I always hammer the use of Influencer Marketing to my readers and that is the major reason why Influencer Brief is what I will discuss in this guide.
The usage of an influence brief is very effective because not all influencers know the way to help you advertise or promote your business.
If you don’t lead them directly on how they should handle any campaign you pay them for or give to them.
They will just do it anyhow and you will later want to regret giving such an influencer a campaign to execute.
That is the major reason why you need to have an influencer brief to always lead an influencer on the right path to execute your campaign very well.
In This Guide, We Are Going To Take A Look At:
- What is an Influencer Briefing?
- How do you make an Influencer Briefing
- Types of Influencers
- Characteristics of a good influencer
- How to get the right influencer for your Influencer Briefing
- Conclusion
Roll up your sleeves and join me on this walk.
What Is An Influencer Briefing?
Influencer Brief is an instructional material that a firm or a brand will give to an influencer to direct and guide on how best to execute a campaign for them.
An Influencer brief is very Paramount for any brand using influencer marketing as their source of getting customers.
And also using influencers to get access to a wide number of audiences out there.
But there are so many briefs on how best an Influencer should shoot any campaign and make it perfect.
It might be an advert where an influencer will endorse their product and educate and encourage more people and their fans to also start buying the product.
The influencer didn’t just cook all these up and know how it should work out.
It is through the influencer brief given to them that made them know how they can present any advert perfectly.
How Do You Make An Influencer Briefing
The next aspect we have to take a look at is the ways through which you can make and prepare an influencer brief.
It involves some steps and aspects that you have to take note of when trying to start influencer Marketing.
So, let us quickly dive deeper into the steps and processes on how you can make an influencer brief.
- Create background information.
- Relay Your Expectations
- State Do’s and Don’t clearly
- Make use of visuals.
- Give product information.
- Address regulations & payment.
- Give deadlines.
1. Create background information:
Depending on how you want to make an influencer promote a campaign for you.
If you will need such an influencer in a particular location where you will meet. Then you need to create background information.
This means that before the influence gets there – you would have created all the necessary tools and equipment.
Some adverts will need the shooting of the influencer live and bring out the campaign in a more compelling manner.
This is very common and not new to you because you see it majorly all the time from your favorite influencers.
Whenever they are promoting a brand that is endorsing them – they do all these just to entice you to use the product.
So, enough background information is being related even before the influence comes to the location.
So, if you are doing this type of campaign – you have to brief your influencer on how the background will be.
How everything and everyone works together to have a fantastic result after the campaign.
So, a brief explanation of the background is a fantastic idea which you must take note of.
Remember that this is just important if you are doing a location shooting for an influencer you will be using.
2. Relay Your Expectations:
You have to tell the influencer your expectations for choosing them as a brand advocate for your firms’ product or service.
It is very important as this is what will lead to any successful campaign that they will create for your brand.
Doing successful influencer Marketing – you must have a goal that is clearly stated out.
And in stating out these goals – you must also endeavor to relay your expectations to the influencer you will be using.
Like, the revenue you expect to make from using them monthly and yearly is what is important to note.
They have to know that you will be spending more money now and you expect more positive results than ever.
Also, they have to know that their audience is your major goal and that you are striving hard to get more results from them.
You surely have a goal for your brand and you must state it very clear for the influencer to take note of.
So, always relay your expectations to them and get them on board to get a favorable result at the end.
So, if you are thinking of doing a Briefing – then you should start thinking of the result you aim to achieve.
Also, start jotting down the expectation that you aim to achieve from using them as your brand advocate.
3. State Do’s and Don’t clearly:
When there is a LAW – there will be no SIN and that is what you should also aim for when doing influencer marketing.
When you are trying to make an influencer your advocate and doing your briefing on the process.
You must also state out your Dos and Don’t for them – so that you both can be on a clear and safer side.
When doing your Influencer Briefing – if there is anything you would like the influencer to doc- clearly state it out.
And if there is anything you wouldn’t want the influencer to do at all – also state it out clearly.
This way, if there is anything that breaches what you both have already agreed on – you will have a say.
And this will also be backed up with some legal documents which will be signed by both parties.
It will always be in the terms and conditions which the influencer will also sign before he or she can be approved.
So, it is important that your influencer knows the Dos and Don’t before ever thinking of promoting or endorsing your campaign.
4. Make use of visuals:
You can also use visuals when doing your influencer briefing because it makes it look more explanatory.
