At this point, influencer marketing is no longer a rising trend or revolutionary idea, rather an essential part of your brand’s marketing and PR plan.

Take for example the statistic that 74 percent of consumers trust the opinions they see on social media to inform what they buy. There’s purchasing power in influencers.

As eye-catching as that may be, we’re not the first or the last to say that planning an influencer marketing campaign is a massive undertaking. From choosing the social platform(s) and type of content to vetting and identifying the right influencer partners to setting a budget and timeline, there’s a lot to do before reaching out to gauge an influencer’s interest in collaborating with your brand.

All of that up-front work pays off when it’s time to create the influencer brief. While influencer marketing campaigns can take on many forms, all great ones start with a thorough, thoughtful brief carefully designed to help your partners create the best possible content for your brand.

1) First and foremost, when putting together your brief, consider the objective of your campaign.

Upon seeing the influencers’ content, what do you want their readers or viewers to do—purchase a product, look up their nearest location or take advantage of an upcoming promotion? Consider which calls to action make sense for your campaign as well as which will resonate most with your target. These goals and objectives should be spelled out clearly in the brief, so the influencers can keep them top-of-mind as they create your content.

2) Once the objective of your campaign is defined, move on to coloring in all the details.

Put yourself in the influencers’ shoes and think about everything they would need to know to logistically complete the assignment to your brand’s standards.

Will they be creating social media posts, blog posts or YouTube videos? Should they be sharing their content on their social channels? Which ones? How many times? How many photos or shots of the product must they include?

Also, consider any requirements that are non-negotiable for your brand. When mentioning a product, must they use its full name? If they are providing a review, are they allowed to talk negatively about your competitors?

Remember that, while the influencers will be acting as brand ambassadors, they don’t have all the context you do. Providing them with specifics will allow them to accurately represent your brand to your standards—and give everyone a clear sense of deliverables and expectations.

3) Lastly, include some thought starters in your brief to get the influencers excited and thinking about the assignment in an engaging way. 

Thought starters serve as a launching point by providing an idea of the kind of content that you would deem successful, which is especially helpful for influencers who may be interacting with your brand for the first time.

Give your influencers resources like links to product pages, your company story or creative from past ad campaigns to help familiarize them with the brand and arm them with enough information to accurately tell your brand’s story. It’s even worth showing them what you don’t want too.

The brief is an important step, yet it is just one of many on the journey to completing a successful influencer marketing campaign.

Need some help? Connect with Ted Jun at tjun@hiebing.com to learn more.