Core Features of Modern PR Tools

Most solutions cover three basic functions: media monitoring of news sites and social media, automated analysis of reach and sentiment, and the management of press distribution lists for sending press releases. Depending on the provider, the focus may be more on monitoring or more on the distribution workflow.

Practical Tip: Before choosing a tool, it’s worth asking whether the focus should be on monitoring or on sending—very few providers cover both areas equally well, and choosing the wrong focus often leads to a costly switch later on.

Smaller teams, in particular, benefit from starting with a single, more affordable tool to address their biggest pain point, rather than investing right away in a comprehensive enterprise suite whose full range of features they wouldn’t even use at first.

• Media monitoring across multiple channels
• Automated Reach Analysis
• Centrally Manage the Press Distribution List
• Clarify the focus before making a selection
• Take Advantage of the Trial Period Before Signing the Contract
• Assess scalability for growing teams
• Obtain references from existing customers

Monitoring Tools for Mentions and Sentiment

Tools like Awario scan social media, forums, and news sites in real time for brand mentions and provide an immediate initial assessment of sentiment. This makes it possible to implement social listening even without an in-house data team.

• Real-time search across multiple sources
• Initial assessment of the mood included
• No need for an in-house data team
• Alerts in the Event of a Sudden Increase
• Monitor competitors simultaneously

Hashtag and Campaign Tracking

For PR campaigns with their own hashtag or a clearly defined timeframe, specialized tools such as Keyhole are ideal, as they analyze the reach, interactions, and participating accounts of a single campaign separately from ongoing brand monitoring.

• Campaigns can be analyzed individually
• Reach per hashtag is measurable
• Identify the accounts involved
• Can be used independently of continuous monitoring
• Comparison of multiple campaign phases is possible

Dashboards for Ongoing Reporting

For day-to-day work, what matters most is having a clear overview of all channels in one place. A centralized social media dashboard consolidates mentions, reach, and interactions, eliminating the need to switch between multiple individual tools every day.

• All channels in one place
• Fewer switches between tools
• Automated Reports for the Team
• Real-time alerts consolidated in one place
• Access Rights for Multiple Team Members

PR Tools in Combination with Traditional Public Relations

Software cannot replace personal contacts with journalists, but it significantly speeds up the preparatory and follow-up work—from maintaining distribution lists to determining whether a press release was actually picked up. When combined with traditional public relations work, this creates a workflow that frees up time for the actual relationship-building with newsrooms.

• Automate Distribution List Maintenance
• Check for Received Messages
• More time for media contacts
• Technology complements, but does not replace

Choosing the right tools depends on your focus: monitoring, campaign tracking, or mailing list management. Most teams end up combining two or three specialized solutions rather than relying on a single all-purpose software program that performs only moderately well in each area. Ultimately, what matters more than the number of tools is that the data collected is regularly analyzed and actually used to make decisions, rather than just gathering dust on an unused dashboard.

Selection Criteria for the Right PR Tool

Before making a decision, it’s worth taking an honest look at the actual size of your team: Smaller teams often benefit from streamlined solutions like Buffer, while larger editorial teams with many parallel channels tend to benefit more from more comprehensive platforms like Hootsuite.

Another criterion is integration with existing systems: A tool that does not connect to your existing email program or CRM creates additional manual work instead of saving time. The scope of monitoring features should also be evaluated in advance, as the depth of analysis varies greatly among providers.

• Consider team size when making selections
• Check for integration with existing systems
• Compare Social Listening Features
• Start with small teams and lean solutions

Common Mistakes in Tool Selection

A common mistake is purchasing a comprehensive enterprise solution before it’s even clear which features are actually needed on a day-to-day basis. It’s just as risky to skip a trial period before signing a contract, since many limitations only become apparent during actual use—not from the list of features on the provider’s website alone.

Another mistake is the lack of training for the team after implementation: A powerful tool is of little use if only one person actually uses its features while the rest of the team continues to work manually.

• Don’t Invest in Enterprise Solutions Right Away
• Take Advantage of the Trial Period Before Signing the Contract
• Test it out before you buy
• Provide the team with adequate training after the implementation

What Makes IT Marketing Unique

When working with software and IT clients, we encounter recurring challenges:

• You can only truly understand products through demos
• Technical users and business decision-makers
• Short cycles with frequent updates
• Fierce competition in the international market
• High Demand for IT Professionals

Thought leadership instead of mere product advertising

For IT audiences, heavy-handed product advertising rarely works well. Content that demonstrates genuine expertise is significantly more effective.

One proven strategy is this: Posts published under the names of individual developers or founders consistently achieve many times the reach of an anonymous company page among IT audiences—even if the effort required for the individual is greater.

A consistent LinkedIn content strategy that features individuals rather than anonymous company pages often achieves significantly greater reach and builds more trust than traditional corporate posts.

• Expertise Is More Important Than Advertising
• Individuals rather than anonymous company pages
• LinkedIn as a Central Channel
• Greater reach and trust

Building a community around the product

Many successful software companies deliberately build a community around their product, for example through forums, Slack, or Discord channels. Social media plays a supporting role here by showcasing community content, user feedback, and minor product updates.

• Community via Forums and Discord
• Highlighting User Feedback
• Communicating minor product updates

International Audiences and Language

Many software providers target an international market from the very beginning, which changes the requirements for language and tone. Content must not only be translated but also culturally adapted.

• Internationally Oriented from the Start
• Don’t just translate—adapt culturally
• Adjusting the tone for each target market

Product-related metrics instead of pure reach

For software companies, traditional social media metrics like reach or engagement rate tell only half the story. What’s more meaningful is how many prospects from a campaign actually sign up for a trial account and how many of them later become paying customers. We therefore consistently measure success across the entire funnel—from initial contact to product activation—rather than basing campaign success solely on upstream metrics like clicks or impressions, which say little about actual business success without product usage.

• Trial Accounts Are More Important Than Reach Alone
• Measure the Entire Funnel Through to Activation
• Clicks alone don’t tell the whole story

From Visibility to Leads

Reach alone rarely directly pays the bills for software companies. That’s why we closely link content strategy to measurable goals such as demo requests, trial sign-ups, or newsletter subscriptions.

