What is an Influencer Contract?

An influencer contract is a formal document presenting an agreement of the campaign between a popular influencer in social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, etc. and a specific brand. This written document is a significant tool in setting up the terms and conditions for the business agreement concerning that the influencer will promote or recommend a particular brand, product, or service to his or her audience. 

The COVID-19 pandemic made a dramatic impact on the number of influencer marketing campaigns. Based on a report by Upfluence, despite the drop of influencer marketing campaigns in the first and second quarters of 2020, influencer campaigns increased to 2,163 in the third quarter and jumped even more in the fourth quarter to 2,901.   Thus, if you need to start working on a specific marketing campaign for a brand, the first thing you need to accomplish is preparing a basic influencer contract.

Different Types of Influencer Contracts

The Science of Influencer Marketing stated that some factors which affect influencer marketing are knowledge, subtle influence on thought process, value, and influenced scarcity. A wide array of influencers around the world fit into separate categories depending on these factors, as well as the number of followers, niche focus and degree of influence.  Additionally, an influencer should try to contemplate how the shape of the contract will affect the future business relationship with the other party. However, there are different types of influencer contracts that you can choose from depending on what you will work on. Below are different types of influencer contracts:

1. Beauty Influencer Contract

Safiya Nygaard, Kathleen Lights, Michelle Phan, Sophia Chang, Michelle Choi, Liah Yoo, Charlotte Cho, Rowena Tsai, and Felicia Lee  are some of the popular beauty influencers from different countries around the globe. A report stated that about 56% of women follow beauty influencers and almost 43% of consumers follow them.  They aim to share beauty, skincare, hair care, body care, and makeup tips to help their followers and other people to look great. Plus, they drive sales and improve the brand awareness of a particular beauty, skincare and makeup company. Developing a simple and structured influencer contract is an essential method to properly negotiate the beauty brand campaign services of an influencer to the business firm. 

2. Blogger and/or Vlogger Influencer Contract

Do you know a person who creates high-quality text and video content to engage his or her followers? Bloggers and vloggers have a large audience base on their blog or YouTube channel. If you know someone who is a blogger, he or she can improve your SEO with the use of high-quality backlinks to your website which can also drive a sufficient amount of referral traffic to your website through sponsored blog posts. If an influencer is a vlogger, he or she can enhance the brand awareness through engaging videos that can be shared and watched by social media users. Writing a clear blogger and/or vlogger influencer contract for your brand and content will assist you in setting up an amicable relationship with other influencers and business firms.

3. Gaming Influencer Contract

PewDiePie is one of the most famous gaming mega-influencers, having over 103 million followers on YouTube. Gaming influencers are well-known in live-streaming their games on various social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. They can promote various brands related to gaming. So, we suggest that you structure a compelling contract for your gaming influencer brand campaign. In this way, you can appropriately discuss matters and make an agreement with some gaming influencers and brands. 

4.  Fashion Influencer Contract

Jenn Imm, Aria Di Bari, Emma Hill, Tricia Gosingtian, Chiara Ferragni, Camila Coelho, Aimee Song, Irene Kim, Phil Cohen, Laureen Uy, Vern & Verniece, and Camille Co  are some of the famous fashion influencers in the world. They promote fashion brands to expand their reach and market their products in more creative ways to connect to brand values. Also, they provide fashion and clothing companies an alternative channel to heighten product sales. If a person is a rising fashion influencer, it is essential to create a simple and appealing contract for a fashion brand marketing campaign. 

Benefits of Writing an Influencer Contract

Whether a person is working as a blogger/vlogger, beauty influencer, model, photographer, journalist, micro-influencer, or nano-influencer, it is important to negotiate contract terms and conditions with an influencer very carefully, especially when it comes to legal liability in the brand campaign for a particular business firm or organization. So, what are the benefits of writing a contract for influencers, brands and business firms? Below are some of the benefits of writing a brand influencer contract:

1. Clear Agreement

By knowing and understanding why a certain provision has been indicated and what it fulfills, the influencer can establish a clear agreement when introduced with someone else’s contract. Also, the influencer is well-informed of what is and is not valuable. When an influencer contract is presented to a brand, you may request for changes if necessary. The influencer and the brand or company may disagree on some areas, but the common transaction is something that both want. This is the reason why the larger framework of agreement should be kept in mind at all times when settling on an agreement, and negotiation demands the proper attention and complete readiness on the part of the influencer. Plus, influencers are better at creating and publishing satisfying content that fully meets the brand’s goals. 

3. Prevent Rogue Behaviors

There are some influencers who get involved in posting controversial comments or images that may endanger the reputation of a brand. Thomas Adams, associate general counsel of Procter & Gamble (P&G), said that a “continuity of persona”clause in the contract which requires a consistent character and tone during the brand campaign can protect brands against rogue behavior. It can also cover trivial issues because of the influencer. 

4. Proper Endorsement Disclosures

Constructing an influencer contract appears to be beneficial in specifying to the influencers to comply with Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules which require them to disclose when their posts are paid advertisements. If they don’t sufficiently disclose paid relationships, they may expose themselves and brands to FTC fines and class action lawsuits. That’s why influencers should be careful and attentive in disclosing their product endorsements in the right way. 

5. Emphasize Brand Exclusivity

When you write an influencer contract, it emphasizes the brand exclusivity to the influencer. It prohibits the influencer from going into another contract with a competitor brand. This will allow influencers to guarantee that they have no existing contracts with the competitor brands. So, an influencer contract is a tangible proof that the influencer should maintain his or her loyalty entirely to a specific brand during the term of the campaign.

