Transcript
Welcome to the Bloggy Friends show!
What's up my Bloggy Friends?
Famous Ashley Grant here and I just want to welcome you to the Bloggy Friends show.
We're so excited to have you join us on this journey of sharing our knowledge and experiences with you.
Whether you're a blogger, a content creator, or just someone who's interested in learning more about the digital world, we've got something for you.
So grab your notebook and a pen to take some notes or just sit back and take in all the amazing information and ideas we're about to share with you.
Let's get into it.
So basically, what I wanted to do is kind of talk about what exactly Influence Kit is, how it works, how it can benefit bloggers, all the things.
Cool. Yeah, that's why I'm here. Let's talk about that.
So Influence Kit is a tool that was created by me and my co-founder Bruno.
And it was created out of necessity. So we're both bloggers ourselves.
Bloggers turned co-founders of a startup.
And we created it based on the problem we were having at the time, which was just struggling to prove our value to sponsors.
So Bruno, we did co-founders of our sites together.
I run the site, one good thing, by jilly.com.
And he started two blogs, curgly.com and manmadeDIY, and sold both of those.
And he is a developer. And as developers do, when they have a problem, they build a solution.
And so he built this tool internally that was just a way for him to more easily show the sponsor she's working with the results of the campaign.
Prior to Influence Kit, and for a lot of bloggers, the only way to do that, if they're doing it at all, is to log into each platform that you're creating content on.
So if you're a food blogger, for example, that's going to be several platforms.
You're probably posting on Pinterest, you have a few pins on there, on your blog, Instagram, which in and of itself, you're going to have Stories, Reels, In-feed posts.
You know, like the number of platforms that content publishers post on is growing, and the office we're posting in those platforms is growing as well.
So there's just a lot of value that can be captured that you're offering brands that is really difficult to do manually.
It's time consuming, and it's just really a pain.
So when you are reporting to your sponsors, you have to just pick a point in time after the campaign ends and just try to create a snapshot.
And you could just throw all those stats into an email, or you could do what some people do and put that into a nicer looking presentation.
You bought a template from someone that you can throw into Canva and update it with those stats and screenshots there.
But you're probably looking at a few hours of your time just to prove those results.
And after all that, the stats that the sponsor is getting are even live.
So you're giving them an idea of how the content performed, but not the full picture.
And with content on a lot of these platforms, if you decide to wait even a month, which, you know, for some that's an eternity.
Your story's come and gone, you know, well before that timeline.
But on Pinterest, you probably haven't even begun to gain traction on those pins.
So you're missing out on being able to show the sponsor the real value of what your content did and how it performed.
And with Influence Kit, we have built a tool that connects directly with those platforms and allows us to pull the stats every day.
So you create when you create a report in Influence Kit, all you're doing is grabbing the links to that content, putting it at Influence Kit.
And then because you've connected to those platforms via Influence Kit, you give us permission to create a report for you and keep that report up to date.
So you throw those links in right after the content goes live.
The report's going to be dynamically changed and update every single day as that content performs.
And we have people using Influence Kit that are tracking pin, the performance of pins and blog posts across three years.
And they're using that to go back and repitch, you know, the sponsor they worked with three years ago to say, hey, look, this campaign that you paid $2,000 for, you know, the CPM on this has just plummeted, which is a good thing.
Why your CPM do you act?
That's how that's how brands look at it.
You know, they're looking for them.
It really boils down to what's the ROI on this campaign and what is our ROI from one blogger to the next.
And Influence Kit gives you the ability to tell that story in the best way possible as a real professional and at the same time without taking a lot of your time to do it.
So you can get back to what you love to do in the first place, which is content creation.
Our tagline is prove your value, make more money, you know, and do it in less time than it would take you to do it otherwise.
Yeah, that's definitely something a lot of people need, it sounds like.
But I've got to back up for a second.
I heard you say one good thing by Jilly.
That's right.
Yes, I am.
So tell me a little bit about that, because I mean, I knew I met Jill at a blog her many moons ago.
And so I'm curious, like, when did like are you have you always been on board or how has that been?
