Grin

Grin is the linchpin that scaled our influencer program to new heights.

주석: When it comes to influencer marketing...the team over at Grin just gets it. The fundamental workflow of the platform was thoughtfully designed and built from both the brand and influencer side. They have been extremely attentive to our program's needs and requests, but all in all, they're just all-around good people.

장점:

I'm often asked by fellow marketers at DTC ecomm brands "what features or capabilities I like 'most' about Grin." The short answer: there is no "one" thing. I give the same answer every time. Influencer marketing (as a whole) demands the successful balance and execution of a wide set of responsibilities - more so than any other marketing channel I've managed. You're dealing with real people. Actual human-to-human relationships and conversations that a computer can not do. You're fulfilling a considerable amount orders to individuals PRIOR to any promotion taking place. You're campaign and influencer deliverables can vary significantly so exceptional attention to detail and process implementation is a necessity. You're working in an ecosystem with multiple environments (Instagram, YouTube, Twitch, etc.) - all of which have their own respective nuances that dictate how you manage influencers, structure campaigns, ensure media compliance and ultimately drive conversions. Not to mention, all of those sparkly engagement KPIs every one desires, well those are guarded behind the very core of what influencer marketing is built on: social media networks. Getting access to these metrics can be a hassle if you're not equipped with the proper tool set or knowledge of what to look for. So, my favorite part about Grin? The other short answer: It takes everything above and packages it into one refreshingly comprehensive toolset that streamlines influencer marketing.

단점:

Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and neither is Grin. There have been minor usability issues I have run into throughout my time using the platform - none of which have been anywhere close to 'mission critical.' The only aspect that could use an update is the reporting visualization component. All of your high-level data is there to see, but it could use a little bit more freedom with manipulation. However, a simple 'Export' of the raw data from Grin gives you everything you'd need to see - just fire up Excel and whip up some pivot tables and graphs.

GRIN Review

주석: Pleasure to work with and ask questions. Super transparent, which is great as we look forward to a long-term relationship with GRIN.

장점:

The customer support is amazing. They make an effort to accommodate feature requests and they give as much visibility into their roadmap as they can. Ask GRIN for a demo and see if it works for your company/program. They are constantly trying to improve the platform and it's made to fit program needs- whether that's for micro or for macro influencers.

단점:

Not entirely a con- but they do have a little bit of work to do when it comes to some of the things that streamline data exports as we have a number of team members that access GRIN daily.

Great Concept, Needs Further Development

주석: My overall experience with Grin is that it’s a great concept, but the software itself has not been developed enough. With some more development, I think it really has potential to help a lot of companies manager their influencer relations. But right now, there are too many errors and glitches.

장점:

I love the look of this software. It’s very clean and minimalist. It also tracks how an influencer performs, which is essential for my business. It helps us see very quickly who is bringing in the most traffic and sales for us.

단점:

I did not like the fact that there are so many glitches in the software. There are a ton of underdeveloped aspects that result in errors that only customer support can resolve. On top of that, customer support is very unresponsive and unhelpful. They have not resolved one of the main issues we have had with influencers connecting social platforms for over a year now.

Trying to scale your program? This is the software for you!

주석: My overall experience has been phenomenal. Beyond the capabilities of the software, the team has been great. They are very receptive to suggestions or features you want and have a relatively low turn around time for new features.

장점:

Through GRIN's automated features and management software I was able to save time, make educated decisions and scale my program. Previously I was capped at 200 influencers and since using GRIN I have been able to push beyond that threshold.

단점:

The reporting features of GRIN have room for improvement. The way they calculate some metrics I do not necessarily agree with. Also, I wished there were more customization features when it came to their report builder. However, I am working with their team to improve these features.

Grin has everything we need to run a successful influencer marketing program

주석: We are able to discover, onboard, activate and pay influencers so much more efficiently than we used to with other platforms. It's been a breeze.

장점:

Grin has saved us a significant amount of time an energy previously spent doing mundane accounting and reconciliation with regard to influencers.

단점:

I have no issues with Grin at this time. It has been a pleasure using their platform.

A CRM for influencers that's organized and automatic

주석: GRIN is really a combination of two really important things -- cross-platform influencer search and CRM. The search is helpful because a lot of other platforms have their own internal network of influencers to search through, which means that you're going through a smaller pool of candidates. GRIN searches all social networks no matter if the users have signed up for GRIN. And the CRM piece is critical. I've been able to set up a prospect pipeline, multiple campaigns, and the tracking is simple. Everything is organized and automatic.

