AspireIQ is about to unleash a new version of its software that is an evolution with the market. The enterprise level software has been one of the great campaign management solutions out there that enables and agency or brand to discover, engage, manage and measure influencer partnerships. Its new version shifts the mindset from online influencers to anyone who can influence your audience. With plugins to e-commerce platforms like Shopify and customer databases, now you can manage content and engagement with influencers, but also impactful customers and other audiences you have transactions with.
Magda Houalla is AspireIQ’s Director of Marketing Strategy. I caught up with her recently to understand more about the software evolution there, but also to talk more broadly about what she and her colleagues are seeing from the marketplace, brand and influencers alike. We talked about the difference in viewing influencers as, well, influencers versus creators, the misconception of influencers being just people on Instagram and YouTube, the philosophy of discovering influencers and beyond.
An interesting discussion about the industry and a peek inside the newest software evolution at AspireIQ are here for the taking. Listen and share!
Connect with Houalla on LinkedIn. Find more about AspireIQ and the discussions related to this episode at AspireIQ/winfluence.
Winfluence Transcript – Magda Houalla – AspireIQ
Jason Falls
Hello again friends thanks for listening to Winfluence – The Influence Marketing Podcast. As the influence marketing space matures and evolves so will the tools that help us manage the practice, AspireIQ is about to unleash a new version of its software that is an evolution with the market. The enterprise level software has been one of the great campaign management solutions out there that enables an agency or brand to discover, engage, manage and measure influencer partnerships. Its new version shifts the mindset from online influencers to anyone who can influence your audience with plugins to e-commerce platforms like Shopify and customer databases. Now you can manage content and engagement with influencers, but also impactful customers and other audiences you have transactions with.
Jason Falls
Let’s say your sales data shows a particular repeat customer and identifies them as having a few thousand followers on a given platform. With this new evolution of influence marketing software, you can pull that individual into a list and reach out engage supply them with assets and such so that they become an influencer or an advocate for you, even if they never signed up to be one. Magda Houalla is AspireIQ’s director of marketing strategy. I caught up with her recently to understand more about the software’s evolution there, but also talk more broadly about what she and her colleagues are seeing from the marketplace, from brands and from influencers alike. We talked about the difference in viewing influencers as, well, influencers versus creators, the misconception of influencers just being people on Instagram and YouTube, the philosophy of discovering influencers and beyond. How the platforms and philosophies around influence marketing are maturing, AspireIQ’s Magna Houalla comes your way next on Winfluence.
Jason Falls
Magda to level set for anyone AspireIQ is an enterprise influencer marketing platform — now even that has some different descriptions in the marketplace. So give us an overview of what problems your software solves.
Magda Houalla
Yeah, absolutely. So AspireIQ, we launched in 2013, with our original product, which was a an influencer marketing software really designed to help brands streamline the bones of their program. So that platform is called Create, it allows brands to find influencers, work with them in a really streamlined and organized way, and then analyze the results of all the work that they’re doing with these influencers. Really, what we’ve seen over the past couple years, especially the past year, is that the ways in which brands actually want to interact with influencers has evolved quite a bit, they don’t necessarily always want to follow with super structured workflow, they might want to just have a database of individuals that they’re tapping when they have a new product watch or even have people in their quote, unquote influencer program that aren’t necessarily super influential on social media, but perhaps just experts in their craft or really loyal customers. So that has allowed us to evolve the way we think about our product offering. So while we still have Create as our tool that allows for that really structured workflow with influencer marketing, we are actually expanding to offer Elevate, which is a tool that allows for more flexible workflow with anyone in your community that matters to you. So basically, we allow brands to communicate with these individuals directly through their email inbox, and we provide the system of record of all communications, all social posts, and then again, still allow them to analyze the results of all the work that we’re doing. So the key difference is really whether or not brands want to operate in more of a transactional way and then more of a very structured organized way or if they want to have deeper relationships that are more flexible that can live on online and offline that can operate over email etc. So we really want to make sure that we’re always evolving our products to match the way we see the market shifting and really the way we see the market shifting is brands wanting to have that super tight knit close one to one relationship with everyone in their influential community.
Jason Falls
It’s you know, it’s really interesting that your your software is pivoting that way because I think the conversations that I’ve been having had been pivoting that way to in the last few months so it’s very, I think reflective of the market. You know, it sounds to me like AspireIQ kind of started out As a almost like a campaign management tool, a little bit of discovery, a little bit of, you know, sort of communication and a little bit of tracking, which sounds to me like more of a structured campaign. But you know, this new platform that you’re about to unleash on the world sounds more like, you know, you’re going to be able to sort of nurture relationships along and just kind of have more of a, almost a CRM driven approach. Is that fair?
