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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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!

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 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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

GRIN has taken me from spreadsheets and hours of data pulling to being able to really interact with the community and focus my time and energy where it really matters. I love how quick they are to respond to support messages when I need an extra hand, my CSM's bi-weekly or monthly meetings with me, and my ability to be worry free when it comes to everything pulling into GRIN so I don't have to manually track it.

I love the do it all ability to have everything I could possibly want in one platform. My goal for my program is to always ensure a seamless process for my creators and GRIN does just that. Allowing me to dedicate optimal time to building relationships with my creators.

The only thing I wish GRIN had was a more mobile friendly option. I'm sure they'll be working on it soon! Being on a flexible schedule it would be great to have the option to view my campaigns from anywhere on my phone.

I love GRIN, it has helped me manager my influencer and ambassador program and really scale it!

I love the ease of campaign and activation management. Payments through GRIN! The customer service is impeccable. Email sequences and templates. Data, analytics and reporting features are amazing!

The search feature for influencers is no longer available. Inputting creators into the platform takes longer than it used to.

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

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.

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

Recruitment, Outreach, Organization, and Data Analysis were our biggest problem areas solved by GRIN. Whether we're grouping creators by tags, sending out automated email sequences, tracking performance by campaign, or reporting on the program, GRIN has been a massive time saver and efficiency booster in all regards. We've realized GRIN solves the need for manual and time-consuming work which frees up our day and allows us to focus on the big-picture decisions. With GRIN, we're able to work with more creators, report on the performance of all creators we work in an organized manner with and pull out insights that would take hours on hours to if we weren't using the platform.

GRIN's Report Builder allows us to view the performance of our program in one unified dashboard while also cherry-picking the information we need to make data-driven decisions as we scale. Diving deep into specific metrics is necessary for us to remain on track for our goals and objectives and this tool gives us the ability to review accurate and crucial details about each influencer to give us an idea of where our program is and what we need to do to get it to the next level. We also love the Creator Search tool which has cut our recruiting time down drastically. It's allowed us to find creators we wouldn't have otherwise considered but are ultimately an amazing fit. The ability to run a lookalike search has given us the capability to find creators similar to top-performers so we can duplicate successful campaigns with multiple creators. The audience reports complement the search tool perfectly, as it confirms or denies preconceived perceptions on creators by backing up real demographic data.

We'd love to see the search results for Youtube and TikTok expanded to a more robust list of creators. We'd also like to see more options for link and code grouping and tracking.

Yes, love! Saves me so much time and energy.

Everything is under one roof! Organization, tracking and reporting.

There are some glitches, but GRIN's CS team is super responsive and quick to help with any issues.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

The best influencer platform!

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

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