Grin Reviews

Grin is the linchpin that scaled our influencer program to new heights.

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Best Influencer Management Software available!

Comments: GRIN has allowed our company to develop its Influencer Marketing community with incredible ease!

Pros:

Casting, Outreach, and Proposal execution within campaign management is extremely simplified, making it easy to scale campaign sizes as the company has continued to grow its influencer community

Cons:

Some glitches with Instagram integration tool when used in excess

Great Concept, Needs Further Development

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Great for Expanding your Reach!

Comments: Overall, Grin has been a gamechanger for our team and we are excited to watch it grow our reach on social media even more over the next few months.

Pros:

This platform has been transformative in the way we are able to prospect, connect with, and onboard influencers around the world. It was easy to integrate and the support staff is incredible. As a very small business, we have been able to reach influencers we otherwise would not have been able to reach.

Cons:

We really don't have any complaints. Anytime something seems to come up, their support staff takes care of the issue right away. We would say its a bit expensive for a small business like ourselves, but we see the value and make it work anyways.

Great platform to grow your influencer base!

Comments: We are upscaling our influencer efforts, brand awareness around new products and collecting content for all marketing usage.

Pros:

The platform takes a little bit to get comfortable with and onboarded to, but after that the capabilities are amazing. They have some really cool search tools that have helped our strategy tremendously. I also love that they can integrate with Shopify for influencer orders.

Cons:

I feel that the user interface for messaging influencers on our side of things could be a little bit more user friendly. Instead of an email setup, I would love to see chat bubbles.

GRIN Review

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

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Trying to scale your program? This is the software for you!

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Managing influencers is easy with Grin!

Pros:

Grin makes managing multiple campaigns and numerous brand ambassadors easy. Between the content library and analytics, I feel good knowing everything is in one place!

Cons:

Often times we work with multiple levels of influencers from micro to macro or celebrities. Sometimes the influencers want separate terms from the campaign and we are not able to create terms per influencers at this time.

Colleen Kelly-Influencer Marketing Associate at Home Chef

Comments: Overall, my team and I love using Grin. We plan to use Grin into 2020 and hopefully, beyond!

Pros:

I love the ease of use--we are able to set up campaigns easily with Grin and pay them easily. This software makes working with micro-influencers easy and efficient. I also love the search feature. I have found some great influencer partners by utilizing Grin's lookalike function and use this feature daily when sourcing new influencers.

Cons:

I wish the application was a bit more intuitive for influencers--many have questions on how to link their PayPal as it is not very clear.

Grin helped us scale our influencer program!

Comments: GRIN has allowed us to scale our Influencer program and keep outreach and management to one person, as opposed to bringing on extra headcount internally. GRIN has provided a lot of learnings on the behind the scenes metrics of an influencer's validity and audience information, which has been key in negotiating rates and deciding to work with someone or not!

Pros:

The CRM behind the platform has been pivotal to store all of our influencer's information and keep a communication log of all the emails back and forth. The campaign section of the platform keeps everything super organized so you can run multiple campaigns seamlessly and simultaneously.

Cons:

There are a couple features that just don't apply to our business, I wish we could swap out things like the content management section for the pro version of the dashboard.

Customer satisfaction

Comments: I love grin and never experienced any issues using it ,it's lovely and recommended

Pros:

It's consumer friendly no annoying content

Cons:

One need to pay careful attention to detail,or else you might not understand it

Game-changing platform with a team that cares!

Comments: 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.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Can't imagine influencer marketing without GRIN!

Comments: Being a part of a small 8-person team, I manage our influencer marketing single handedly. I'm not sure I could do it all without GRIN — or else we would simply not be able to grow. Keeping track of hundreds of partnerships & email threads is almost impossible. With GRIN, each person I work with has their own profile, where I can see our past conversations, what campaigns they're involved in, what products I've sent, what tags or notes I gave them, and any addresses or custom properties I had filled in. I can quickly remember where I left off in a conversation, or what stage they're at in the partnership process. Without this, I would be incredibly overwhelmed. Things like email templates help to make my communication with hundreds of people more efficent for time management. GRIN gives me way more hands and allows one person to manage business with hundreds of people. I also LOVE my GRIN agent [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN]. She is always available to answer my questions via email or meet up for a video chat. Whenever I am confused or need advise on how to grow, she gives great direction, and always passes along my suggestions to the GRIN team for new product updates.

Pros:

There are so many great tools in GRIN, but one of my favorites is the ability to prepare campaigns that I can quickly send to new influencers to get the ball rolling for a partnership. I am able to set up all the rules and expectations for everyone in one place ahead of time, and keep track of who I've sent what to. On top of that, I'm able to prepare email templates to send in bulk, so I don't have to type out individual emails to each and every influencer.

Cons:

One area I expected more out of was the influener search & filters. Maybe it's just our niche or picky expectations, but our expensive baby sleepwear brand is always looking for natural, organic seeking mamas, with beautiful babies and profiles to test out and promote our products. We have not found much success in using the filters in GRIN to find these specific influencers. However, I do enjoy being able to send a GRIN landing page to pretty much anyone I find to add them into the database. We work around it, and GRIN's product development team is always taking suggestions for new updates. Hoping it will only get better with time.

GRIN is an absolute LIFE SAVER- My time has freed up significantly!

Comments: The biggest issue we solved right off the bat is having the rights to the content our ambassador team cultivated for us. Using the Influencer Content section in the software makes it easy for me to download content needed to run ads, post on our social media channels, and update our lifestyle photos for the website! We are also looking to branch out to our international customers and being able to easily search for profiles that meet our requirements is incredibly fun and easy! I also can't say enough about the attention to detail of their support team! I was assigned [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] and I felt like she was able to set me up for success! Really took to the time to problem solve with me, show me the ropes, and has been such a pleasure to work with.

