Australian tech start-up connecting businesses with most influential bloggers launches in Sydney

The marketing duo behind Sydney based tech start-up, Blog Avenues, have officially launched Australia’s newest influencer marketing platform, after a successful soft launch within the blogging community in late 2015.

With more than two decades of experience in PR, Marketing and Social Media between them, Lisa Johnston and Rachael Ballard, want to create a ‘Black Book’ of influential bloggers, for businesses to source for partnerships to build campaigns that engage the right audience.

To date, the platform has seen over 370 influencer registrations on Blog Avenues, with a combined reach of over 16 million followers across all the major Social Media channels. Lured by the potential for a new income stream, registrations of Australia’s most influential bloggers continue to grow daily.

After a successful soft launch to bloggers in late 2015, Blog Avenues has now launched to brands and agencies who can sign up at the website www.blogavenues.com.

Lisa Johnston, considered an industry expert on Social Media analytics and strategy, noticed a gap in the market for a platform that allowed businesses to discover, connect and engage with the influencers that can help grow and engage their communities.

“Having worked with over 500 businesses, I’m still seeing a lot of confusion around the concept of influencer marketing,” said Lisa. “That’s what inspired the need for a web platform that made collaboration simple. Through intuitive filtering and tagging, Blog Avenues takes the complexity out of influencer marketing.”

Her business partner, Rachael Ballard, has over 10 years of experience in PR and events marketing, working with local and international brands including McGrath Estate Agents, Toyota and Thrifty Car Rental. After learning of Lisa’s idea, Rachael says she recognised the potential benefit for businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Blog Avenues is completely free for bloggers and influencers, with no commissions or fees charged to sign up to the platform or once a successful partnership is secured.

Bloggers and influencers with a minimum of 5,000 followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Pinterest can sign-up to create a personalised profile to become immediately discoverable by businesses looking to engage their audience. Bloggers register under a specific category – Food & Drink, Hair & Beauty, Fashion, Home & Interiors, Lifestyle, Parenting, Travel, Health Fitness & Wellbeing, Wedding – enabling businesses to search for candidates using the platform’s filtering and tagging technology.

For businesses, a 6 month subscription will cost $155 (incl. GST) which includes access to the database of bloggers in their industry or category of choice and the opportunity to ‘Post & Pitch’ one campaign. The website’s ‘Post & Pitch’ functionality enables businesses to create campaign briefs and targeted opportunities that bloggers can engage with, allowing them to pitch ideas and concepts of their own in response to the briefs. Businesses can also choose to access additional blogger categories and list subsequent Post & Pitch’ campaigns for $50 (incl. GST) per category or post.