How to Write an Influencer Brief (Free Template)

What is an influencer brief, and why does it matter?

It’s the document that tells a creator what you need from a sponsored post, and what you don’t. A weak brief gets you either a stiff ad or a video that forgets your product entirely. A good one gets you content that sounds like the creator and still does its job.

The brief matters more than most teams think, because it’s the only thing that stands between your goals and the creator’s camera. It’s also where most campaigns quietly go wrong: a brief that’s three pages of brand guidelines with the actual ask buried on page two.

There’s a real reason to get this right. Audiences respond to creators who sound like themselves. In a 2024 NCSolutions survey, 48% of U.S. consumers said they’d bought something they saw in creator content, and among Gen Z it was closer to two in three. (Home Page News) That trust only works if the creator still sounds like the person people follow.

Writing a sharp brief is hard enough once. Writing 30 versions that each fit a different creator is where teams run out of time. INFLUENCE writes a personalized brief for each creator based on their voice and best-performing content, then sends every draft back to you for approval.

What to include in an influencer brief

Eight sections, most of them one or two lines each.

The one that matters most is #3. If a creator only remembers one line of your brief, it should be that one. “Our app helps you save money” is forgettable. “Show the moment you see you can afford this weekend’s plans” gives them something to film.

Keeping a brief this tight takes discipline, especially with several teams adding requests. INFLUENCE boils your campaign down to the single message and the must-haves, then builds each creator’s version around it, so nobody gets a wall of text.

How to write the must-haves without killing the content

Limit the must-haves to things that are truly non-negotiable, and say why. Everything else is a suggestion.

Real must-haves usually include:

• Clear disclosure. Paid posts must be disclosed in the content itself. Under the FTC’s 2023 update to its Endorsement Guides, relying only on a platform’s “paid partnership” tag may fall short. (Davis Wright Tremaine) Ask for a spoken or on-screen mention plus #ad or #sponsored in the caption.

• Your product name, said clearly. Viral videos that never say the brand name are a common and painful mistake.

• The link, code or call to action, mentioned once, naturally.

• Dates: when the draft is due and when it goes live.

• Claims you legally can’t make, especially health, money or results claims.

Things that shouldn’t be must-haves:

• A script, or “please say these exact words”

• Five product features

• Your brand’s color palette

• A required first line or hook

Over-controlling can backfire legally, too. A 2016 FTC settlement with Warner Bros. centered on a game campaign where paid YouTubers were reportedly steered toward positive-only coverage, with the sponsorship tucked below the fold. (Game Informer) Don’t ask creators to hide anything, or to say only nice things.

Keeping disclosure and claims right across dozens of creators is easy to miss by hand. INFLUENCE builds your must-haves into every brief and checks each draft against them before it goes live, so you’re not catching a missing #ad after the post is up.

Free influencer brief template

Copy this, fill in the brackets, and cut anything you don’t need. Then tweak sections 4 and 7 for each creator.

# Creator brief: [Brand] x [Creator name]

## 1. The product
[What it is, in one sentence.] [Who it's for, in one sentence.]

## 2. The goal
We'd love viewers to [try it / download it / buy it / sign up].

## 3. The one message
If people remember one thing: [one sentence].

## 4. The moment to show
[When the product is useful in your life, e.g. "the Sunday night when you plan your week."]

## 5. Must-haves
- Say "[product name]" clearly at least once
- Disclose the partnership out loud or on screen, plus #ad in the caption
- Mention [link in bio / code CREATOR10] once
- Draft due: [date]. Post window: [dates and time zone]

## 6. Please avoid
- [Claims we can't make, e.g. "cures," "guaranteed," "best in the world"]
- [Competitor names]
- [Anything else off-limits]

## 7. Totally up to you
Hook, story, setting, tone, editing, music. You know your audience better than we do.
Honest opinions welcome, including what you'd improve.

## 8. Logistics
| Item | Details |
| --- | --- |
| Deliverables | [e.g. 1 Reel + 2 Story frames] |
| Usage rights | [e.g. we may run this as an ad for 60 days] |
| Payment | [amount / basis, and when] |
| Contact | [name, email] |

The template works for a handful of creators. INFLUENCE does the tailoring at scale: each creator’s version is built from their own best-performing content, so a 50-creator campaign gets 50 briefs that fit, not one brief sent 50 times.

How to personalize a brief for each creator

Keep sections 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8 the same for everyone. Change the moment (section 4) and the suggested angle for each creator, based on what already works for them.

Before you send it, look at the creator’s three best-performing posts from the last two months and ask:

• What format do they win with? Talking to camera, a voiceover, a skit, a “day in my life”?

• What’s their usual hook? A question, a confession, a surprising result?

• Where does your product fit naturally? In their routine, their problem, their running joke?

Then add one line under section 4, like: “Your ’things I stopped buying’ videos do great. Could this fit in one of those?”

That kind of tailoring is exactly what gets skipped when a launch is close. INFLUENCE writes each creator’s angle from their own top content, so you don’t have to study 30 feeds the week before launch.

Common brief mistakes

• Too long. If it’s more than a page, creators skim, and the important parts get lost.

• A script disguised as “talking points.” Ten bullet points of exact phrasing is still a script.

• No single message. Five benefits means none of them stick.

• Burying the logistics. Dates, rights and payment should be easy to find, not hidden in paragraph four.

• Forgetting disclosure. It’s the creator’s job to disclose, but it’s your job to make sure they do.

• One brief for everyone. Different creators need different angles.

These are easy mistakes when briefs are written by hand under deadline pressure. INFLUENCE handles briefs, drafts, approvals and posting dates in one place, so nothing gets lost between the brief and the post. Pricing is per delivered view (how pay-per-view works).

A great influencer brief is short, specific about the few things that matter, and generous about everything else. Pick one message, show the moment your product helps, list the must-haves and let the creator do what they’re good at. Tailoring 30 of these is a lot of writing, and INFLUENCE does it on every campaign. For more on content that doesn’t feel forced, see how to make sponsored posts look natural.

One message, a few must-haves, and room to be themselves.