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The Boutique Vetting Desk: A Playbook for Authentic Influencer Partnerships

Brands and agencies are pouring marketing dollars into influencer campaigns, only to see minimal returns. The core issue is a failure to properly vet influencers for authenticity and audience fit. Without the right tools, you're flying blind, risking your budget on inflated follower counts, bot-driven engagement, and audiences that don't align with your target customers, ultimately sabotaging your campaign ROI.

This playbook provides a professional framework for assessing influencer authenticity at scale. We'll show you how to build 'The Boutique Vetting Desk' using a powerful (and free) CRM as your central database, a dedicated social listening tool for quantitative analysis, and a simple project management board to streamline the human vetting process. This stack empowers small teams and agencies to move beyond vanity metrics and build partnerships based on genuine influence and audience alignment.

Expected Outcomes

  • Significantly reduce investment in influencers with fake followers or bot-driven engagement.
  • Achieve higher campaign ROI by ensuring a precise match between your brand's target customer and the influencer's audience.
  • Establish a scalable, repeatable workflow for vetting and managing dozens of influencers.
  • Build a valuable, proprietary database of pre-vetted influencers within your CRM for future campaigns.
  • Make data-driven decisions on partnerships, backed by both quantitative social listening and qualitative human analysis.

Core Tools in This Stack

HubSpot CRM

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A comprehensive CRM platform that includes a suite of tools for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service, with a completely free CRM at its core to help businesses manage customer relationships and accelerate growth.

Key Features
  • Contact & Lead Management
  • Sales Pipeline Visualization
  • Deal Tracking and Management
  • Email Tracking and Templates
  • Meeting Scheduling Tool
  • Live Chat and Chatbots
  • Reporting and Analytics Dashboards
  • Task and Activity Automation
Ideal For

Company Size: Small, Medium

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Creative & Media

Pricing

Model: Freemium, Subscription

Tier: Starter

Ease of Use

Very High

Brand24

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An AI-powered social media monitoring tool that provides instant access to brand mentions across social media, news, blogs, podcasts, and more. It helps businesses track online conversations, manage reputation, and gain customer insights.

Key Features
  • Real-time Mentions Feed
  • Sentiment Analysis
  • Influencer Scoring
  • Discussion Volume Chart
  • Customizable Alerts & Notifications
  • Automated Reporting and Data Exporting
  • Hashtag Tracking
  • Podcast Monitoring
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Subscription, Free Trial

Tier: Medium

Ease of Use

Medium

Trello

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Trello is a visual collaboration tool that creates a shared perspective on any project. It uses boards, lists, and cards to organize tasks and workflows, making it easy for teams to manage projects and track progress.

Key Features
  • Kanban Boards
  • Drag-and-Drop Cards and Lists
  • Automation (Butler)
  • Power-Ups (Integrations)
  • Customizable Templates
  • Checklists and Due Dates
  • Multiple Views (Timeline, Calendar, Dashboard)
  • Team Collaboration Tools
Ideal For

Company Size: Micro, Small, Medium, Large

Industries: Technology & Software, Business & Professional Services, Retail & E-commerce, Creative & Media, Education & Non-Profit, Health & Wellness, Other

Pricing

Model: Freemium, Subscription

Tier: Low-to-Mid

Ease of Use

Very Easy

The Workflow

graph TD subgraph "The Boutique Vetting Desk" direction LR N0["HubSpot CRM"] N1["Brand24"] N2["Trello"] N1 -- "Creates/enriches contact with mention data" --> N0 N1 -- "Creates card based on sentiment" --> N2 N0 -- "Adds contact link to card" --> N2 end classDef blue fill:#3498db,stroke:#2980b9,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; classDef green fill:#2ecc71,stroke:#27ae60,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; classDef orange fill:#f39c12,stroke:#d35400,stroke-width:2px,color:#fff; class N0 blue; class N1 blue; class N2 blue;

Integration Logic

  • Brand-Fit Connector for HubSpot

    This integration creates a seamless workflow from social listening to action. When Brand24 detects a new mention matching your predefined keywords, the Brand-Fit Connector is triggered. It first searches HubSpot to see if a contact exists with the mention author's social media handle or email. If a match is found, the contact's record is enriched with details from the mention (content, link, sentiment) as a timeline activity or note. If no contact exists, a new one is created. Concurrently, based on the mention's sentiment (positive, negative, or neutral), a new card is created in a designated Trello list. For example, negative mentions create cards in a 'Support Follow-up' list, while positive mentions land in a 'Marketing Engagement' list. Each Trello card includes a direct link to the corresponding HubSpot contact, providing full context for your team.

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Stop wasting your budget and build authentic partnerships that drive real campaign ROI.