No, so I came on board about six years ago, maybe seven now with COVID everything gets blocked when timelines are hard to keep track of.
So I had worked with Jill, my previous company, and we hired Jill to promote our content. And when I was exiting, I have a background in just digital marketing and business management.
And I was looking for something to do kind of as I figured out my next move.
And I remembered really liking Jill, and I saw a lot of opportunity and that she was a little bit in over and she's one of the the many who was kind of the OG started in 2011.
And that was a really good time to start a blog and be publishing on Pinterest and Facebook.
And she's getting millions of visits to her site.
But from my point of view, not organizing as well as you stood or running her business as well as she could have been.
So I reached out to her and offered to do some consulting and we just hit it off and I became a part owner in that business and I've been involved ever since.
And that's kind of when I got my feet wet and really entered the creator space and had just decided I've been in the internet space as long as I've been working.
And I really like to create a space there.
You know, the people here are really down to earth. They're people who not a lot of ego where a lot of the other spaces I've been in.
It's the opposite. There's a lot of ego and a lot of bragging about how much you're writing and it's all about conversion rate.
And I just really like the there's a lot more humility.
There's just it's a better crowd of people in my opinion than a lot of people who are the digital marketing just more broadly. So, yeah, I've just decided to go all in that how Bruno and I met.
We met in a conference. I was there representing one good thing.
He had this prototype for influence kit and I saw the potential and said we got to do this.
So he and I teamed up and we've been going ever since.
Yeah, I definitely agree with you about how different the spaces compared to like so many other types of media because like I come from newspapers and magazines.
And so one of my favorite things about blogging is that you have a lot more creative control and you have more ability to like kind of do whatever you want.
And what I mean by that is like, you know, I would always have to go through an editor and then a second editor and then, you know, a third person who could then kill the story.
And so that's that's kind of why I like blogging so much is because I can put anything I want on my website.
And within reason, no one can say anything. So I'm curious with influence kit.
Is it strictly for bigger bloggers or is it beneficial to all bloggers?
Yeah, it's for everybody. We don't discriminate and we have a plan and option for everyone.
Most people use influence kit on our free plan that includes one report a month.
And we recognize that that's enough for most people. We have a few others who pay for more reports.
We have plans that include five reports a month and then another plan that's unlimited with some other features like an editorial calendar tool designed for bloggers.
And task management, project management tools.
But yeah, if you're someone who wants is working with sponsors or wants to do more work with sponsors, influence kit is really valuable and is helping you feel more confident about the value.
For a lot of times, bloggers don't know their own numbers.
And so that can be the first thing influence kit helps with. If you build an influence kit report with your existing content, say you're going to go pitch a potential sponsor, build an influence kit report with some similar content, get a feel for what your numbers are.
Use that to justify your rate and send them that report just kind of as a case study.
Or if you're someone who's working with sponsors and you aren't providing those stats, I promise you that sending them an influence kit report will move you to the top of their like preferred blogger list because we hear from them constantly.
We actually have a whole other side of influence kit that's designed and built for the brands and agencies that work with influencers.
And we only have that business because influencers or bloggers are sending these reports, the brand or agency sees it and they reach out because they want to get one of those from all their bloggers.
Now, do you see any use cases for like a bigger company? For example, one of the clients that I work with, they do a lot of blogging, but they also sell a software as a service.
So do you see strictly like small bloggers and big bloggers using you or do you also see like the company side of things for your software?
Yeah, an influence kit can be useful for anybody who is looking for a place to measure their own, the performance of their own content.
So if you are working with sponsors or not, you can still plug your content into influence kit to see how it performs.
So it's a better alternative than a lot of the dashboard tools that exist out there because we just connect with more platforms than anyone else that I've come across.
And we are prioritizing the ones that publishers are working with. So it's a really good way for anybody who wants to just measure their own result to really easily build a view that lets them see how their content is performing, how their audience is engaging.
Yeah, it sounds like your reports kind of give a almost like a screen grab of your real reach.
Yeah, yeah, they show impressions, views and engagement for all your content.
So if you have a pin, some stories, a reel, even an email, if you are podcasting on certain platforms that we've connected with, then you can see those stats for all those platforms.
