Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
6 months (Jan 23-June 23)
Core Responsibilities
Lead design team of 2, product strategy, Market research, IXD, visual design, usability test
Our team, consisting of a Social Media Manager and an Influencer Brand Designer, tackles a common issue faced by mid-tier influencers: the struggle to monetize their accounts despite their niche expertise and engaged audiences. Smaller businesses also struggle to find effective influencers aligned with their products, leading them to abandon social media marketing. Our project bridges this gap by empowering mid-tier influencers to achieve sustained success while helping smaller businesses connect with relevant, impactful partners for their campaigns.
Problem and insights
The High Cost of Trial and Error: Why Small Businesses Struggle with
Social Media Marketing
Small businesses struggle to develop effective social media strategies and find suitable influencers, leading many to abandon their marketing efforts after investing funds without seeing results. Influencers with smaller followings, despite their potential to contribute to a business's growth, are often overlooked due to their limited audience size.
Integrated Account Analysis and Predictive Modeling for Future Collaboration Success
Assisting business owners in selecting the most suitable candidates by deciphering data through the disguise of content.
Multi-Campaign Management
Assists users in not missing any crucial project milestones while concurrently managing multiple projects with different timelines.
Prospective Partner Review
As a crucial marketing decision for the business, campaign candidates require repeated consideration before a decision can be reached。
Goal
Empowering Partnerships: An Equal, Transparent, and Data-Driven
Collaboration Approach
In this fiercely competitive business landscape, harnessing the power of social media to drive sustainable economic growth proves to be a formidable challenge for both small businesses and individual creators. Our project aims to tackle this issue head-on by delivering pragmatic, actionable strategies that unlock the full potential of social media, paving the way for long-term success.
We conducted a series of initial interviews to gather insights and understand the influencer landscape. We interviewed four influential influencers and two business owners, gaining valuable perspectives on the industry. These interviews informed our understanding of influencer needs and expectations, helping us design a user-centered influencer recruitment app that caters to both influencers and businesses effectively.
Why choose influencer marketing?
How did it start? What criteria are used to select candidates?
How to contact the other party?
What kind of feedback can be expected?
Feedback on pricing?
Received services and process?
Final results(ROI)?
Long-term impact?
How to find customers?
How to determine pricing?
What are the factors considered in pricing?
Service process?
Payment steps?
Final results?
Repeat customers?
After interviewing stakeholders, we visualized the most used marketing methods in a workflow for analysis. Current workflows lack alignment between influencer image and brand values, leaving businesses uncertain about ROI. This ambiguity, even with contracts, hinders businesses from investing confidently in social platform marketing.
The current social media marketing services involve either agency-mediated connections with influencers or direct outreach through platforms. The first option suits risk-tolerant large enterprises, while the second, though cost-effective, demands businesses to exercise sound judgment.
In summary, the number of followers an influencer has does not guarantee more sales. To drive conversions, businesses should prioritize relevance and engagement by selecting influencers whose audience aligns with their target market. Quality content, influencer-brand alignment, and effective call-to-action strategies are crucial for influencing purchasing decisions.
Moving beyond a follower-centric approach, we propose a balanced organic marketing solution that benefits both influencers and small businesses. While large companies rely on data analysis to find suitable influencers, we advocate for a more nuanced evaluation system. Small businesses should shift from solely valuing follower count to considering engagement rates and authentic connections. By recognizing influencers' unique value beyond mere numbers, we aim to create a win-win situation that supports both parties in the influencer marketing landscape.
In dissecting both business and influencer personas, revealing their unique challenges and frustrations, we embark on an enlightening journey that lays the foundation for developing an app committed to delivering a balanced and equitable user experience.
Problem Statement
Navigating the Pitfalls: How Uncertainties in Influencer Selection
Disrupt Power Dynamics and Derail Small Business Partnerships
The digital marketing landscape lacks an efficient platform that seamlessly connects influencers and brands. Influencers struggle to find suitable partnerships, while brands face challenges identifying relevant influencers. Without a dedicated matching app, both parties endure time-consuming processes, miss opportunities, and face frustrations. A comprehensive app is needed to streamline influencer-brand relationships, enhance collaboration, and unlock the full potential of successful partnerships in digital marketing.
Value Proposition
Facilitating an evidence-supported decision-making process and
guiding both parties through a seamless collaboration journey for
a confident experience
Our matching app is designed to revolutionize the way influencers and brands connect, collaborate, and maximize their digital marketing potential. By leveraging advanced algorithms and user preferences, our app offers a tailored and efficient experience for influencers and brands alike.
. . .
