You need to convey brand guidelines to an influencer. How can you do it without limiting their creativity?

The answer is somewhat written in the question already. You need to provide guidelines, not orders or scripts. Create your guidelines in an organized but entertaining way. Usually influencers tend to scroll pass them rather quick, therefore make sure they catch their attention. I would say conveying starts with making them reasonable, understandable and not overly restrictive.

Provide examples of past successful collaborations to illustrate your expectations. Highlight mandatory guidelines, such as specific hashtags or product mentions, but emphasize the importance of their personal touch. Open a dialogue for questions and feedback to ensure mutual understanding. This approach maintains brand consistency while allowing the influencer's creativity to shine.

Develop a comprehensive yet concise brand guideline document. Include essential elements such as brand voice, tone, visual style, logo usage, and key messaging.

Start by creating a detailed brief that outlines the campaign objectives, target audience, key messaging points, and any specific goals you want to achieve. This sets the foundation for the influencer to understand the context of the collaboration.

Un brief clair avec les éléments listés mais aussi les possibles forces ou limites de nos services, des questions possibles de clients, des FAQ et également des inspirations de concurrents ou d’autres marques inspirantes, intégrant des collaborations de l’influenceur. L’importance du timing est clé également selon l’urgence de la situation et de la collaboration

Provide visual examples of do's and don’ts. This helps influencers understand your expectations without lengthy explanations.

Use visual examples such as past campaigns, brand aesthetics, or mood boards to illustrate the style and look you are aiming for. Visual references can inspire the influencer while providing a clearer understanding of your brand’s visual identity.

Maintain open communication throughout the collaboration process. Allow the influencer to ask questions, provide feedback, and share their ideas. Collaboration should feel like a partnership where both parties contribute to the final outcome.

One of the key challenges is conveying brand guidelines to influencers without stifling their creativity. Flexibility matters. While it's essential to provide clear guidelines to ensure brand consistency, being overly rigid can hinder an influencer's ability to create authentic and engaging content. Instead, focus on key points that must be adhered to, such as brand tone, messaging, and visual elements, and then give them the creative freedom to interpret these in a way that resonates with their audience. By trusting influencers to weave your brand into their unique style, you’ll achieve a more genuine connection with your target audience.

If you select the influencer based on what fits to your brand you will have an easier way to nudge them towards your brand guidelines. If you constantly run into difficulties with matching your brand guidelines, you either are to strict in the guideline or your selection process is not good enough. Try to adjust these two in order to make your influencer marketing more smooth.

Selecting the right influencer who naturally aligns with your brand can simplify guideline communication. At Tru, we carefully vet influencers to ensure their style matches our brand. In cases where alignment was challenging, we reassessed either the guidelines or our selection process. Additionally, we’ve found that providing influencers with behind-the-scenes insights about our brand’s story and vision further enhances their ability to create content that truly resonates. This deeper connection helps maintain authenticity and strengthens the overall campaign.