Creating successful campaigns on Xiaohongshu (Red) requires more than just identifying popular creators and sending generic instructions. This influential Chinese social commerce platform demands a nuanced approach that aligns with its unique content ecosystem, aesthetic standards, and user expectations.

At the heart of every successful Xiaohongshu campaign lies a comprehensive creator brief that translates brand objectives into platform-specific content that resonates with the RED community. Yet many international brands struggle to structure these briefs effectively, leading to misaligned content, suboptimal results, and wasted marketing budgets.

Based on our experience managing over 1,000 brands across Asian markets, we’ve developed a comprehensive Xiaohongshu creator brief template that bridges this gap. In this article, we’ll walk you through the essential components of an effective creator brief for Xiaohongshu campaigns, provide real-world examples of successful implementations, and offer our proven template as a free download to elevate your presence on this vital platform.

Understanding the Xiaohongshu Creator Ecosystem

Before diving into creator brief essentials, it’s critical to understand what makes Xiaohongshu unique among social platforms. With over 300 million users, Xiaohongshu combines social discovery with e-commerce in a highly visual environment dominated by authentic user-generated content.

Unlike platforms where influencer marketing often looks overtly commercial, Xiaohongshu users highly value authentic peer recommendations. The platform’s algorithm rewards genuine engagement, with content that appears too promotional often facing limited visibility or community backlash.

Creators on Xiaohongshu generally fall into several categories:

• KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) – Established creators with large followings who specialize in specific lifestyle niches
• KOCs (Key Opinion Consumers) – Everyday users with smaller but highly engaged followings who are perceived as more authentic
• Brand Accounts – Official brand presences that produce their own content

As part of our Xiaohongshu Marketing expertise, we’ve observed that the most successful campaigns typically blend these creator types, with briefs tailored to each category’s unique strengths and audience expectations.

Why Creator Briefs Matter for Xiaohongshu Success

Creator briefs serve as the critical communication bridge between brands and creators on Xiaohongshu. Their importance cannot be overstated for several reasons:

Cultural Context Translation

For international brands, creator briefs provide essential cultural context translation. Xiaohongshu’s content ecosystem has its own visual language, content formats, and communication style that differ significantly from Western social platforms. A well-crafted brief helps creators adapt brand messaging to resonate with Chinese consumers’ expectations and preferences.

Brand Safety and Compliance

China’s digital regulations and content restrictions differ from other markets. Detailed briefs help ensure creators produce content that complies with both platform guidelines and national regulations, preventing potential issues that could damage brand reputation or result in content removal.

Performance Optimization

Clear briefs aligned with Xiaohongshu’s algorithm preferences help optimize content performance. Our AI Marketing analysis reveals that posts meeting specific format, keyword, and engagement requirements consistently outperform generic content that doesn’t align with platform patterns.

By investing time in developing comprehensive briefs, brands can expect significant improvements in engagement, conversion, and return on marketing investment.

Essential Elements of an Effective Xiaohongshu Creator Brief

Based on our experience implementing successful campaigns through our Influencer Marketing Agency services, we’ve identified these critical components that every Xiaohongshu creator brief should include:

Campaign Overview and Objectives

Begin with a clear statement of what the campaign aims to achieve. Is it brand awareness, product launches, driving sales, or building community? Providing context helps creators understand how their content fits into your broader marketing strategy. Include specific KPIs you’ll use to measure success, such as engagement rates, click-throughs, or conversion goals.

Brand Guidelines and Tone

Include concise brand guidelines that communicate your visual identity, voice, and values. This section should help creators understand how to represent your brand authentically while maintaining their own voice. For international brands, include both global positioning and any China-specific adaptations that have been made to your brand identity.

Product Information and USPs

Provide detailed information about the featured products, including:

• Core product benefits and unique selling points
• Technical specifications and usage instructions
• Key differentiators from competitors
• Pricing and availability information

Consider including a FAQ section that addresses common questions creators might have about the products, helping them create more accurate content.

