Since its founding in 2019, Mavely has processed over 300 million purchase journeys and distributed nearly $40 million to creators by focusing on one key metric—sales performance rather than follower counts. 

The “Everyday Influencer Platform®” enables anyone with a social media account to become a successful creator, regardless of audience size.

Mavely trademarked the term “Everyday Influencers®” because it believes brands are waking up to the “power of an everyday person giving a recommendation” at scale across social media, explains the company’s co-founder Evan Wray, referring to the departure from traditional influencer models centered on celebrities and mega-influencers.

The success stories demonstrate the efficacy of Mavely’s approach.

“We had a teacher who joined Mavely while teaching and started posting about school supplies she bought for her students,” Evan recalls. “She didn’t have a massive following when she started out—just a couple of thousand people. But when she posted something, people would buy it because she had this whole community of teachers and knew their needs and pain points.” 

This creator later transitioned from teaching to full-time content creation on Mavely. “We’re not turning people down because of followers,” Evan points out, contrasting the company’s approach to other platforms that require a minimum five-figure follower count for entry. 

“Suddenly, the everyday mom on TikTok has the same reach as a celebrity on the platform. That’s very, very powerful.”

A Platform Built for Creators

Mavely distinguishes itself through its dedication to creator success. “From day one, we’ve been creator first,” says Evan. “We’ve built mobile apps, desktop apps, and Chrome extensions, all with the creator in mind.”

This creator-focused strategy guides the platform’s development. “Our product team’s key metric is how much money our creators make per hour and how we increase that over time,” Evan reveals. “Think of Mavely as a suite of tools that help creators make more money in less time. That’s fundamentally what we do.”

The mobile app functions as the core of Mavely’s ecosystem. It enables creators to search through the company’s 1,400+ brand partnerships, track trending products in the community, monitor the highest commission rates, and analyze their audience’s buying patterns in real time.

“You can whip it out and run your entire business regardless of what social platform it’s on, just from your app-based ecosystem,” Evan explains, adding that it’s “a pretty big differentiator.”

A key feature is the Mavely MyShop function, which Evan describes as “a shoppable storefront that you can put on TikTok or Instagram or wherever your audience is.” He adds, “From the palm of your hand, you can create looks, gift guides, and collections that are all shoppable and tied to you as a creator.”

The integrated tools are free and eliminate common creator expenses. “We [cover expenses] because we have partnerships… that save people thousands of dollars a year. You don’t have to pay for some of these DM solutions because we’ve integrated them for free.”

Evan highlights Mavely’s technological foundation. “Many influencer companies are fundamentally agency-based; it’s a great business, but we are truly a technology business,” he says. “We have a huge team of engineers working every day to make it easier for you to create content, convert links, and suggest the right product that will pay you the highest commission.”

The platform uses advanced technology to optimize creator success. “We use a lot of machine learning and suggested products or trends to make it easier for a creator,” Evan notes. This approach shows results: “Creators can make much money on Mavely over time. We’ve already paid almost $40 million to creators, and every two weeks, it grows by a couple of millions.”

For Evan, success means combining simplicity with results. “One of the biggest pieces of feedback we hear from creators is that the platform is easy to use. That’s the total key,” he says. “If you use a Mavely link and create content on the platform, you’ll make more money here than anywhere else. That’s the ethos we try to help with our creators.”

The Shift to Performance Marketing

Mavely aims to advance on the social commerce front by focusing on performance-based influencer marketing. 

This progression follows established patterns in digital advertising. “As advertising industries get more sophisticated data of what consumers are buying, they always go to performance,” Evan explains. 

“It’s only natural that influencer and creator marketing will go towards performance. This is not to say that there won’t always be a place for branding, likes, engagement, and content creation, but you’re going to have to tie it to a performance metric for a brand,” he adds.

The platform prepares creators for this transition through education. “We have Mavely University, which helps creators create amazing content that drives a sale and an outcome for a brand,” Evan says. “Influencers generally need to start thinking about how to adjust or lean into this idea of performance marketing and driving an ROI for their brand partners.”

Major brands like Adidas and Macy’s seek measurable results through Mavely. “They say, ‘Here’s a budget. I want five times back in sales,’” Evan reveals. 

“Pretty much every other platform out there is very focused on impressions, engagements, comments, likes, i.e., top of the funnel, which is great, and we deliver it as well. But our key metric is the bottom of the funnel—what do we drive in performance?”

The platform’s analytics provide comprehensive insights. “Because we’re performance-driven, we can see holistically across the entire Mavely network which creators or platforms are good at driving sales for certain product categories for certain brands,” Evan explains. 

“Last year, we had over 300 million purchase journeys—seeing from the Instagram or TikTok posts what you bought or didn’t buy. We use that data to inform our brands how they should engage with Mavely, which influencers they should pick, and which platforms they should target.”

The results demonstrate effectiveness. “If we can say, time and time again, ‘Give us a dollar, and we’ll use our everyday influencers at scale to give you $5 back,’ that’s a very easy sales pitch,” Evan notes. 

“Most sophisticated brands we work with focus on that key metric. They don’t care about follower counts, likes, or engagement,” Evan says.

Building Strong Creator Connections

Despite its technology focus, Mavely identified a crucial need in the creator community. Many creators and influencers are seeking in-person connections, Evan notes. “They have millions or tens of thousands of followers collectively but don’t interact with real people that much.”

The platform responded with community initiatives. “We launched Mavely Meetups – micro-events happening nationwide,” Evan shares. “It’s not just getting people there and telling them to use Mavely. It’s about getting a local group of creators together and connecting them.”

These events feature innovative formats. “We run initiatives like influencer speed dating where participants can spend a minute or two with all the other folks there,” says Evan. “What ends up happening is they create amazing connections, share insights on techniques and approaches, and become friends.”

The support continues beyond events. “We always get inbound messages saying, ‘I’m joining Mavely because you’ll actually respond to me,'” Evan shares.

Mavely Meetup in Denver, October 2024

Social Commerce’s Next Phase

Mavely believes creators and influencers are the digital generation’s small and medium-sized businesses, Evan shares. “We think half the digital economy will be creator-powered… we’re talking trillions of dollars in a creator economy,” he adds.

The platform continues to expand. “I talk a lot about the Mavely ripple internally,” Evan shares. “We’re one company that reaches 120,000+ influencers that reach a billion people socially. That’s a big responsibility. When we first started Mavely, we didn’t know how big it would get. Now I think we’re going to be massive.”

“If you’re thinking about being a creator or want to test it, do it, put yourself out there, and see what happens,” Evan concludes. “The space is going to be huge. Many people don’t understand how big this shift is from brand-based marketing to people-based marketing and social-based commerce. It will be one of our generation’s key mega waves.”