How to Write an Influencer Brief - A Step-by-Step Guide

Now more than ever, brands need to partner with content creators that will deliver high-quality content for their marketing campaigns.

There are plenty of ways that your company and influencers can connect; whichever you choose, effective communication is key to a successful collaboration.

A huge element of that communication process that you need to get right are influencer briefs.

In case you’re not familiar with the term or are simply looking to know more about how to create one, no need to worry!

We’ll cover everything there is to know about them, including:

• What an influencer brief is
• The elements of an influencer brief
• How to write an influencer marketing brief

We won’t keep you waiting any longer - let’s get started.

What is an Influencer Brief?

An influencer brief is a way for brands to clearly communicate their campaign’s outline and objectives to content creators.

This means that any creator looking to work with a brand for a campaign can get a good idea of what it’s all about and whether it’s a good fit for them.

A good brief plays a major role in influencer marketing campaigns; you want to get it right since this type of campaign can generate an average of $5.78 for every $1 spent.

Impressive, right?

It’s no wonder that 90% of people believe influencer marketing to be an efficient way of promoting a business.

There are lots of benefits, but it’s a multi-dimensional process that requires you to both find the right content creators and then effectively collaborate with them by offering clear directions and guidelines.

To sum up, do you - as a brand - need to have an influencer brief?

The short answer is, yes.

Let’s elaborate more on this.

Why Do You Need an Influencer Brief?

We've covered why creating an influencer brief is of great importance for your business - it's also integral to your creator relationship. 

Why?

Here are a few reasons:

• It enhances collaboration with content creators
• It helps you avoid back and forth communication
• It shows professionalism
• It helps you set campaign goals
• It saves you time from working with unsuitable creators

Plus, it ensures that the campaign deliverables that you receive, no matter the type of content, are what you were looking for in the first place.

Of course, it's a good idea to offer creators a certain amount of creative freedom, but making sure that their content matches your brand guidelines and that it’s aligned with your strategy, helps you create a successful campaign.

This can all be made possible with the use of a detailed campaign brief, which we’ll show you how to create step-by-step further on in our guide.

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{{brief-template="/post-cta-component/creative-brief-template"}}

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For now, let’s dive deeper into the most prominent elements it should have.

What Should an Influencer Brief Include?

In this part of our guide, we’re going to talk about the basic elements any influencer brief should have.

Every element plays a major role and is important for its own reasons, which we’ll go over one-by-one.

Let’s start.

Element #1: Campaign overview

Any well-written brief should include the campaign’s overview.

This will give creators a good understanding of many key things, such as:

• What the brand is all about - basic information, industry, niche, and more
• The product’s description, including the value proposition
• Who the target audience is 
• An overview of what the brand wants to achieve

All of these pass a clear message to any potential brand ambassador who wants to collaborate with the company and create user-generated content for social media platforms and paid ads.

Overall, starting your brief with an overview of your campaign is the best way to get your point across and make sure you receive the content you request.

Let’s continue.

Element #2: Campaign objectives

The campaign overview will briefly cover what your campaign wishes to achieve, but it’s good practice to dive deeper into your objectives.

List your specific goals so that content creators can understand the reasons behind your campaign.

For example, the objectives you can opt for when creating a campaign through Insense are:

• Brand awareness - to generate interest in your product or brand as well as increase brand recognition in general
• Reach - get your campaign in front of as many people as possible in your target audience
• Traffic - send people from the branded content to a destination of your choice, like a landing page, homepage, or even a form
• Engagement - reach users so that they engage with your campaign through likes, shares, comments, and any other action

Adding this information will not only help creators have a better idea of the campaign they’ll work on, but also allows you to plan your goals so you can measure them in the future.

To sum up, campaign objectives should be an integral part of your briefing process.

Moving on to the next element.

Element #3: Ideal creator type

This element is crucial to producing the content you want; by stating what types of creators you want to work with, you'll get the ones you're looking for.

This will save you precious time - you won't need to reject creators who are in a different niche than the one you’re looking for.

Let’s assume you’re a beauty brand wanting to promote your new product, say a lipstick.

Ideally, the right influencers for you are women in the beauty industry since they have an audience that’s already interested in this field and are more likely to find your product worth purchasing.

Makes sense, right?

Having creators in the wrong demographic and niche would simply not fit your influencer marketing strategy, thus costing you money that could instead go to a creator with a relevant audience to yours.

When setting up your campaign through Insense, our platform allows you to specify exactly what you’re looking for in terms of your creator type and demographics:

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You can define characteristics such as their:

• Location
• Category
• Gender
• Follower count

This makes the process of briefing influencers much more effective and your campaign has more chances of being successful.

Moving forward.

Element #4: Content style and channels

Now you’ve specified what type of creators you want to work with; it’s now time to choose a channel.

