Views

3 reasons why briefs can make or break your influencer marketing

5 minute read- Beckie Tee, Senior Social Media Executive

Whether you like it or not, influencer marketing is leading the way on social media. Brands are making huge moves to partner with content creators with micro to macro following.

One of the first pieces of information passed between a brand and an influencer is the brief, so it’s crucial to convey everything you both require in a concise and engaging way.

Keep reading to discover 3 ways you can nail your influencer briefs the first time:

Tailor your briefs for purpose and person

It’s important to remember that influencers are people, not machines designed to pump out content as and when you need it.

With this in mind, you should make sure you are tailoring your briefs to suit each individual influencer and their needs.

We’re not saying you need to do this from scratch – a solid template is a good place to start, but you can edit this template to make the brief feel personal to the influencer. After all, influencers are getting savvier with brands they work with and want to make real connections with their audiences.

Include examples of their work you love, make references to their content, and use language that they’d use. Be relatable.

Why?

Building relationships with good content creators is the key to success. You want to come across as authentic and trust their ability to deliver high-quality content that meets the needs of the brand and the influencer’s audience…because at the end of the day, those are the people you want to impress.

Be clear with your expectations

Whether it’s project timings, deliverables, rounds of amends, product sourcing or basic communications, be as transparent as possible in your brief.

Your influencer should use your brief as their go-to point for information throughout the project.

Their bible.

This is beneficial for you also, as it means less back and forth over email when your influencer inevitably has questions.

Leave scope for creativity, but make the whole process as straightforward and easy as possible for them. This will increase their chances of working with your brand again – and therefore stronger, more authentic partnerships!

Here are some key points to consider outlining in your brief:

  • Objectives: what we’re setting out to achieve
  • The big idea: a steer of the campaign, including insight to spark ideation
  • Timings: windows for reviews, amends, approvals and live dates
  • Key messaging: do’s and don’ts, brand USPs
  • Deliverables: how many pieces of content, and which channels to sit on
  • Mandatories: hashtags, links, handles

Include concise and clear requirements to the above bullet points and you’ll be on your way to a winning influencer brief.

Use creativity to excite your talent partners

Finding the balance between creativity and detail can oftentimes prove difficult.

You want to get across the key information to make the process as streamlined as possible. But you don’t want to bore your influencers at the same time.

We would always recommend you keep the amount of text in your briefs to a minimum (there’s nothing less motivating than reading through huge chunks of text). This allows you to play around with visuals to inspire your influencers.

  • How can you do this?
  • Create a mood board
  • Include campaign imagery
  • Use infographics
  • Add video elements
  • Send the brief in an influencer mailer, accompanied with your brand’s product

Summary

In a nutshell, a well-thought-through influencer brief will ensure your brand’s success in the competitive world of influencer marketing – helping you prove a better ROI using this channel.

Don’t know where to start? We’ve provided you with a basic example of how we’d do an influencer brief.

Want better influencer marketing? Click here to chat to one of our experts today.

Want better?
Let’s talk