All About Influencer Management Contracts: What to Know

Creators' Legal
4 min readDec 24, 2021

You’ve set up a fantastic influencer campaign for your business, and you’re excited to get the ball rolling by putting all the terms in a formal influencer management contract. This step is crucial for protecting your business and influencer from unpredictable circumstances, mismanagement, and anything else that can upend your campaign.

However, building an influencer contract can be challenging. You’ll need to account for various high-level issues, like your influencer relationship goals, along with other staple terms that every influencer agreement must have. Here’s what you need to know about influencer management contracts:

Understand Campaign Goals

Before initiating the contract phase, it is crucial to define all goals and key performance indicators or KPIs in your campaign. Otherwise, the contract phase can easily fall wayward, delaying the entire process further. Once you reach this stage, there shouldn’t be any surprises for your marketing team or your influencer, so be sure to understand your campaign goals.

Review Your Budget

One of the essential parts of any influencer contract is compensation. If any part of your influencer budget is vague, your influencer may want to renegotiate or back out of the campaign altogether. Be clear on your budget and state it on concrete terms to get everyone on the same page.

Know the Influencer Partnership You Want

Influencer partnerships work differently between brands. Well-established, experienced brands are well-aware that they should not micromanage influencers. These businesses exercise extra care and caution in vetting their influencers, giving clear guidelines, then leaving it up to their influencers to show the brand as appropriate.

However, if you’re brand new, you may want the influencer to showcase your business in a particular way. The goal is to cultivate long-term relationships with your top-performing influencers, as they’ve managed to pull off the Herculean task of making your audience adore your brand even more.

Decide Your Influencer Partnership Objectives

Figuring out your influencer partnership objectives will pave the way for your contract. Pay extra attention to the decisions that impact the future of each influencer relationship. If you’re partnering with the same influencer for the seventh time, you may want to create more comprehensive agreements to make the process smoother for everyone involved.

It’s important to note that your audience will view your influencers as an extension of your brand and marketing team, so you’ll need to treat them as such. Outline your objectives before starting a conversation with the influencers of your choosing, as these goals will set the tone for a long-term relationship. On the other hand, if your goal is only short-term, be sure to communicate this upfront and tailor your influencer sponsorship contract accordingly. Still, the influencer deserves to be treated with respect, as you may end up partnering with them again at some point.

What to Include in Your Influencer Agreement?

There are a few things every influencer contract should have. One of them is the non-disclosure and confidentiality agreement, as some campaign participants are required to reveal sensitive information about their business or personal brand. You’ll also need to include the compensation model, as influencer compensation may consist of flat fees, commissions, product seeding, or all three.

Timelines, milestones, and brand campaign guidelines are also important to include in the contract, as they set important parameters crucial to your campaign’s success. If you’re worried about your influencer working for a competitor, be sure to include a brand exclusivity clause.

The Wrap

Influencer contracts can be tricky to deal with when you aren’t sure what to put in them. By clearly defining your objectives and using our guide, you’ll have an easier time creating effective influencer management contracts.

Creators Legal is the first and only legal platform for content creators. It is designed just for content creators to get simple, straightforward, and trustworthy contracts in a fast, easy-to-use platform. With a powerful form builder, a secure e-signature system, and your own personalized dashboard to store and organize all your contracts, you can get yourself protected in minutes without the need for expensive entertainment lawyers! Want to learn more? Check out CreatorsLegal.com, where you can get single contracts or get a Free Seven Day Trial on all contracts for creators!

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Creators' Legal

Creators’ Legal, Legal Solutions for the Creator Economy.