• Linking Content Strategy to Measurable Goals
• Demo requests and trial sign-ups count
• Newsletter sign-ups as an interim goal

Differences from Other B2B Industries

Software marketing overlaps in some areas with industrial marketing, but differs significantly in terms of pace and target audience behavior. There are also points of overlap with traditional consulting firms.

• Overlap with Industrial Marketing
• A Different Pace Than in the Industrial Sector
• Points of overlap with consulting firms

Launch Communications for New Features

Software companies frequently release new features, which regularly provide new opportunities for content. Instead of giving every update the same level of coverage, we distinguish between minor improvements—which we mention briefly—and major releases, which deserve their own series of announcements spanning multiple posts. This distinction prevents important new features from getting lost in the flood of minor updates, while also ensuring that users aren’t overwhelmed with constant announcements that lose their actual significance.

• Briefly Mention Minor Updates
• Dedicate a separate announcement series to major releases
• Don’t overwhelm users with announcements

Dealing with Technical Criticism in Comments

IT audiences are technically savvy and often express criticism of products or statements directly and in detail in the comments. Instead of deleting or ignoring such comments, it’s advisable to provide a factual, technically sound response that shows the feedback is being taken seriously. An open approach to legitimate criticism comes across as more credible to this audience than corporate communications that appear flawless but unapproachable, since technical communities generally value transparency and honesty more highly than pure advertising messages.

• Do not delete or ignore criticism
• Respond in a factual and technically sound manner
• Transparency comes across as more credible than perfection

Monitor TikTok account

Traackr is an excellent tool to monitor your TikTok account. It offers many features to give you insight into the activities on your account. This tool is available to all users either for free or with a monthly subscription. Traackr offers several features to monitor your TikTok account. First of all, you can

If you want to monitor your TikTok account, you can access several actions. First, you can see how often other users respond to your videos. This is especially useful if you want to edit certain topics or share content.

Another feature is the possibility to influence the search results. This is especially helpful if you want to be on top of the search results. With this function, you can determine which videos should be displayed in the search results.

• Traackr – external

TikTok Marketing & Tools

TikTok for businesses – Whether small local businesses or large international corporations, TikTok is an interesting marketing tool for all. The short video app offers the unique opportunity to interact with potential customers in a whole new way. We show how TikTok marketing works and what opportunities there are for companies.

• TikTok Agency
• TikTok Ads
• TikTok Monitoring Tools

Because although networks offer development interfaces (API), not everything that is possible may be done. However, up to this gray area, you can also benefit from automatisms. There are software solutions that facilitate the management, as well as the communication with fans and customers but also the amount of postings as well as the interaction in the networks.

A good overview of common social media tools can be found here:

• Social Media Tools

Digital trade: Which methods do you use for your idea?

Before you start your startup, you need to think a lot about your technical options. This is also a warning if you get involved with the wrong system and pay monthly for it, you will quickly become dependent. For example, there are various online shop providers for whom you have to pay triple-digit amounts every month. They promise you advantages in return. Advantages that you can all realize yourself with Open Source solutions – you just have to look for them. But yes, the service saves a lot of time, e.g. if you have absolutely no technical knowledge of digital solutions. If, however, you choose the wrong product and only notice this after three months or half a year, everything is already installed on this system. The change is then not so problem-free possible and the change is connected with further costs. Suddenly you pay for the development of two online shops. Furthermore, with this restructuring, you would lose rankings with regard to the placement in the search engine, as the page structure changes due to the new system and with it the individual URLs. Wrong decisions and their consequences.

Scaling in online marketing

“Scale” means staircase and derived from it, scale stands for expand. In business administration and at start-ups, scaling is the topic par excellence. Those who have achieved their proof-of-concept (profitable business model) must, in the next step, manage to generate more profits with less investment. The lower the cost of new revenue, the better. Certain processes can be automated so that some tasks no longer require personnel, but only software and licenses.

• What is a scalable business model?

Learn to scale with Affiliate / Advertisements

Many young entrepreneurs in the online marketing sector often and gladly start their first scaling in the affiliate marketing sector. Every time a user buys a product by referring to an affiliate link, the blog owner earns between 5% and 20% (usually 10%) of the sales.

The basis is often a small blog with articles, or a landing page (single HTML page with sales-optimized design). On this blog there is then e.g. test report, to topics like E-cigarettes, the classical coffee machine or also still more particularly the ?coffee machines Pad test? Exactly the same it goes naturally also for bicycles, special E-Bikes or still special lamp E-Bike comparison .

Affiliate Marketing Advantages

The affiliate links are then stored in the individual blog articles. This is how affiliate marketing works – scaling on a small scale.

• Little effort
• Low risk
• Simple growth
• Relatively high yield

The scaling is fast, all the affiliate marketer needs are SEO texts and / or social / search engine ads (social networks and search engine).

The aim of the young entrepreneur is to buy targeted reach through placement in search engines and / or through advertisements in social networks, so that sufficient sales are generated. The advertisements initially start with small budgets and, if they perform well, are turned up and run through for months. Each side and/or also advertisement those sufficiently sales generates, becomes then a lasting project for the entrepreneur that constantly more profits gains, without considerable expenditure.

With a small budget they now test different advertisements for effectiveness and compare the campaigns with each other. The investment is not too high, because each campaign is tested with maybe only 20 or 30 € per day.

How does Affiliate / Advertisements Scale?

After the first 20, 30 or 50 articles in the blog, the articles are equipped with advertisements (Facebook). Every single article gets an ad campaign. Within this advertising campaign (folder) there are then the different advertisements (according to photos, videos, target groups, place of residence etc.), which are tested against each other.

So it could be a photo of a person riding an e-bike. A second graphic shows the e-bike in detail. A third graphic shows the e-bike in the garage, without a person. Which of these three graphics will bring the most clicks and the most sales? With all 50 articles 150 different advertisements would develop so. After a short running time of 2, 3 days the results can be evaluated. Individual advertisements that convert badly, i.e. provide for few clicks and sales, are switched off early. After monitoring, it is decided which campaigns are shut down and which are continued.

