How to Write an RFP for an Influencer Marketing Platform or Agency

What an RFP is, and when you actually need one

An RFP (request for proposal, sometimes called a tender document) is a written brief you send to several vendors at once — typically three to five influencer marketing platforms or agencies — with the exact same questions, requirements and evaluation criteria. The point is to compare vendors on a common footing, instead of letting each one steer the conversation through its own sales pitch. See what to ask a platform before you sign for the informal version of the same exercise — seven questions worth asking whether or not you run a formal RFP.

An RFP isn't necessary for every decision. It's worth the effort when at least one of these is true: you're choosing between three or more genuine candidates, procurement or leadership requires formal documentation of the decision, the budget is large enough to justify the time it takes, or you need a written record to justify the choice internally later. If you're really only deciding between two platforms you already know well, the direct question list above is usually enough — a full RFP is overkill.

The five parts a solid RFP should cover

Split these five parts into separate sections in the document itself, and number the questions so vendor responses are easy to line up side by side afterward. An RFP written as flowing prose with no numbering is markedly harder to compare across three responses once they come back.

Setting requirements: must-have vs. nice-to-have

The single most common RFP mistake is a long wishlist with no prioritization, which forces the vendor to guess what actually decides the outcome. Split every requirement into one of two categories instead: must-have, which disqualifies a vendor if the answer is no, and nice-to-have, which counts toward the score but doesn't decide it alone. See how to choose an influencer marketing platform for the eight criteria that typically belong in one category or the other — pricing model, attribution window, market coverage, creator vetting, payment handling, contract terms and reporting.

Example of a must-have: "The platform must support tracking in Denmark and at least two other EU countries." Example of a nice-to-have: "It's a plus if the platform offers a dedicated account manager at Growth tier or above." A must-have that's really a nice-to-have in disguise filters out good vendors for the wrong reasons — be honest about what's genuinely non-negotiable.

Pricing structure: ask for a formula, not a single number

An RFP response that only states one price tells you nothing about how the cost behaves once your volume changes. Ask instead for pricing written out as a formula — subscription plus any service fee, and exactly how the service fee is calculated — along with a worked example at a stated volume. See what an influencer platform actually costs for the four building blocks pricing is typically made of, and how to compare two models that price differently.

Evaluation criteria and weighted scoring

The step most RFP processes skip is deciding the evaluation criteria and their weight before responses come in — not afterward, when it's easy to unconsciously tune the weighting toward the vendor you already prefer. A simple weighted model works like this: pick five to seven criteria, give each a weight that sums to 100%, and score each vendor's response 1-5 on every criterion. The total score is the sum of (weight × score) across all criteria.

The weighting above is an example, not a formula to copy exactly — adjust it to what actually matters most to you. A brand that already has a working creator pipeline will typically weight market coverage lower and tracking higher; a brand starting from scratch, often the reverse.

A hypothetical worked example: using the scoring model in practice

The following figures are hypothetical and for illustration of the maths only — not an assessment of named platforms or agencies.

Imagine two vendors, A and B, scored on the six criteria above:

Vendor A: (0.25×3) + (0.20×5) + (0.20×4) + (0.15×4) + (0.10×5) + (0.10×3) = 0.75 + 1.00 + 0.80 + 0.60 + 0.50 + 0.30 = 3.95
Vendor B: (0.25×5) + (0.20×3) + (0.20×4) + (0.15×2) + (0.10×3) + (0.10×4) = 1.25 + 0.60 + 0.80 + 0.30 + 0.30 + 0.40 = 3.65

Vendor B looks cheapest and wins on price alone (5 vs. 3), but loses overall because it scores markedly lower on lock-in and support — two criteria that carry a smaller weight but still drag the total down enough to flip the ranking. The point isn't the specific numbers; it's that a weighted model can produce a different winner than simply picking the cheapest option or the one that scores highest on a single criterion — which is exactly why the weights need to be set before responses come in, not after.

RFP for a platform vs. RFP for an agency — what changes

An RFP for a software or marketplace platform and an RFP for an agency ask partly different questions, because they're buying different things. See agency vs platform vs in-house for the underlying difference in how much work stays with you in each model.

Timeline: how long should the process take?

There's no industry standard for how long an RFP should take, but a realistic template for a mid-sized decision typically looks like this: one to two weeks to write the RFP internally, one to two weeks for the vendor response deadline, one week for follow-up questions and any demo calls, and one week for internal scoring and the decision — four to six weeks total from send to decision. Set a fixed deadline for vendor questions, and answer them in writing to all participants at the same time, so no vendor gets information the others don't have.

Common mistakes

• Sending the RFP without setting the weights first. The evaluation then easily gets tuned — consciously or not — toward whichever vendor you already lean toward.
• Mixing must-have and nice-to-have together. It stops the vendor from prioritizing its response correctly — and stops you from disqualifying correctly.
• Asking for a single price instead of a formula. See the maths in what an influencer platform actually costs for why that changes the ranking at different volumes.
• Sending the same RFP to a platform and an agency without adjusting the questions. See the table above for what actually needs to change.
• Not setting — or not enforcing — a response deadline. A vendor who gets extra time effectively gets an advantage the others didn't have.

Make Influence's perspective

It's our experience — not an objective truth — that a formal RFP delivers the most value when the decision genuinely comes down to three or more comparable vendors, and the least value when you already know which of two platforms you prefer and just need to negotiate the terms. In that second case, the direct question list in what to ask a platform before you sign is typically faster and just as thorough. That's our recommendation based on what we see working for brands evaluating platforms and agencies — not a claim about how other vendors handle an RFP process.

FAQ

Is an RFP only relevant for large companies?

No, but the time invested should match the size of the decision. A full RFP with formal scoring makes the most sense at a budget and contract length where getting it wrong is expensive — for a smaller, shorter agreement, the direct question list is often enough.

Should you send the RFP to several vendors at once, or one at a time?

At once, with the same deadline for everyone. That's the entire point of an RFP — comparing responses given under the same conditions at the same time, not responses shaped by what you've already told an earlier vendor.

How many vendors should you invite?

There's no fixed rule, but three to five is a practical balance — enough for a real comparison, without making the scoring unmanageable or vendors losing interest in spending time on a response they judge has a low chance of winning.

Do references need to be verified, or is it enough to have them listed?

Ask to contact the references yourself, and ask them specific questions about what matters most to you — response time when something goes wrong, for example, or whether the price they were quoted actually held in practice. A reference the vendor won't let you contact directly is information in itself.

What if no vendor meets every must-have requirement?

Either the requirements are set wrong, or the market genuinely doesn't have a vendor that matches your needs exactly. Review whether a must-have is really a nice-to-have in disguise before rejecting every response.