DESIGN
In shaping our information architecture for brands, our focus is on precision and efficiency. We offer a targeted influencer search, allowing brands to find influencers aligned with their objectives, audience, and industry. The platform streamlines collaboration management, covering influencer outreach, campaign briefs, and content approvals, ensuring a seamless process from start to finish.
In designing the wireframe, I prioritized the campaign creation and connection steps, drawing inspiration from the intuitive interactions found in popular dating apps. This approach offers a mutual selection opportunity, ensuring a seamless and engaging experience for both parties.
In the refined wireframe, we extended the depth of campaign setup details to empower the system algorithm for more precise influencer matchmaking. Furthermore, within the influencer's profile interface, we enriched the presentation of cross-platform performance metrics and associated post content, enhancing the overall user experience.
In our case study, we conducted a comprehensive usability test for our influencer recruitment app, involving five business owners. The purpose of the usability test was to evaluate the app's user experience and identify areas for improvement. The business owners actively engaged with the app, providing valuable feedback on its functionality, ease of use, and overall usability.
To see the complete Usability Study and Analysis, view my Process Deck.
The usability test revealed shortcomings in the Explore Page's effectiveness for business owners' decision-making. The influencer format diverges from current video content trends, and the Inbox and Message Center face challenges in managing tasks for multifaceted marketing campaigns. Design refinements are essential to address these issues and enhance user experience.
The content showcased on 'The Bond' by influencers should predominantly reflect posts that demonstrate marketing and sales capabilities, necessitating a careful curation of presented content. Additionally, to align with current social media trends, priority should be given to video content over photos.
To ensure the effectiveness of online campaigns, consistent investment is necessary. When managing multiple active campaigns simultaneously and planning for future campaigns, it is crucial to categorize and prioritize the information received by users.
With the assistance of the system's prompts, users can methodically complete their daily campaign management tasks, ensuring no critical messages are overlooked.
In the post-validation test open-ended survey, all participants (100%) confirmed their ability to distinguish between various campaigns, effectively resolving conflicts when handling multiple concurrent campaigns. Additionally, 80% of participants acknowledged the helpfulness of AI-powered analysis in their data examination. Notably, during the usability test, only 2 participants initially expressed intent to use Bond. However, after further testing, this number increased to 5 participants, indicating an increased interest in utilizing the service.
To see the complete Usability Study and Analysis,view my Process Deck.
While Bond serves as a platform for both sides of online campaigns, its core profit model revolves around businesses and brands. The platform relies on service fees and value-added services paid by these entities.
As brands recognize Bond and continue to hire influencers through the platform, more influencers naturally choose Bond as their preferred platform for showcasing their commercial presence. This establishes a healthy business cycle.
The AI collects account data of influencers from major social media platforms and filters out the most important data to present to users based on their campaign objectives. The platform also provides recommended evaluations based on that data.
Pro users have the option to pay for more detailed account reports. As campaign budgets increase, it is worthwhile to spend a small amount to gain insights into the performance of the desired candidates across platforms.
Selecting a brand ambassador for the future of your brand requires careful consideration. Many individuals do not make this decision based solely on intuition or fleeting interest.
By allowing users to bookmark influencer accounts they are interested in, we provide them with more time to contemplate. Even if the influencers do not align with the current campaign theme, it enables prompt contact when suitable projects arise in the future.
Curating Influencer Content for Enhanced User Experience and Effective Brand Ambassador Selection
Influencers often share identical content across platforms, making the presentation of their work redundant. To enhance user experience, Bond should selectively curate and showcase representative pieces that effectively demonstrate the influencer's style and impact.
Unlike dating apps, where first impressions take precedence, choosing brand ambassadors requires an objective assessment of an influencer's account performance. As influencers' online personas are often curated by a team and lack a central identity, effectively showcasing their commercial potential and influence becomes a key challenge for businesses. Thoughtful selection of works and strategic data presentation are crucial in bridging this gap and conveying the influencer's value to brands.
Pivoting Design Focus to Better Serve Business Stakeholders
During the wireframing stage, we inadvertently adopted a biased approach, aligning the design primarily with social media users while overlooking the diverse needs of our business stakeholders. We failed to consider that content popularity among followers might not necessarily translate to effective decision-making for businesses.
Recognizing this oversight prompted a shift in our design objective. We now focus on filtering data based on businesses' current social media performance, industry relevance, and campaign goals. By offering tailored recommendations and valuable insights, we aim to transform the platform from a mere intermediary to a comprehensive online campaign assistant, fostering a seamless user experience for our business clients.
Project Time Line
Post Review
Documentation
Legal Contract
Customer Service
Campaign ROI Analysis
Payment Tracking
Payment Escrow
Payment Disputes and Resolution
Subscription Plans
Explore Page
Brand Recommendation
Brand Analysis
Contact