With a visual being shown to an Influencer – he or she can quickly grab what you are trying to imply without any further fault.
Visuals are very good for also doing your briefing since it is trying to show examples or instances of what other people have done.
There must surely be something that you see that is making you decide to make use of an influencer for your promotion.
So, the instance that you saw is also what you will make use of to do your influencer briefing.
You will make it very much visual to the influencer to explain vividly how best to make it work.
So, visuals are very important and are very useful for the explanatory aspect of your influencer briefing.
5. Give product information:
It is very important to give product information to be able to give proper explanation to anybody.
Because your influencer is promoting and endorsing your campaign for you and your brand.
They need to have detailed information about your product because of people who will ask about the product.
Also, when doing the product explanation – only an influencer who knows about the product can explain well.
If an influencer doesn’t have enough explanation of how the product works – then it will be a little bit difficult.
So, part of the briefing is the explanation of the product and the information it entails.
The majority of the influencers don’t have any idea of how the product works – that’s why the majority are now promoting crappy products.
Although, that is not our main concern since we are only endorsing them to promote our brand.
So, giving detailed information will go a long way from them doing “Erm…Erm!!” In your campaign.
So, always make sure that you give enough explanation and detailed information about your brand and its product to the influencer.
This way, the Influencer briefing will come out perfect and you can gladly say that you have achieved something.
6. Address regulations & payment:
You need to address your regulation and payment process which will be agreed to by the influencer.
Enough details must be given about the payment and how much and when the influencer will be paid.
Although, this greatly depends on how the influencer is promoting the brand.
If it is just through a normal advert on their page or the influencer is endorsed to come to a location.
If the influencer is not endorsed by only promoting the brand just from their social media page.
Then the payment will be less than an influencer who is fully endorsed for maybe a year or more.
Just to keep promoting the brand and keep working hard to make sure that more of his or her audience sees the brand products.
So, part of the campaign in the Influencer briefing is the Payment process that will be revealed to the influencer.
So, always make sure to state out the payment and rules clearly to the influencer and let him or her know.
This way, there won’t be any cause for alarm and everyone will be on a safer side.
7. Give deadlines.
There must always be a deadline for every campaign that you are creating with your influencer.
It is very much important that you give a deadline to the influencer concerning when your campaign must be executed.
The majority of these influencers are always busy and they are fully involved in several things taking their time.
Some even have other brands who have already endorsed them and fully paying them well also.
They might not only be working with you or you being the first brand that will ever want to endorse them.
So, you always have to give them a deadline of when they must surely create the campaign and execute it.
With this deadline, they will work towards making sure that they execute the plan and flow along the path you want them to follow.
I like deadlines a lot because I believe that once a deadline is being given to someone.
Such a person will strive towards making sure that they meet that particular deadline in time.
Unlike you do not have any deadline for an influencer and you expect them to just work it out.
You will keep complaining and they will keep apologizing. So, always make sure that a deadline is among your Influencer Brief.
To be on the safer side and quickly get your project or campaign executed.
Types of Influencers
So, if you conclude that you want to use an influencer to kickstart or improve your business and gain access to more audience.
Then it is also important to know that there are different types of influencers and we will briefly talk about them here.
- Influencers Based on Content or Niche
- Influencers by Follower Count
1. Influencers Based on Content or Niche:
And influencers based on content or niche are those influencers who are professionals in their field.
They might not necessarily have millions of followers or fans but the little they have to respect them for their knowledge and dignity.
You know some people are not popular with the fan base kinds of stuff.
They don’t have that million fans who are following them and flowing with whatever is going on.
But they have quality people who are following them and will always appreciate whatever they are recommending.
People like this are thought leaders in their field – who have people’s respect based on the content that they put out.
They already have a mass reply of followers and their followers are quality who give them maximum regard and respect.
So, using this type of people for your business is not also bad because you will attract quality people.
Although it depends on how well their audience will suit your business if it does – then you have no reason not to use them.
Because they have audiences who are quality and not the audience who is quantity.
Their audience might just be 400,000 Followers compared to others who have 10miilion followers.
But trust me, that their 400,000 followers are worth more than other influencer’s millions of followers.
2. Influencers by Follower Count:
Yup! This is where many brands fall and these are the influencers that do get brand advocacy.
They have a lot of followers on their social media pages and they control their flow of traffic.
Now, the thing about these types of influencers is that they might not necessarily be an experienced person.
