What should a creative brief contain

Whether we want someone to buy now, take advantage of a special discount or premium, request additional information, download an app, the offer needs to be clearly defined. Yes, your product and offer may seem similar, but be sure that the focus is on the action you want someone to take, not just benefits and features. Now that we know our audience, defined our tone and voice, and decided on an offer, we need to clarify the main benefits of responding to the offer. This section of the creative briefing should include three to five benefits of the offer, plus additional information on the product or company if that seems appropriate.

Why does someone need to respond? More importantly, why do they need to respond now, not later. Are we directing prospects to a landing page, asking them to complete a questionnaire, requesting a phone call, or take action in some other way? Setting reasonable expectations makes it easier to compel more people to respond. Developing great creative requires not only an understanding our own products and services, but also seeing what competitors are offering and how they position their organizations.

Links to competitor websites and other media prospects may see makes it easier to create a package that can be similar, yet different — or completely different — depending on your marketing plan and goals.

The creative brief should include a budget, guidance on words and phrases that should be avoided based on compliance issues, a schedule, and a point of contact for additional questions about the project.

After all, a holiday mailing needs to go out before the holidays , not after, so be sure the schedule clarifies specific due dates for various aspects of the project. Just like athletes, marketing works best when processes are developed that help everyone involved stick to best practices that enable peak performance.

The discipline of making sure each project begins with a creative brief is a time-tested best practice for creating great work. You want your briefing to define your vision of how your direct mail or other marketing effort will look and feel, while leaving enough room so that your creative team or you have freedom to brainstorm and explore new ideas.

The creative team will explore ideas that you may not expect, while working within a framework of what is possible. It does have to be designed to do the job. What is a creative brief? If you have a specific point of view or set of values, or are mission-driven , this is the place in which you want to communicate that. The more you understand about your audience, the better your creative team will be able to nail your request. What are you looking for beyond the actual assets?

Are you hoping to potentially reach new customers, or realign your brand with another demographic, for example?

Providing your desired outcome to creatives will help them visualize the most effective execution. Think of this as a highly distilled style guide feel free to share your complete messaging guide with an external agency.

Do you have a specific tone of voice that you always communicate in? Is there messaging you need to hammer home? This should reflect your brand and speak to your target audience. Pro tip: Is there a specific word s that needs to be included in the creative? Define competitive companies, products, or even specific campaigns — whichever is most relevant.

Your creative brief is an integral part of your integrated marketing plan. When they have the same vision for the campaign, things will proceed smoothly throughout the campaign. A service provider needs to understand the demographics the client wants you to target, so you have to spell it out clearly in the body. You cannot progress any further without it — the whole campaign will be lopsided if you get this wrong, and it will result in a lot of wasted time and resources.

Jot down the market and audience demographic. You can sit down with the client and ask them questions about the same before creating the brief to eliminate any confusion and doubt. The importance of this element in the brief cannot be overstated. The scope of the project is similar to the purpose of the project. It comprises of different parameters, including:. Goals: The goal refers to the result the client wants to achieve from this project.

These are the metrics the client needs to monitor to know more about the success of the campaign. Process: The scope of the project also consists of the processes. It will mention the resources and the intended use of those resources and give you an idea of how the campaign will be moving forward. The process highlights the internal working mechanism of the team.

Every business has competitors. The competitor analysis also highlights the amount of risk which a project faces. The brief should highlight the competitive risk and conduct a proper analysis to help the client understand how the project can outwit the competition.

You need to monitor competitors digitally before drafting the competitor analysis section. This will allow you to gain more insights into the kind of competition which you are facing. The team should align the campaign with the interests of the business and the client; it should be clear from the start how this campaign will benefit the business branding and image. Ideally, you should plan a campaign in such a way that it is an extension of the existing positioning and branding to help you reinforce the identity of the business in front of potential clients.