Advertising of goods by bloggers who are popular on social media networks like Facebook and Instagram is a trend in brand promotion that, however, has two sides. The popularity of bloggers’ video content on YouTube is not slowing down. Telegram channels have a wide audience and a good viewing percentage.

  • Do you have an insane number of followers on social networks?
  • Are you really working on the quality of your content, rather than doing spontaneous posting?
  • Do your post ideas go viral and other people try to imitate you?

Congratulations – you may be considered as an opinion leader or “influencer”. And it is time to start making money on it. Surely, you have already received offers for cooperation more than once.

Is your product a completely new niche, or a new look at old things? It means that you have shaped its uniqueness and it is time to communicate with potential customers. The section “working with opinion leaders or “influencers”” is perfect for your marketing strategy.

In this article, we will reveal how to work with bloggers in a legally correct framework. Obviously, you can send a message via “Direct”, then exchange several messages, transfer money to an unknown account and … endlessly complain about the blogger’s page afterwards, because you misunderstood each other regarding the partnership format, received the wrong result, or the post was deleted after the payment.

In this article, we will not cover all the provisions of an agreement with a blogger, but will simply provide a few important points that should be fixed in such agreement.

Account identification

Bloggers can have multiple social media accounts with different content and audience. A certain company chooses an “influencer” directly for their style of communication on a particular platform.

You may be interested in a specific YouTube channel, but the content will be released in “stories” format on the vlogger’s Instagram account – in placement of which your company was not interested, since it did not fit the format or audience.

Although such actions are not performed in good faith, formally it would be difficult to attribute them to violation.

Therefore, it is necessary to eliminate the possibility for abuse or violations in the contract for advertising with a blogger by clarifying all the details as much as possible and specifying the necessary accounts and platforms for advertisement placement.

Content style

An opinion leader / “influencer” became popular because this person has found his/her own special style on the web. It is necessary to initially define the style of content that the blogger will promote.

Modern web surfers can be considered as “ad detectors”. All parties to an agreement are interested in the partner content to produce the effect of native advertising – since in this case it is possible to significantly increase consumer loyalty on the account of the posted material.

But it is not recommended to improvise too much as well. One should bear in mind that the product and its advertising are part of the reputation of a certain company.

The agreement between a brand and a blogger should contain provisions on the negotiation of the approved content and the term for its approval by a company, the number of brand mentions, the methods of mentioning it, the need to place the links to the company, etc.

Publication time

It is a well-known fact that the launch time of a publication affects its distribution success among the target audience, and it differs depending on the audience and its activity. Therefore, the timing plays an important role in promoting a brand through social networks to achieve maximum effect.

The parties should agree on the time of the content release. In addition, it would be good to fix the provision in accordance with which the blogger will be prohibited from deleting the post on his/her own.

As a last resort, you can agree on how long the content cannot be removed.

Communication

Brands and bloggers have their own “haters”. Depending on the style and content, users and subscribers may provide certain reactions, sometimes negative ones. Since cooperation between a blogger and a company on its product advertisement affects business reputation, it is necessary to agree on the issue of communication with subscribers, namely who will response to comments. A blogger, in the event of negative reviews and accusations, can place a company in an uncomfortable position by his/her independent actions.

To protect the brand’s business reputation, it is necessary to prescribe the procedure for interaction and response to negative comments in the agreement with a blogger.  

Payment

An advertising agreement with a blogger can contain very specific payment terms. It usually contains a fixed price per post provisions. But it is not forbidden to link such price to the desired result (the number of clicks to company pages, orders, etc.). Additionally, barter conditions can be fixed in such advertising agreement – discounts or gifts. However, in this case, you should definitely consult with lawyers, because such terms may have different tax consequences for the parties, depending on their legal status.

Intellectual property

A blogger can edit video materials to promote a product, and he/she will own related rights to this video. A blogger can also use the intellectual property of third parties in such process.

For the company to have the possibility to independently use the materials developed by the blogger in the future, it is necessary to fix the transfer of all property rights to the objects created by the blogger in an advertising agreement. It is necessary to foresee the distribution of responsibility for the use of intellectual property of third parties (music or copyright images).

Bonus – compliance

Compliance is not a section in the agreement with a blogger. Advertising law sets requirements for certain products’ advertisement. To ensure that neither the blogger nor the company violate such provisions, lawyers should take part in the preparation of advertising materials.

Conclusions

Marketing tools are multifaceted.

An agreement for the provision of advertising services by a blogger is not a simple formality. It is the brands which are interested in achieving the greatest results from cooperation with bloggers.

The issues described in this article may help you understand the key points of negotiating with “influencers”.

Сообщение Specifics of the agreements for advertisement with bloggers появились сначала на Legal IT group.