Automating Brands and Micro-Influencer Collaborations | William Gasner from Stack Influence

Ernesto Quezada: Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments. With relevant micro experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more, stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get access to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us on pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have William from Stack Influence, maker, and marketer, CMO there with them. How are you doing today, William?

William Gasner: Doing well. Thanks for having me on, Ernesto.

Ernesto: Awesome, great to have you here with us, William. Well, curious—I’m sure our listeners are tuning in wondering what Stack Influence is all about. So, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

William: Absolutely. Stack Influence is a marketplace platform that automates product seeding collaborations between brands and micro-influencers. And we do that at scale—think hundreds to thousands of collaborations. The benefits are clear: influencers get products they love, make money, and build their influencer resumes. Brands increase online awareness, boost sales, and accumulate image and video content with full rights licenses to use in other marketing initiatives. That’s Stack Influence in a nutshell; I could go much deeper, but that’s a quick synopsis.

Ernesto: Definitely, that’s interesting. So that way, our listeners can get a good understanding—what would you say is the main problem you solve? Do you focus more on connecting brands with influencers, or is there another key problem you address?

William: Absolutely. Being a two-sided marketplace, we’re a middleman connecting both influencers and brands. On the brand side, the major issue we’re solving is visibility and competition. Most of our clients are direct-to-consumer e-commerce companies, many of whom sell on marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart. The challenges they face include building a strong, recognizable brand and breaking through the competition.

We help them by strengthening their brand, creating high-quality content—image and video—that they can reuse for advertising and marketing campaigns, and driving traffic to boost sales and search relevance on platforms like Amazon. Additionally, managing influencers—finding the right people, working with enough of them, and coordinating everything—can be daunting. Our platform automates all of that at scale, using AI to manage collaborations from start to finish.

Ernesto: Great! So, who would you say is your ideal customer? Are there specific types of brands or creators you focus on?

William: Good question. We typically work with brands in beauty, fashion, fitness, cosmetics, and food—products that fit naturally into people’s lifestyles and are social media-friendly. Certain niches don’t perform as well for influencer promotions. For example, a product like athlete’s foot cream might be a great seller but isn’t something people are eager to showcase on social media.

On the influencer side, we focus on nano and micro-influencers—everyday social media users with less than 100,000 followers. These individuals usually do promotions in exchange for product compensation or small fees, building their resumes while promoting products they genuinely enjoy. This authenticity resonates with their tight-knit follower communities, making their testimonials more trustworthy.

Ernesto: Awesome. How do brands or creators usually find out about Stack Influence? What’s your top client acquisition channel?

William: We have a few strategies. Being a marketplace platform, we’re always acquiring two user groups, which presents challenges in maintaining equilibrium. On the acquisition side, we rely heavily on cold outreach strategies—email, direct messages, and SMS—to find potential users online through social media and e-commerce platforms. We also run advertising campaigns on social platforms and search engines. Lastly, we leverage influencer marketing, essentially using our own product to attract both influencers and brands. We even have referral programs to incentivize our network to bring in more users.

Ernesto: Great insights! For our listeners, you can always check them out at stackinfluence.com. William, what role does the website play for your client acquisition?

William: The website is a critical acquisition channel for us. We’re big proponents of website optimization and SEO. We create custom landing pages for each marketing initiative to build trust, capture leads, and engage visitors effectively. SEO is a significant investment for us, especially with changes in AI-driven search engine algorithms. It’s a long-term initiative, but it’s the most cost-effective marketing channel for driving quality leads.

Ernesto: That’s fantastic. Are there any tools or methods you’d recommend to our listeners for lead generation?

William: Absolutely. Content creation is paramount—blog posts, case studies, and white papers are great ways to attract an audience. Influencer marketing is another effective strategy. In today’s ad-saturated world, authentic testimonials from real people resonate far more than traditional ads. Whether you’re a SaaS company or an e-commerce brand, these approaches are crucial for success.

Ernesto: Let’s switch gears a bit. As CMO at Stack Influence, what are your key tasks on a day-to-day basis?

William: I oversee all marketing and advertising efforts. I also engage in sales processes to ensure alignment between marketing and sales teams. My day-to-day involves strategy analysis, team management, and ensuring our OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are on track. Adjusting strategies when necessary and dealing with emails also take up a chunk of my time.

Ernesto: Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Let’s jump into our rapid-fire questions. Ready?

William: Ready!

Ernesto: First off, what’s the last book you read?

William: Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman. It’s a great read for anyone in a growth phase.

Ernesto: Great choice. What’s the one thing your company is most focused on right now?

William: User acquisition—scaling leads on both the influencer and brand sides while keeping costs down.

Ernesto: If there were no boundaries in technology, what’s one thing you’d fix for your role as a marketer?

William: Perfect customer tracking attribution. With privacy changes and the end of cookie tracking, knowing exactly where leads come from and tracking them effectively would be invaluable.

Ernesto: Agreed! If you could automate one repetitive task, what would it be?

William: Email. Even with AI tools, email still consumes a lot of time. Full automation would be fantastic.

Ernesto: Lastly, what’s one piece of advice you’d give yourself if you were starting your marketing journey today?

William: Start focusing on content creation and SEO early. Content compounds over time and becomes the foundation for many other marketing initiatives while driving cost-effective inbound leads.

Ernesto: Excellent advice. William, thanks for being on the show today. If someone forgets everything else, what’s the one thing they should remember about Stack Influence?

William: If you want to find micro-influencers without lifting a finger, go to Stack Influence.

Ernesto: You heard it, folks—stackinfluence.com. Connecting brands to everyday creators. William, thank you for joining us. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in. Looking forward to our next episode at Pathmonk Presents. Thanks, William!

William: Thanks, Ernesto!