It takes time and research to find the best influencer marketing tools, given the number of apps and platforms. This guide to our five top choices can help.

So, you’ve got a growing following and you want to take your content to the next level. There are tons of tools out there to help you edit videos, create graphics, and measure your audience engagement. Actually, there are well over 300 companies that build tools to help content creators.

But which tools are actually useful? What’s going to take your influencer marketing campaigns to the next level?

Let’s look at the quick do’s and don’ts of using influencer marketing tools, plus five key influencer marketing tools to take your social network presence from zero to 100.

Do’s and Don’ts of Using Influencer Marketing Tools

It’s important for you to know how to use the best influencer marketing tool for the job. Since influencers spend an average of 24 hours per week creating content, you need tools that will actually do the heavy lifting for you.  Follow these quick do’s and don’ts to make the most of your time (and money):

• Do use free trials: Make sure an influencer platform is worth the money by taking advantage of free trials to make sure it’s really worthwhile. Online platform tutorials are another low-stakes way to explore a product.
• Don’t pay for what you don’t use: Only sign up for features that you’ll truly use. For example, only sign up for a tool with the functionality to help with small business outreach if you’ve already created a full strategy for this market.
• Do look for all-in-one solutions: It’s okay to use several different influencer marketing tools, but some apps offer multiple must-haves. An all-in-one can simplify your creation process.
• Don’t forget your budget: It’s easy to get a ton of followers overnight and commit to a bunch of paid tools. But you can quickly go into the red that way. Set a monthly budget for your campaign management.
• Do push yourself: If you’re paying for a tool, take full advantage of its features. That might mean learning advanced digital marketing skills, but doing so will boost your abilities.
• Don’t jump in without an influencer marketing strategy: Clarify your mission, niche, approach, and brand before you sign up for influencer marketing tools. A high-level plan will help you pick the right tools for your needs.
• Do email the company asking for discounts: Yes, really. You’d be surprised how willing businesses are to offer discounts and even extended trials. The worst thing they could say is, “No.”

The 5 Best Influencer Marketing Tools

Every influencer has their own spread of tools, so it’s important to know precisely what you’re looking for before you start signing up for different tools. There are plenty of influencer marketing tools to choose from, but these five options are ones to watch for.

1. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a content marketing tool marketing agencies are obsessed with. Brands use the platform for influencer discovery. But as a content creator, this tool is the perfect way to optimize your content for more follower likes, follows, and clicks.

Notable features include:

• Explore: BuzzSumo will help you discover the most popular search engine queries, hashtags, and other SEO insights — as well as the topics and types of content your target audience is excited about right now.
• Research: What’s your campaign performance like? Influencers can use the Research feature to scan content in real-time for helpful data and metrics. You can even benchmark your content against other bloggers to see how your engagement rates and audience demographics stack up.
• Monitoring: It can take forever to manage all of your comments, especially if you’re on multiple social channels. BuzzSumo is a management tool that brings your comments into one dashboard for easier replies. It can even help with social listening so you can understand what your followers are saying about you.

Pricing

BuzzSumo comes with a free 30-day trial. From there, you can use the free plan with limitations. If you want access to all of BuzzSumo’s features, paid memberships range from $99 to $299 a month.

2. Canva

Canva started as a simple, drag-and-drop creator tool for graphic design. Today, it’s a significant influencer marketing platform for content creation, collaboration, and even social media scheduling.

With Canva, Instagram influencers and entrepreneurs can make short videos, design logos, design social posts, and even digital products.

Notable features include:

• Brand Kit: Your followers expect you to have a consistent aesthetic. If you’re tired of adding your custom hex codes and fonts every time, use the Brand Kit feature. This will automatically populate your designs with your branding.
• Teams: If you want to do brand partnerships or just work with a virtual assistant, you can add them to your Canva account for easier collaboration.
• Content Planner: You can also use Canva to schedule posts to your social platforms.

Pricing

You can try Canva Pro free for 30 days, and then it’s $120 a year or $12.99 a month.

3. Adobe Creative Cloud

Canva is great if you’re exploring tools as a potential influencer or you’re new to graphic design, but Adobe Creative Cloud is a more advanced option for content creators and artists. This influencer marketing software will give you way more than what simpler apps like Canva can offer.

Notable features include:

• Photoshop: This tool is a must for Instagram mavens who want to perfect their look every time.
• Premiere Pro: Whether you’re a YouTube star or you need to edit videos for TikTok, Premiere Pro is a professional-grade content creation tool  that can handle just about anything.
• Illustrator: If you want to make your own logos or vector graphics, you can build high-quality custom images with this design tool.

Pricing

You can buy all Adobe’s Creative Cloud products for $55 a month.

4. Kapwing

Kapwing is an AI-enabled video editing tool that is an excellent choice for social media influencers who specialize in video content, such as TikTok creators. Kapwing’s templates and tools help generate awesome videos in very little time.

And if you ever need help or inspiration, Kapwing has a community Discord channel where you can follow up with experienced micro-influencers.

Notable features include:

• One-click background remover: Did you film a quick TikTok and then realize your unmade bed was in the background? Tap it away.
• Subtitles: Captions can increase view time. Including auto-generated subtitles can be a huge win and help you when facing the algorithms.
• Meme generator: This meme generator is gold for TikTokkers, but it also has templates for Instagram. You can even search for memes specific to your niche.

Pricing

The pro membership is $16 a month (billed annually) and gives you access to more tools, higher upload limits, and customization options.

5. Hype

Okay, you caught us: Hype is our product, but we really do believe it’s one of the best influencer management tools on the market.

Hype is a marketing platform built specifically for creators with streamlined tools to capture, engage, and monetize your audience. Think of it as the growth headquarters for your brand or business.  

Notable features include:

• Sign-up forms: You can add custom forms to your link-in-bio. This Hype feature works with your influencer profile to turn your followers into contacts you can nurture through email and even text messages.
• A free link-in-bio microsite: In as little as 3 minutes, you can have a customized mini website where you can share links from across the web, embed video and music players, offer appointment scheduling, and more.
• SMS messaging: Capture your follower phone numbers and send mass text messages to your contacts whenever you’re about to go live or drop a new post.
• Data: Sync Hype with your social channels to chart rich data insights. Identify top sources of traffic, top links, and more. Plus, there’s even a customer relationship management (CRM) platform for you to track
• Integrations: Hype integrates with other influencer marketing tools like Mailchimp, Convertkit, and Zapier, so you can continue to work however you like.

Pricing

Setting up a Hype account and a HypeLink microsite is completely free. You can manage up to 500 contacts without paying a dime. You can always upgrade to a Pro subscription to unlock more contacts, workflow automation, and payment processing for subscription sales.

Find the best influencer marketing tools for the job

If you know how to choose the right influencer marketing tools, you can save a ton of time and money, create more engaging content, and expand your reach. If it’s high time to expand your reach as you work toward becoming a top influencer, use the right tools for the job. Social media platforms like Buzzsumo, Canva, Adobe Creative Cloud, Kapwing, and Hype will give you more bang for your buck.

But, as Charli D’Amelio puts it, “You can’t fake a smile. You have to do what you actually enjoy.” Use these tools to enhance the amazing content you’re already making, and the opportunities will flow naturally.