Pros:

I spent too much time in the past organizing my team of ambassadors using a google sheet. Sending each profile a DM, SMS, or email on the upcoming launch and new products coming their way. Communication was all over the place and not on one platform. Hours spent building orders for shopify are now a BREEZE since the ambassador does the work and picks exactly what they want. Even their personal information is up to date- no more packages going to an old address! I love that I have only skimmed the surface of what this software can do and there are still SO many features I haven't utilized. Knowing I have the support of this software I can grow our influencer marketing with the satisfaction it will be done with ease and a killer support staff just an email away!

Cons:

Really wish there was a feature to better instruct my ambassadors on how to connect to the software. A step by step video going over what they can expect and how to problem solve if they run into an issue. I feel like this is something they are currently are working on and I can't wait to utilize this resource!

Overall Great Tool for Influencer Mangagement

Comments: Overall more efficient campaign management has been crucial - ability to manage multiple campaigns at one time.

Pros:

Customer support team is amazing - they are quick and responsive to help with any challenges that arise. Having millions of potential partners to vet are great. The template approach for outreach to partners is great and makes outreach more efficient.

Cons:

Needs a better integration with TikTok. Also, the contact emails should be updated more regularly to ensure outreach is consistent and easy.

Grin is a great solution for the Do-it-Yourself- Campaign Manager

Comments: 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)

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

The Best Influencer Management Platform

Pros:

Influencer Outreach, Campaign Management, Product Shipment, Data & Analytics + Influencer Payment.

Cons:

More email trigger options to consistently follow up with influencers throughout the campaign process! i.e. send emails once the package has been delivered as a reminder of content being due within 7-10 days.

Great Influencer Marketing Tool

Pros:

GRIN allows you to house all influencer campaigns and activations in one place. It is a simple solution to working with influencers of all sizes and across multiple campaigns in order to reach one revenue goal. It is easy to track your budget, send influencers gear, see their conversions and traffic, and monitor their deliverables. It is also great for discovering new influencers and seeing the possibilities in different campaigns.

Cons:

GRIN is a software that does take some time to understand and implement. There are tons of small features that when used effectively give you the end result you are looking for. But, you need to set up all those features and know-how to tie them all together. The software does make it easy for the brand to work with Influencers but it can sometimes not be as user-friendly to the Influencer. They seem to have a hard time understanding where everything is and how they can make sure all the deliverables are done.

It's okay

Comments: The support team is great. Grin made our search of finding influencers easier but there are definitely a lot of technical difficulties

Pros:

the influencer search tool is extremely beneficial especially being able to select all the influencers you'd like and add them to a sequence. I like that you can assign discount codes so easily but it needs more functionality - like new customers can only use this discount code once

Cons:

The campaign part needs a lot more work, there are too many things to go through each campaign = should be simpler I feel like you need to inspire people with layouts and templates and see what other brands are doing to be able to make your campaigns run better Some influencers on the content creator search platform their emails aren't right but the customer support team usually works with me to get that all figured out A few Influencers on the content creator search haven't been active on social but still pull up

Best Influencer Marketing Platform

Pros:

GRIN has enabled us to easily set up campaigns to track influencer performance and deliverables and really streamline the entire process of creator management. The integration was super easy and has saved our company dozens of hours in reporting on content, fulfilling product, and managing influencer workflows. The support team is impeccable and I would highly recommend anyone who has an influencer program to use GRIN.

Cons:

Nothing was that difficult. The only thing would be customization of particular influencer deliverables within a campaign; however, they have updates coming within the next couple of months to make that a reality.

Grin just gets better and better!

Comments: The best influencer platform!

Pros:

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

Cons:

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

Easy to use and setup. Super helpful staff. Some desired features, but not many.

Comments: Fantastic. I love, even when I have a stupid or obvious question, the support staff really try and help and go above and beyond to make sure all my questions are answered.

Pros:

Influencer discovery Influencer contact management Helpdesk / Support staff

Cons:

Too reliant on influencer cooperation for content to be captured. I wish there was a way to internally tag IG Stories, posts, or pieces of content on OTHER platforms (YouTube, Tiktok, FB) without the influencer using the appropriate hashtags.

A company about the people

Pros:

GRIN is a very user-friendly platform that helps organize and manage all things influencer marketing and content. They are also very down-to-earth, always eager to help, and truly want to see all their brands succeed! I have been blown away by the exceptional customer service offered.

Cons:

So many features can feel quite overwhelming/makes you take more time than needed to try a new feature if not educated before hand

Amazing platform!

Pros:

GRIN is an incredible tool that helps me stay organized and manage a high volume of influencers on a daily basis. It also allows me to easily upload hundreds of weekly leads for our team to review and outreach. Since day one I have been impressed by this easy to use software. GRIN has helped me to streamline many of my processes so I can focus on what is important. They are constantly making updates and my recent favorite has been the new partnership tab that helps keep track of deliverables. I can't recommend this platform enough!

Cons:

There are glitches from time to time, BUT the GRIN team is always on top of it. As soon as I notify them of any issue I am having, they immediately look into it, and usually solve the problem by the end of the day.

Influencer management & organization = top notch

Comments: Saved so much time and prevented headaches that can come with influencer marketing.

Pros:

It has been game-changing for our company using Grin for our influencer marketing. Before Grin, we were very unorganized, using spreadsheets trying to keep track of what deals we have made, who we were talking to, etc. Grin has made managing influencer relations a breeze. The search functionality has also helped us a ton with creator discovery.

Cons:

Search function can be a little finicky and slow at times but overall, not much to dislike about Grin!