Or should I put it as a knowledgeable person because the majority of them only got fame just from worldly stuff?
Some might be musicians who just release new music and just pop because people love the song.
Some might involve in some explicit programs but because people love X-rated stuff – they quickly got fame and have millions of followers.
So, their followers are not really from the experience they have but just because people like the stuff they are doing.
They are the kind of influencers that show off online and show people their new whip and their new designers.
So, these people always gain a lot of endorsement because of the fame that they have got.
You can also make use of influencers like this but always make sure that you understand your audience.
You must know if your audience will be among their followers – it’s normal for you to get a good result.
But how well are you getting the result and how best are the result going to flow into your income stream.
They always have millions of followers and they will surely flow with your endorsement to help you promote your brand.
So, this is another type of influencer which you can use and be ready to create your Influencer briefing for.
Characteristics Of A Good Influencer
Let us immediately look through the characteristics of a good influencer.
There are some characteristics an influencer must flow through before you must ever think of doing business with them.
And that is what we are going to talk about in this aspect.
- Relatable.
- Responsive.
- Tech Savvy.
- Creative.
- Consistent.
1. Relatable:
A good influencer must be relatable which means he or she must be someone that anyone can flow with.
Now, there is a saying that you can’t truly know the real attitude or color of a person until they have money.
Fame is also part of it. When someone becomes famous – there is this inner drive that will get into someone’s head.
But it is now left for the person to control his or her attitude or just make it engulf him or her.
So, you need to know if the person you want to endorse is relatable and understands how to speak with someone.
And it starts from how the influencers flow with their subscribers or followers on their social media pages.
That is where your promotion will be flowing and you should look at how they respond to followers.
If they are someone who doesn’t have a good attitude or behavior – it is going to be very difficult for you to see enough revenue.
That is why you will see some people who are good in their skill and talent but don’t have enough followers and endorsement.
That is because other brands will be thinking about what the outcome will be if they decide to promote and do business with this person.
So, you need to make sure that you look at whether the influencer is relatable or not.
Because if such an influencer is not very relatable – it is going to be very difficult and it’s better one if careful before even briefing anything with them.
2. Responsive:
How responsive is the influencer when it comes to responding to inquiries from other brands?
Sometimes, the majority of these influencers don’t have much time to answer Messages on their DM.
So, concerning this – I also think it is better to find a way to get through to them without their personal social media Direct message.
Because the high chance of them replying through that way will be very slim.
So, you should always make sure that you get through to them either through email or direct calling their assistant.
But let us even say you can get access to them – how well are they responding.
Is the influencer very active and response at the necessary time when you gave him or her a call.
When he or she says “I will call you back” – did he or she even flow and keep to his or her promise.
This responsiveness is what you need to take note of before you should even consider making use of such an Influencer.
Doing business with someone who is not very responsive is a very difficult thing and won’t lead to something productive.
You need an influencer who picks calls all the time and replies to emails almost within 24 hours.
That is the type of Influencer that will acknowledge your Influencer briefing and even put more energy into working with your brand.
So whether you are a marketer for your brand or you are the owner of your brand.
Responsiveness is what you should put more energy and time into because it is very important.
3. Tech Savvy:
I can’t even imagine an influencer in this century that won’t know about the use of the internet.
Like, being Influencers these days requires you to be tech-savvy. I mean even if not everything – one must know how to post on social media.
So, it is very important that the influencer that you will be using is tech-savvy and knows how to use the internet.
If such an influencer doesn’t know how to use the internet and how to use technology moderately.
Then I would not consider such a person an influencer and it is better you just flow with another influencer.
Because being an influencer requires a lot of technical knowledge.
Like, such an influencer must be able to scroll freely on your social media page and see new updates.
He or she must have even known about any update before you or your brand will contact him or her concerning it.
An influencer that will easily pull out his or her phone and just give an update about your brand easily.
I do watch some influencers online that might just be chilling in the beach or their living room and just go live.
They will go Live on Instagram and just promote their brand the more just to encourage their followers.
That way is more sellable than even shooting a whole location and still needs the presence of the team.
So, you must choose an influencer that is tech-savvy and can control the activities of the internet.
4. Creative:
How creative is this influencer that you want to be used to promote your brand?
There is some level of reasoning that you need to look towards when you are trying to have a better brand.
Because in this world that we live in – we are in a creative world where people only fall in love with a unique thing.