장점:

GRIN's greatest quality is its organization. It's not just a platform to find influencers or keep track of them -- it's a full-on relationship manager that can track every detail of your process. I like that I can see every email to a prospect, I can customize the prospect pipeline, and I can easily track exactly where the relationship is at even after they become an influencer. It's also great that I can manage all of my influencer content in one spot as well as my payments. It's so helpful that GRIN can take care of the 1099s for my influencers at the end of the year and I just have a bill from GRIN. I also love how smoothly it integrates with my Shopify store.

단점:

A downside is that I have issues with influencers connecting on the platform about 20% of the time -- either they have an IG account but not a FB account, or they used their desktop to connect their IG and the connection is more easily made on mobile. It's the only part of the process that can rocky, and I wish it were smoother. With that said, once everything is set up, it works really well.

GRIN is the most advance platform available for influencer marketing

장점:

I have been working in this field for almost two years now and have used a few other influencer platforms and I can honestly say that no other platforms compares to the capabilities of GRIN. From influencer recruitment, managing campaigns, shipping product, to analyzing data and performance - GRIN has it all! Before GRIN, I usually preferred to manage outreach with influencers via email so that my messages didn't come across as robotic and I was able to personalize each message to each influencer. This made it very difficult to manage where I was at with influencers and took a lot of time away from other tasks. With GRIN, I love that you can customize emails so that it still feels personal to each influencer, but you can reach out at much larger scale. This has not only sped up the process of our partnerships, but has boosted productivity across our team and has allowed us to manage hundreds of partnerships/ campaigns at once. Another thing that I love about GRIN is how willing the team is to help. Influencer marketing is an ever changing industry and often times it is hard for platforms to keep up. Anytime our team comes up with a suggestion on ways for which the platform could be modified, the team at GRIN is always willing to hear feedback and actually takes action on making improvements. In addition, anytime there is a glitch on the platform, they are so quick to jump in and try and fix the problem! They truly want the best for their clients!

단점:

Like any other platform that you use, there are going to be some glitches from time to time. GRIN has their fair share of small glitches that come up, but as I mentioned their team is extremely quick on fixing any that arise.

Grin is a great solution for the Do-it-Yourself- Campaign Manager

주석: The biggest solution that Grin offers is that it is a one-stop-shop:
-content creator discovery
-influencer relationship management
-campaign management and fulfillment
-Payment
-Campaign Tracking and Influencer Media Value (media equivalency)

장점:

I enjoy the flexibility of the campaign management, the seamless email sequences you're able to run, the ability to pay content creators through the system, and its discovery function.

단점:

I can always ask for more! I wish there was a mobile app to manage the content creator program on the phone; and I wish there was a game key repository I could upload keys to and then use a script to call each key by using a particular variable I create within my dashboard.

When you onboard with GRIN you'll wish you started sooner!

주석: It's a 10 for me! GRIN employees are the most wonderful people and their love for their jobs carries over into the software and truly continues to wow me. I have yet to have anything less than a top tier experience with GRIN from the sales team to, our CSM (shoutout to Katie), and literally anyone and everyone that works with them.

장점:

GRIN is the gold standard of influencer marketing software. They are the front runners in innovation as well as amazing support both from an engineering side and customer success side. GRIN takes so much of the mess of influencer marketing and cleans it up into one beautiful and effortless software.

단점:

The ONLY drawback to GRIN is that there are specific plug ins that you have to upgrade to add on (this is so normal with any software though).

Using Grin at Scale

주석: GRIN has been a great partner with attentive reps and program support.

장점:

GRIN allows us to scale our evergreen influencer programs quickly and efficiently, from onboarding to regular communications.

단점:

The UX can be overwhelming and we do not use all of the features.

It's great if you use Instagram influencers, not great for anything else

주석: Overall, the influence has been okay. I wish there were more features built out. And you have to pay more for better features.

장점:

Grin does a great job at being an all in one for your influencer marketing needs. I like how you can discover new influencers, outreach to them, manage all the relationships, select products to ship out, analyze data, and pay them all on one platform.

단점:

This platform is only good for Grin. It becomes very limiting if working with youtube or tiktok influencers.

All-Around Excellent Software

주석: My overall experience is great and only getting better. GRIN is always keeping record of our team’s recommendations which allows the system to be even more custom to help us in multiples ways! Long story short, GRIN is essential and I highly recommend it if you and/or a team are working with influencers, ambassadors, etc!

