Love them or hate them, in the past decade the explosion of influencers through social media has changed the marketing landscape, allowing businesses to target their marketing to reach their ideal customers more precisely.

If you are looking to engage an influencer to help your marketing, here are three key points to consider including in your Influencer Agreement:

  • Pick the right influencer

Above all the key decision when teaming up with an influencer is to find one that is the right fit for the business. One key consideration is the area of influence, followers and past history of collaboration, for instance have their been issues with compliance with the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority and CAP (Committee of Advertising Practice) in particular the CAP Code. Often issues arise where an influencer fails to disclose that a post is an ad. The ASA monitors influencers for compliance with the CAP code and also maintains a list of non-compliant social media influencers. Checking this list online will allow you to ensure your influencer has not fallen foul of the CAP Code in the past.

The number of followers an influencer has is always important, but care must be taken in assessing the size of a following. Reviewing the engagement from followers might help assess if there are a number of fake followers, there are automated tools available which could identify if an influencer has fake followers.

Having the right match doesn’t end with the appointment, a business needs to continually monitor the influencer’s social media to see how they are performing. This might form part of the payment process but it is still important to keep an eye on the influencer’s feed throughout the engagement.

  • What control do you have (or want)?

Once something is on the internet you can’t take it down. By the very nature of influencer marketing as soon as a post has gone live there is no taking it back. Therefore it should be very clear what oversight and editorial control you have over posts both in terms of content, hashtags and timing of the post.

  • How are they paid?

There are largely two ways in which influencers can be paid which are an amount per post or by having an affiliate link.

As the name suggests, payment per post involves a fixed fee per post, however thought needs to be given as to when the influencer is to be paid (i.e. before or after the post is uploaded). As with anything a payment in advance includes an inherent risk that either the post won’t be made or won’t be done in accordance with the agreement.

An affiliate link allows a commission to be paid per unit sold, as there is a unique link that directs a follower to your page. In paying a commission thought should be given to the terms so that refunds can be taken into account.

It should also be noted that payment doesn’t need to be in the form of money, this can include gifting or providing free products or services. If this is the route you go down, this is still subject to the CAP Code and it should be clear that it is a paid promotion.

So when thinking about engaging an influencer there are many things to consider. Having a written agreement is important so that everyone knows what is expected from the relationship. A reputation takes years to build but can take only moments to destroy, care must be taken when engaging someone with your most valuable asset.

If you would like to discuss or have advice on an Influencer Agreement, please contact our Corporate and Commercial team on 0116 289 7000 or email info@bhwsolicitors.com.


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