Of 150 ads, maybe 20 or 30 will survive. These are profitable! Each individual page or ad costs €50 per day (Facebook Ads cost) and brings affiliate revenue of €70 per day – €20 profit. Thus with only 20, 30 advertisements a daily profit of 400 to 600 € results, monthly without fluctuations a yield of 15.000 €. Thus from a small Blog or a Landing Page to the topic product comparisons and tests became a genuine Proof OF Concept with over 100.000 ? annual profit, with only one person.

The functioning business model will then be further optimized, budgets have been reallocated and thus further and further expansion will take place. For a single person, good work since the risk investments for expansion are low. At the same time, the business model is easily expandable, more reach does not mean more effort (personnel, space, insurance, purchasing, advance payment, etc.).

Key indicators for measuring success

ROI (Return of Investment) for investors and valuation

The Return of Investment is, besides “scaling”, one of the central factors in business administration and therefore naturally also for you and your considerations on the profitability of projects. The ROI indicates how economical a product, a single campaign or an operational area is in relation to the investment made. It does not indicate time, but a relation (investment to turnover). On the basis of this ratio you can compare and evaluate different products, campaigns or business areas and make decisions.

• Analysis and comparison of individual divisions and investment properties
• Determining and evaluating the performance of an investment for a past period
• Planning and controlling future investments

By deciding to focus on the most profitable areas, you will make the most profit.

To make sure you understand the ROI absolutely, here are two examples of the question:

• How does the ROI in your company look like?
• How does the ROI for investors look like?

Whether influencer campaign on YouTube or re-targeting for your own online shop – also for classic TV advertising. In all cases, certain funds are invested in order to achieve a certain goal. The question now is, which campaign promises more profitability? Which campaign brings more profit, per invested Euro??

Even in advance, in concept and strategy, costs play an extremely important role. Ultimately, the campaigns are limited to a certain period of time. Sometimes through a fixed budget, sometimes through seasonal characteristics (fashion), sometimes through the half-life of the product, e.g. with trend products or video games, whose platform is constantly technically accessible.

Now (in our ROI example) in Social Media Marketing we have different possibilities on our desk. Community management, ads on Facebook, ads on Instagram, ads on YouTube, organic reach, we all video clips, the whole range of possibilities is open to you. In order to make a comparison and an evaluation, the key figures of the individual areas are consulted.

Calculation and formula

You have a media budget of 50.000 €. With this budget you ideally want to realize as much as possible. As much reach as possible, as much sales and as much turnover as possible. If your expected turnover is then 70.000 € (the profit accordingly is 20.000 €), your Return of Invest is 0.40..

• Earnings/capital employed = ROI
• 20.000 Euro / 50.000 Euro = 0.4

The Return of Invest now means that you will earn 0.40 Euro for every Euro you invest. If dunun compares different campaigns with each other and compares their costs and expected profits, you can make statements about which social media campaigns you invest in and which you don’t.

ROI for comparison – investment decision

How does ROI work for investors? Let’s say an investor wants to invest 1 million in a new round and spread the capital over 2 start-ups. She or he looks at 10 different start-ups and their business plans. The big question: Which investment is worthwhile? The answer: comparison based on ROI. All Start Ups estimate your profit for the 1st – 3rd year. The investor will then know how high the profit will be over the first three years.

• Start Up A has a ROI of 0.18
• Start Up B has a ROI of -0.24
• Start Up C has a ROI of 0.13
• Start Up D has a ROI of 2.53
• Start Up E has a ROI of 0.45
• …

Start Up D with a ROI of 2.53 (if all concepts have the same quality) promises the greatest opportunities for the investor. Start Up E with a ROI of 0.45..

Cooperation partner for additional range

Cooperation partners are particularly helpful in public relations and marketing. The clever combination not only makes it possible to live out creative marketing ideas, such as events, but also to create completely new products, e.g. a specific chocolate and biscuit brand. Both sides profit from the mutual advertising effect. At the same time, cooperation partners usually don’t take away customers, but rather play to customers. In the ideal case, cooperations result in meaningful synergies.

Cooperation Principle: Win-Win

For cooperation to be successful, the goals must first be clarified. Why do people work together? How do you work together and in what format must each individual brand perform? What success is expected in the end? How do you achieve this success? Of course, there are many other questions as well, such as financing or personnel resources – after all, it should be a win-win business. In principle, however, cooperations are about profitable cooperation. The big advantage are the well-known synergy effects.

Klick-Tipp Experience

For doctors, car dealerships, travel companies, cruises, or even dog food: email marketing is powerful. But to create effective newsletter campaigns, you need the right tool.

We have tried a lot after the many years. Depending on how your company, project or client is set up, there are different solutions. In general, the most recommended for setting up good email campaigns is Klick Tipp. Many online marketing agencies swear by this tool.

So here’s our little look at Klick-Tipp.

Advantages of Klick-Tipp as a program

First, let’s summarize the benefits in a nutshell.

1. Target group segmentation – No list chaos
2. Follow-up emails – Once created, always there (Funnel)
3. End devices – Responsive e-mails and standard newsletters
4. Learns with through email-based tags, so-called SmartTags
5. Good A/B Split Testing
6. Cloud-based – All contacts in one place
7. Email Analytics – Measurable Campaign Success

Plus a few extras that I can’t mention all here, but are fun! For example:

• Autoresponder function
• Facebook list building
• PerformBuilder – Build and Test Login Forms

Disadvantages of Klick-Tipp

Especially in the beginning the user interface is sometimes confusing and you have to search a bit longer.

• User interface sometimes confusing

Why email marketing?

Read the benefits in the article here or …. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Win customers with serious email marketing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpr4spfzS5A

Test access, costs and cancellation

1. Costs and tariffs for access
2. Try Klick-Tipp for free
3. Click-Tip cancellation

Costs and tariffs for access

The most important for all startups and younger companies: How much does Klick-Tipp cost? There are different pricing models depending on whether you pay monthly, annually, if you’re a small business or a larger one and need capacity and extras accordingly. Here are the basic rates:

• KlickTipp Standard (entry level): ~ 27 Euro up to 10.000 contacts

After that it changes between Standard, Premium (+20 Euro), Deluxe (+40 Euro) and Enterprise (+122 Euro).

