Making a brief is one of those core skills people refuse to talk about enough. Many young professionals receive briefs throughout the first years of their careers just to stare blankly at the screen when the time comes to create a brief themselves.
In marketing, briefing is fundamental. The brief serves as the base for every department involved in constructing the strategy for the marketing campaign. A good brief is informative. A great brief is a game plan long enough to detail every step of the process till the outcome but concise enough that nobody loses track while reading it.
This document will go to team members and executives alike. So what exactly do we put on the brief?
Aim and goals
The aim of a marketing campaign needs to be simple yet specific: sales increment, brand awareness, product and service introduction, higher web traffic, and so on. By defining the reason behind the marketing campaign, the strategy comes smoothly.
The goals need to be explicit and measurable. Although the results are not always immediate, all the work put into the marketing campaign can only be perceptible depending on how it performs in the real world. A brief works as a treasure map: it shows the steps needed to take with the promise of a great result.
Inside data
A quick and precise outline of the company helps the process by stating the key elements of the brand. Brushing up on the brand's values, style guide, and past campaigns can help the strategy by making it consistent but exclusive to the goal ahead.
For certain purposes, the target is cut down to a specific portion of the general audience of the brand. This improves the strategy tone, language, and message, building from a narrowed audience that will engage with your campaign.
Choosing the format of the campaign, and the hierarchy of distribution is an essential part of the briefing process, for it will define the list of assets to be delivered. With video marketing briefs, details like video format, publication schedule, and production specifications take a big part of the document.
Timeline
In the brief, all the ideas must translate into tasks for the project to move on. By assigning time limits for each step of the campaign, every department involved is aware of the workflow needed and the process the other team members will go through. This achieves a smooth production process and the prevention of any obstacle previously overseen by the team.
Budget within a brief may vary depending on the reader. Being delicate information, it needs to be precise and informative rather than constrictive or menacing. The brief also should gather all the information and assets that are mandatory for the campaign. This includes logos, licenses, copyright information, and the budget.
Briefing is the saving grace of communication. It helps the team to plan their tasks and know what the other departments are doing, while it serves as a timeline for the client to be informed on what's happening and what the outcome should look like.