Creating a good marketing brief is an art, and luckily it’s an art that you can learn easily. A good marketing brief can show the difference between successful and unfulfilled marketing campaigns.

The marketing brief can be written for any marketing-related project, whether to be shared internally with the business team or delivered to external partners such as advertising agencies, copywriters, developers, designers, and others. Describe the best way to write this brief, and what should it include? This is what we will cover in this article in detail.

What is a marketing brief? 

A brief is an orientation file for a campaign or mission, outlining the plan, objectives, and instructions required to keep everyone informed of its details and complete it smoothly and clearly.

It is a micro-plan that lays the foundation and provides a framework for how to implement or introduce a new marketing campaign. In addition, it keeps the team responsible for implementation and follow-up informed of your marketing objectives, expected results, and the marketing message you want to deliver to your specific audience through this campaign.

The marketing brief should achieve 4 essential points for the team:

• Explains the purpose of a particular marketing strategy.
• It details the KPIs that will determine the success of the campaign.
• Defines the audience and expected results of the project.
•  Establishes clear goals and schedules and determines the responsible parties for the marketing campaign.

The importance of writing a marketing brief

As explained above, it is all about having a solid foundation for your marketing campaign to ensure all teams involved are in one loop around all the ongoing activities and strategies to be implemented.

Not only does writing a marketing brief provide a solid foundation for marketing campaigns, but it also offers a wide range of functions that help your new ventures achieve the desired success.

Here are some of the benefits of creating an integrated marketing brief:

• It sets clear goals for your marketing campaign.
• It sets a schedule to keep track of.
• It assigns responsibilities to members or interested parties.
• It helps describe the purpose of your marketing strategy.
• It sets the metrics that will help determine the success of your campaign.
• It defines the audience and desired outcomes of a project or campaign.

In short, a marketing brief keeps everyone updated, clarifies roles and goals, and eliminates the possibility of any confusion about campaign details. In fact, this is why we say: “A well-structured and detailed marketing brief can create a captivating marketing campaign”.
Now that you realize the importance of creating a brief for your marketing projects, let’s take a look at the steps involved in writing it.

How to write a Marketing Brief step by step

1. Project details

Be sure to include all essential project details, including the project name and promoted brand name, timelines for each phase of implementation, and the final due date.

Additionally, include who is asking for the work, who is writing the brief, and who will be the final decision maker. This last point is often overlooked, but it is essential because it helps the creative team decide how to shape their creative suggestions to fit the personality and vision of the officer.

2. Channels

If you have regular marketing channels that you expect to use, define them in advance. For example, if you are setting up a social media marketing campaign only or need to build a landing page that matches the campaign. You must decide early and save your time and effort.

3. Proposed budget

Budgeting is so important -and often left out of your marketing or creative design brief- it’s worth a section on its own, so be careful to indicate what budget you want to spend. 

There are some simple equations you can use to calculate how much you should invest but saying “there is no set budget” means you expect it to be free or the budget is open without any restrictions.

4. Product details

In addition to describing the product, brand, or service you are advertising, the brief must include any benefits the product offers and any additional information that assists in selling the brand.
Does the product have any unique features?
Is it the first of its kind? Is it the best? If so, why?
How can this be proven? Do not assume that your designer, creative team, or agency knows everything you know.

5. Commercial context

There are two main areas here that need to be covered. First, what is the goal or problem to be solved? Mention why the project is important to the company and how it meets its strategic goals. The more aligned a proposal is with the business needs, the more likely it gets approved.

Second, include competitive data, market dynamics, and any business history the creative team should know. List your main competitors and their strengths and weaknesses.
If the market is changing locally or globally, elaborate on this. Also, share your past experiences with the team, whether they were successful strategies or negative results.

6. Who is the target audience?

One of the first things your agency or creative team needs to know is who the target customer you are trying to reach and persuade to take action is. You may have detailed characters built, and there may be a primary and secondary audience; include as many details as possible.

In addition, demonstrate the problem or pain point your product solves for your target audience and how they feel about your product, brand, or service. Along with any information that supports why they might believe your marketing or advertising will deliver what it promises. 

7. What do you want your audience to do?

Are you building confidence in your brand? Looking for more sales? Or trying to attract more leads? Be very clear about what you want your target audience to do as a result of seeing your marketing campaign.

8. Branding guidelines

Is there an established look and feel to your brand? Do you have a branding guideline or style guide? What are your brand colors? How should your logo be used? How are images handled? What tone does your marketing work need? Determining these details helps build work that is consistent with your brand identity. 

9. Assignment

What should get included in your project or campaign? Logo or website address, response mechanism? Campaign slogan?

10. Measurable results

How will the success of your project be measured? It should relate to measurable results, such as increased sales, leads, and brand awareness. Therefore, if you do not include it, you will never know if your project – or your brief – was a success.

Tips to keep in mind before creating the marketing brief for your next campaign

• Exceed the expectations of the creative team and project stakeholders. If everyone knows the purpose of their contributions to the entire project, it will do well.

• Avoid complex jargon and abbreviations.
• Remember to make it simple but as detailed as possible.
• When creating a marketing brief, frequently ask: What, why, who, how, and when? 
• Keep your content consistently engaging, relevant, clear, and realistic. Since this brief is shared with all employees – and in some cases with third parties – keep it professional and concise to ensure the success of the project.

You can dive directly into your campaign without creating a marketing brief or any planning, but you will often waste a lot of time, effort, and money doing so. With a well-defined marketing brief, you can define, plan, and evaluate your overall campaign and ensure that it runs smoothly, even with all possibilities.

Benefit from our team’s deep experience in launching advertising campaigns

At Lhamim Digital Marketing, we believe that the goal of advertisements is to communicate messages and touch feelings, not just to appear and watch. Therefore, we offer you powerful campaigns that spread and influence different ideas that are compatible with your marketing goals and expected expansions, and we achieve high returns on the cost of the advertising campaign. If you need a solid strategic plan to build innovative creative campaigns capable of capturing the attention of your audience, contact us now.