Try Klick-Tipp for free? Is that possible?

Unfortunately you cannot test the program for free.

How can I cancel Klick-Tipp?

If you want to cancel Klick-Tipp to switch to another email marketing provider, go through these steps:

1. Contact Klick-Tipp Support (Cancellation)
2. Export data from the newsletter system (otherwise your data will be lost)

What is a funnel or sales funnel?

When you collect email adresses, you have direct access to targeted, quality contacts. Klick-Tipp helps you as a (German [privacy]) email marketing provider to build lists, segment target groups and automate your email marketing (funnel).

You always start in the so-called cockpit. In the cockpit, you can make the various settings and create links. Here you have a complete overview of your prepared, running and past campaigns.

Segmentation of target groups

In fact, Klick-Tipp was one of the very first email systems in the world where you could manage your subscribers using tags (so-called labels) rather than simple lists. Meanwhile, the software learns itself, through so-called SmartTags. So it learns through email-based tags and gives you suggestions for improvement.

Automate: Follow-up emails

Tagging allows you to write to your contacts in an extremely targeted manner. The newsletter software is therefore specifically tailored to the needs of online marketers. If you want to have a strong, much-used newsletter or email marketing, the Klick-Tipp automations are perfect.

What does automation mean?

What does automation mean for SMEs? Time, geographical and financial freedom thanks to email marketing (better than selling offline).

More information about the software:

• Click-Tip

You can find more strong recommendations here: Social Media Software.

Is free software better?

Quality has its price, even if it is quite low at only 27 euros. Compared to what you can get with good email marketing from 1,000 contacts.

Free software has the disadvantage that it is always limited in the functions. So anyone who really wants to do sustainable email marketing and thus drive their own sales up, should rely on professional software.

Through numerous best practice examples, it shows that just the paid providers, deliver the most performance. Also from my own experience, the limitation starts e.g. with the amount of email adresses and continues with the functionality around Call-To-Action and analysis as well as monitoring.

Klick-Tipp Tutorials: Instructions and explanations

You want to start with Klick-Tipp? Here are a few of the most important, frequently asked questions with video explanation:

1. Create a newsletter?
2. Create your first campaign?
3. Create and insert registration form?
4. Email seen by recipient?
5. Attach file and link?
6. Attach pictures and videos?
7. Set up double opt-in?
8. Change email address for users?

Create a newsletter? The basics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUqAd0ppv1o

Create your first campaign?

Create and insert registration form?

So you can create registration form and add it to your website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIqD4Gvv3HY

Email seen by recipient?

Where can I see if the recipient has opened the email?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkVpwg2PXVE

Attach file and link?

So you can attach and link a file to your emails.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI-mbGwAByw

Send pictures and videos?

So you can email pictures and videos in your newsletter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnjc1biGa0s

Set up double opt-in?

Here’s how you can set up double opt-in processes in Klick-Tipp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcsuQ4f4nbM

Change email address for users?

Here you will learn how your adressees can change their email address.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6k74WXYtpE

Learn more! What is…

What is email marketing and what is performance marketing? Learn more here.

Email marketing explained

Easy segmentation and personalization, scalable success, promotion of a new product, discount for customers, information about the company. There is hardly a tool that has had so much success in online marketing over a long time.

• Email marketing explained

Performance marketing explained

Performance marketing includes a mix of online marketing tools. We present you here all areas and advantages, step by step. You will get to know the different instruments: Social Media, Email Marketing, Affiliates, Display and Native Advertising, but also Content Marketing, Search Engine Ads and last but not least Search Engine Optimization. It all starts with the right strategy and a good performance marketing agency that knows its craft.

• Performance marketing explained

Monitoring the successes – Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Co

However, social media monitoring is extremely different. There are areas in influencer marketing that can hardly be monitored at all. The last action, for example, coupon codes in Instagram Postings. No direct links can be placed here and therefore clicks and sales cannot be traced. Of course, this is a big problem for many companies who are also building reach with the promotion through influencers. At the same time, there are options such as Facebook ads that can also be switched to Instagram, which are extremely accurate in reporting and monitoring. So accurate that even many critics are concerned about privacy, after all, advertising is becoming increasingly personalized. Here, paths can be traced extremely precisely so that you know and see exactly who likes your own brand, who buys the products, who is interested in similar products, how old the people are, where they come from and what their interests are.

The evaluation in monitoring is so different. If you really want to deal with this topic, you should start directly with software. The subject of monitoring is so diverse and special that it cannot be explained in a few paragraphs. The best recommendation is therefore Learning by Doing and YouTube videos! Add a portion of cleverness and the monitoring can begin.

KPI – Key Performance Indicator

There is only one term for measuring success in business management: key performance indicators. The so-called KPIs document the degree of fulfillment. In online marketing, these are primarily the conversion rate, which provides information on sales or contracts, the click-through rate (CTR), with a statement on the proportionality of clicks achieved in comparison, up to the interaction rate, the engagement rate, which indicates how many reactions there were to certain media content, and up to the response rate, which provides information on how many responses there were to a certain action.

Let’s take another look at the different KPIs:

Interaction Rate – Engagement Rate

The interaction rate or the commitment of the users plays an important role in two areas in particular. On the one hand, in monitoring, i.e. the measurement and evaluation of success following campaigns.

The formula for calculating the interaction rate:
( Likes + comments x 5 ) / Views = commitment</block quota>(
You can adjust the value x 5 as desired, upwards or downwards. More about Intercation rate

Click Rate – Click Through Rate CTR

The click through rate (CTR) is an extremely important indicator in reporting and monitoring. As a key figure, the click rate provides information about the relation between the views, the so-called sightings, and the clicks. The higher this percentage, the more successful the campaign.

• A social media posting reaches 1,000 people,
• Of which 50 click on the offer,
• Gives a click rate of 5%

The click rate formula:
Impressions (views) / clicks = click rate</block rate>
More about Click rate

Conversion / Conversion Rate

For the interaction rate or the engagement, the conversation with the own target group is a decisive success factor for your social media marketing. Conversation is the basic model in media studies. By exchanging information, novelties, innovations, all conceivable forms of information are disseminated.

