Crafting a Winning Influencer Brief -

Understanding the Influencer Landscape

If you’re reading this, you’ve definitely heard the buzzword “influencer briefs” and are looking to know its relevance and why it should not miss in your influencer marketing toolkit.

The truth is, influencer marketing is not a venture you can just wake up and dive in by dispensing your bucks left, right, and center to every other influencer.

You need a proper structure and an influencer marketing strategy. Your strategy should include a detailed influencer brief as the north star of your campaigns. But then again, achieving these is not rocket science.

We’ve detailed every important aspect of influencer marketing briefs that will get you well on your way to making moves in this industry down below. So grab a coffee and get comfortable!

What is an influencer brief?

An influencer marketing brief is a document that lays out all details of your marketing campaign and acts as a roadmap for influencers to follow when creating campaign content.

However, it is not only an influencer’s manual but also a reference to all other stakeholders before, during, and after the campaign.

The document ensures everyone’s on the same page and working towards a common goal. It is also the first document that is tabled before an influencer-brand collaboration is signed off in an agreement.

Once the both parties agree on a working brief for the campaign, the influencer contract is signed.

Is an influencer brief the same as the creator brief?

Quite so often a creator brief is used in the place of an influencer brief. Although the two are used interchangeably and outline the contents of an influencer campaign, they are slightly different.

While an influencer brief guides an influencer campaign, a creator brief guides a creator’s work. It lays the groundwork for content creators’ collaborations.

Creators may include freelancers, videographers, graphic designers, and any other creative who may not have a significant following as influencers do. Nonetheless, both briefs serve as roadmaps to influencers and creators collaborations.

Why your brand needs a solid influencer marketing brief

A nicely tailored influencer campaign brief has the following benefits to the campaign team:

It sets clear expectations for the campaign.
An influencer marketing brief is a guiding compass for influencers throughout the project outlining the deliverables, deadlines, and content approval procedures.
It helps maintain consistency in terms of brand voice, tone, and messaging throughout the campaign.
With all necessary information contained in a content brief, there’s less back-and-forth between the influencer and the brand, making operations flow seamlessly.
An influencer brief takes into account the legal implications and obligation of any brand-influencer relationship.
It therefore helps both parties stick within legal provisions in the influencer marketing industry.

So now let’s get to the meaty part of our agenda – what constitutes an influencer brief?

Key components of an influencer campaign brief

The blueprint of your influencer marketing campaign should highlight:

1. Brand information

Your influencer brief should articulate the instrumental elements that define your brand identity. Talk of your brand mission, design, messaging style, your mantra or slogan.

This goes beyond the visual elements – brand color, logo, and themes. Create a living, breathing entity beyond these visuals to help influencers understand your brand values, personality, and goals.

Nonetheless, don’t just let the values be writings on paper, but practice them in your collaborations. This way, influencers can be more authentic in their productions knowing you’re committed to making an impact. Think of it more like, walking your talk.

How to articulate your brand information in your influencer brief?

So you have an idea of what representing your brand information should look like. But how do you get it formalized and on paper?

Well, there are a few guiding questions that can help you nail these crucial details without an aorta of doubt. They are:

What are your core values? What values does your brand take pride in championing?
What is your competitive advantage? What sets your brand apart from the saturated market?
What are your goals for this campaign? Do you intend to raise brand awareness, increase sales, boost engagement, promote a new product line, or just pour some goodwill back into the world?
What emotional connection do you hope to communicate to your audience? How would you like to appeal to your audience? Do you want to earn their trust, rebuild your brand reputation, or earn their loyalty?

These question will help articulate your intentions to your influencers which they can then leverage to create consumer-centric campaign content.

Don’t hesitate to go above and beyond for your influencer brief. If telling your backstory could very well sum up your goals, go right ahead.

Feel free to take a leaf from influencer brief samples online to help guide you through the process.

2. Campaign overview

The campaign overview in your influencer brief should constitute the campaign objectives in summary. Afterward these objectives should be expounded in black and white, meaning they should not only highlight but also quantify the goals of the campaign.

Let’s get to the finer details below:

Objectives

Your campaign objectives must be measurable. Rather than jotting down ambiguous goals like “increase engagement”, quantify your targets for each of this goals. For instance, aim for a 4% engagement per month.

