What is a brief and why is it needed?

What is a brief?

A brief is a document that we create and hand over to a marketing agency at the beginning of our cooperation. This is the totality of everything information about the order that we transfer or plan to transfer for fulfillment. It contains all data about the product - service, our expectations or other important questions that allow us to prepare a strategy. It’s a technical document, so it should be written in simple, legible, understandable language.

Most often, the briefing has a volume of one to several pages of A4 format. It defines the main goal that we want to achieve during the implementation of an advertising project. The marketing agency that received it on the basis of this document uses the appropriate ones measures, creates a strategy and optimizes the elements contained in this brief and attempts to complete the task.

Why is the brief so important and why should it be carefully thought out?

The brief is one of the most important documents that we provide to the company (contractor) at the beginning of our cooperation. Many people ignore this document and provide it in an arbitrary form without specific data or return it half-empty - incomplete. This situation is very uncomfortable and can even be harmful in cooperation between future partners. The root cause of importance briefing is communication and cooperation with the marketing agency. If we describe the details of our company, we will indicate the persons those responsible for the project, expectations or forms of communication, cooperation with the marketing agency will be faster and will have fewer problems.

Determining the essential elements of the order of cooperation can stop the chaos in the management of campaigns and give an opportunity to respond to problems The next reason why you should make a reliable briefing is the possibility to influence the success of the advertising campaign. The brief allows the agency to make accurate decisions based on specific information that will bring positive results. This is one of the few opportunities to support the advertising company and influence the success of the campaign.

What is a company brief or its concise description?

What our cooperation will look like and what results we will get depends on the brief. In a concise description, we can place a variety of data and provide specific information to an advertising agency that will create and implement our advertising and service campaign. The more information we provide, the clearer the task to be accomplished, the greater there is a chance for success. Brief information also gives us the opportunity to influence the fate of the creation of an advertising campaign and contribute to its success the place itself.

In what form should this document be prepared?

Many people are interested in how to create a good briefing. It’s easy if we follow a few rules. The first is the form and writing style The brief should be clear. The most important thing in it is data and information. Also worth using proper formatting – regular font and bold to highlight the most important data. It’s also a good idea to insert infographics or charts to show the data as clearly as possible. A brief is also a technical document. Therefore, they should be in it only the data that is necessary to complete the campaign so that the advertising company is clear and effective.

A good briefing requires us to pay attention to several elements:

The first element that should be included in the brief is the company data. Official provision of e-mail addresses, telephone numbers or persons, responsible for the project on behalf of our company, is mandatory. This allows comfortable cooperation and prevents underestimation communication At this stage, it is also necessary to accurately describe the product or service that we offer and want to sell. Marketing agencies are in it the place still conducts thorough research, but we know our product most clearly and it is worth sharing this knowledge with them.

The next element is where we should describe the actions taken to promote the product. This is important because the agency will include them in your campaign. If the type of marketing, such as sponsored posts, worked, so would the agency can extend this option, i.e. change or supplement the strategy.

The third element is the goal we want to achieve with the planned marketing campaign. It will allow to apply certain measures and perform all advertising effectively. With this information, the ad development team will know which direction to take it should work.

The fourth element, which is one of the most important, is the target group we plan to attract. It is necessary to clearly define people, to which the ad will be sent. This will allow you to effectively spend your budget, prepare the right form of advertising, address messages to people of the right age or status in society. The more precisely we determine which clients are interesting to us and whom we want attract, the more effective the activity of the marketing agency will be.

At what stage should the brief be finished?

The last part of the brief may contain organizational issues related to the advertisement itself. Among them is clarification of the budget and the schedule of the advertising campaign. When setting a budget, it is useful to provide a slightly smaller ad size. In the case of financial problems or unforeseen expenses, we will have the opportunity to settle everything, and the campaign will be safe. Regarding the schedule we also note a short deadline, even in case of delays, the campaign will be safe, and we will not experience “marketing disaster”.

Additional benefits of filling out the brief

Confidence in cooperation is a rather serious fact that confirms the need for a brief, but it is far from the only one. Many customers do not realize how useful this procedure is for them. Below is a list of additional benefits of this tool:

• You begin to understand what exactly you want. Creating and promoting a website is a multi-layered process that requires involvement various types of specialists: from programmers and designers to advertising sharks - marketers. By filling out the brief, you try on the clothing of the employees listed above. You begin to feel your target audience more accurately, to feel strong and the weaknesses of your planned project, find errors in the resources of competitors and use them for your own purposes. All this leads to the fact that the project of your site from abstract becomes as concrete and understandable as possible;

• Saving your own time, money and nerve cells. Now you won’t have to frantically grab the phone, once again explaining to the designer that dark green is different from light green. everything is predetermined in the brief;

• Ability to plan a budget. The brief is complete. The price is named and it is final (unless, of course, the parties do not agree during the process to change some point in view of the force majeure situation).

Are there equivalent alternatives to the brief?

There are no alternatives that are equally effective and convenient for both parties. There are many ways to convey your wishes to the customer:personal meeting, correspondence, communication using video calling applications. But none of them can even approach the brief. During the “live” communication, you will be asked the same questions as in the brief. The difference is that filling out the form on your own, you leisurely process each of its points, along the way plunging into the subject and finding the most acceptable option.

But the main thing is not even that. The average person is able to remember seven information units in one period of time (plus / minus two). Even the most compressed version of the brief consists of dozens of items, sub-items, clarifications and remarks, it is extremely difficult to cover and work out which “in one sitting”.