In a not-so-distant article we took a look at a vital tool you should use when working with any marketing agency; the brief. Rather than just leave you wondering how to create a brief, we promised we would return with a little something to help you get started. And so here we are – you’ll find a template marketing brief with this article.
This template is actually quite old and comes from a previous life as a client. Yes, once we were just like you! But this template has been used many, many times. And it has very often been the reason why agencies have said the brief it produced was the best they have had in years. It helped us to get far better quality work from an agency. It reduced the time we spent doing so. And it helped the agency work with much more confidence too.
But, don’t download the template marketing brief we have provided just yet. Instead, take a couple of minutes to read this first.
It’s not hard to find example marketing briefs around the web. There are plenty available for you to download and take a look at. They usually include some content headings with example text. Which may sound ideal for you.
But we don’t think this is the best way for you to write a brief. And this is why.
You Can’t Cut Corners
Everything in a brief must be about your business – who you are, what you do, how you do it and what you want to achieve. So, every word has to come from you because it’s all about you. It’s very tough to achieve this when you get sample text in a template document. Instead, your mindset changes into how you can amend the copy to fit. The end result is a compromised brief which isn’t truly about your business. It’s amended copy that tries to describe your business. Which will hinder your chances of having really great work from an agency.
Warning: Some Work Involved (Sorry)
If you’re serious about using a marketing agency – and helping them deliver some great ideas – then you do need to do some legwork. It’s a perspiration/inspiration thing. But to save you a huge amount of time, our template contains notes in each section about what to include in the brief.
Not All Briefs Are The Same
As mentioned above, this brief is quite a generic one. It’s a format to use when you are trying to give the agency a comprehensive overview. Which means you shouldn’t always use this brief, yes?
Actually, no – and for two simple reasons:
- You would be amazed how little even an agency that has worked with your business for years might really know. So this brief can serve a hugely valuable role in plugging knowledge gaps. That’s why we suggest using this template every 12 months. It gives you the chance to document changes within your business. It also gives the agency a moment to refresh what they know about you.
- You don’t need to use this entire template each time you ask an agency to work with you on campaigns and activities. Once they have started working with you, the agency will only need a more summary approach. There’s obviously no need to repeat the first few sections.
But it is good sense to continue providing briefs. They help reduce mistakes, speed up response times and improve quality of service.
This is why we have published this generic marketing brief template. As mentioned above, in previous lives we were clients too. We have seen how easy it is for an agency/client relationship to go horribly wrong, all because of a poor brief. It’s easily avoidable and you will see much better results. With this template we saved time and had much higher quality work from agencies. You can too!
We’ll be coming back to the wonderful world of marketing briefs in the future. But if you have any burning questions do get in touch.
Ready? Go and download the template marketing brief below.
It is in the following formats for you:
