to help to fix that as much as I can. Have influencer marketing questions? Please post them below and we'll try to get to them. Every sale we make through these links benefits BHW so we help you, please
buy through the links instead of directly so we can benefit the community.
REVIEW COPIES?
I'll give away 10 free month coupons to the first 10 commenters. Get in, get your 14-day free trial PLUS a free month after that; once they're gone, they're gone. As a business employing 8 people on this project right now we have some very real costs, so I need to keep this sane.