Well, speaking of platforms, what platforms, even though I've already seen the dashboard and I kind of know this, but for anybody who's not familiar with the product, what platforms can you plug into it?
I want to say everything is the simple answer, but more specifically, TikTok, YouTube, we work with YouTube Shorts, Instagram, I've mentioned stories, reels, and feed posts, Facebook.
Did I say Pinterest already? Your blog, so through Google Analytics, we can connect with your blog. Help me out. What ones am I?
Well, I'm actually curious, I don't remember this one. The one I'm curious about is you mentioned podcasts. Can you like plug in an RSS feed and get traction from that too?
The only limitation on our end, whether or not we have a connection, is two things. Has someone asked for it? And two, when they do, does the provider have an API we can connect with? So the API is just the data source that we can connect directly to.
And some other podcasting platforms don't have an API. So if they're not on the list, it's for one of those two reasons.
Okay, that actually makes a lot of sense. Now, with InfluenceKit, exactly how long has it been around and is it still a work in progress?
I would say no, it's not a work in progress. It's a very much a developed tool. We're not making a ton of changes or improvements to like, at its core, make it better.
We love feedback from the people who are using it, but it's worked and is working for the thousands of influencers and bloggers who use it for several years.
And we've been doing that, how long? Six years now. So yeah, it's not a new, not a concept anymore. Like we've proven that it can do what it does really well. It's stable.
We have people who are putting hundreds of links onto a report and we can build that report and let you share it in a click.
I mean, it sounds really cool. It really does. It kind of makes me want to like go and play with it some more because I haven't played with it enough.
I only just recently heard about it from my friend Tracy, who runs Food Wine Sunshine and also works for Healthy Family Project.
So shout out to Tracy. Thank you for telling me about this awesome platform.
Now, people that want to get involved with it and start using it, what would be their best first step?
Just go to InfluenceKit.com or faster route to get started is if you go to kit.new, you can just start creating your report right away.
That's kind of our quick, easy jump right in method. If you go to InfluenceKit.com, you'll see the For Influencers page.
And if you click on that, you'll find the link to create your account and jump in.
The only other question I have for you is do you have like tutorials and things that people can use to use your platform to the fullest extent?
Yeah, oh, of course. Yeah, you have a whole help. What's it called? We have a help.
Like a knowledge bank? Knowledge base. OK, cool. Yeah.
And better than that, though, we like chat. So if you need help, just reach out to us and we'll just hold your hand as much as you need it and walk you through the steps getting set up.
If you have trouble with a deliverable or something doesn't look right, then just reach out to us.
That's awesome. That is awesome. Now, I also saw one of the newsletters you sent recently said you have a referral program. How does that work?
Yeah, we do. This is something we just launched called the Creator Referral Program.
And basically, if you're an active InfluencersKit user, which means you've created and shared a report in the last 60 days, you can participate.
And we just want to make it really easy and fun for our users who love InfluencersKit to share InfluencersKit with other creators that they know.
So Tracy, for example, I think you heard about it after she learned about our referral program.
And basically, the way it is right now, they change because it's new and it's evolving.
But right now, if you refer another creator to InfluencersKit, we'll pay you $10 after that person creates and shares their report.
And as I was writing an email, I thought of the comparison of when Venmo launched. That was a little bit of our inspiration.
It's just like, let's give people a reason to share a free tool with the other creators that they know.
You know, when Venmo came along, it was clearly a better alternative to the other options like writing check.
You know, I think InfluencersKit is the same. If you know people who work with sponsors and they're manually reporting or not reporting at all,
like those are the two things that are happening. You're either taking too much time to report your stats or you're not doing it at all.
In both cases, InfluencersKit is a solution. You know, if you're not reporting, you're going to see a huge advantage by starting to report.
If you're doing it the hard way, stop. You know, there's a better way.
And so like Venmo was a better alternative to checks, InfluencersKit is a better alternative to the reporting that you're doing currently.
So we're just trying to make it fun and easy for people to share InfluencersKit with their friends so that we can make reporting and transparency the standard.
