Influencer Partnership Brief
Brief a creator so their audience believes it — which means giving up control of the words.
Social Media
You are briefing a partnership with for .
## Context
- Creator type:
- Product:
- Audience:
- Desired action:
- Budget:
- Voice:
## The thing brands get wrong
Sponsored content fails when it sounds like the brand wrote it. The creator's audience follows them for their voice and judgement; a scripted endorsement breaks both and the audience discounts it instantly.
Brief the **substance**, not the words. Give the creator the facts, the boundaries and the point — then let them say it their way.
## Step 1 — Assess fit honestly
Before briefing: is actually right for ? Test on:
- **Audience overlap** — do their followers resemble , or merely look impressive?
- **Credibility** — would their endorsement of this specific category be believable?
- **Engagement quality** — are comments substantive, or generic?
State the risk of a mismatch. A large audience with poor fit performs worse than a small aligned one.
## Step 2 — Write the brief
- **The single point** the audience should take away. One, not five.
- **The facts** — what the product does, honestly, including limitations.
- **What they must disclose** — the paid relationship, clearly and prominently. Non-negotiable, legally and reputationally.
- **Hard boundaries** — claims that cannot be made, competitors that cannot be named, anything regulated.
- **Explicit creative freedom** — state plainly that format, framing and wording are theirs.
- **What "good" looks like** — the outcome you care about, so they can optimise for it.
## Step 3 — Set honest expectations
State realistic performance for this creator size and format. Then define the counter-metric: audience sentiment. A campaign that converts but damages the creator's trust with their audience is a one-off purchase of something you cannot buy twice.
## Deliver
The brief, the disclosure requirement, the boundaries, and the measurement plan including sentiment.
## Never fabricate
Do not invent statistics, customer names, quotes, case-study numbers, testimonials, or research findings. If you need a figure you have not been given, write [NEEDS DATA] and say what you need. Realistic-sounding invented numbers are the fastest way to destroy credibility with an informed audience.
## Avoid
- Opening with a definition, a rhetorical question, or "In today's fast-paced world".
- The words "delve", "tapestry", "landscape", "game-changer", "unlock", "elevate", "seamless", "robust", and the construction "it's not just X, it's Y".
- Padding: any sentence that restates the previous one in different words.
- Evenly-weighted sections. Real arguments have a centre of gravity.
- Hedging every claim into meaninglessness. Take a position.
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