how to write effective creative briefs
Save your budget and your sanity with our tips for effective creative briefing
Everyone has come across a poor briefing document before, and some of them truly are pants! Missing on details, not clear on the deliverables, or providing information that isn’t even necessary. All these factors can skew the creative process and lead to disconnections between what you’re expecting, and what your agency delivers. But effective creative briefing will save you both time and money and improve the quality of the creative output at the first time of asking.
Following on from our recent LinkedIn Live, where Matt and Jonathan discussed Budget Saving Briefing, here’s our top tips for writing a great brief!
Alignment!
Get those ducks in a row. Before you even touch the keyboard, you need to ensure good alignment within your marketing team. Everyone needs to buy in to the brief and have a good understanding of the deliverables you’re expecting before it’s submitted to the agency.
Clear documentation.
Creating a well-structured briefing template will be a saving grace time and time again. It provides clarity, focus and structure, and if everyone in your marketing team is working with the same template then there’s no ambiguity for what’s required. Plus, it makes things much easier to digest and action for the agency so they can focus on what they do best – the creative. If you want to save even more time, you can download our free template here.
Why is no one ready?
Make sure you’ve got all your information ready to go for when you press send on that email. Have the assets you want included ready for use; have pricing information and SKU code lists collated and shared with the agency; make sure that any product specifications, small print, or T&Cs that you need included have been checked internally first, especially if they need to go through legal or accountability teams for signoff.
If you’ve written brand guidelines, then use them.
Brand guidelines are invaluable to creative agencies, because they provide key information such as brand colour breakdowns, logo implementation rules, tone of voice guidance, and an insight into the ethos your brand that can be incorporated into the creative process. Ensure that your agency is intimately acquainted with your brand, so they can really represent you creatively.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
A good agency should be an extension of your marketing team, so make sure you’re communicating and integrating the agency into the brief-writing process. Discuss the brief with them as it’s being constructed, so that they can input and help you understand what they need to do their best work.
Let’s talk about budget.
It’s the elephant in the room. Including your budget in your brief will allow the agency to manage expectations and resources more effectively. By improving your briefing process using these tips, you know you’re off to the best start, and every penny you’re investing is going to be put towards creating amazing content!
Download the Perfect Briefing Template!