장점:

What I like most about GRIN is how well organized it keeps all influencers, brand ambassadors, etc on multiple social media platforms. As someone who works with multiple influencers on a daily basis it is essential to have GRIN as it keeps everything up to date with influencer postings on IG, Youtube, FB, etc. In addition, an amazing quality GRIN includes is custom tagging, properties, etc! These are great for when having multiple team members in working in the same GRIN company account. For instance, I work with all athletes, while my team member works with all lifestyle, being able to organize the two using tags and/or custom properties such as “Athlete, Content Creator, etc.” without jumping into/mixing up each others projects. So definitely my favorite quality is the organized set up GRIN creates. Next, GRIN also helps with keeping track on which social media platform each influencers focuses on. For example, one of my influencers is IG focused while another is focused on creating Youtube videos.. GRIN allows me to keep track of each influencers top social media platform!

단점:

There really isn’t anything to dislike about GRIN, but if I had to think.. the only issue was sometimes there were some Instagram connection issues (but that is typically an issue with IG itself) or even maybe post here or there wouldn’t get picked up by the system, but GRIN is so simple that I can easily create their profile for them and send them a link to finish creating the profile (really quick and very simple)! Then for rare occasional post that doesn’t get picked up, it’s just a quick copy and paste of the IG post link to their account. Nothing major at all and even with the minor, occasional issues the GRIN customer service is always available and ready to help in anyway they can!

GRIN offers everything you need for influencer marketing management!

주석: I've loved my experience with using the GRIN platform. As someone who handles influencer marketing exclusively for their team, it can be a lot to manage. But GRIN makes it super easy and simple to handle. GRIN has something for every step of the way, from influencer search functions to campaign management, email templates and much more. My favorite thing about GRIN is the ability to organize specific influencer campaigns and pull in analytics automatically on how influencer content performs (no more saving screenshots or spreadsheets on my computer). My rep is also extremely helpful, as are the tech troubleshooters who help me very quickly when I run into issues.

장점:

I love that with GRIN I'm able to track the success of our influencer partnerships all in one place. Because the data can be pulled in automatically from influencers' social posts, it saves me so much time and energy by being able to look at the data in real-time. Another huge benefit has been the search function. Previously, I would have to look up influencers on Instagram manually, review their posts, and do a lot of predicting of engagement. But GRIN takes out the guess-work and manual labor by scanning the influencers' page and showing you all the information you need to know (followers, average likes, engagement rates, even email addresses!). Both of these aspects have been huge in solving my dilemma of being a one-person team managing multiple partnerships.

단점:

I don't really dislike much about the GRIN platform. My biggest issue has been learning how to get influencers' Instagram accounts connected and authorized. There was some troubleshooting that had to happen for me to learn the best way to set up my campaign pages, but the team at GRIN is always super helpful and willing to work with you to make improvements/solve tech issues.

GRIN helped us launch and scale our influencer program to 150+ creators

장점:

When we got started with GRIN, our influencer program was non-existent and, frankly, we didn't have a strong idea in place for developing it. The educational resources GRIN provided (video content and seminars) immediately helped us to kickstart our program and were critical in both the launch and growth of our program. Even more helpful was GRIN's software, which allowed us to easily discover influencers, conduct outreach, define clear expectations when onboarding creators to our program, track performance and attribute revenue, and build a strong relationship with every partner. 10 months later, and we are working with 150 active influencers, who assist with our product launches and continuously promote their favorite products. There is certainly a learning curve using GRIN's platform, but our account manager is exceptional and has always responded to every question within an hour. Overall, we couldn't recommend GRIN enough!

단점:

Our only dislike of GRIN's software is the payments system. Being that we are running 30+ campaigns at a given time, it's extremely cumbersome to go into each campaign and pay our influencers. We could really benefit from a central payments system.

BEST way to scale revenue through influencer marketing

주석: Grin has been amazing in starting our Influencer program. I've worked in influencer marketing for 8 years, and it would also be amazing for people who have established programs, but want easier way to run it. (reach out, tracking, payment) It makes everything easier and more streamlined. I forgot about payments in my previous section, but it makes being able to pay a large number of influencers so much easier and collects all the right documentation. Doing large campaigns with BIG revenue goals was awesome! We've worked with people all year, were able to reach out to them, and get them signed up to promote again for Black Friday. Grin has also been great for one off marketing needs. Example, we need 10 video for ads. We can reach out to a bunch of people and set up the partnership really easily.

장점:

This allows us to find people to work that can help us increase the revenue of the program each month

단점:

We are starting to work with people on TikTok and finding creators on Tik Tok isn't as easy

Grin just gets better and better!

주석: The best influencer platform!

장점:

Ease of use, response time of IT team, influencer reporting and metrics.

단점:

The price, reports aren't updated every time you select one.

Amazing platform!