Magda Houalla
Absolutely. Yeah, that … you hit the nail on the head there. Really what Create is centered around is campaigns, you create campaigns around moments activations, whatever it may be, but everything that you’re doing is revolving around that specific campaign. Whereas Elevate kind of flipped that on its head, it allows people to run longer term, perhaps evergreen programs that might be ambassador programs or customer loyalty programs. But you’re exactly right. It essentially is a CRM for everyone who is in your influential community, and allows you to track all of that super critical, relevant data without necessarily being tied to one specific campaign.
Jason Falls
Okay, so help me help me with this. Because it sounds to me like this, you know, this expands it to, you know, you can include, instead of just including the traditional definition of an influencer, you can include customers you can include, you know, you fans that aren’t necessarily, you know, don’t have necessarily big, big audience, you can include employees, you know, maybe even, you know, vendor partners and other folks in this. I get discovery and finding influencers and plugging them into the CRM or the database. How does this new platform ingest the people that you want to connect who aren’t necessarily online influencers?
Magda Houalla
Sure, that’s a really great question. So we actually have different connections to e-commerce platforms. So Shopify is the one that’s most notable to allow brands to look at customer data and find people that could be champions there. So for example, think about sorting your customer data by everyone that’s purchased in the past three months, and then marrying that with our social listening capabilities to see if these individuals are talking about you on social media, that could be someone that is a power fan, because they’re not only purchasing from you, they’re also having conversations about you online. So those are two ways in which we can ingest data from e commerce tools like Shopify, from social listening, but also we allow brands to import any data that they might already have, whether it’s from emails collected, or you know, employee list, whatever it may be, we have a very robust implementation team that will work with the brand to make sure we’re getting all of the relevant data in and then helping them to segment it in the most impactful way. So that you don’t just have this static list, you actually have a program that you’re taking action on, you know that every three months, you want to send something to surprise and delight your top 10% of customers also posted on social for an example. We want to make sure that our brands have both they have the tools and the strategy behind it.
Jason Falls
That’s that’s that’s really nice to hear, and and, again, aligns with a lot of the conversations that I’ve had in recent weeks in recent months, about sort of the concept that everybody is an influencer, obviously, the market has been shifting to micro and nano influencers, but it’s it’s beyond that, in fact, the, you know, WinfluenceBooks the book, whenever the publishing people get rid of it, get get done with it and get it out in the marketplace, which seems like I’ve been waiting since I was 10 for this thing to come out. But when the book does come out next next year, there’s a lot in it that talks about how influence is not tied to social networks influence can be a lot of different people with a lot of different parameters. Now I realize the software platforms are built to be able to identify the online influence, but there’s got to be some methodology and thought behind that too. And it’s it looks like that’s kind of the direction AspireIQ is going into real quick, let’s change, you know, away from the software a little bit and talk a little bit more philosophically about influencer marketing bit, I noticed that a lot of what AspireIQ, you know, talks about in terms of like the verbiage on your website and whatnot. And obviously, this is tied to the Create platform, which is a little bit you know, it’s kind of being transitioned to something else soon. So the conversation will continue to go that way. But a lot of the verbiage you use talks about influencers as content creators, as opposed to thinking to them as like a media outpost with a big audience. I love that perspective. Because I think brands are often conditioned to think that influencers are all about a mechanism to get in front of a bunch of new people, but they overlook the reason the audience is there that the content is really good. Do you think that confusion from from brands is something you see in clients you work with? Do they think exposure first versus content or am I wrong there?
Magda Houalla
Yeah, absolutely. Right. And that a lot of brands come to us thinking influencer marketing is focused on one goal and that goal is getting in front of more eyeballs on social media. And that certainly is one of the primary goals But to your point, there are so many different ways in which influencers can impact your business both on social media and off social media. But I’ll start by speaking to the content piece a little bit more influencers really make their living their bread and butter is creating content, whether it’s beautiful imagery, whether it’s video content, whether it’s super raw kind of authentic, TikTok content, that’s how they resonate with their audience. And that’s, that’s their craft that they’ve that they’ve mastered. So really what brands can do is they can leverage influencers to create this really great diverse content for them. And then brands can utilize that across their own marketing channels, whether that’s paid ads, website, email marketing, basically, what we’ve seen some of the best brands do is look at influencers as a way to unlock unlimited content, especially right now when it is really hard to set up photoshoots do things like that, influencers are a great way to make sure that brands always have fresh assets on hand. And we see tons of success metrics around the impact of influencer content across the entire marketing funnel. So we’ve worked with brands who have said they’ve been able to lower their cost per acquisition on Facebook ads by 20% by using influencer content, a be tested compared to in house content, click through rate on emails go up time on site increase. So really, the content is one of the huge value add to working with influencers. But even just take a step out of the traditional influencer lens and think about really the idea of anyone being an influencer, there’s still other value that these people could could have on a business, whether it’s spreading word of mouth, whether it’s being an expert in an industry and given kind of that ultimate validation. So think about a skincare brand partnering with a well known aesthetician, there’s different ways that brands can extract value from influencer and just your vanity metrics is really just one piece of the puzzle.
