What should I include in a customer perk campaign brief?

A well-structured campaign brief is essential for any successful customer perk program, ensuring clarity for both the business and the participating customers. It acts as a blueprint, guiding customers on what to post and how, while aligning their efforts with your marketing objectives.

First, clearly state the specific perk offered (e.g., "free coffee with any pastry," "20% off your next haircut," "complimentary appetizer"). Specify any conditions, such as minimum spend or specific days/times the perk is valid. This incentivizes participation and ensures customers understand the value exchange.

Next, define your campaign objectives. What do you hope to achieve? Examples include increasing brand awareness, driving foot traffic, promoting a new menu item, or generating user-generated content (UGC). Defining your objective helps shape the entire campaign and allows you to measure its success.

Identify your target customer. Your own customers are the audience here, but you can still tailor your brief to the kinds of customers you most want posting. For instance, if you're a salon, you might focus on clients excited about a new style or service.

Crucially, provide content direction without scripting positivity. Describe the *type* of content you're looking for — a photo of a specific dish, a video of your salon's ambiance, or a selfie with your product — and suggest a focus or aesthetic ("Showcase our outdoor patio," "Highlight our fresh ingredients"). But the post must reflect the customer's own genuine experience: never require a positive review, a star rating, or specific praise as a condition of the perk — perks are earned for posting, not for posting something positive.

Specify which social media platforms you want posts on (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube). Each platform has different strengths and content formats, so tailoring your brief to the chosen platform(s) is important. Also, include a clear call to action for the customer's post: what do you want their followers to do after seeing their content? Encourage them to include a specific CTA in their caption, such as "Visit [Your Business Name] today!" or "Try their new [Product/Service]!"

Finally, remember FTC disclosure. Social Perks automatically injects the platform-specific disclosure (#ad, #sponsored, or the native Paid Partnership label) into every post, blocks any submission that lacks it, and does not allow the disclosure to be disabled — so every campaign meets the material-connection requirement automatically. This protects both your business and the customer. Use the elements above to plan your campaign: pick the platform(s), the action you want, and the perk, then give customers clear, honest guidance on what to post.