Upfluence Alternatives & Competitors. What platform are you using?

[Panos Daras]

Hello there lovely people!

I just came out from a sales call with an Account Manager from Upfluence, an influencer marketing platform.
The idea is to have people display my product to their audience to drive some sales, create awareness, and
use this content as UGC for my website.

The thing is that while Upfluence appears robust, the monthly costs are a bit steep.

So, before I do something stupid and kill those poor money soldiers (again), it would be good to get as much feedback as possible.

What was your experience in terms of ROI with influencer marketing?

Are there cost-effective alternatives you'd recommend in regard to the platform to use?

 

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[BizyDad]

Are there cost-effective alternatives you'd recommend in regard to the platform to use?

Have you tried finding some small influencer and working out deals yourself?

What was your experience in terms of ROI with influencer marketing?

I have seen everything from 5 figure deals going nowhere, to Ryan Gosling hawking my client's product on the Ellen Show and shutting down our server (client gave us no notice. Lololol). Client still nearly sold out of their warehouse in the days that followed.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvh_87pDaYU


Like most things in business, I recommend you try to strike deals yourself and gain the experience before trying a shortcut like hiring someone to broker the deals. I mean, you can hire someone on Cameo just to start talking to someone... (I think you are in Europe, I don't know if there is an equivalent service out there.)

 

[Panos Daras]

Have you tried finding some small influencer and working out deals yourself?

Is there a way I can do this without logging into social media? I don't want to get hooked there. I still log in to social from time to time just to watch ads. And when I do I doomscroll...That is why I am thinking of this platform. It is basically a search engine for influencers. I will still need to contact them myself and structure the deal.

 

[BizyDad]

Is there a way I can do this without logging into social media? I don't want to get hooked there. I still log in to social from time to time just to watch ads. And when I do I doomscroll...That is why I am thinking of this platform. It is basically a search engine for influencers. I will still need to contact them myself and structure the deal.

So you want to pay money because you have lack self control.

But you're afraid to spend that money.

This is quite a conundrum you have created for yourself. I don't know how to advise you out of it.

Just suck it up and move forward. Get some self control.

 

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[SEBASTlAN]

Have you considered more economic options like Heepsy and Scrunch?

 

[Panos Daras]

Have you considered more economic options like Heepsy and Scrunch?

Not yet. I am weighing in my options at the moment. I will check them out. Thanks Sebastian!

 

[amp0193]

Is there a way I can do this without logging into social media? I don't want to get hooked there. I still log in to social from time to time just to watch ads. And when I do I doomscroll...That is why I am thinking of this platform. It is basically a search engine for influencers. I will still need to contact them myself and structure the deal.

That's the down side to owning a business, as social media is generally going to be a part of marketing it (if it's consumer focused like yours anyways).

I quit social media in 2010, but got back on in 2017 to make an instagram for my business, and it wasn't until about 1 year ago where I've been mostly able to leave it again (thanks to hiring someone who does it well).

But when you have a team of 1, you're going to have to get on it yourself.

And unfortunately, you aren't going to do it well if you aren't in it and understanding the pulse.

Set up some routines and structure and guardrails around it, so it doesn't consume you.

 

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[Panos Daras]

That's the down side to owning a business, as social media is generally going to be a part of marketing it (if it's consumer focused like yours anyways).

I quit social media in 2010, but got back on in 2017 to make an instagram for my business, and it wasn't until about 1 year ago where I've been mostly able to leave it again (thanks to hiring someone who does it well).

But when you have a team of 1, you're going to have to get on it yourself.

And unfortunately, you aren't going to do it well if you aren't in it and understanding the pulse.

Set up some routines and structure and guardrails around it, so it doesn't consume you.

I couldn't agree more. I will ponder on how to put a successful system in place for this task. Honestly, it's something I dislike doing. I enjoy accounting more than social media posting. Thank you very much for your advice. It really helps!

 

[MitchC]

All right, this is just my experience, every business is different so take it with a grain of salt, but I think you’ll see the difference in what I’m saying to what these gurus preach

1. To answer the question I use GoAffPro, a free Shopify app that works well. Allows influencers to create their own discount code and earn commission
2. There’s no easy way to find good influencers, it’s a manual process. Good influencers are not using these apps, they don’t need to, they have enough work
3. Smaller niche influencers are better than big accounts. I’ve heard that a good tell is if they have an active “channel” on their account that’s a good indicator
4. Influencer marketing sucks, shittiest treadmill ever to be on. You gunna manually find good influencers, send them a check, hope it works, if it doesn’t then that sucks, and if it does, well great now what? Do another post with them and get diminishing returns?

Best thing to do imo

Find good content creators, UGC creators, get them to make content, get the raw footage, edit proper ads with it, run paid traffic to it.

$1000 on paid ads to good creative is way better than $1000 to one influencer

Plus if it works you can actually scale it

If it doesn’t work, you know without needing to spend $1000

How to find good influencers?

Look at your competitors accounts, see who’s tagging them in posts

How to find ugc creators? There’s a few ugc influencers, just follow them and then go through their following list

Like I said, it’s a manual process. Good ones are not sitting around on apps waiting for work.