Basic Features of an Influencer Contract

In this section, you will learn how to construct a remarkably written and simple influencer contract. However, an influencer contract has different features. Include the following elements for you to create an simple yet structured piece of writing:

Title: One of the common features of an influencer contract is the title. It is a simple line of the document which provides the main topic, or subject of the influencer contract for the brand campaign. It is typically set in a size larger than other remaining text elements in the page. Basic Information of the Influencer, and the Brand or Company: This section simply presents the basic information of the influencer, and the brand or company such as the complete legal names, work position, company name, etc. Scope of the Brand Campaign: Identify the precise flow of activities involved in the brand campaign and product endorsement. Make the scope of the brand campaign clear to the other party. Write the integral areas and functions that must be fulfilled in this section such as responsibilities, frequency of posts, the types and length of posts, due dates for specific deliverables, and time between posts, etc. Brand Campaign Timeline and Payment: In this part, you need to specify the start and end dates of the brand campaign based on the duration of the campaign. Explain the payment as it could be based on cost per engagement, commission or clicks. On the other hand, influencers can get some free products, services, or invitations to special events. Terms and Conditions: It is very crucial to include the terms and conditions of the brand campaign that the influencer will be working on in order to prevent misunderstandings that can easily arise between the influencer and the brand such as content ownership, pre-approvals, termination, and misinformation.

How to Create an Influencer Contract

While creating an influencer contract, it is important for both content creators and brands to work with respectful influencers, brand executives and marketers. This is evident in a survey conducted by Crowdtap in more than 50 content creators that 54% of influencers say that they will work with brands who respect them as they would any other publisher. In this matter, we suggest that you follow the simple steps below while freely using one of our basic influencer contract samples in this article:

Step 1: Indicate the Essential Details of the Agreement

The first step is to indicate the essential details of the agreement made by the influencer and the brand marketers. Include the names of the influencer and the brand marketers and/or executives. Also, it is important to avoid typographical errors, especially in the spelling of the personal information of both parties. So, verify the details in the influencer contract to prevent you from having unexpected issues like legal contract problems. 

Step 2: Explain the Scope of the Brand Campaign

One of the integral parts of the influencer contract is the scope of the brand campaign and product endorsement project. So, explain thoroughly the overall scope of the brand campaign such as the types, formats, frequency, and length of posts and other aspects that will help in fully setting up the brand campaign for the business firm or organization.

Step 3: Write the Specific Dates of Agreement

The third step is you should write the specific dates in the influencer contract together with other significant dates to consider. For instance, the start and end dates of responsibilities for a specific brand campaign.

Step 4: Provide the Brand Campaign Timeline and Payment

Break down every stage of the brand campaign into its separate components and outline a clear timeline of the brand campaign. Provide a run-down of the payment for the influencer marketing and brand campaign. There are influencers who were initially paid according to a number of posts and reach but others are moving to a performance model depending on conversions.

Step 5: Apply Clarity and Conciseness

When it comes to developing contracts for influencer marketing business and other legal issues, you should apply clarity, and conciseness through the words, terms, and phrases that you will put in the document. Avoid the use of vague words. Instead, use words that can be easily understood by the readers.

Step 6: Prepare the Final Draft

Last but not the least, prepare the final draft of your influencer contract. We recommend that you attach any supporting documents if necessary. Schedule a meeting with the management agency of the influencer and the brand marketers and executives who will be involved in implementing the brand campaign as stated in the influencer contract. Also, you may get some help from editors and proofreaders or use some editing and revising tools for much needed proofreading and revision of your document.

FAQs

What are the essential steps of creating an influencer contract?

The essential steps of creating an influencer contract are being honest and clear from the start of the agreement, and providing the necessary details of the influencer brand campaign.

What are the basic features of the influencer  contract?

When preparing your influencer contract, you should indicate the complete names of the influencer and the key individuals of the company or organization of a particular brand that will be marketed. Then, include a simple and concise overview that contains the timelines and milestones, brand campaign guidelines, influencer campaign guidelines, campaign deliverables, brand exclusivity, and consumer privacy law. Explain the inclusions and other terms and conditions as well. 

What are different types of social media influencers?

The different types of social media influencers are bloggers and vloggers, social media sensations, reality TV stars, micro-influencers, nano-influencers, social media activists, journalists, photographers, thought leaders like entrepreneurs and high-level decisions makers of large companies, and mainstream celebrities such as movie stars, athletes, musicians, models, and many other famous public figures. 

What are some common types of influencers?

Some common types of influencers are mega-influencers who have more than a million followers, macro-influencers who have 500,000 to 1 million followers, mid-tier influencers who have 50,000 to 500,000 followers, micro-influencers who have 10,000 to 50,000 followers and nano-influencers who have 1,000 to 10,000 followers. 

Social media platforms act similarly to railways as they establish the standard for the movement of social information which allows it to be generated and consumed much quicker and easier. This makes influencer marketing fundamental for an eclectic of brands and marketers globally. For example, a 2015 study revealed that content promotion is the major reason why 67% of brand marketers and communications professionals are engaging with influencers. If you are a brand marketer who wants to work with a particular influencer or if you are a manager of an influencer, it is very important to learn about the basics of writing an influencer contract. Before reaching the success of brand campaigns and product endorsement deals, please follow the aforementioned tips and steps here so that you are able to craft an influencer contract. Plus, download our influencer contract samples here today!