So, if you are not creative in anything you are doing – then your competitors will surpass whatever you plan for.
So, you also need to focus and look at the creativity of the influencer that you want to be using.
There are so many Influencers all over the world now because social media has made it possible for anyone to just shoot a video and upload it from their comfort.
So, enough time should be put on the creative aspect of the content that an influencer is always uploading to attract more people.
So, you need to have enough time to look at the creative side of the influencer and see if it match what you need.
How clean are the videos he or she posts and does he or she has a unique selling point that people will use to portray your brand very well?
These are the things you must take note of when trying to use an Influencer.
Some influencers are not that creative and it might hurt your brands’ results.
So, creativity is very important when it comes to choosing an influencer – make sure to put it in your Briefing.
5. Consistent:
How consistent is this influencer? A good influencer must always be consistent in his or her place of work.
Oh yes! The fact that such a person is an authority in the field should also denote that such place is his or her place of work.
A few days ago, my sister and I were talking about one of our favorite actors that we always watch his film.
But my sister talks down on him not being consistent on Instagram or even social media at large.
She said other actors are always coming online to post and create fun on their social media pages.
But he doesn’t come that much and even if he posts – it’s just to tell fans about his new film that will be coming out soon.
She said she doesn’t like it and she just had to ignore every one of her posts because he only comes to tell them his new movie.
Now, this is something that a brand should take note of because just the way my sister detests seeing his posts…
…that is also how other parts of his followers will also be ignoring his posts just because his page is always boring.
Now, this actor has millions of followers on Instagram but the majority of his followers don’t even flow with his content.
Mainly because his posts are always boring and it’s only his movies that interest his followers.
So, if you are to be using a type of Influencer like this who is not consistent with his followers.
You will find it hard to scale more than the amount you are paying because the return will not be that booming.
How To Get The Right Influencer
For Your Influencer Briefing
In this aspect, we are going to look at the best way to get the right influencer for your Briefing.
This is also an important part of this guide and that is what we are going to look at last in this guide.
Because when you know how to select the right influencer for your briefing or your brand at large.
Your profit and revenue will keep going up and you will never lack or complain of not having funds to continue your business.
So, let us dive deeper into how you can select the right influencer and we call it an end for this guide.
- Audience Match.
Authenticity, Passion, and Knowledge. - Goal Match.
- Platform.
- Reach.
- Quality.
1. Audience Match:
Now the first thing that you have to take a look at is the type of audience that is following this influencer.
Are they in any way relatable to your brands’ goal and view?
Are they people that can show interest in what you are offering and will they even buy your offer?
This is the first thing that you should look at before even thinking of using an Influencer as your brand advocate.
Let us take, for example, you are trying to promote your digital course and you are using a musician as your brand influencer and advocate.
Do you think such an influence who has musical fans will be able to give you enough turn up that will bring back the amount you have paid him?
I doubt that! Because the majority of his or her audience is interested in worldly things.
If you are shooting new music and you find another musical influencer who is already a big boy in the industry.
Such a type of matching still flows – compared to a course creator who is using a musical influencer.
And the fact is that you will always get an influencer in your field who will be able to endorse your product and business.
So, you need to take your survey and do enough research on the type of audience that is following this influencer.
Look at what they are also interested in aside from following the influencer and see if it relates to your business.
If it does – then you know that you hit the nail because they will show an interest in your offer and buy.
But if it doesn’t – you are only pouring water inside the ocean which wouldn’t reflect anything.
2. Authenticity, Passion, and Knowledge:
The influencer you must use for any brand advocacy must be passionate and have authenticity with his or her work.
The moment an influencer starts endorsing and promoting your brand – then such an influencer is part of your brand.
So, if you are not in a real business with someone passionate about what he or she is doing…
…your brand will keep shrinking and you will just see that things are not truly moving the way you have planned it.
The truth is that not all influencers are truly passionate about the way you might be portraying them.
Some of them are just opportune to get into the limelight maybe with something people fall in love with.
Some of them didn’t strive hard towards becoming who they are but are just opportune to get the chance.
So, if you are using such an influencer – then you must make sure to use enough time to talk business with him or her.
Ask about an influencer’s dedication before you will ever think of adding them to your business or product brand.
This is something that will also be in your contract agreement before you will even sign such an influencer.
A lot of influencers are out there but not all of them are truly passionate about whatever business they find themselves in.