Also anyone who cold emails or dms you probably sucks too for the same reason

Influencer marketing was good when the feed was chronological, they didn’t know what their following was worth, and customers weren’t used to it

There was an arbitrage then because it was new

Now you have people with barely a real following being paid $1000s for a post because big brands are all using it

The arbitrage is gone

I can’t think of a brand in the last 5 years that was built on influencer marketing

All those brands that were built on it back in the day are gone now and the creators are selling courses

The good thing about ugc creators is you are judging them on their content so it’s easy to see who will be good to work with, no trying to work out if someone’s following is real and in your market, and you can keep using the same good creators again and again for content if they are good.

1 mistake is being lazy here as well and getting them to do the script or just giving them talking points.

To get the best result you really need to script the entire video, exactly what they need to say, what b roll you need etc.

lol there’s the entire 2023 Facebook ads blueprint in 1 post for everyone, turn the YouTube and courses off, that’s all you need. This shit will be in the courses in 2024 when it doesn’t work anymore because it’s saturated. I’m already seeing good ugc creators starting to charge influencer type rates it’s crazy.

 

[MitchC]

So you want to pay money because you have lack self control.

But you're afraid to spend that money.

This is quite a conundrum you have created for yourself. I don't know how to advise you out of it.

Just suck it up and move forward. Get some self control.

The way he worded it makes it sound ridiculous but there is a point there

Do you want to own a business where you are constantly on social media looking for new influencers, hoping they answer your messages, dealing with the egos and rates, their flakeyness, their inability to follow a script or instructions, paying them and hoping it works

Or would you rather work with a few good ugc creators, write specific scripts, edit videos, and run ads to it. That can all be done without being on social media.

If you don’t want to be on social media all the time I probably wouldn’t run a business in a way that requires me to be on it all the time, there are other ways

 

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[Panos Daras]

@MitchC I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to answer. I installed and set up GoAffPro.
I think UGC advice is very good.
Boomer question alert: How do you contact and find the UGC creators?

 

[MitchC]

@MitchC I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to answer. I installed and set up GoAffPro.
I think UGC advice is very good.
Boomer question alert: How do you contact and find the UGC creators?

Type UGC into the instagram search bar

 

[amp0193]

I enjoy accounting more than social media posting

Likewise.

For 4 years I was pretty much on Instagram for 20-30 minutes every night. 8:30-9 was kind of my time frame.

Make my post, check my hashtags I followed, little bit of feed scrolling, then shut it down.

 

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[Panos Daras]

Likewise.

For 4 years I was pretty much on Instagram for 20-30 minutes every night. 8:30-9 was kind of my time frame.

Make my post, check my hashtags I followed, little bit of feed scrolling, then shut it down.

Solid strategy! Thanks a lot for taking the time to reply!

 

[StrikingViper69]

All right, this is just my experience, every business is different so take it with a grain of salt, but I think you’ll see the difference in what I’m saying to what these gurus preach

1. To answer the question I use GoAffPro, a free Shopify app that works well. Allows influencers to create their own discount code and earn commission
2. There’s no easy way to find good influencers, it’s a manual process. Good influencers are not using these apps, they don’t need to, they have enough work
3. Smaller niche influencers are better than big accounts. I’ve heard that a good tell is if they have an active “channel” on their account that’s a good indicator
4. Influencer marketing sucks, shittiest treadmill ever to be on. You gunna manually find good influencers, send them a check, hope it works, if it doesn’t then that sucks, and if it does, well great now what? Do another post with them and get diminishing returns?

Best thing to do imo

Find good content creators, UGC creators, get them to make content, get the raw footage, edit proper ads with it, run paid traffic to it.

$1000 on paid ads to good creative is way better than $1000 to one influencer

Plus if it works you can actually scale it

If it doesn’t work, you know without needing to spend $1000

How to find good influencers?

Look at your competitors accounts, see who’s tagging them in posts

How to find ugc creators? There’s a few ugc influencers, just follow them and then go through their following list

Like I said, it’s a manual process. Good ones are not sitting around on apps waiting for work.

Also anyone who cold emails or dms you probably sucks too for the same reason

Influencer marketing was good when the feed was chronological, they didn’t know what their following was worth, and customers weren’t used to it

There was an arbitrage then because it was new

Now you have people with barely a real following being paid $1000s for a post because big brands are all using it

The arbitrage is gone

I can’t think of a brand in the last 5 years that was built on influencer marketing

All those brands that were built on it back in the day are gone now and the creators are selling courses

The good thing about ugc creators is you are judging them on their content so it’s easy to see who will be good to work with, no trying to work out if someone’s following is real and in your market, and you can keep using the same good creators again and again for content if they are good.

1 mistake is being lazy here as well and getting them to do the script or just giving them talking points.

To get the best result you really need to script the entire video, exactly what they need to say, what b roll you need etc.

lol there’s the entire 2023 Facebook ads blueprint in 1 post for everyone, turn the YouTube and courses off, that’s all you need. This shit will be in the courses in 2024 when it doesn’t work anymore because it’s saturated. I’m already seeing good ugc creators starting to charge influencer type rates it’s crazy.

Thanks for the idea here @MitchC I'm giving this a go.