With SMART goals, your objectives will be time-bound and specific, making it easier to monitor your progress. Even better, these will be the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you weigh whether the campaign was worth your investment.

Shaping your campaign message

Say goodbye to leaving your influencers clueless on what they should say on their captions during the campaign. Your messaging should be nothing but clear, addressing your consumer’s pain points to the letter.

To articulate this in your influencer marketing briefs, do some background research on your target audience. Evaluate their interests, cultures, and purchasing intent.

Put yourself in your consumer’s shoes, what would they want to hear before making that purchase or subscribe to your newsletter? Once you nail your target audience persona, only then can you define the appropriate messaging for your campaign.

Your campaign message is like your brand elevator pitch but with a dash of personality, authenticity, and credibility. Your influencers will use this information to build their promotion sprees.

However, as you tell your influencers what to say and how to say it, leave room for creative autonomy. Strive to strike a balance between dictating campaign messaging and embracing influencer personality to achieve the impact you’re looking for.

Quick tip – going viral does not mean being everywhere at once. It’s about being at the right place at the right time. You don’t need to stretch yourself thin while you could ace your campaign objectives with just a few platforms.

This section of your influencer brief speaks to your social media strategy. What channels would you have your campaign on? Where does your target audience pass time online? What are the platform’s content format?

By answering these questions you inform the driver of your campaign where they should launch the campaign – channels where your consumers are most active.

Whether it’s Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter, your influencers must tailor your campaign content to suit these platforms and appeal to their audiences.

At the end of the day, what works for Instagram may not entirely work for a LinkedIn audience. For this reason, your influencer marketing brief need to define the content format, frequency, and style of posting for each platform selected.

4. Deliverables

After defining the social media channels for your campaign, include the specific deliverables expected from your influencers.

Your influencer brief needs to articulate your campaign content scheduling plan. Whether you’re looking for an on-going promotion, a one-time post, or a Q&A series with your audience revealing your products, guide your influencers on how often this should be done.

Specify on how they should handle audience feedback. How should they respond to negative criticism? How can they encourage user-generated content? Bear in mind that all these factors are interconnected and play into audience engagement.

As you do this, be realistic on your expectations to avoid overwhelming influencers with work. Allow ample time for your influencer to work their magic. Remember, good creations take time.

5. Content guidelines

The do’s and don’ts

There are certain best practices for content creation that shouldn’t miss out on your influencer brief. They are as follows:

Do’s:

Offer authentic and credible information to your audience. As the influencer marketing landscape widens, audiences have an eye for disingenuous content and you do not want to be on the receiving side of that spectrum.
Transparency is golden.
Maintain active engagement. This calls for responding to comments, shout outs, mentions, and question in a timely manner.
Leverage catchy headlines. Whether its through humor, curiosity, or sarcasm, stand out with your content headline and live up to this expectation.
The 80/20 rule: Focus 80% of your content on entertainment and educating your audience and 20% on your brand interests.

Don’ts:

Avoid misrepresenting your product details. Keep it real in the posts.
Avoid misleading headlines. This will gaslight your audience into clicking on your content without reaping useful conversions.
Don’t make false endorsements to your audience. Encourage your influencers to be real and sincere with their followers.
Choosing popularity over your brand values. When push comes to shove, what will save you is your brand reputation.
Keyword stuffing. This leads to illogical captions which may affect your content quality. Ensure your keywords blend naturally in your content.

Visual aesthetics and branding

Here’s the hard truth – first impression matters. Regardless of your social media platform, your design is your silent ambassador. People are often drawn to visuals quicker than they are drawn to sentences and statistics.

It is, therefore, important to get your visuals right. We’re talking color, theme, lighting, photo quality, and the general appearance of your posts and video content.

Your influencer brief should include guidelines to ensure your influencer’s production presentation is top notch and appeals to the visual branding standards of the market.

Additionally, boost these guidelines with equipment provision to make their productions as seamless as possible.

Content approval process

Last but not least in the content creation realm, is outlining your content approval process in your influencer marketing brief.

Before content is approved, establish the steps for submission and review. Guide your influencers through the review process in your influencer briefs.

From editorial screening to consistency and alignment in messaging, let them know the checkpoints for quality content. This will reduce the back-and-forth revisions between your content review team and the influencer.

Ultimately, by revealing your content approval process, whether automated or manual, you leave no room for delays and hiccups throughout your campaign production.

6. Compensation and payment terms

Finally, the 800-pound gorilla in your influencer brief – compensation. Your campaign brief should specify the type of compensation agreed upon by both parties.

Define when (in installments, upfront, or upon completing the deliverables) and where (through check, in cash, bank transfers, PayPal, etc.) payments should be made and if possible, automate the process to avoid potential delays.

Keep in mind that influencer compensation should be fair for a productive and long-term collaboration. At the end of the day, you’re not just looking for a one-off deal but a brand ambassador who will champion your name far and wide.

Compensation structure

When it comes to compensation structure, define the agreed upon compensation from your negotiations. Whether it’s through commissions, bonuses, gifting, pay-per-post, a flat fee, or an hourly pay, articulate the terms for which this compensation will be accorded and also when it should be withheld.

Be transparent when articulating these factors to avoid ambiguity which may cause potential disputes down the road.

Bonuses and incentives

Any bonuses or incentives offered to influencer should be within the campaign brief. Having such elements in writing keeps the brand committed to their promises and ensures the influencer has proof of commitment should the deal go south.

But this is not just for the influencer’s security but the brand altogether. The bonuses and incentives are issued under certain terms and conditions which should be outlined in the brief.

In the event that they are not met, then the influencer is not eligible to the stated bonuses or incentives.

Tips to make the most of your compensation terms

Incentivizing influencers will always motivate them to go above and beyond to bring the buck home.
Open and transparent communication is best when negotiating payment terms and compensation structures. Listen to what influencers want.
In case of unforeseen delays, provide regular updates on the payment status. But by all mean, pay your influencers promptly.
Be a champion of fair and mutually beneficial compensation structures. Influencers stick around where they are handsomely appreciated.

How long should an influencer campaign brief be

Congratulations! The ship has sailed and you are now ready to draft your influencer brief. But one mindboggling fact appertains to the length of your influencer marketing brief.

What’s too long, too brief, or standard when it comes to this document?

Well, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. However, a standard size that comprehensively captures all essential elements would be around 3-5 pages. Although this highly depends on how detailed and long your campaign is.

Additionally, an ideal influencer brief is neither too short that it leaves your influencer in the dark nor too long that it’s cumbersome to read.

Keep it focused on the main points of your influencer marketing campaign.

How to present your influencer marketing brief

Essentially, length is not the only dilemma in the basket. Presentation is also a factor many brands find problematic to weigh in on.

Remember, influencer briefs precede influencer agreements. They are issued within the first stages of engagement between an influencer and a brand.

Consequently, presentation is key. It defines whether your brief will be read or see the trash can. It should not only be visually appealing but also easy to read and digest.

Keep away from complex legal jargons as this process occurs casually without any legal representations. Influencers will, therefore, positively respond to briefs they can read and understand by themselves.

For structure, there’s a plethora of influencer brief templates that can help design your work and give your document a theme. Also remember the document should be easily sharable, downloadable, and accessible.

So a simple Googles Docs or PDF copy would do the trick. But if you’re old school then a print out mailed to your influencers would be sufficient.

Avoiding pitfalls: Common mistakes in influencer campaign briefs

Ambiguity: When an influencer brief lacks clarity, influencers find it hard to hit the goal for they cannot understand your delivery language.
Overpromising and underdelivering: Keep a balance of what you can do for your influencers vs. what they bring to the table.
Avoid demanding for high-quality content with meagre compensation or requiring exclusivity without offering competitive payment rates. Certain perks come at a cost.
Lack of flexibility: As much as you articulate every step of your campaign in your influencer brief, allow room for creative autonomy.
Excessive detail: Don’t give too much irrelevant information that it distracts the influencer from the main message.

Wrap-up

As demonstrated above, an influencer marketing brief should outline every turn of your campaign. By crafting the right roadmap, you’re automatically setting your team for success in the industry.

It also relays to the influencer what’s expected of them upfront. Therefore, they have the right mindset by the time you’re actualizing your contracts. This is the recipe for successful campaigns!