Jason Falls
Right. I wonder, you know, now I realized that the answer is going to be different pre counsel from AspireIQ, and then after counsel from AspireIQ. So I want to focus on the pre counsel of AspireIQ. But I wonder, kind of in a similar, you know, vein here, what percentage of clients come to you meeting content and treating influencers, like an audience of high quality freelancers, purposefully wanting to source videos, photography in the light for the brands channels, versus those who might still think an influencers content belongs on the influencers, channels? And they don’t even consider it for their own? I wonder? I know, I know, it probably gets bigger after you’ve talked to them. But I wonder of the ones who come to you wanting to get content out of the deal? How many of them actually think broadly about it?
Magda Houalla
That’s a really good question. This is very rough. But I probably say, in the past year, around 40% of our incoming business has identified content creation is one of their key goals, we actually have different surveys that we’re sending out ahead of time. But that’s dramatically lifted from even two years ago, when it was maybe 10%. I think that a lot of what you’re seeing online and a lot of conversations that are happening, you know, not only on AspireIQ’s blog, but on, you know, other blogs and websites and things like that, really, they do lean into the value of influencers as a content store. So I think a lot of brands are taking that a little bit more seriously. And especially right now, with everyone working from home, I think that it’s becoming a necessity that they need to figure out more creative ways to get more branded assets.
Jason Falls
That’s true. One of the perspectives that I try to champion here on the show and in the book and all that good stuff is I think the marketplace has sadly been conditioned to think that an influencer is someone on Instagram or YouTube. You know, that’s the mainstream consumer product and very visible definition of an influencer. I wonder if your typical campaigns and client usage reflects that. And and if it does, do you think that’s a byproduct of that bias? Or are those two platforms just more fertile grounds for these types of activities?
Magda Houalla
So I think that we see, especially with bigger enterprise brands, they do think of influencers as simply someone on Instagram or YouTube. Obviously, we want to work with our clients to help them expand who they consider to be influential to not only other platforms, but considering offline influence as well. But I do think that generally that is just a byproduct of the way influencer marketing is is talked about people talk about it as being very Instagram heavy, very YouTube heavy, very metrics focused, follower focused. when in actuality I think that there are so many people that can have an influence on your business beyond just those on those two main platforms. Again, consider a customer that has been a customer for years they very much can influence their friends, family community, to purchase from your brand or an expert that is talking about your product or service in there. day to day practice. So while the majority of we say enterprise brands do come in with this mindset of what they consider to be influential, we definitely want to work with them, to help them expand that, not just for the sake of including more people in the community, but ultimately, because the, the outcome is going to be quite a bit better, they’re going to be able to have more touch points are gonna be able to meet their customers where they are, and ultimately have a conversation that will be more than just one that’s, you know, perfectly manicured on either Instagram or YouTube.
Jason Falls
Right. Well, let’s talk about discovery a bit. And I realized that your platform obviously is shifting to hopefully eventually being less dependent on discovery in the traditional sense of it. But I want to talk about the way tools like Aspire IQ find influencers for campaigns, there are dozens of ways software companies approach this and there are strengths and weaknesses, ah, some scrape the internet and load in public data about everybody that can find so there’s millions of influencers in the database to choose from. But those influencers don’t know who you are, they don’t know the platform is. So that that, you know, breaking the ice might be a challenge, then there are platforms that allow influencers to self identify and sort of join a marketplace, then there are some that do that, but only invite certain influencers into the marketplace so that it’s more curated. You know, you connect your account and you could get offers, then there are very high touch manually curated networks where the platform only ingests influencers that are chosen high probability of working with them in their clients. Where does AspireIQs Create fall on that spread spectrum? And why is that your approach? Or why has that been your approach even though that’s changing?
Magda Houalla
Yeah, that’s a really good question. So we actually fit somewhere in the middle, we certainly have tons of people in the creative community that have self identified as influential, we do have a vetting process, we want to make sure that these individuals have authentic followers authentic engagement and are creating original content, meaning they’re not just reposting from other people’s accounts. But we’re generally going to be very open when it comes to who joins our marketplace. Because ultimately, we don’t want to be a bottleneck at all. We want to give brands access to whomever they want to work with. We also are able to show social accounts that are not necessarily people that have self identified but people that are just influential in their own right. And we want to allow our brands to also be able to invite them to those campaigns. What we found in general is that influencers tend to be pretty agnostic, when it comes to the tool that they’re using. They just want to work with really exciting brands. We’re fortunate enough that we partner with some really incredible, really exciting brands. So what an influencer does see an invite whether they heard of AspireIQ or not, they’re going to be eager to, to work with this brand. And I think that as we move into the new world of elevate, where it’s going to be less around campaigns and more around just investing in individuals, I think that that’s going to become even easier, because influencers or whoever it may be won’t even have to log into a tool, they’ll just be able to communicate with the brand that they love.
