How to write a Marketing Brief

How to Write a Marketing Brief

We are currently at a time that people are no longer interested in viewing marketing ads that do not resonate with their needs and wants. To confirm this point, it is very easy to see people fast-forwarding marketing ads, or use any available online ad blocker to skip ads. In a bid to correct this attitude of people to marketing ads that are not entertaining and compelling, marketers have been able to design what is known as the marketing brief, a tool that helps them create fantastic marketing ads so that people no longer have any choice than to watch them. 

The interesting thing about the marketing brief is that it allows you to create marketing ads that target the right audience. 

Know how to write the marketing brief the right way

Although the marketing brief is practically all you need to create excellent marketing ads, you can find yourself doing it the wrong way if you don’t know the right information.

If you aim at becoming an active marketing organization, you need to improve and design an active marketing brief so that you can easily get on multiple jobs and deliver as fast as possible. At times, you don’t need more than two pages to create an active marketing brief. This is ideal as it makes it easier for you to review an already made marketing brief and Improve on it. 

As small as it may look, an active marketing brief should contain basic information so that you can be sure you are passing the right message to your target audience. 

This is also applicable when you have a bigger project to brief, meaning you must ensure that you are creating a well-detailed, concise, and clear brief for every part of the project. 

If you are wondering how you would write the marketing or creative brief, you can follow these 12 important steps we have compiled for you. 

  1. Start with the project details

The creative or marketing brief entails writing every basic detail you can think of about a project, which is why you should start with basic information such as the name of the project you are briefing, the name of the business or brand you are promoting, the expected date of project delivery, and other information regarding every stage of approval. 

As much as it is important to include the name of the person writing the marketing brief, it is important to also include the name of the person that will give the final approval for the marketing brief. 

This is important as it will help the team creating the brief to have a better understanding of how to tailor their proposal so that the marketing brief can be accepted. 

  1. Decide on what channels to use

This talks about how you intend to promote your campaign. Depending on your decision as to what channels to use, the idea behind this is so that you have everything already planned out. Most times, what determines what channels to use is the idea behind whatever campaigns you are promoting. 

  1. Your budget

This is as important as the first two steps. If you don’t take note of this at first, you might just find yourself having too much to deal with at the end of the day. Most marketers and agencies don’t take note of this; hence they propose an unrealizable budget for a marketing brief. The budget for a brief must be something that can be catered for with the available resources. 

  1. Provide real information about the product

When writing a marketing or creative brief, the work should not stop with the name of the business or brand being promoted. You must include more details about the product being promoted. Search for the unique features and other important information of the product. The idea behind this is to ensure that your marketing team or designer has enough information about what they are promoting. 

  1. Commercial details

Here, you should write a little bit more about the importance and the essence of the brief. With this, you want to ensure that you include what problem would be solved, and the business opportunity that would be created. The importance of this step cannot be deemphasized as this will help your creative team or agency include more information about the project being briefed.

The brief should also include how the project will satisfy and fulfill the company’s goals and objectives. 

Also, a section of the marketing brief should provide real information regarding your main competitors, and let it show if you are competing with local or international businesses. Share every detail of your commercial history, your gains and losses since you started the business.

  1. Information about your target audience

This is the part that deals with the people you are targeting; as such, it is an important part of a commercial brief that most marketing agencies are most concerned about. If you are targeting more than one audience, you should reveal this here. And if there are more details you are willing to share, don’t hesitate to do so. 

Your audience will believe and appreciate your marketing if you can center and tailor your projects around their needs. In light of this, you need to show what problems you are trying to solve. 

  1. Your reasons for targeting a particular audience

Your marketing ads will get the attention it needs if you can answer and show why you are targeting some set of people. You can answer this by asking yourself questions such as: are you doing this because you want to make more sales? Or trying to let people know more about the various services you offer? 

  1. Observe and have an insight into your target audience

As much as this is so important, it is unfortunate that most people neglect this when detailing their marketing brief. Doing this helps you understand your customers, and thus gives you an advantage over your competitors — you already know what they want; all it takes is to employ the services of a very reputable marketing agency or team. The interesting thing about this is that it makes work much easier for your designer or creative team.
The above is just a marketing strategy known by few people. Joe Talcott, founder of marketing consultancy Creationism, didn’t agree less on this as he also revealed the importance of this.

When you have an insight into your target audience, it will help you know what to do to make your products appeal more to your customers. 

With that said, the importance of a solid insight cannot be overemphasized. It doesn’t only help your marketing team build your project on genuine points and truth; it also exposes them to different methods that allow them to create marketing strategies that appeal greatly to your customers. 

  1. The perfect communication idea

This looks very simple to interpret, but it is not too simple as it looks. This is one of the hardest parts of interpreting a creative or marketing brief, especially by most marketing agencies.

While this is just the truth, you really can’t imagine the results this can create, only if you can get the perfect communication idea for your project. 

  1. Provide detailed brand guidelines

With this, we are talking about your brand colors, logo, images, and other important brand styles or guidelines which you have set for your business. These things might look very simple, they are the determining factors, particularly when listing the results you are expecting from the marketing. 

  1. Think of “must-have” deliverables

You have not written a perfect marketing brief if you fail to include simple things such as your website address, logo, an advertising slogan, a response mechanism, etc. 

  1. Quantifiable results

It is ideal and important to set goals, but can they be measured? Or how do you intend to measure the results? This becomes very important because it is one of the ways to check if your marketing brief served the purpose for which it was created. 

Need help with writing a brief, we can help you with this or recommend you the right partners for your project. Discover our consulting services.👇

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