Ready to reap the rewards of working with top influencers in your niche? Give them the best chance of smashing the campaign out of the park with a comprehensive influencer brief before you’ve put the postage stamps on your parcels.

Follow this seven-step guide to creating a campaign brief for your brand partners and you’ll be well on your way to a fruitful relationship or two.

 

  • Campaign Overview

Of course, the best place to start is with an overview of the campaign plan. Where else?

Make sure you clearly lay out the goals of the influencer marketing campaign and explain how they align with your overarching objectives as a brand. Tie it into their objectives as an influencer, too, since you’ll have established a relationship with them by this point, so you’ll know what’s important to them.

 

Your overview should include details about target audience and demographics, including any specific interests and behaviours you know about—these can help your influencers tailor their content and appeal to certain portions of your audience.

 

  • Brand Messaging and Values

Next up, you’ll want to go deep on your key messages for the campaign—this is how you’ll keep the content true to your story and values as a brand, so it’s second only to the overview in the briefing document.

Offer tips and tricks for how your influencers can align their messages with your products and craft authentic and useful content as a result.

Don’t forget to set out your brand guidelines and pick out any specific points that relate to the product you’re sending or the format of content you’re working with here.

You might want to provide examples or illustrations to be extra helpful (a good idea if it’s your first time working with the influencer(s)).

 

  • Key Campaign Details

Now, it’s time to dive into the campaign itself. Lay out the timeline, including not only the start and end dates, but also the key milestones throughout, if applicable.

Detail any specific hashtags or keywords you want in the content so it’s all in line with your branding and key messaging and don’t forget the all-important campaign identifiers, such as taglines, target URLs and calls-to-action.

 

  • Collaboration Requirements and Guidelines

A big part of the relationship is about being able to work smoothly together, so it’s a good idea to put your expectations down on paper, so to speak. Best eliminate any confusion from the off, hey? 

Add your deliverables, from the type of content to the number of pieces you’re hoping for, plus some examples of content you’ve liked in the past—again, make your vision for this campaign as clear as possible for the influencer(s).

Explain the usage rights, licensing and permissions for the content that comes out of the partnership, too, so there’s no room for misunderstanding. There might be negotiating to be done here, but it’s best to get it down in the brief from the start so everyone knows where they stand.

If applicable, add details about any ethical and legal considerations related to your industry, your products or your audience. If you don’t tell them, they might never know, but they should at least know that they have to disclose the nature of the paid partnership in any published content. 

If there are any sensitive matters around brand reputation or safety concerns, make sure they’re included in this part of the brief, too. 

 

  • Compensation and Incentives

Money talks, we know, so all the more reason to get your figures written down and agreed upon before any work begins.

Clearly detail the payment structure for influencers, whether it’s a flat fee, commission-based or a combination of the two. 

Don’t forget to add any special incentives or perks as well, including the potential for long-term work if this campaign is a success—these will spur the creators on to give you the best content they’ve got.

 

  • Measuring and Reporting

Nobody will know if it’s a success if you don’t build monitoring or reporting into the campaign plan, so make sure you add these details to the brief from the start.

Tell the influencers what you’ll be tracking and what you want them to track regarding their engagement figures, such as impressions, likes, shares, saves and comments. 

Your key performance indicators (KPIs) will help you stay on track, particularly if it’s a long campaign with specific milestones. Tie the metrics you’ll track into your overall campaign and brand objectives so the context is clear, too.

If you need to stick to a reporting schedule, this is the place to say it. Give an idea of what you’re expecting in terms of dates and insights from the content creators.

 

  • Communication Channels

Lastly, make it clear to your new brand partners where and how you prefer to stay in touch with them. If you’d rather keep it out of your DMs and on email so it’s easier to track and report progress internally, don’t be afraid to say so.

You’ll also want to outline the feedback process at this stage so nobody is surprised about any requests for changes to the content later. It’s a collaboration after all, so everyone needs to be happy with the results.

 

And there you have it—your seven-step guide to creating the perfect project brief for your next influencer marketing campaign. Enjoy the ride—it’ll be a lot of fun and could end up happening again and again if everything falls into place…

Get in touch with us at hello@gifta.co.uk if you have any burning questions about maximising influencer marketing for your brand, whether you’re working with nano-influencers or micro-influencers.