That is why your brand must be promoted by someone passionate and knowledgeable about your business.
When the knowledge is there and the hard work is flowing well within the influencer – it is starting to become easy to improve the performance of the business.
3. Goal Match:
Is the goal of your company also related to the goal of the influencer?
Hope it is not an influencer that wouldn’t care much about the progress of the company and all its objectives.
There are ways through which you can know the goal match and see if your business goal is kinda the same as the Influencer’s goal.
And that is when you are using an influencer that is in the same niche as what you are promoting.
If you are someone who is in the Refreshment industry and you have a club that you handle.
You will need some influencers to also help you talk more about your club and get more people to show up.
Or if you have a company that produces hot drinks that are alcoholic in substance and need more buyers.
You will know that in such two instances – your best influencers should be hip hop artists.
Because whenever they are rapping and singing – they will keep mentioning your club name in their tracks.
Also, you can endorse them to always hold your drink when they are shooting a music video.
This is how companies like Ciroc are booming and making use of Influencers whose goals match theirs.
Because they know that such people have an interest in stuff like that and their followers also will be interested in kinds of stuff like that.
So, they are booming and progressing with the influencers who have a goal match with them.
4. Platform:
Which platform are these people booming and making a lot of progress on?
Different Influencers have a different fan in different platforms that follows them and enjoy what they do.
Some have a lot of followers on Facebook, while some have a lot of followers on Instagram, while some have a lot of subscribers on YouTube.
Some even have millions of followers on all these platforms and they are making a lot of waves from them.
But you are the one who will select the platform you know that your audience is best available.
If I am someone who is into a kind of business that people will still need to search for my keyword before they will get an answer.
I will prefer to use influencers who have build authority in the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION platform.
A platform like a blog that gets thousands of visitors daily and millions of visitors yearly.
Or I can decide to make use of an influencer that has a lot of subscribers on YouTube and they keep following him or her.
Now, this is something that you have to take note of when you are doing your influencer searching.
Although, there is more idea and knowledge related to this aspect of reasoning which I also believe you should have comprehended.
But I just hope you understand the aspect of the platform in using to get an influencer for your business.
Just with an influencer on a certain platform – you can easily get people who will surely be buyers of your product.
That is why you have to look at the platform that best suits where your influencer should come from.
5. Reach:
What’s the reach of the influencer and how many views does he or she get monthly?
This is another important aspect since many people are now fond of buying fake followers online.
There are some fake engagement and followers detector tools these days like Influencermarketinghub that will easily notice whether an account is filled with real followers.
So, you must take note of these things and not just do business with an influencer with a fake follower count.
The reason why I believe I need to state this aspect is that a lot of my readers might not be that buoyant to do business with top Influencers.
So, if you are someone who can’t afford the top influencer money but wish to flow with an influencer at a moderate level.
You need to look at the way their follower count is coming and see if it’s not just filled with bot followers.
The majority of people out there are now doing anything possible just to get into the limelight and make money.
So, you don’t want to play with your chance and employ someone with a fake follower count as your brand advocate.
So, this is another important thing you should take note of and know how well the reaches are.
Is their reach real and how many people are viewing their content daily and the total monthly content view is important for you to know.
6. Quality:
How well is the quality of the audience? Are they an audience that will always engage with your posts?
Whenever the influencer post something from your brand – will they even show interest to take any action on it?
This is also among the things we have already stated here but I feel it is also more important that I lay enough emphasis on it.
Because you need to know how well the followers of the influencers are.
And that is even part of knowing where the followers are coming from.
Are the real people that click on the follow button because they love what the influencer is doing and want more?
Or they are people who don’t even know they are following someone because it’s some bot tool that added them there?
You need to check the quality of the followers of an influencer before you should ever think of doing business.
These are important things to take note of even before doing any briefing with an influencer.
Conclusion
This guide has been very comprehensive enough in the aspect of Influencer briefing and we have discussed some of the things you have to take note of.
Also, I am a fan of Influencer Marketing and I always stress it in my content for my readers.
Because with an influencer who is targeted to your niche – you can be able to get quick results within a short period.
The reason is that these people are hearing about your brand from the person whom they cherish and trust a lot.
So, they won’t care to give it a trial and patronize whatever you are promoting.
But always make sure that your Influencer briefing is intact and you are good in Your Copywriting
With Copywriting – your influencer will give out the best on whatever you give to him or her.
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