That's really better for everyone as a whole.
The more transparency there is, the more creators can justify the value that they're asking and the more money everybody pays.
I think brands oftentimes hold the upper hand because they're the ones holding the checkbooks. They're the ones with the budgets.
And the lack of transparency makes it easy for them to justify the inconsistency in the pay that exists.
But as creators are more consistent and better about being transparent and showing their value, then we can all together feel better about asking for more.
And when everybody asks for more, everybody makes.
Absolutely. And you know, the biggest thing that I've noticed with a lot of the creators I talk to is they don't even recognize their reach.
You know, whenever you start actually calculating the numbers, you inevitably always miss one.
And so when you start actually seeing the bigger picture, you know, it's kind of like I was working on an article visualizing your podcast audience.
And it was interesting. Like, you know, oh, you think I only have 20 downloads for an episode.
What a badge of those 20 people were standing in the room with you.
Now it's a lot more people like you actually can visualize them.
So to have a picture that you can show someone, I think it definitely gives you like you said, you know, they already have the upper hand.
So now you're just kind of getting some of that power back. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
A lot of times it's just ignorance. We just don't know our own numbers.
So we're guessing at what are we think our value is worth and knowing your numbers can change all that.
And one of the along the same lines of what you said, one of my favorite integrations that you won't find anywhere else is email platforms like MailChimp or ConvertKit.
Active campaign. We connect with several and people don't typically think of those opens as impressions, but they are, you know, that I would even go so far as to say is more valuable than your Instagram impressions or certainly more valuable than your interest impressions.
You know, if you have acquired the email of some reader, there's a level of trust there.
There's just a different relationship with that person. So I always encourage people if you have a newsletter and it connects to InfluenceKit and start including that in your reports, like it's going to boost your overall numbers.
It's going to if you can make the case or argument to the sponsor that this is valuable and here's why, you know, it just all goes towards like let's bring everything together in one place and and not leave anything in the fringe.
Like let's if it's all together in one place, you're going to just do a much better job proving to your sponsor that this was worth the investment and they should work.
I love that. I absolutely love that. So you basically are giving bloggers a way to prove their worth.
Yeah. Yeah, this is as fantastic. Well, I hope everybody that's listening will get started with us today. But is there anything that you haven't shared yet that you kind of feel like we really need to make sure gets in this interview on the spot?
No.
I don't know. I'm trying to think if there's anything that I didn't ask that I feel like I should have, but I kind of feel like you've covered it all. I guess. Well, there is one question. Do you have to be a paid member to to take part in the referral program?
No, no, that's a no for everybody. We just require that you are active, like I said, and that just means you've used it. Glance kit and you know, somewhat recently, we just kind of picked 60 days as a time frame to say if you haven't shared anything in 60 days, you're not really actively using it. Glance kit.
But you can create a report, share it, and then you're I think that's actually really smart because there's too many people these days that are not being authentic with their referrals.
And so if you haven't actually used the program, why are you promoting it?
So that's really good. Yeah, and honestly, yeah, we, we are.
Sometimes we've made it too easy, you know, you just share influence kit, someone creates a free account, and you get paid. So we have to have some guardrails in place.
Some, some boundaries that ensure that people don't take advantage of the program. So it's new. It's kind of an experiment or just at the beginning. We'll see what happens.
Everything that you've shared, I'm really excited to share with the listeners of this and to put on the blog. And I think this is just awesome. So where else can people find you online if they want to learn more?
Just check out our website, influence kit.com. If you're ready to go create a report right now, go to kit.new. You'll jump right in that way. You can reach out to me, Chris, at influence kit.com.
That's awesome. That is awesome. Well, Chris, I thank you so much for being here today and then kind of chatting with me about this. I'm sure you've had lots of like demo calls and all that stuff.
But I just I wanted to get it from like a blogger perspective, just chatting and hearing all about it.
Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it.
Well, my bloggy friends, I hope you enjoyed all the insights our guests had to share with you. To get the show notes for this and all episodes, go over to famousashleygrant.com backslash podcast.
And until next time, may your page fees be high and your bounce rate below.