More about Conversion Rate

Response Rate – Response Rate

The response rate indicates the response rate to a particular campaign and, when comparing several campaigns, which success factors can be derived from it. The response rate can have very different reasons, a simple example would be a marketing survey sent to 1,000 companies. If 400 questionnaires came back, the rate would be 40%.

The formula for calculating the reaction rate:

( received / sent ) * 100 = Response Rate

More about the reaction rate

Influencer Monitoring

Influencer monitoring can be difficult in some cases. In other cases it is again relatively simple. Ultimately, the best way to monitor influencers is to have direct access to the statistics and analyses of each influencer. Of course, this is not always possible, so most influencers usually send screenshots of statistics. You can then use social media software to offset and check these in parts. In principle, however, the aim is not only to equip influencers with free articles and products, but also to report the actions and interactions in a sustainable manner. Just as with advertisements, the ultimate goal is to separate successful influencers from less successful ones so that long-term collaboration only begins with influencers who ultimately provide conversion.

The simplest and most effective way is to use so-called short links. Short links are then placed below the postings, e.g. in the YouTube description, the description below the Facebook posting and of course as a Swipe Up link in the Instagram Stories. In the back end of the short link provider, you can see in the statistics how often the user clicked. If you work with 20 influencers, you can compare all influencers after 30 days. Just write down the costs and the clicks next to them. From this you can calculate how much you paid for a click. The influencers with the most successful campaign will then continue to be booked. The tracking and reporting of influencer campaigns is as simple as that.

You have learned how to calculate the click rate before, with a small variation you can calculate the click price.

Calculation and formula for click price

• Costs / Clicks = Click price

Let’s look at the comparison in a simple example:

• Influencer A costs 2.000 € for 250 clicks = 8,00 € per click
• Influencer B costs 10.000 € with 500 clicks = 20,00 € per click
• Influencer C costs 7.000 € for 800 clicks = 7.20 € per click
• …

As a result, the campaign with Influencer C would persist.

Of course there are other factors, but these are the basics. Of course, there are other factors that are important for the valuation:

• Impressions, reach in the community
• For major influencer branding and positive image
• Conversion Raid, Closings after click

Reporting and monitoring software

If you are more interested in monitoring in social media marketing and want to work with analysis methods of a sSocial Media agency, then we recommend you take a look at Social Media Software. Especially on our large articles on the subject:

• Social Media Software Comparison

The software came onto the market a year ago. Now there are some interesting innovations, so interesting that we take a closer look, what has changed at combin after a year? What new features and opportunities are there for social media managers?

• Our review of Combin 2.0

Why Software? Follower get through Likes / Comments

Especially the analysis of the own postings, clearly arranged on the notebook instead of the smartphone, makes Combin so practical for the daily social media management. What worked well, what didn’t? More about this in the part: “Home”. But with Combin 2.0 there are even more new features. So the search filter is even more powerful. If you’ve always wanted to effectively search the entire Instagram universe, here’s the right tool for the job. Whether inspiration or competitor analysis, with Combin you can search through all the contributions that ever existed. Combin not only allows you to search all Instagram Postings. You can also take a closer look at the users and their behaviour. More about this later in the section: “Search filters: Find popular postings”.

Test report: Combin 2.0 – New functions and updates

Basic technical features:

• Advanced Instagram Search
• User search analysis
• Follower Management
• Simple communication
• Sort + Preview
• Activity Statistics
• Combin 2.0

Problem solution Time + quality of interaction

Problem 1: Interaction costs time. If you want to gain organic reach, you have to comment and liken photos. With every comment and every like, people become aware of Instagram on you or your account. But who can afford a social media manager whose job is just likes and comments when there are important jobs in social media marketing such as content creation, community management or advertisements? The solution is automated linking, commenting and following.

Problem 2: “Just” just liken, comment and follow, as Instagram Bots do, is aimless and random. This causes problems for brands, because not every picture should be geliked. A practical example: Two hearts and the text “Love it” under a serious bodybuilder who is just presenting his training results. Fail! Combin has the solution by allowing you to search for specific content or users! The quality of the interaction increases extremely.

Especially in comparison to Instagram bots Combin is a real gain.

But, let’s start at the very beginning, for all those who use Combin for the first time:

Installation and setup of the App

If you are new, you have to download the Combin App once and log in with your own Instagram account.

Download the app

That’s how it works:

1. Download Combin App; currently available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux
2. E-mail address must be entered; then the download starts
3. Installation after downloading the file (.msi); the installation takes about 15 seconds (4 steps)
4. Login to one or more instagram accounts

Combin (Windows, Mac OS, Linux): Download

Start the app – test it for free

1. 1. After login all photos and videos of the Instagram channel

will be displayed.

Free account – Daily limits

• 1 Instagram Account is 100% free
• Daily limits ofikes: 250
• Daily limit of comments: 150
• Daily maximum Follows: 150

Here you will first find an overview of the most important information and can also compare many postings with each other, which is difficult on the instagram.

• Number of contributions and possibility to compare
• Number of subscribers / subscribed and the ratio (the smaller the value, the better)
• Single postings can be opened in Pop Up to take a closer look at comments

Account Analysis: Sort by Likes and Comments

Which postings were and are most popular? Sorting allows figures to be quickly analyzed and the best rated postings to be filtered. The analysis helps to evaluate individual postings and, above all, the visual language. Which content was successful and which was not?

Finding and learning successful content – Combin search function

Smart thinking! Who learns from the mistakes but also from the successes of others, is faster. The search function allows you to combine your search with hashtags, locations and subscribers of your competitors – exciting! This makes it quick and easy to find popular contributions from competitors. Keyword: Inspiration for your own social media content and again the same analytical question: Which content (photos and videos) are successful and which are not. With the help of the search function successful postings can be found to improve his own concept. Summarized allows the search function:

• Selective search for content from competitors / other channels
• Help for inspiration and optimization of your own strategy
• Combined search with hashtags, locations and subscribers of competitors
• Get range through Likes / Comments from smaller Instagram Accounts (Pay attention)

Let’s look at the search function in detail. The first step is to provide the search mask with information.