Content Requirements and Formats

Detail the specific content formats required. Xiaohongshu supports various content types including:

• Standard posts (9:16 vertical images with text)
• Video content (ideally 3-5 minutes for optimal engagement)
• Product reviews with detailed usage documentation
• Tutorial or how-to content
• Before/after demonstrations

Specify if you need multiple content pieces or variations, and whether you expect content to be crossposted to other platforms.

Key Messages and Required Elements

List the specific messages that must be included in the content. These might include product claims, promotional details, or specific value propositions. Also specify any mandatory elements such as:

• Required hashtags (both brand and trending)
• Account tags or mentions
• Specific product demonstration requirements
• Call-to-action instructions

Visual Guidelines and Examples

Xiaohongshu is highly visual, so include detailed guidelines for imagery. Provide mood boards, color palettes, and reference images that illustrate the desired aesthetic. Including examples of successful previous content helps creators understand your expectations. Our Content Marketing specialists recommend providing both aspirational examples and clear limitations (what not to do).

Timeline and Deliverables

Clearly outline the campaign timeline, including:

• Content submission deadlines
• Review and feedback periods
• Publishing schedule and coordination
• Reporting requirements

Specify deliverable formats, file types, and resolution requirements to ensure technical compatibility.

Compliance Requirements

Include specific guidance on regulatory compliance, particularly for industries like beauty, health, and finance that face additional scrutiny. Specify any required disclaimers or prohibited claims, and provide guidance on sponsored content disclosure in accordance with Xiaohongshu’s policies.

Step-by-Step Template Walkthrough

Our Xiaohongshu creator brief template organizes all these essential elements into a structured document that facilitates clear communication between brands and creators. Here’s how to navigate each section:

Section 1: Campaign Overview

The template begins with fields for campaign name, objectives, timeline, and key performance indicators. This section provides the strategic foundation for the entire brief. Be specific about what success looks like for this particular campaign.

Section 2: Brand and Product Details

Here you’ll document essential information about your brand positioning and the specific products featured in the campaign. Include links to product pages, downloadable assets, and any additional resources creators might need. Our template includes a structured product information table that ensures all technical details are clearly communicated.

Section 3: Content Guidelines

This comprehensive section covers everything from content format specifications to tone of voice guidelines. The template includes:

• Content type checklist with format requirements
• Messaging matrix with primary and secondary messages
• Do’s and don’ts table for clear boundaries
• Visual reference gallery for aesthetic guidance

As our SEO Agency experts recommend, this section also includes guidance on incorporating searchable keywords and phrases that can help the content perform better on Xiaohongshu’s discovery features.

Section 4: Technical Requirements

The final section covers deliverable specifications, timeline, review process, and compliance requirements. Our template includes a detailed checklist that helps creators ensure they’ve met all requirements before submission, reducing revision cycles and expediting campaign launches.

Successful Xiaohongshu Campaign Examples

To illustrate how effective creator briefs translate into successful campaigns, let’s examine two case studies from our portfolio:

Beauty Brand Product Launch

For an international skincare brand entering the Chinese market, we developed a comprehensive brief that emphasized before/after demonstration content. The brief included:

• Detailed application instructions with timing specifications
• Lighting and camera angle guidelines for accurate representation
• Scientific claims that could and could not be made
• Mandatory inclusion of ingredient spotlights

The resulting campaign generated over 3 million impressions and a 267% increase in Xiaohongshu store traffic by ensuring consistent, credible product representation across all creator content.

Fashion Retailer Season Collection

For a fashion retailer launching a seasonal collection, our brief focused on lifestyle integration rather than explicit product promotion. The brief guided creators to:

• Feature products in authentic daily scenarios
• Demonstrate multiple styling options
• Incorporate specific cultural moments relevant to the season
• Connect products to emerging lifestyle trends identified through our AI SEO analysis

The campaign achieved an engagement rate 4X higher than previous campaigns by appearing more authentic and less promotional, with a 32% higher conversion rate on featured products.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Xiaohongshu Briefs

Through our experience as an AI marketing agency, we’ve identified several recurring issues that undermine Xiaohongshu campaign effectiveness:

Excessive Restrictions

Overly prescriptive briefs that dictate every aspect of content creation often result in inauthentic posts that perform poorly. Creators need space to incorporate their personal style and voice—after all, that’s why their audience follows them. Provide clear guidelines and mandatory elements, but allow creative freedom within those boundaries.

