GET STARTEDGET STARTEDOne of the driving factors in getting an influencer to work with your brand is a well-constructed influencer brief. Not only will a solid brief improve your odds of a positive response, but crafting a few templates in advance will definitely make your life easier when reaching out to influencers and testing various pieces of copy against each other. Here’s a handy guide on how to put together a tailored brief in just a few easy steps!
1. A Direct Value Proposition
Influencers are inundated with requests to collaborate on a daily basis. The quicker you get to the point around what your value proposition is in clear terms the more likely you are to have them actually read your message. Be as direct as putting in key numbers in bold or draw attention with headers and images.
2. Company Background
While a lot of smaller influencers may be eager to work with just about any brand that comes their way, more seasoned influencers can be more picky about with whom they associate themselves. Provide a brief introduction on your brand, why you do what you do, and highlight some of the key brand values you maintain.
3. Product Details
Give some background on the specific product you have in mind for the campaign. This is the best way for the influencer to determine if they’re a good fit in terms of interest – you’ll already know if they’re a good fit in terms of audience if you use an influencer marketing platform like Smartfluence to find influencers.
4. Identify KPI’s
Setting KPI’s is a critical component in your influencer brief. Large influencers tend to be better for awareness, while small influencers tend to be better for sales. Analyzing how niche an influencer’s audience is by looking at detailed demographic reports we provide(like what you can download here) will show you everything from audience composition to brand affinity, easily allowing you to determine which influencer to use for each goal. Based on those goals, lay out exactly what you’re looking for, increasing chances for a successful campaign.
5. Establish Creative Guidelines
While most successful influencer marketing campaigns revolve around the influencer sticking to their primary content style, brands should make it clear what they must have and must avoid when a post is sponsored. The clearer you are in this section the lower the chances are that you’ll be unhappy with the final result.
6. Permissions + Regulation
More seasoned influencers will be well aware of legal guidelines around sponsored posts, but many new influencers have yet to go through a formal process – only11% of influencers are actually FTC compliant! Beyond regulatory permissions and guidelines, make sure to seek permission to use influencers’ content for your own ads and reposting. It also would make sense to whitelist them – if they end up performing well for you down the line you can run dark posts on their account using their profile picture, handle, and content while staying under control of the budget.
7. Deadlines
As simple as it sounds, deadlines are very important to communicate early on. Break it down for each deliverable – initial drafts, final submission, post timing, etc. This becomes extra important when you’re running a coordinated campaign with several influencers at the same time.
8. Payments
Determining how the influencer gets paid is key. Smartfluence’s software allows you to submit bids with multiple payment options – cash, shoutout for shoutout, affiliate, and product. When dealing with cash, the most popular payment method for larger influencers, be clear on the terms, mechanism, and documentation to cover all bases. If you need help getting an influencer marketing campaign set up, book a free demo with our team and we’ll see how we can assist you!
