The hint is in the name: how to write a successful marketing brief
Brief writing often gets a bad wrap. It’s yet another piece of paperwork. This post looks at common objections to writing a brief and gives you a few pointers on how to develop and deliver your own brief for maximum impact in the shortest possible time.
If you’re unfamiliar with a brief, it’s a document you’d complete when developing a campaign or even something as simple as a flyer to make sure the person completing the work knows what you want. Similar to a scope of work, but with more details and context so the person doing the work can do the best job possible.
The problem arises when people miss the hint in the name. A brief needs to set the direction, then get out of the way for the work to get done.
Objection:
I don’t know what I want.
Good! At least you’re being honest with yourself.
A brief is as much for you as it is the agency or individual executing on it. Gather your thoughts, dump them all down on the page. Review it a few days later over a beer or with a mate and see if any more ideas have come to you. Update it, change it, delete parts, add new ones in. Until you hand it over to work on, this is your canvas!
Objection:
I don’t need one, I have the idea in my head
Cool story, bro. No, really. Until it’s on paper a story is all it is. Have fun retelling that story to everyone that asks. Bonus points if you can track how often you can tell the entire story exactly the same each time.
That last point is actually another interesting one. If you’re really working your suppliers to deliver, you want to make sure they deliver exactly to the brief. You can literally use it as a checklist.
If they’re charging you for rework and multiple rounds of amends because they didn’t follow the brief - you can challenge them on it.
If you’ve given them a moving target by not being specific about exactly what you want, you have nothing to measure them against. Unless they miraculously nail it the first time or your standards are so low you’ll take whatever they throw at you, they can rightfully claim multiple amends. Can you really afford that?
Objection:
I don’t need a brief, I’ll know what I want when I see it.
Any agency worth their salt will be able to take what you give them and give you something half decent. The problem lies in how long and how much it will cost to bring you that something.
I’m not made of money. I don’t imagine you are either. For the sake of this point let’s agree to be thrifty. While we’re at it here are two more points which we can probably agree on, or you can take my word for:
Creative, design, digital, marketing, etc. professionals are not cheap.
Creative, design, digital, marketing, etc professionals will usually charge per iteration of work, no matter how minor the change (some times to spite the size of the change to discourage further amendments).
If you want to get the best bang for your buck you need to give them a proper brief. The tighter and more detailed your brief is, the easier and faster you’ll get what you want.
As I said above, it’s ok to not know everything. Actually, telling the aforementioned specialists exactly how to do their job is a waste of their time and your money. In the same way, not giving them enough to work with will guarantee exactly the same outcome.
Strike a balance. Write a brief which tells them where you want to end up, the customer insight that’s driving your activity and the outcome you want to achieve for your business. Then listen, be open to taking advice on how to get there and make them earn the money you’re paying them.
Objection:
They’re a waste of time/ I don’t have time to write one.
This is a fair cop. If you're running a business you don't have the time to write a blown out war and peace of a brief. Nor should you.
Here's all you need to include:
The SMART marketing objective you're trying to achieve (and business objective, if you have one). This will cover:
Who you're talking to
What the outcome you want is
When you want it done by
Budget - this can be very very hard to do when you're new to the space… more on that in another post.
The single idea/thought you want customers to walk away with after this work is delivered ('buy my product' is OK, but why they'd do that would make this a lot easier).
Anything specific you want included. Be that channels, creative elements etc.
It goes without saying that any agency you work with should have your brand guidelines or codes to work within.
Very rarely can you simply drop an idea and run. People will have questions, you might want to run it past a few different people to tender for it. Simply having it written down means you can easily share it.
Then, Let the marketing wankers take it away and fluff it up (don't worry, they will)
Get them to come back to you with a proposal which summarises the:
Options - ideally with a rough idea of the creative execution if you're doing something with a big budget. Although there's more than one way to skin a cat, if it's something simple like a flyer, banner or ad, don't expect too many ideas.
Pros and cons of each option
Costs
Timelines
Expected outcomes or targets they're going to hit
If they can't even take a stab at that, they might be wasting your time. Anyone can make things complex, it's hard to make things simple. Do spare a thought though for your agency if you've given them a very loose brief. They're not mind readers…
…You're giving them direction and some scope to play in.
… They don't know your business or customers as well as you do.
If they deliver to the brief and it's not what you're after, then you weren't specific enough with your brief. That's ok, it's partially on the agency for not asking enough questions before coming back with options.
If you have one specific idea that you want them to deliver, just tell them. It'll save everyone a bunch of time if the only thing you'll settle for is exactly one way of doing things. Just question why you're paying someone and then doing a huge part of their job for them.
The Takeaway
How you can save time with a brief
Writing a brief 'brief' can actually save you time for one very simple reason.
As soon as you want more than one person to look at it you’ll be repeating yourself. Even better, when you have it written down and someone asks a dumb question which you’ve covered in the brief you can drop the ‘as per my previous email’ bomb.
All jokes aside, time is a pressure we all deal with when running a business. The good news is a lot of agencies you work with will do what’s called a ‘reverse brief’ which as the name suggests means they hit you with a bunch of questions and write a brief for you to review based on your answers.
This is really handy if you’re not 100% sure on what you want just yet. Be wary though as it can also be a great way to waste time - particularly if you need to go away and find out more because you’re unprepared. These work best when you get the questions in advance and you can use the session to spit-ball ideas.
SUMMARY
Draw a line in the sand
Briefs are good, so long as they stay that way.
Keep your brief short and sharp, for you more than anyone.
Make it specific enough to set the course but not so prescriptive there's no scope for the person delivering the work to add value (otherwise what are you paying them for?).
Set your expectations and scale the input. A brief for a two page flyer won't require as much attention and thought as a multi channel campaign with serious $$$ behind it. But the principles will still be the same.
Look, I can put all the reasons in the world for you to try and write a brief but when push comes to shove and it's either paperwork or serving a customer, you're going to be pragmatic. Time is money, and the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I’d really encourage you to try it out
You wouldn't know it from how much trash talk there is on this blog but we're actually pretty decent listeners and furiously-quick note takers.
If you have an idea in your head or a goal your business wants to achieve, shoot us an email or give us a call and we'll take your six.