Marketing Briefing – What is it and how to develop it?

If you work in a marketing agency, you surely understand the importance of having complete and accurate information in order to develop a client’s marketing plan. Fortunately, marketers have the marketing brief, a tool also known as a marketing brief or marketing summary.

According to experts, developing a clear marketing brief is key to meeting the challenges of a project. Indeed, the marketing brief is like a treasure map as it describes the steps to be taken to achieve a goal.

 

 

Types of Briefing

 

Although we will focus on the type of briefing known as “marketing briefing“, it is important for you to know that there are many types of briefing such as:

• Marketing briefing.
• Brand briefing.
• Design briefing.
• Web design briefing.
• Refreshing or rebranding briefing.

Attached you will find a Creative Design Brief. At the end of this article, you will find another modifiable briefing.

 

Definition of marketing briefing

 

The marketing brief is a document that marketers use to ensure that the strategies to be developed connect with the target audience in the best possible way. In other words, the marketing brief is a guide for marketing campaigns.

A marketing brief contains the key issues to be addressed and tells your team how they should complete the project.

In addition, the marketing brief lets all stakeholders know the objectives of the campaign and the expected results.

 

 

What are the benefits of the marketing brief?

 

The development of the marketing brief brings many benefits as it helps to:

• Establish clear objectives, timelines and accountabilities.
• Focus ideas and concentrate efforts on satisfying the client’s needs.
• Detail the measures that will be used to determine the success of a campaign.
• Identify the target audience.
• Achieve better business results.
• Identify the best marketing strategies.

 

People who make up the team to develop the Brief

 

The marketing brief is not only developed by people from the company’s marketing department or the marketing agency that hires it. In fact, its effectiveness will be much greater if it is done with the participation of people with different roles within the organization. The people who should ideally be involved are the following:

• The owner, CEO or director of the company is the person who knows the direction he/she wants the company to take. His or her participation guarantees a clearer and more real content.
• The head of the marketing department, a very important member to lead the project, who also helps to define the most appropriate advertising media. In addition, he/she is the best person to direct the writing and style of the document.
• The creatives, i.e. the people who design the deliverables.
• The sales manager, who helps develop the characteristics of the target market and the most effective metrics as he/she knows the methods used to launch products and achieve commercial agreements, helping to develop the strategy focused on the sales funnel.
• The product development person will report on product features that differentiate the product from the competition.
• The person in charge of social media (website, blog, social networks), knows where and how to publish content as well as SEO and SEM techniques.

 

Suggestions

 

• Write in a simple way, using common language and avoiding acronyms.
• Define details as much as possible. Continuously ask the team what, why, who, how and when.
• Develop the document in an attractive and well-structured way in order to make it easy and pleasant to read.
• Include relevant and clear content, based on facts and data.
• Stay focused on the objectives when analyzing each situation and during decision making.

 

Who needs to create a marketing briefing?

 

This document is important for:

• Companies that need to create their own marketing briefing as a requirement to participate in bidding processes with other suppliers.
• Marketing agencies that use it to develop marketing strategy proposals for the companies that hire them.

 

How to make a marketing briefing step by step?

 

Making a marketing brief can be as long as your project is. However, it is suggested that it should not be too long, containing all the necessary information but in a clear, simple and concise way. Here is a step-by-step guide on how to make a marketing briefing.

 

1. Business background.

In this first section, the general description of the company, the products and services it offers and the target market (mission, vision, philosophy, values) is developed. Even if the company’s staff knows the details of this information, it does not mean that the marketing agency should know it. Even if the project is developed within the company itself, writing down this information will lay the foundations of the project.

 

2.     Description of the marketing project.

Now, write the name of the project and its scope as well as the name of the brand to be promoted. It also includes the description of the problems to be solved, the purpose of the campaign and its challenges.

 

3.     Project objectives.

This is perhaps the most important part of the marketing briefing, where team members discuss and describe in detail the business and marketing objectives. This description will help to explain the reasons for investing part of the budget in the marketing project and to achieve greater support and participation from all team members.

 

4.     Partes interesadas.

In this section, write down the name, responsibility, contact information and the ideal time to communicate with each of the parties involved in the development of the plan. In this way, the agency can easily consult them.

 

5.     Mandatory elements in a marketing brief.

Record what are the legal requirements, terms and conditions, mandatory deliverables of the project and disclaimers, among others. That is, the elements that must be included in the project or campaign (logo, website, slogan, NIT). Likewise, the elements that should never be included because they go against the company’s policies or conditions should also be included.

 

6.     Product details.

Now, the unique and differentiating characteristics of the brand are described. For example, benefits, contributions and compliance with regulations.

 

7.     Commercial context.

Describe what are the problems to be solved, what is the commercial importance of the product/service for the company, who are the strongest competitors, strengths and weaknesses of the competition, recent changes in the consumer, commercial experiences that worked well as well as strategies that failed.

 

8.     Target market information.

Keep in mind that a marketing brief should be designed to communicate with the target audience. Therefore, it should include demographic and psychographic characteristics (age, location, educational level, expectations, preferences, problems or situations that the product helps them solve and what motivates them to buy).

 

9.     Analysis of the current problem.

Include possible reasons why current campaigns are not working because they are not well received or do not fully satisfy potential customers.

 

10.  Brand guidelines.

Describe, as best as possible, what the brand’s message is. Also, include brand characteristics (colors, typography, styles, type of images and tone of voice among others).

 

11.  Budget analysis.

Be clear from the outset as to the amount available. In this way, it will be possible to develop effective financial management, optimize the use of available resources and avoid unnecessary costs.

 

12.  Marketing channels.

Depending on the type of target customer, its characteristics and budget, it is time to carefully analyze the types of channels to use. Consider the channels that are currently being used and their results.

 

13.  Campaign strategy.

The marketing brief should contain the summary of an in-depth brand analysis (keywords, optimal content length, competitor analysis, hashtags, cross-promotion, SEO and SEM strategies, deliverables, videos and channels among many other elements).

 

14.  Deliverables.

It is especially relevant to attach the detail of deliverables (types, how many, where, how, frequency, social networks, landing page, blog content, PowerPoint presentations, brochure).

 

15.  Timeline.

In this section, add a table with the detailed planning of the campaign indicating activities, deadlines and people in charge. Do not forget to include the established deadline in case there is one, for example, the launching date of the new product.

 

16.  KPIs to be used.

The effectiveness of the project must be measured. So, determine the KPIs that will be used to measure and record them in the marketing briefing. Include the initial values if they exist.

 

Ways to present a Brief

 

A briefing can be presented in several ways, it all depends on the creativity of the developer.

• WORD format
• PowerPoint presentations
• Excel format

 

Final Words

 

In conclusion, the marketing brief is an important tool to lay the foundations of the methodological framework of any marketing project. It is important because it provides all stakeholders with a simple and clear summary of the work to be done.

The effectiveness of the brief lies mainly in its ability to clearly identify and define where you are right now, where you are trying to go and what your objectives are.

However, the objectives may change over time so accept a degree of flexibility as the content of the brief may change.

Attached is another modifiable briefing.