New Influencer Marketing Agencies Bring Much-Needed Harmony to Evolving Influencer Marketing Industry

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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Once obscure, influencer marketing is rapidly becoming a staple component of many brands’ digital marketing strategies. The unique, young industry combines the broad reach of larger campaigns with the unmatched conversion power of word-of-mouth advertising. But the full potential of this estimated $13.8 billion market has yet to be reached as fragmentation, informality and newness pose challenges to both brands and influencers. 

That’s why the emergence of influencer marketing agencies like Clubhouse Media Group Inc. CMGR are a welcome addition to the industry, providing talent management, business advice, campaign planning and more to help both influencers and brands navigate this evolving market. Here are some of the key challenges in the industry that Clubhouse and other agencies are working to solve.

Influencers Struggle to Negotiate Contracts and Compensation

Nearly 70% of influencers in a recent survey reported that their main motivation for becoming an influencer was the earning potential. However, many struggle to land long-term contracts and find themselves chasing down compensation from unreliable brands or struggling to enforce consistent rates as 36% of brands pay influencers with free products or discounts rather than money. 

They also find that negotiating creative freedom can be tough with brands that have strict demands on campaign messaging and content. This lack of creative freedom can become a double-edged sword. 

For the influencer, overly rigid advertising campaigns might conflict with the organic, authentic content that brought their audience in the first place, leading to a breakdown in trust and engagement. For brands, that lack of organic, authentic messaging can discourage engagement and lower the conversion rate for the campaign. 

With Clubhouse, influencers can benefit from talent management, business advice and other services that help them find the right brands to work with, negotiate the right terms for the contract and have the agency’s support in getting compensation.

The Clubhouse network of content houses and its content production division offer influencers the resources they need to produce high-quality content and collaborate with other influencers to grow their brands. 

Brands Struggle to Find and Collaborate with Trustworthy, Relevant Influencers

Finding the most relevant influencers to work with on a campaign (while avoiding fraudulent accounts with fake followers) poses the greatest challenge to using influencer marketing, according to 61% of marketers. 

This reveals a glaring, unmet need in the industry: an efficient, simplified way for brands to connect with influencers. Until now, marketers just had to sift through social media platforms in search of influencers who might be a good fit for the campaign they’re running.

With Clubhouse, brands like Boohoo Group PLC BHHOF or Fashion Nova can skip the tiresome search and approach influencer marketing more like other marketing channels: They contract with Clubhouse, which can then create and distribute the content with its influencers. 

This also helps balance the desire for creative freedom on the influencer’s part with the need for campaign messaging control on the brand’s part. The Clubhouse business model and content production resources provide an opportunity for brands and influencers to work together on finding messaging that aligns with brand goals but also that influencers know will resonate with their audiences.

These management services — along with its fleet of content houses and years of influencer marketing expertise — help Clubhouse provide a much-needed platform where brands and influencers can come together to negotiate contracts and develop campaigns that are tailored to leverage the unique potential of influencer marketing.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.