The Do's and Don'ts of Collaborating with a Finfluencer

With great financial influencers (finfluencers), comes great responsibilities. Here’s a quick guide to help you navigate influencer partnerships while staying compliant.

The Do's

1. Conduct Proper Due Diligence.
   Why: Doing thorough research will help you avoid influencers who might harm your brand. Not ideal.
   How: Check their past promotions, audience engagement and reputation.
2. Clarify Goals and Creative Freedom.
   Why: Because clear expectations leads to more successful collaborations.
   How: Discuss your campaign goals and define their creative boundaries upfront.
3. Define Key Contractual Terms Explicitly.
   1. Restrictions:
      Why: Prevents the misuse of your brand.
      How: Ensure influencers acknowledge they have no rights over your brand’s assets and warrant that their content won’t infringe on third-party rights,
   2. Duration:
      Why: Influencer popularity can change quickly🤷‍♀️
      How: Keep engagements short and include an option to extend the contract if the campaign performs well.
   3. Approval Rights:
      Why: Maintains control over your brand’s message.
      How: Specify the process for content submission, approval, and publication in the contract.
   4. Exclusivity:
      Why: Ensures focus and avoids conflicts.
      How: Make sure the influencer’s commitments don’t clash with other partnerships.
   5. Intellectual Property:
      Why: Protect your rights to the created content.
      How: Secure an assignment of intellectual property rights or a broad licence for using the influencer’s content.
   6. Termination Rights:
      Why: Protect your brand’s reputation.
      How: Include immediate notification and termination clauses for reputation damage, and incorporate a “cleansing requirement” for the influencer to delete related posts.
4. Monitor Compliance:
   Why: You’re responsible for ensuring the influencer’s compliance with financial promotion rules.
   How: Have robust compliance systems to oversee the influencer’s content and actions. Use tools like Finspector to manage alerts and workflow.

The Don'ts

Don’t be Vague.
Why: Vague terms lead to misunderstandings.
How: Ensure all expectations, processes, and rights are clearly documented in the contract.

Don’t Ignore the Influencer’s Existing Commitments.
Why: Conflicts with other brands can dilute your message.
How: Confirm that the influencer’s other agreements won’t interfere with your campaign.

Don’t Underestimate the Need for Approval Rights.
Why: Unapproved content can harm your brand.
How: Establish clear approval processes to maintain content quality and compliance. Use tools like Finspector to get approvals faster.

Don’t Neglect Intellectual Property Rights.
Why: Lack of control over content can limit your usage.
How: Secure necessary rights to use and adapt the influencer’s content.

Don’t Forget to Include Termination Clauses.
Why: Protects against potential reputational harm.
How: Have clear termination and “take down” provisions to quickly address any issues.

Takeaways

Engaging influencers means thinking about both regulatory and commercial factors. Not only must your promotions comply with financial regulations, but you need to remember the influencers you work with also need to adhere to these rules. Make sure you have robust compliance systems and clear commercial terms in place to manage your affiliate marketers effectively.

We understand time is the greatest adversary in being thorough. Which is why we've created Finspector, the AI-powered FinProm Compliance tool that can help save you 1000s of hours on compliance reviews.