This means deciding if your campaign will be based on TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram.

This is a vital element since it'll define your campaign’s whole process and journey.

Do you want to promote your product through Instagram Stories? TikTok posts? Or maybe via Amazon storefronts?

Whatever you go for, it should be a good fit for both your brand and the creators you’ll choose to collaborate with.

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You should also be aware that the platform will also affect the content style you want to source.

For instance, Instagram’s content formats are Stories, images, videos, and Reels, while other channels might only support videos, like TikTok.

Once again, Insense can make the process of defining your desired creative assets easier, by giving you the content formats of each platform.

Assuming you choose Instagram, there are certain formats available:

Something else that also falls under “content style” is how you want creators to showcase your product.

There are many choices, including testimonials, reviews, unboxing videos, challenges, product demonstrations, and more.

As you can see, the ‘What should creators do?’ section of your brief is where you’ll give creators all necessary information about how to showcase your product, as well as the types of videos you want them to focus on for this particular campaign. 

Deciding which social media platforms to go for will play a vital role in your campaign’s outcome and the influencer content you leverage.

Let’s continue.

Element #5: Technical requirements

Technical requirements are all about details that creators should be aware of when making a piece of content for your brand.

For instance, while the content format might be an Instagram video, there are many things that need to be specified, such as:

• The video quality, meaning the video’s resolution
• The type of file, like mp4 or mov
• The video aspect ratio, such as 16:9 or 4:3
• The video’s sound, including music, voiceovers, etc.
• The video length
• Text that's shown on video

Along with any other technical aspect that you feel creators should take into account.

This is something you can also take care of through our platform:

The reason why we recommend specifying these requirements upfront in an influencer brief is to save time for both you and the creators - you can avoid unappealing content being made for you. 

Moving on.

Element #6: Dos and don'ts

You probably already know the dos and don’ts you want your creators to follow, it’s simply a matter of presenting them in a clear and concise way.

This helps to avoid confusion and make creators understand exactly what they have to do.

As we covered earlier, creative freedom is important for influencers, their creativity is part of why they're successful, and harnessing that will make the content more authentic.

However – and we can’t stress this enough! –, you should still explain what you want them to do.

These are some key points you may want to consider for your creator brief:

• How they should present your product
• What their post’s caption should be
• Which branded hashtags to use
• How long their videos should be 
• What types of videos you want them to focus on for this campaign – such as unboxing videos or product demonstrations

Plus, you should include all relevant technical requirements. 

On that note, adding sample videos and other references that will give creators a very clear idea of what you like and expect them to do, is a brilliant way to make sure you’re on the same page. 

To add references, you simply need to upload your creative assets to the platform: 

On the other hand, you need to be clear on what they shouldn’t say, like mentioning competitors or the product’s disadvantages; what they shouldn’t do, like delete the post after the campaign; and any other action you want to be avoided.

Once again, Insense allows you to give creators directions about the dos…

…and the don’ts…

…that creators should keep in mind.

Author’s Note: The directions included in the screenshots above are for example purposes only.

Simply state how you imagine your ideal content to be so creators can deliver it; this is the best way to effectively pass your campaign message.

Let’s move on to the next element.

Element #7: Timeline

Every influencer contract should include a clear timeline.

This means letting creators know about deadlines for the deliverables so you can be proactive and have enough time to make any amendments where needed.

Imagine running a campaign with dozens - if not hundreds - of content creators; the process can certainly be automated with the help of a tool, but without a deadline, you won’t be able to handle the massive amount of proposals you receive.

What’s more, if you’re not satisfied with some of them and want to request changes, this will take some time and can potentially throw you off schedule.

This is exactly why deadlines can help you keep things in order.

When creating your brief through Insense, by setting an End Date, you basically tell creators that all creatives should be approved and published no later than that day - however, this can be a draft deadline for a creator during the hiring process.

It's as simple as having a clear timeline for your campaign and making sure to communicate it to all parties.

Moving forward.

Element #8: Call-to-action

Many brands tend to overcomplicate their briefs, leaving creators confused about what they should do.

This also applies to the use of calls to action (CTAs), that your campaign should have.

Too many CTAs won’t do you any good, so choose one based on your campaign’s objectives and communicate it to creators.

They can then use it themselves in their content pieces in order to help drive certain KPIs, such as gaining followers, giveaway entries, online store sales, traffic, or anything else.

An example of a good CTA is:

“Enter code ABC123 for 50% off your next order”

This is exactly how content creator Styleelyst did it when she partnered with Teddy Blake.

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As you can see, a CTA has clearly been used to prompt people to use a discount code.

Overall, including a CTA in your brief will drive better results for your campaign and also make your objectives clearer to creators.

Author’s Note: You can also note your desired CTA in the “Dos” section of your brief.

Now that we covered an influencer brief’s prominent elements, let’s see how you can write one yourself.

