Written by Kristin Savage

In this modern age, businesses often overlook, the amount of press and traffic, a social media influencer can generate by promoting a brand on their social media accounts. Any company looking for a sponsored post to be written by Kylie Jenner has to pay her around 1 million dollars.

Although that sounds ludicrous, her 150 million, yeah, you read that right, Instagram followers will then begin going to the page of that product, and buying it, or googling it. This added buzz ends up generating revenue for the company.

How do people know what to say about the product? What are the incentives for brand promotion, and how long should a promotion last? All of these questions and more are addressed in the brief, not the Calvin Klein kind, but rather an outline for the follower to follow.

By the end of this article, you’ll hopefully have a better understanding of how to write a brief and all the topics that need to be covered.

What is an Influencer Brief?

This document should be more than a half-page document written like a college essay. A brief is important for two reasons. Think of the brief as how you’re pitching the collaboration; it answers who you are, what you want to gain, and how can the other party also benefits from the partnership.

The second reason why a brief is important is that someone can tell a lot about the business based on what is written and how it’s written. A rush brief, for example, will leave someone asking questions, and you want to be clear and concise.

It should be eye-catching, and you shouldn’t be afraid to play with colors and fonts. This is done to grab the attention of the reader.

What Should an Influencer Brief Contain?

A good brief should be detailed, but what does that mean exactly? At a bare minimum, it should include

  • The campaign info
  • The message or objective
  • The role of the influencer in this campaign
  • How many posts the influencer has to write
  • How often should a post be written
  • The dos and don’ts in terms of content
  • Breach of Contract
  • Incentives

To better conceptualize this, we are going to explain a section briefly, then provide an example. In this article, our campaign will be centered around Frosted Flakes because they’re more than good they’re great.

It’s important to note that this isn’t be sponsored by Kellogg’s, but cereal is something most people have had for breakfast before so that it won’t be an abstract example.

The Campaign Info

This section is when you tell the person you’re working with about the company, what is the focus of the promotion, and how will the company use content generated from this partnership?

Example

Kellogg’s and, more specifically, Frosted Flakes stands for serving the needs of its consumers, customers, and communities. Therefore, it has launched a campaign to promote it’s two newest flavors Honey Nut and Banana Cream Frosted Flakes.

Kellogs is launching an extensive advertising campaign to promote its new flavors across the United States and Canada through television advertisements, Youtube and Spotify ads, in-store promotions with several partners supermarkets, as well as include influencer marketing activation as a part of this new product campaign.

The Message or Objective of the Campaign

This is when the writer of the brief communicates with the potential partner about why this campaign is occurring and specifies how do they fit into the grand scheme of things,

Example

The objective of this campaign is to raise awareness around the new Frosted Flakes flavors in a way that would feel the most authentic to your channel and audience.

The Role of The Influencer in this Campaign

We briefly touched on this campaign info section, but it’s important to tell the other party how they fit into the larger scheme of things. Like this, they will know if the role is to promote a product or to convince their following to adopt a new item instead of a preexisting one.

Example

Your role in this campaign will be to promote two flavors of Frosted Flakes. These flavors are Honey Nut and Banana Cream. Focus on the smell, taste, and how they compare to other breakfast cereals.

Through regular social media posts, your following will become interested in these two new flavors. This will then generate additional buzz and drive sales adding to the effectiveness of the launch campaign.

How Many Posts/Videos is the Influencer Contracted For?

This step is pretty self-explanatory, but you’d be surprised at how many briefs have been written, where this wasn’t specified. This will tell the influencer how much content needs to be produced. You should also communicate how often content should be made.

Example

A photo or video should be uploaded every Monday and Thursday for 6 weeks. Content ideas include a picture of the box, a reaction video to the products, and how do the new flavors compare to the original.

The Dos and Do Nots of the Campaign

Think of this portion as the influencer’s instructions for creating their content. Here you will specify what you need the influencer to do during the campaign, and what they shouldn’t do. This is important, so everyone stays on the same page in regards to the content generated for the campaign.

Example

Influencer To Do:

  • Showcase the product least 60 seconds
  • Mention the following features in any order:
  • Color
  • Flavor
  • Smell
  • How it compares to the original
  • Briefly introduce the product in an Instagram story
  • In the video, encourage your audience to try these flavors
  • Use the following hashtags when developing content
  • #tonythetiger
  • #frostedflakes
  • #theyremorethangoodtheyregreat
  • #bananacream
    #honeynut

Influencer Do Not Do:

  • Don’t speak negatively about Kellogg’s products
  • Avoid speaking about topics not related to Kellogg’s
  • Don’t make the whole video more than 3 minutes

Incentives

Just as companies are trying to make money through the partnership, so are various social media influencers. Kylie Jenner charges a million dollars for each sponsored post, and Selena Gomez charges around $800,000 per post.

However, the rule of thumb for how much you’re expected to pay is $1000 for every 100,000 Instagram followers. Incentives can be a mix of products and money.

Example

Instagram Personality Joe Smith has a following of roughly 123,000 people. Kellogg’s is willing to pay $1200 for the partnership with Joe. Joe will also receive a package that has 6 boxes of Banana Cream and 6 boxes of Honey Nut Frosted Flakes. There will also be a Frosted Flakes brand T-shirt in the package.

Breach of Contract

Occasionally this does happen, and most of the time, it’s unintentional. A breach of contract depending on the severity can lead to something as simple as the influencer creating new content, to the agreement being terminated.

Example

In the event of the influencer not posting on a Monday or Thursday, they will be contacted and be asked to upload post or video on the following day. If there is profanity in the post or negative publicity about the product, then the agreement between Kellogg’s and the Influencer will be considered null and void.

In the event of the agreement ending before the 6 weeks have expired, the influencer will not be paid for the content that caused the breach of contract.

Final Thoughts

By following these tips and our example, you’re going to be ready to nail the brief. Make it interesting, and find someone who’s following fits your target demographics and geographic location. Also, don’t be afraid to use multiple influencers depending on their following and the size of your campaign.

Kristin Savage nourishes, sparks and empowers using the magic of a word. Along with pursuing her degree in Creative Writing, Kristin was gaining experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in marketing strategy for publishers and authors. Now she works as a freelance writer at WritingJudge and GrabMyEssay. Kristin runs her own FlyWriting blog.