Filter contributions: What’s popular? Or who can you liken?

In order to find out which postings on Instagram work well (due to the visual language or also due to the time of the posting), you can search all Instagram posts for certain properties. The search filter for posts includes:

• Hashtags
• Location
• Period
• Number of Likes (from / to)
• Number of comments (from / to)

In addition, there are now even more advanced analysis functions such as:

• Gender
• Language
• User must have been active last week
• Number of subscribers (from / to)
• Number of subscriptions (from / to)

Filter user: Who does what?

Combin not only allows you to search all Instagram Postings. You can also take a closer look at the users and their behaviour. The search filter for users is very interesting, because here you can search the user accounts directly! This includes the following parameters:

• Search for: subscribers, subscriptions, commentators (!), likes, bio, user list

In addition there are extended analysis functions like in the article Search filter:

• Gender
• Language
• User must have been active last week
• Number of subscribers (from / to)
• Number of subscriptions (from / to)

Evaluation, analysis and results

In our example we want to find out more about a hashtag from our priority list for a beauty customer. We have evaluated the hashtags before. You can find out how to do this in our article: Instagram Tips. For our Best Practice is the #eyeliner and the requirement that the posting has received at least 1,000 Likes.

The great thing about Combin is that it searches all content posted on Instagram and only lists those that contain our Hashtag #eyeliner and have over 1,000 Likes. So we can see:

• What content / images perform well
• Where are the differences between the postings?
• What features can you take as an advantage for your concept?

After analysis: get interaction and reach

After the analysis of the contributions, the interaction can begin! Combin operates fully automatically or semi-automatically as required. Automatic means that you interact with each posting step by step. Here comes another advantage of Combin, which many other social media tools do not offer in comparison, the selection can also be made manually, Combin then only goes through the selected images. After this decision we can start

Advantages of Search, Analysis and Interaction by Combin

• Extreme time savings, thus also cost savings
• Automatic interaction instead of manual mail for mail
• Social Media Manager works much more effectively
• More time for more important things than Likes and comments
• Instagram Marketing also in Start Up / self-employed possible

Combin Live: Likes, Comments and Follow (Interaction)

Now all you have to do is decide whether Combin should work automatically or semi-automatically. If you want to make a manual preselection, simply mark your favorite photos.

Tip to get more range: If you go specifically to postings, with few likes, smaller users will become more aware of you faster. If Postings get many Likes, your Like on the photo or video does not stand out so much.

Overview of tasks and monitoring

Instagram’s Combin software not only allows you to search and optimize your own channel, but also enables reporting. The monitoring function can be found (Pro) in the menu under “Statistics”. Under “Tasks” you can find all jobs that were created before, e.g. Likes on Hashtag #beauty, comments on Hashtag #eyeliner and Follows on Hashtag #makeuplover, but only if the account has a maximum of 800 followers. Really clever solution! The monitoring is only activated in the Pro Account. To advantages and price we come directly after the last screenshot:

Price and Upgrade to Pro Version (Multi Channel Management)

If you want to upgrade your package, you can do so in the app (top left) by clicking on your user account. After that you will be forwarded directly to the subscription page with a choice between monthly and annual billing.

• Direct to Combin

Why is the Pro Version worth it?

The upgrade at a glance:

• Manage up to 15 Instagram accounts (5 inclusive, 10 extensible)
• No in-app action limits
• 1,000 search results per page
• Update search results

Information about the price per month / per year (04/2019):

• Private: 11.90 Euro / month includes 1 channel
• Business: 35.70 Euro / month includes 5 channels, option on 15

Lifehack! Influencer Search Engine

Many brands and companies that want to work in influencer marketing need large lists of contact details. But which influencers are really relevant? Combin can also be used as an excellent Influencer search engine. That’s how it works:

• Enter a specific hash tag in the search filter
• Set subscriber number to 50000 up to maximum

Only influencers that exceed the preset number of subscribers and have published postings on a specific topic will now be displayed in the search result. Here’s a little tip, geographical searches should be done by hashtags rather than by location. Of course, most influencers do not mark themselves with geodata on every photo. And when they mark themselves, they travel the world, from the Coachella Festival to Paris Fashion Week. Although our blogger is actually from Italy, we wouldn’t find him like that. It is therefore worth using hashtags in the national languages if you are looking for influencers from individual countries. This gives you a quick and easy overview of relevant people from a specific area.

Fazit!

Combin keeps what it promises and improves in the core functions – a real win and the best, it doesn’t cost more than before. Combin is our recommendation for fast and regular interaction with existing and especially with new target groups. Functions to detect influencers (as additional features) in the advanced instagram search to the refined user search analysis.

• Combin 2.0

How is our Social Analytics Company structured?

We develop our social analytics software on the basis that we ourselves are active as an advertising agency and influencer agency. In Germany we work with the big Instagram Stars, but also with world champions from various fields. We have already worked with Instagram stars like Pamela Reif, one of the biggest Youtube stars in Germany. As an influencer and advertising agency, we therefore know exactly what needs each agency has for its customers in influencer marketing. Since there is no suitable software solution for the analysis and monitoring on Instagram gave, we set out to develop social analytics.

The interface for this are advertising agencies and social media agencies

Our company construct is initially optimized to gain reach. Our Instagram Price Calculator is a free platform where not only bloggers can get information about their own Instagram account, but also agencies and brands can get information about the prices and costs of influencers on Instagram. On the basis of statistical surveys and the comparison of values, we calculate a realistic price or a price range with which both parties, i.e. the agency and the influencer are satisfied. Through this reach generation, we can introduce our in-depth software to a wide audience. This is an interesting concept, especially for investors, as there is no need to invest further in gaining reach. With our Instagram price calculator, we are already one of the world’s leading sites today, attracting thousands of visitors every week. For a software already a strong ratio!

Investment in software

If you are looking for an interesting software product, as an investment for the future or as a short-term investment, then our Social Analytics Company is the right place for you. Please do not hesitate to contact us and we can talk about possible options after an examination.

