How to draft a contract

In this article, we'll learn how to draft a contract with the influencers we work with on Social Cat, see some examples, and learn some best practices.

Note: to draft a contract, you must first match with a creator; this happens when either you accept their collaboration request or they accept your collaboration proposal.

Want to learn more about matches? Check out this article.

To draft your first contract, follow the steps below:

  1. Find the creator you matched with under the "Collaborations" tab
  2. Open the message chat with them from the "Actions" button or the "Messages" column
  3. When the chat is opened, click the "Contract" option at the bottom

A similar slider screen will appear:

Let's have a look through each of the options available.

Collaboration

This refers to the payment type; these are the options below:

  1. Gifted 🎁

A gifted collaboration means the creator will promote your products & brand in exchange for the product itself; creators will keep the products, and brands are in charge of shipping and fees.

Want to learn more about gifted collaborations? Check out this article.

  1. Paid 💰

A paid collaboration means the creator will promote your products & brand in exchange for paid compensation; the paid sum is proposed by the influencer when they send a collaboration request, or your brand might submit it via prospects. So that you know, this fee can be discussed more via messages before drafting the contract.

Creator also keeps the product, and the brand is in charge of shipping and fees.

  1. Affiliate 📈

An affiliate collaboration means the creator will promote your products & brand in exchange for an affiliate return; for each sale, they get a fixed amount or percentage, depending on how you agree.

Creator also keeps the product, and the brand is in charge of shipping and fees.

Collaboration Type

This section refers to the platform we agree to collaborate on and the placement of the collaboration. We focus on the following:

  1. TikTok
  2. Reels
  3. Stories
  4. Posts

Points 2, 3, and 4 are on Instagram, while 1 is exclusively on TikTok.

Fee

If we're working on a paid collaboration, the fee agreed with the influencer must be mentioned in this section. This section will be hidden if we decide to work together on a gifted or affiliate collaboration.

Note: you can't propose fees smaller than $20 or £20.

Turnaround time

This section refers to the agreed timeframe for the collaboration to go live and the content delivered. It's important to discuss this with the influencer and agree on a reasonable timeframe, allowing them the necessary time to create content.

Note: by default, we added 5 days to the turnaround time for shipping and minor delays that might occur. So, for example, if you input the turnaround time to 7 days, the creator will have 12 days to create and deliver the content.

In case of flagging a collaboration, please don't do it earlier than the turnaround time agreed in the contract.

Deliverables

In this section, we must include how many deliverables we agree upon, and if there are any important specifications about this collaboration, they must be included here. At the previous point, "Collaboration type," we added the platform and the placement of the collaboration, but we have not mentioned how many assets will be included. This section will cover this.

So, for example, if we agree on 1 set of stories with the creator and 1 post on Instagram, we recommend using this structure.

  • 1 x stories
  • 1 x feed post

Let's say that with a different creator, we agree on 1 feed post and one reel. We recommend using this structure:

  • 1 x feed post
  • 1 x reel

If the same deliverables are used across multiple placements, please mention this in this section. For example, if you agree with a creator on a reel and a set of stories, but it's the same video that goes on both, make sure to mention this below:

  • 1 x reel
  • 1 x stories

*the same video will be used across both deliverables (if you agree on different ones, please mention so)

Please take a look at the examples below to learn more.

Contract Examples

  1. Gifted collaboration 🎁

This is an example where we agreed on a gifted collaboration on Instagram, where a video will be posted on reels and stories. Note how we mentioned it could be the same video across both placements.

Also, remember that we add 5 extra days by default for the turnaround time, so we expect this to be delivered in 14 days.


  1. Paid collaboration 💰

In this example, we have a paid collaboration with a time frame of 13 days to be live, on Instagram, with all three placements included.

  1. Affiliate collaboration 📈


This is an example of an affiliate collaboration; we agreed only for stories, with a 10-day turnaround time.

What happens next?

As soon as you finish drafting a contract, you can send it to the influencer; they can either agree or reject it. Ideally, you want to have all the details set and agreed upon before you send the contract out so you avoid situations where it gets rejected.

Have a look at some best practices at the end of the article to learn more about this.

If a contract is rejected, the creator will send you a message on why they rejected it, and you can create a new one with their feedback. Whenever you create a new contract, you'll also see a history of the old ones, just for context.

Best practices

  1. Try always to use contracts, even if it's a gifted collaboration

This one seems obvious, but we see some brands skipping this part; ideally, you want to have all the details established and agreed with a contract instead of an agreement via messages; if you need help with a collaboration, the contract is the first thing we look at.

  1. Draft & send a contract only after you agree on the most important details of the collaboration:
  • platform & placement
  • how many deliverables (videos or photos)
  • video duration, if any
  • turnaround time
  • script
  • fees, if any

As soon as you have the answer for all the above, you can go ahead and draft a short contract, send it to the influencer, and wait for their approval.

  1. Please make sure to discuss, agree, and include the number of deliverables in the contract; this makes the whole process more open, and in case of flagging a collaboration, it's easy to fix.
  2. Only add details discussed and agreed upon with the creator in the contract; if you add extra information or different ones, for example, other deliverables, timelines, etc., this will probably get rejected by the creator, slowing down the whole process.

If you have any questions about contracts, please don't hesitate to contact us at joe@thesocialcat.com, and a member of our team will help you soon.

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