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How To Write an Influencer Brief in 4 Simple Steps

You know what's included in an influencer brief, now we’re going to show you how to write an influencer brief yourself.

The process will be step-by-step and we’ll use a hypothetical scenario to make things as clear as possible.

Let’s assume we’re a brand looking to promote our new skincare product as part of our marketing strategy in the beauty industry.

Let’s get started.

Step #1: Basic information

First and foremost, you want to let creators know who you are, what you do, and what your product is all about.

Since we’re a beauty brand - let’s call it X - and our skincare product is called Y, we can start like this:

“Here at X, we’re a brand in the beauty industry and we offer Y; a skincare product helping your skin look younger in just a matter of weeks.

What makes us stand out is the fact that Y is eco-friendly and includes vitamin E…”

You get the point, right?

You can then talk about what your target audience is and who you want to work with:

“Our target audience is women aged 35-60 in the US, so we want to work with beauty creators with a similar audience and a strong presence on Instagram.”

Don’t elaborate too much on your creator type at this point, since you’ll have the chance to explain it in detail further on.

Author’s Note: Don’t forget to add an image of your product so creators know what it looks like. You can also make your own images about certain elements in order to make things more visually appealing and clear, like in the following example.

Moving on to the next step.

Step #2: Note your objectives

Making your campaign goals clear will allow creators to understand how they can help you achieve them.

You can say something in the lines of…

“Our campaign’s main objective is to raise awareness for our product and you can help us achieve that by creating high-quality content showing it being used on your skin.

Furthermore, we want your followers to take action and follow our brand on Instagram in order to learn more about what we offer.”

Of course, you're welcome to elaborate as much as you want and can even get more specific such as…

“We would like you to contribute to increasing our Instagram followers by 20%.”

This will help creators have a better idea of what you’re looking to achieve with their help.

Let’s move on to the next step.

Step #3: Define your creator type

This step is an important one.

By clearly stating who you want to work with, you allow relevant creators to apply to collaborate and exclude anyone who’s not a good fit for your brand and product.

Here’s an example of what you can say:

“We are looking for English-speaking content creators in the beauty industry with followers in the range of 5,000-10,000 and an audience interested in beauty and wellness.

Ideally, you are female between the ages of 25-45 and the majority of your followers are women in the US, aged 35-60.”

Don’t hesitate to dive deeper into things and analyze your creator and their audiences’ demographics.

The more specific you get, the higher the chances that you’ll find suitable creators to work with.

After all, it’s all about getting your product in front of the right people.

Let’s continue.

Step #4: Specify your requirements

Now that people know who you are and what you want to achieve, it’s time to explain what you want from them.

It’s imperative that you be specific with the types of content you want to receive and any technical details around them; the more you help creators understand what you’re looking for, the better for both of you.

Here’s what you can say:

“If you believe you’re a good fit and want to help us take our product to the next level, please send your submission in the form of an Instagram video.

It should be a brief review of you using it on your own face while talking about how it’s eco-friendly, includes vitamin E, and helps your skin look younger in just four weeks.

Your content should fulfill the following guidelines:

• The video should be 60 seconds long
• The file type should be an mp4
• The video quality should be at maximum resolution

What to do when creating the video:

• Be positive and engaging
• Begin by showing the product’s package while explaining what it is
• Show the product up close by applying it to your own skin

What not to do when creating the video:

• Don’t mention any competitors
• Don’t talk about any of the product’s disadvantages
• Don’t delete the post for at least six months after it’s gone live”

Once again, this is where you really dive into the details of how you want your campaign’s content to be.

Remember to include what the post’s caption should look like.

Here, you need to find the right balance between explaining how you want it to be and offering creators some creative freedom by adding their own touch to it.

For example:

“The post’s caption should be as natural as possible, don’t be too sales-y. 

Take the initiative and make it appealing, as long as you remember to add a CTA directing users to our Instagram account, briefly explain the product, and tag our IG profile.”

It's not as daunting as you probably thought. 

All in all, this is what a hypothetical brief looks like.

Without a doubt, there are more things that you can add, such as the available budget for each creator and whether you’ll send the product to them or not.

These are pieces of information that you can either include in your brief or discuss with each creator separately through chat or email.

So far, we hope that the way you create an influencer brief is clear; if you want to write your own, check out the following template we created for you.

Bonus: How to Create an Influencer Brief with Insense

In this last part of our article, we’re going to show you how to create an influencer brief with Insense.

We've shown you how to write your own and which elements to include, but having a tool to help you step-by-step through the process can really make a difference.

We're Kicking things off with the first step.

Step #1: Enter your brand’s info

The first step once you’ve logged into Insense is to choose to create a campaign by clicking on Fill out a brief.

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You then have to add a brand in order to start making your campaign.