Ignoring Platform Norms

Briefs that don’t account for Xiaohongshu’s unique content ecosystem often lead to content that feels out of place. For example, overly promotional language typical of Western influencer marketing often performs poorly on Xiaohongshu, where educational and authentic review content dominates. Our consulting services help brands adapt global marketing strategies to platform-specific expectations.

Neglecting Technical Specifications

Many campaigns suffer from technical issues that could have been avoided with proper guidance. Our template includes detailed specifications for:

• Image resolution and aspect ratios
• Video length and format requirements
• Text character limits for descriptions
• Tagging and hashtag formatting

Insufficient Context

Briefs that focus only on immediate campaign requirements without providing broader brand context often result in disconnected content. Include background on your brand’s history in China, competitive positioning, and how this campaign fits into your overall marketing strategy.

Measuring Campaign Success

An effective creator brief should include clear metrics for success. Through our marketing technology solutions, we recommend tracking these key performance indicators:

Engagement Metrics

Track standard engagement metrics like likes, saves, and comments, but also analyze the quality of engagement. On Xiaohongshu, comment sentiment and save rates often indicate purchase intent more accurately than likes. Our AI Influencer Discovery tools help identify which creator content generates the most meaningful engagement.

Traffic and Conversion

Measure traffic to your Xiaohongshu store or external website, and track conversions using platform analytics and your own attribution models. Use unique discount codes or landing pages for each creator to accurately attribute sales to specific content.

Content Efficiency

Analyze which brief elements resulted in the most effective content. This might include specific product features that resonated, content formats that performed best, or messaging approaches that generated the strongest response. Use these insights to refine future briefs.

Brand Perception Shifts

Use social listening tools and AI Local Business Discovery solutions to track changes in brand perception before and after campaigns. Look for increases in brand mentions, shifts in sentiment, and emerging user-generated content trends related to your products.

Our ecosystem services provide comprehensive campaign analytics that connect creator content performance to broader business objectives, helping refine your Xiaohongshu strategy over time.

Download Your Free Xiaohongshu Creator Brief Template

Ready to elevate your Xiaohongshu campaigns with a comprehensive creator brief? Our template incorporates all the essential elements discussed in this article, structured in a format that’s easy to customize for your specific brand and campaign needs.

The template includes:

• Complete brief structure with all essential sections
• Customizable fields for brand-specific requirements
• Example content for each section to guide your inputs
• Checklists to ensure comprehensive information
• Visual reference frameworks for aesthetic guidance

Developed through our experience with over 1,000 brands and refined through our marketing academy feedback, this template represents best practices for Xiaohongshu marketing success.

With our SEO Consultant expertise and deep understanding of Xiaohongshu’s ecosystem, we’ve designed this template to help your brand achieve meaningful engagement and conversion on this critical platform.

Creating effective Xiaohongshu campaigns requires a deep understanding of both the platform’s unique ecosystem and the specific elements that drive creator success. A well-structured creator brief serves as the foundation for this success, translating brand objectives into platform-appropriate content that resonates with Chinese consumers.

By incorporating the key elements outlined in this guide—from comprehensive campaign context to detailed content specifications—your creator briefs will enable more authentic, effective content that drives measurable business results.

Whether you’re new to Xiaohongshu marketing or looking to optimize existing campaigns, our template provides a structured approach to creator collaboration that can significantly improve your results on this essential platform for reaching Chinese consumers.

Remember that Xiaohongshu success requires ongoing adaptation and refinement. Use the performance insights from each campaign to continuously improve your briefs, ensuring they remain aligned with both platform trends and your evolving business objectives.