Further information about Social Media Software

Further information about our social media software can be found here:

• Social Analytics

Now new: Combin 2.0 – New features and greater analysis

Update. Social media managers have been eagerly waiting for it, now it’s here, Combin version 2.0 – of course we wanted to be the first to test the new version for 2019 / 2020. What are the core features? What has changed in the analysis? What other new benefits does the new version have in store?

• NEW: Combin 2.0 – Test Report & Updates

Combin – Fans and followers on Instagram

Software plays an increasingly crucial role for social media agencies. The world and its communication is getting faster and faster, on stock exchanges but also on the social web. From perfect timing for pre-planned postings to building organic reach and real fans. Combin supports you in this.

Don’t’t feel like reading? Watch the Combin video tutorial!

In our testings we have gained a lot of experience and show how Combin works as a social media bot for qualitative interaction and follower growth on Instagram, from A-Z. More software tutorials are available on my Youtube channel for social media.

For today’s test we use the channels of our fashion magazine. Our channel currently has only 1,200 followers and is therefore a good best practice example for many companies and brands that professionalize their social media management. To give you a detailed insight, we have documented all the important steps for you, from installation to multi-channel management. Screenshots help with visualization. We want to know: What can Combin do? What possibilities do we have? What is possible?

We’ll walk you through step by step, from installation to testing all available functions. So you get to know all the functions and possibilities of Combin directly here.

Download Combin for Windows / MAC or as App

Many social media suites and tools are web-based. Combin is something you have to download to your computer first. The tool is available for Windows and Mac. To start the download, you need to enter an email address. The first e-mail only contains the various download links. The download also starts directly in the background, so you don’t have to check your mailbox first.

Combin is available as an app for notebooks, tablets and smartphones.

The installation on the PC / MAC

The installation of the software does not require any license keys or the like. After the download, the installation is done with a few clicks and takes only a few seconds due to the small file size. After that, the program asks directly for a ‘launch’, which we also do directly.

The program opens in the background. In the foreground the browser starts with a first start hint “How it works”. Therefore, we first switch to the tool.

Set up Instagram Channel

To get started with Combin, you first need to add an Instagram channel. You only need two pieces of information:

• Channel Name
• Password

Combin Key Feature: Target group search for actions (Likes & Co.)

In the next step Combin collects all data and sends you to your start screen for the first time.

Combin Start

On my start screen, I basically only see all my posts from the selected channel. In our example with FIV Magazine, there are 200 posts. The likes and comments are also clearly displayed here, for a quick overview of which postings were successful and which were not? In addition, the photos can be enlarged.

Of course you want to play with the software now!

• What is possible?
• What can we do?
• What surprises us?

In the menu the interest leads me directly to the point: “Search”.

Search function

By clicking on “Search”, you first get the tip that you can find posts and target groups through the combined search using locations, hashtags or even subscribers of the competitors. This is how you draw attention from your own profile. Similarly, one can interact with the right audience through subscriber requests, likes and comments. Okay, so let’s add our first search. We have two weeks and several factors:

1. Search for posts, options:<
   Hashtag
   Location
   Posting period
   Search limit
2. Search by user
3. Search for hashtags

Update in Combin 2.0: Stronger search filters

The new Combin 2.0 takes it up a notch! From the smart little search to the detailed search filter. 2.0 enables many new functions in the search. The search filter for posts now includes:

• Hashtags
• Location
• Period
• Number of likes (from / to)
• Number of comments (from / to)

Also, brand new to this and a dream for social media managers:

• Gender
• Language
• User must have been active last week
• Number of subscribers (from / to)
• Number of subscriptions (from / to)

NEW: Combin 2.0 – review & updates – in a few days!

Search filter: Hashtag

First of all, you need to define a hashtag. The search is based on this hashtag.

Tip. Refine searches with international and national hashtags

We would have searched for #fashion in the first step. For #fashion there are over 430 million posts. As a small A/B test, we run #fashion at the same time with 10 million posts. Why? #fashion is an international term, #mode on the other hand is relatively specific to the German-speaking world, apart from “Mode” (in English for “method”, “kind”). So we can take a look at the international and national market.

Search filter: Places

After that comes the search by location. I find this search option a bit problematic, since not everyone marks their locations. Proportionally, the amount of postings is not associated with a specific location. So if you include this search filter, there is a risk that you will not see many postings in the results.

Search filter: Period

Under “Posted” you can define a time period. Currently, there are only four options: “Anytime”, the last 14 days, 7 days or yesterday. A specific retroactive search for time periods (for example, for campaigns) is not yet possible.

Search filter: Search limit

This filter only limits the search results, for example if you only want a quick overview. The following options are possible: 50, 100, 250, 500.

The results

The display of the results takes a few seconds and gbit a selection of the latest posts for the hashtag #fashion. The overview then shows the most recent posts. Below Likes, Comments, of course almost always on 0. And now?

Like + comment + follow all posts

With just one click, you can now like all available photos! The interaction menu is located in the upper left corner, above the search results.

When you click on the “Like” button, you will be asked if you really want to like all photos. Upon confirmation, the tool likes organically, little by little the postings. As can be seen here in the screenshot, it starts at 1 and continues in time intervals to photo 2, 3, etc.

By clicking on the “Comment” button you get an additional window in which the addition of comments is possible. Here you can create templates and also different comments, so that not under each photo is exactly the same. For the future, it would be interesting to allow the spinning of texts here, thereby variables are created, which become increasingly complex and always recompose themselves. An example {Nice|Awesome} and deeper and deeper like {{Really }Nice|{Totally }Awesome}{| {Work|Photo|Picture}} – more about that in a moment. But even so, it’s extensive enough to write creative little comments.

By clicking on the “Follow” button, you can follow many people, just like with Likes and comments. This is done in the hope that people become aware of you and follow you. If you use such methods for your marketing, you usually unfollow the people again. The principle is called follow/unfollow. I would not necessarily recommend this feature when it comes to companies. Private individuals are welcome to test such a feature once, but again, I would say rather work with likes and comments. Why? How would it look if big brands and brands randomly follow 6253 people, the next day 4207 and just one day later again 4862? Fans would quickly notice such “tricks”.