All you have to do is enter some basic information such as your brand’s logo, name, website, and summary.

As we said earlier, this will help creators understand what you have to offer and who they’re working with.

It’s now time to move on to your brief’s next stage.

Step #2: Enter your campaign’s info

This step is all about describing your campaign to creators so they know if they’re a good fit for it.

You begin by choosing your campaign’s name, a cover photo, and whether it'll be public or private; the former means that anyone can apply and the latter that the campaign is invite-only.

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Author’s Note: Your campaign name should be something descriptive and attractive to prompt creators to join.

Another great thing about Insense is the fact that with every step you complete, you can see on the right what your campaign looks like from the user’s point of view.

Moving on, you need to select the type of your campaign. 

There are two of them:

1. Influencer Partnerships
2. Custom Content Creation

The first means that you’ll have full ownership of the content you receive so you can use it however you want, while the second means that you receive the digital assets from the creators without them posting anything.

You also need to choose the platform that your campaign will be based on, which in our case is Instagram.

Author’s Note: If you select “Other” as the platform, the content piece you receive won’t be for a particular social network but you can specify its use case in the next steps.

We said further up that an important part of any brief are the campaign’s objectives.

You can also note these down through the tool and can opt for brand awareness, reach, traffic, or engagement.

Let’s go for brand awareness and select whether we want to enable influencer whitelisting; which means whether your brand will be able to run paid ads through your creator’s social media handles.

If yes, this is something to include in your brief and let people know about it.

For the sake of example, let’s disable it and move on to our brief’s next details.

More specifically, you need to enter the following information:

1. Payment method  - money or product
2. The number of creators you want to hire - this will affect the total amount of applications you receive
3. Price cap per creator - the maximum price a creator can request
4. Campaign timing - limited or unlimited
5. Start and end date - for a limited campaign, set the date it starts and ends
6. Product delivery - whether the brand will handle shipment or will refund the purchased product, or if no shipment is needed
7. Product description

For the sake of example, we decided to go for money as the payment method, request to work with 6 to 10 creators, a price cap of $150, a deadline for deliverables of March 4, that the brand will refund the product purchase, and a brief description of it.

So far so good, let's move on to the next step.

Step #3: Choose creators' profile

This step is all about telling the platform what type of creators you want to work with.

Starting with the location, you have the chance to specify both where your creators and their audience is from; let’s set both of them to the United States.

After that, you can specify more things such as the categories and the demographics.

Categories range from beauty and fashion to education and technology, as well as many more options.

Considering the nature of our product, it makes sense to go for beauty as the creators’ and their audiences’ niche.
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Choosing your creators’ and their followers' age range is also important, especially when it comes to skincare products like our own.

It makes sense to go for the target audience to be over 35 years old, but it’s up to you.

Other things you can specify include the audience’s ethnicity, the follower count range, and the desired engagement rate.

All of these are essential for creating a successful influencer brief so make sure to choose each option carefully.

Step #4:  Describe your desired creative asset

This is possibly the most important step of the brief’s creation process; where you tell creators the campaign's dos and don’ts, and what the technical requirements are.

Since Instagram is our platform of choice, let’s select the content format; the options are vertical, horizontal, or square video, and Boomerang.

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Plus, you need to define whether posting on social media is required and whether it should be an in-feed post, a story, or a Reel since we’re talking about Instagram in our hypothetical situation.

Next up, you need to provide creators with some requirements and guidelines; just like we saw earlier in this guide.

Remember to be as clear and detailed as possible so that you receive the exact content you’re looking for to boost your campaign.

You should also add a few technical requirements, such as the video’s required resolution, size, text on video, sounds, and anything else you wish to specify.

After that, it’s time for the don'ts, or what creators should avoid doing.

Not mentioning competitors, avoiding talk of the disadvantages of the product, and asking for no explicit language are just some of the things you should consider asking of creators.

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Plus, the desired caption for the Instagram post should also be included.

Author’s Note: When it comes to the caption, give creators some freedom. Instead of telling them exactly what to say, simply provide some guidelines. This will make the caption look more authentic.

With that done, your influencer brief is ready!

Don’t forget to have a look at the phone screen on the right of your campaign in order to see what the brief’s end result looks like.

The process was simple, wasn’t it?

From here, your brief will be checked and will soon be ready to start getting some attention from our platform’s content creators.

Let’s wrap things up with some final words.

Now Over to You

There you have it.

Our guide on how to write an influencer brief has come to an end.

We started by explaining what an influencer brief is, why you need one, and what elements should be included.

We then proceeded to show you how to create one step-by-step, through Insense’s capabilities.

As you saw, creating a brief with the help of Insense is very simple.

However, if you have any questions or need some assistance in creating your influencer marketing campaign from start to finish, don’t hesitate to book a free demo and we’ll guide you step-by-step.

Thanks for reading!

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