Your campaign brief is the blueprint for a successful influencer marketing venture. It encapsulates collaboration requirements, articulates your company's objectives and values, sparks excitement about your product or service, and offers clear guidelines for influencers eager to join your campaign.
In this article, we'll delve into the essential steps of crafting an impactful influencer marketing campaign brief that ensures a harmonious and effective collaboration.
Here’s an example of a good campaign brief:
Why do we like it?
It’s clear: It clearly communicates the campaign's goals, expectations, desired outcomes, as well as the incentives for the influencer's participation.
It's Relevant: It aligns with the influencer's audience and niche, ensuring authentic resonance with their followers.
It’s Specified: It provides specific guidelines on messaging, visual elements, and any unique requirements.
It's Complete: It covered all the key information as a campaign brief.
There are 6-7 key information you must include in your brief:
Your company bio
Your campaign summary
Key featured product
Details of content execution
Action plan of Next Steps
Terms & Conditions
Now let’s make one together:
Let's begin with the end in mind: your brief should be clear and concise. It's a challenging task, somewhat akin to sending a resume. We suggest keeping it straightforward and providing further details to the influencers who express interest later on.
Step 1: Add logo and highlight what platforms you are focusing on
💡Ensure your brand logo is prominently placed at the top of the brief.
💡If your brand logo lacks the brand name, clearly write it below the logo.
Step 2: Introduce your brand, your goal of the campaign, and the deliverables you are looking for.
💡 Try to keep it concise (within 3-4 sentences). Keep in mind, the goal of this brief is to attract influencers to apply directly, or to email you back, but not to shock them with all detailed information. In a nutshell, it’s for attracting their interest.
So keep it short and cool, focusing on your values, mission, and offerings.
Ex.
💡 Don't forget to hyperlink your brand name to your website.
Step 3: List your compensation (your offer)
Outline each piece of the offer using bullet points.
Try to avoid specific pricing offers, keep the details for further negotiation.
Note the specific percentage commission an influencer can earn.
Note the specific percentage discount being offered.
Ex.
Step 4: Showcasing the Essence
List out your Key featured product: Provide a short, concise paragraph describing the product/platform/service you are promoting.
Outline key details or features of the product in a short sentence or bullet points.
Include at least one image of the product/platform/service.
Ex.
💡 Can hyperlink your key product name to your website.
Step 5: Details of content execution
💡 Content Deliverables:
Specify where you want your influencers to post? Instagram? Youtube? Will influencers create Instagram reels or stories? Youtube videos?
Try to make it brief and clear, and present them in bullet points.
💡 Content Guidelines:
This part, you need to give your influencers more inspiration on what they can do on those publications. Will the video show the influencer using the product? Or will it be an unboxing video?
Our recommendation:
If your brand has complex, regulated, and strict brand images, stricter guidelines are recommended.
Otherwise, we recommend you leave it to your creators’ creativity - No one knows their followers more than the influencer themselves! It speaks better to their audience and is more likely to generate a positive ROI.
💡 Call to Action:
Is there a unique affiliate to your website or product page that influencers can share? Is there an expire date of creators' special discount? Or simply encourage their followers to follow your brand’s Instagram?
Don’t forget to include a CTA! This encourages followers to interact with your creators, which drives one most important figure for your campaign: Engagements!
Best practice:
Ask your influencers to share their affiliate links by adding a swipe up to the story, or share it in their bio, or as the first comment.
💡 Hashtags and brand handle to include:
Make sure the influencers tag your brand, and/or include a unique hashtag for your campaign. Don’t forget #ad in order to comply with FTC influencer marketing guidelines!
Date or time of publications:
This is optional and can be as simple as “Within 14 days of receiving products”, or as specific as “On the 02/02/2020 at 9 p.m. your local time.”
Step 5 (Optional): Messaging points, Inspiration, Mood board
Adding these features to your brief will play an important role in how the influencer creates content that is in line with your brand’s voice, and aesthetics and how they pull important product messaging points to the foreground.
Here you can include photos from past collaborations as inspiration or artistic collage mood boards, or if you already have a perfect official account that shares lots of ideal contents, feel free to attach a link to your social media simply, and encourage influencers to check there ;)
Click here to get to know more about UGC campaigns.
Step 6: Guiding Influencers Through Your Campaign Process
Give your creators a specified action plan of next steps. Here are some templates for you to use:
For a No-Flat-Payment campaign:
Pick your desired products above and click apply!
The [Product] will be delivered to you within [a specified time] so that you can start the creation of your initial content.
Ensure that you publish your content following the provided guidelines and timelines.
Commission will be paid on a monthly basis (If offered), with the payment scheduled X days from the receipt of your invoice.
In gifted campaigns, it's generally better not to request a draft from influencers.
Since gifted products are provided for brand awareness rather than content creation, asking for a draft may be perceived as adding a level of expectation or obligation.
If there are specific elements or messaging you would like the influencers to highlight in their content, make sure you clearly share that information in the content guidelines, and avoid expecting them to submit a formal draft. Finding the right balance between giving direction and allowing creative freedom is crucial for a successful gifted campaign.
For campaign with flat payment:
Accept your offer above and click apply!
The [Product] will be delivered to you within [a specified time] so that you can start the creation of your initial content draft.
After submitting your content for approval and receiving the green light, publish your content following publication guidelines & timelines.
Payment will take place X days from the receipt of your invoice.
Step 7: Terms & Conditions
Ensuring your terms and conditions are thorough is crucial for safeguarding your rights. We've provided some templates for your use. But it's essential to have a legal expert review your final version, this ensures compliance with local rules and laws. Clear communication from the beginning not only helps prevent issues but also makes resolving them easier if they arise.
💡 As a quick tip, We suggest you consider adding specifics, like requesting permission for reusing the created content.
Last sentence:
We suggest that edits or changes to drafts are limited to layout or format adjustments, capped at two revisions, to prevent creator dissatisfaction and potential collaboration abandonment. We selected them for the uniqueness and need to respect the way they present ideas.
Here are some articles that could help you write your campaign brief:
For further assistance, please feel free to contact us by clicking on the "Talk to a person" option within our chat feature. We're here to help!