Comments and interaction: Article Spinning

Ever heard of content spinning? With it you can vary comments that are set via social bots to not always post “very nice”, “very nice”, … we now have a new article in which you can learn as a social media manager how content spinning works.

Search by user

According to the same principle (Like, Comments, Follow/Unfollow) the user search also works. As seen here in the screenshot, we once looked at the followers or subscribers of @voguegermany, they would probably be a good target group, because @voguegermany publishes similar, fashion-relevant content as @fivmagazine does. So the chance of user migration is higher than for example with “any” Instagramer.

Looking for similar channels is worthwhile for exactly these reasons. Fans migrate faster because the topics are similar. So if we like photos of users, they become aware of us, discover similar content and follow us, possibly.

More functions, more analyses! This is Combin 2.0:

• NEW: Combin 2.0 – Test Report & Updates

Conclusion on target group search for promotions

The search function is very practical and simple. The controls are intuitive to find, even for new users and beginners. Through the tips at the first steps, all steps of the search are also self-explanatory. Well solved. What about the actual function? Interaction consists of like, comments, follow/unfollow, everything is possible here. Through the timed distribution of likes and comments, the interaction also works organically for Instagram.

The searches are saved and displayed on the left of the screen next to the menu, so you can also access past searches the next day. For startups, companies and SMEs with social media manager a real time saver, because Likes and Comments are distributed targeted and above all, automatically.

User management

What’s behind the menu item “Users”? Here you can find all your subscribers. You have the basic functions like, comments, follow/unfollow but also some nice extra tools for your fan management, filters! Users can also be searched (top right) or sorted.

1. All subscribers
2. My subscribers
3. People who do not follow me
4. Security list

All subscribers

In this list you can see all subscribers. The ones you follow and the ones who follow you.

My subscribers

Under this point you will find all the people you follow.

People who do not follow me

Here you have all the users you follow, but who do not follow you. An interesting piece of information.

Security list

In the “Safety list” you can add users who should be ignored during one of the unfollow cycles or “mass unfollow tasks”. That way, you can’t accidentally unfollow “real” friends/fans. As I said, I recommend follow/unfollow with caution anyway. Often a little of your reputation on Instagram depends on it.

Functions and conclusion

Below the profile photos, you have the option to open individual profiles on Instagram, for example, to see who the person is. On the other hand, you can manually unfollow the people. But you can also build up targeted interaction and hope that, for example, the people who do not yet follow you, become aware of you. This way you can gain new fans. Probably even faster, because they may have already interacted with you.

History: Likes, Comments and Follow/Unfollow

In the “History” you will find all pending jobs in a clear list. As you can see in the screenshot and in the example #fashion, the tool runs through the posts for a specific hashtag and distributes likes. Here, there are currently 69 out of 250. Here, too, all the different tasks have been separated:

1. All tasks
2. Unfinished
3. Likes
4. Comments
5. User

Multi-channel management

Many don’t have just one channel. Advertising agencies look after different clients, social media agencies anyway and even companies have different brands, which in turn are looked after by employees from a marketing department. Thus, multi-channel management is essential for many companies when working with social media software tools. Combin also supports the management of multiple channels.

For the upgrade, you have to pay for it. For this purpose, two models are provided for selection.

Private Channels

The private solution is for individuals and brands. The package includes the management of an Instagram channel as well as a limitation of the search results to 500 ads. The results are updated automatically. Direct Messages and a comment feed are to follow.

Business Channels

Business Channels differ in that they allow up to five accounts. As with the “Private Package”, the search results are limited to 500. It is also stated that statistics will be available soon. Direct Messages and a comment feed will also follow.

If you add a channel, the new start screen will load directly afterwards. Adding channels works via the menu (top left).

Conclusion: Reach and followers with Combin

There are several social media software tools for managing networks. Does Combin differ from the other tools? Here are the key facts after our test:

1. Hashtag / User Search – Here you can search for posts published under a specific hashtag. In addition, the search results can be narrowed down by locations, time periods and the amount of results displayed. The results can then be liked, commented on or the users who have published the photos can be followed or later unfollowed.
2. Manage / activate existing fans – People you follow, but who do not follow you can be activated here through likes and comments. At the same time, you can unfollow users.

With Instagram and the Like, Comment, Follow/Unfollow system, Combin has its unique selling point. Combin is a smart solution for Instagram. The simple interface allows social media managers to manage it easily. Combin’s strength lies in targeted interaction building with new users to turn them into your own fans. With the search you can find relevant people who can then be activated for your own channel.

Recommended for beginners and professionals in agencies.

Advantages

• Fast installation and clear layout
• Easy entry even for beginners
• Automatic processing of likes and comments (and follows)
• Increase of the own fan numbers
• Increasing your own organic reach
• When using more than 4 accounts cheaper than Social Bots, per account (Business) only 7,14 Euro

Disadvantages

• No web-based solution available for desktop / notebook. Small software installation is required.
• Statistics are not yet available, e.g. to check the success of individual hashtags and their Like actions or to compare them with others.
• All interactions must be “commissioned” manually, there is no way to automate liking or commenting.

Prices

Here again the info on pricing (as of 10/2017):

• Private: 11.90 Euro / month includes 1 channel
• Business: 35.70 Euro / month includes 5 channels

Digression: Combin vs. social bots

Social Bot 3.0? For those who are already a little deeper in the topic of social bots, here’s a little digression. Combin basically offers the same functions as regular social bots. The differences lie in the manual control, which also makes it possible not to mark certain content with a like/comment. This way, unfavorable interactions can be excluded by the eye of a social media manager. Related Contents and Users can be filtered as well as the others. Statistics are to come soon. Currently, no evaluation of the engagement rate or success rate is possible to see which channels convert and which do not.

Combin is worthwhile for high-value projects where the usual social bots interact too randomly. With manual control, content can be filtered better and special hashtags can also be used over time, e.g. for campaigns. In terms of price/performance ratio, both systems differ in the qualitative output, or the possibility to manually intervene in the output. Automatic social bots run without control, require less time, but interactions are random.

• Start now with Combin

More functions, more analyses – that’s Combin 2.0:

• NEW: Combin 2.0 – Test Report & Updates