Jason Falls
So beyond software a bit, let’s get back again more to a philosophical topic or to to close things out here. CPG, and retail brands tend to deploy very transactional conversion driven campaigns, and which I think is kind of how AspireIQ has been configured up until now you’re shifting, which is great. There are also certain types of influencers that are built for transactional content. But when you get further out into B2B or services industries, where thought leadership topical expertise come into play, maybe in tech automotive gaming software, I see influence efforts more built around longer term relationships, and value beyond that transaction. My question is, are there some industries that are just transactional in nature? And that’s just their way of doing business? Or do you think those companies might be missing out on more valuable relationships over time using campaign and transaction oriented thinking?
Magda Houalla
I absolutely think that brands that are in the CPG space, or brands that are direct to consumer should take a page out of the playbook from maybe more tech brands, B2B brands that do value things like thought leadership, long term partnerships, and nurturing relationships with individuals. The reason why is the there’s something of a lack of trust, that has began to happen on social media where consumers are quicker than ever to point out a partnership that seems inauthentic if they see one of their favorite influencers, or really just anyone posting about a brand that they’re posting about one time and then never mentioning again, people aren’t going to like that message. Not only is it not going to serve the intended purpose, but oftentimes it has negative backlash. So brands across the board should invest in long term partnerships where these individuals are transparent about the nature of their relationship with the brand, hey, I’m working with so and so really excited about this partnership and really just tell the story of how the individual is Part of the brand how they’re growing with the brand. That way, from a consumer perspective, you can say, Okay, this is something that I’ve seen multiple times on this person’s page, this is something that they are incorporating into their daily life. And I’m seeing it come up not just on social posts, but maybe in more natural ways. Definitely the the shift in the market is to longer term partnerships and ambassador programs, and ultimately identifying individuals that are experts in whatever the industry may be. If you think about skincare as an example, there’s been this massive shift away from simply working with beauty influencers, but working with skincare experts, because they’re able to speak to ingredients and speak to why they actually like this brand, from a philosophical perspective. You know, all the way up to B2B brands. Like if you think about a Salesforce where their influencer partners are really, you know, pioneers, entrepreneurs in their own right, and they’re telling a very different story, but still talking about their their own experience with this brand, versus just posting about a product or service saying, try this out. And then moving on.
Jason Falls
You’re speaking my language. Now. I agree. I agree with what you just said there. So what do you what do you see on the horizon in this space? And that doesn’t have to be, you know, contained to, you know, AspireIQ’s roadmap or anything? Let’s think beyond that. Do you see influence marketing continuing to solidify itself as a highly valuable marketing channel for brands? And what do we need to watch out for? That might keep it from being as far reaching as we might hope?
Magda Houalla
I think the biggest thing to watch out for is focused on quantity over quality. I know that that’s probably mentioned time and time again. But really, I think that the one thing that’s going to hinder an influencer marketing program from being wildly successful and wildly beneficial to a brand, is by just having an army of individuals that are posting about you once or twice, and then letting it you know, diet that really where I see the industry moving is towards a more partnerships based approach to influencer. And even beyond that thinking more about this idea of co-creation. How can influencers impact your business beyond just social posting beyond just creating content? How can they give you real time product feedback? How could they even co create products with you? Really, what consumers want to see is brands that are invested in building a brand that is buying for their community. And I think that influencers really are a stepping stone to that message, because influencers are able to co create content, give really timely feedback, they’re professionals when it comes to working with brands. So I do see this industry continuing to scale and continuing to be a critical part of every marketers approach to to their marketing strategy, so long as it’s done in a way that’s really thoughtful, really strategic and focused on mutually beneficial partnerships and relationships versus just promotion of one off product.
Jason Falls
Amen. Magda, Magda thank you so much for the insights today. Where can people connect with you and AspireIQ online?
Magda Houalla
Thank you so much for having me. If anyone wants to learn more about Aspire IQ, anything that we’ve talked about, you can go to AspireIQ.com/winfluence. And that will be where we’ll post this, this episode as well as any additional content that relates to what we talked about today.
Jason Falls
Holy smokes, we’re getting our own vanity URL over there. That’s amazing. Magda, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time today.
Magda Houalla
Thank you so much for having me.
Transcribed by otter.ai
The Winfluence theme music is “One More Look” featuring Jacquire King and Stephan Sharp by The K Club found on Facebook Sound Collection.