Easy to Use and Incredible Value

I've really enjoyed Trend and appreciate how easy it is to use. It is going to be a staple in our digital marketing programs for all of our CPG clients.

Pros

Being able to bypass the negotiation process with influencers and knowing exactly what you're getting is pretty amazing. The analytics also help showcase any campaign as an effective branding exercise for my clients.

Cons

The only detraction is that it is currently only usable for Instagram.

Great for creating content easily

Thus far, Trend has been worth it for simply creating content.

Pros

The software is very easy to use and it makes it quite easy to review creators with simple clicks.

Cons

Guidelines have changed and Trend has made it more difficult for non-luxury priced brands to maximize content. They have changed the minimum amount (in dollars) worth of product that creators need to receive to receive 2 photos. The new retail value is $150, this amount is not achievable for us based on the retail cost of our products. I also would like to see read receipts in the messages after confirming a creator. Sometimes communicating with creators can be tedious if they are not actively checking their messages.

It was great at first but quickly turned sour for my small business

I got on Trend to help me connect with creators to get content for my business but I think that this is best for companies with larger budgets who don't mind losing a few hundred dollars here and there and unfortunately, I am not in a space where I can comfortably take those losses. Every dollar counts in the world of small biz.

Pros

Trend is easy to use and set up and handles all copyright and ownership issues for you which is great as that saves time going back and forth with creators as far as negotiating pay and ownership rights.

Cons

The creators on trend are hit or miss and I have been ghosted by 1 or 2 each time I finalize a campaign. When I turn to customer service to ask for a resolution, I am not given much of an answer. This is extremely upsetting as a small business owner as not only are you required to pre-fund campaigns but you have also already sent out products with monetary value to said creators just to be ghosted and ignored. Customer service doesn't really care to do much about it either. Imagine being ghosted by a creator, then posting another campaign in good faith that it was just 1 bad apple to then have that SAME creator apply to your new campaign. Why weren't they flagged or removed altogether? No idea! Then another creator just turns around and does the same thing. Clearly, there are multiple bad apples. Not sure what the vetting process is for creators but it should be better. They claim creators have 7 days to make and submit content after receiving the product but it seems there are no repercussions for creators not fulfilling their end of the bargain. I have spent close to $1k on this platform and have met some awesome creators but experiences like this really outweigh the positive.

Many out there, but none like Trend

Overall, Trend is unique in how they do what they do. We've used many different services and all of them seem to be a guessing game of pay to play per influencer. This is frustrating and wastes so much time. Communication with influencers on most platforms is offline and in DMs which is not a very good way to keep track of things. Trend keeps every part of the experience/campaign in one place with simple pricing.

Pros

First: The software is simple and takes the guesswork out of pricing for influencers. This allows you to focus on quality of content/influencer and not be driven by how expensive or cheep each influencer is since prices are pre-negotiated by Trend. This is a win all the way round. Second: The tracking feature for sending products is seamless. With most postal/shipping companies integrated and each step of the way is carefully documented, this makes the process of knowing your product has arrived a breeze. Trend also guarantees it and this is good for the mind and soul Third: The quality of influencers is carefully curated and the content delivered by influencers is top notch. Here you don't risk having an influencer give you low-quality content as you can decline it and they can re-do the content.

Cons

The demographic skews heavily female, however, I don't think this is not really a fault of Trend as with most platforms, women tend to dominate in this influencer/content space. For our use case this still works but as we get more into the male market, seeing more representation will be good.

Beyond happy - Trend.io is the solution for your influencer marketing needs

Trend is helping us to connect authentically with customers.

Pros

Trend is extremely easy to use. The interface is minimal, streamlined, and setting up your first campaign takes very little time. I love that this software connects our brand with influencers that are aligned with our brand promise. Within 24 hours, we had numerous influencers ready to promote our brand. We plan to use Trend far into the future. I've had the opportunity to work with many UGC software applications and this is a very economical (yet high quality) solution to competitive products. Looking forward to a long working relationship with this company.

Cons

The only difficult aspect of Trend has been trying to narrow down such a wide selection of influencers. Not sure that this is a con as reach is one of the greatest challenges brands face today. We decided to roll with influencers that align closest with our brand and that already live our promise.