장점:

GRIN is an incredible tool that helps me stay organized and manage a high volume of influencers on a daily basis. It also allows me to easily upload hundreds of weekly leads for our team to review and outreach. Since day one I have been impressed by this easy to use software. GRIN has helped me to streamline many of my processes so I can focus on what is important. They are constantly making updates and my recent favorite has been the new partnership tab that helps keep track of deliverables. I can't recommend this platform enough!

단점:

There are glitches from time to time, BUT the GRIN team is always on top of it. As soon as I notify them of any issue I am having, they immediately look into it, and usually solve the problem by the end of the day.

Highly recommend GRIN!

주석: GRIN is an incredible tool that helps my team and I stay organised and has allowed us to scale our influencer programme exponentially. It makes it easy to track your budget, send influencers product, track their conversions, and monitor their deliverables. It is also great for discovering new influencers and reaching out to them.

장점:

I love the ease of use and being able to send out bulk emails to all of our ambassadors when I need to update them on new campaigns or upcoming product launches. I also love the search feature, I have been able to find so many great influencers with the lookalike function. The customer service team are super helpful as well.

단점:

I would like to be able to organise my ambassador campaigns in an order that I can choose and also have the option to hide or archive old ones. It would also be good if it was more simple for influencers to use and not have to fill out tax forms for payment as it puts some of them off.

Grin Review

주석: Our organisation has been using Grin for almost a year now and we've genuinely seen an increase in efficiency with our team as well as an overall streamlined view of our reporting. Both have been extremely helpful for our day to day goals as an Influencer Marketing team.

장점:

I love that Grin allows you to streamline the process of influencer marketing. From outreach, to product selection, fulfillment and ultimately seeing the ROI in real time from the influencers efforts, Grin does it all. Being able to automize email templates, connect product from our online store to the platform and have a curated way for the influencers to join campaigns, is something I truly appreciate from Grin.

단점:

There may be features from day to day that are being adjusted on the back end of Grin that can make things a little confusing at first. However these minor challenges are typically fixed ASAP once you make the team aware of anything that is causing you issue.

"Love Grin!"

주석: [SENSITIVE CONTENT], our CX manager is incredible. She's responsive, helpful and makes Grin super intuitive and valuable for our team.

장점:

Grin is the most comprehensive influencer platform we've tried. It's powerful, saves hours of vetting and is a true one-stop CRM for influencer campaign management.

단점:

There's nothing we dislike about GRIN. If we had to pick something, it would be that there are some features we're still waiting on but I know they're in development and are almost ready!

Great service, excellent customer support

장점:

Grin has played an integral role in our ambassador marketing strategy. It has robust communication, campaign management, and reporting capabilities that have helped scale our program with ease. We meet with our Grin rep biweekly and he is always available to answer any questions or troubleshoot any hurdles we've faced while using the product. Highly recommend.

단점:

Grin is most compatible with Shopify, and not all features are available if not using it.

Grin makes my process a lot easier!

주석: I love working with GRIN. It helps streamline the overall campaign process and organize my influencers all in one place. I also love working closely with our account rep, who never fails to support us when needed, and continues to ensure we are using the platform to the fullest and successfully.

장점:

GRIN is the perfect platform for campaign management and to track the overall success of all influencers (ie. how their audience interacts with their tracking link and discount link).

단점:

I do not enjoy the influencer search engine. It pulls in influencers based on metrics, but not so great with quality in terms of look and feel.

Grin helped us save time and triple our scale

주석: I'm very happy and recommend Grin to all of my industry contacts.

장점:

The product is very easy to use and makes the end-to-end process of managing an influencer program seamless -- from discovery to briefing, sending samples and collecting content. It's allowed us to save time and triple our partnerships within a matter of two months.

단점:

I'd like the tool to have better analytics for influencer posts: reach, engagement rate based on reach -- so that we can show the added value the program has on awareness efforts. Also, if I could run YouTube out of Grin like I run Instagram, I'd be set for years.

Overall Great Tool for Influencer Mangagement

주석: Overall more efficient campaign management has been crucial - ability to manage multiple campaigns at one time.

장점:

Customer support team is amazing - they are quick and responsive to help with any challenges that arise. Having millions of potential partners to vet are great. The template approach for outreach to partners is great and makes outreach more efficient.

단점:

Needs a better integration with TikTok. Also, the contact emails should be updated more regularly to ensure outreach is consistent and easy.

GRIN has helped grow our influencer program from the ground up!

장점:

GRIN has an amazing search function that allows you to search for influencers that fit your brand based on numerous levels of criteria.

단점:

GRIN is great for sourcing new influencers and great for one-off deals, but could be improved for more "brand ambassador" type relationships that may be ongoing for an extended period of time.