The Ultimate Guide to Creating an Effective Marketing Brief

A marketing brief is an important document for starting a marketing project. It also helps to align internally in the company on what you want to achieve as a marketer with the specific task.

What is a marketing brief?

A marketing brief - is a document describing the marketing task, usually used to request marketing services from a 3-rd party company - marketing agency.

What is the best format for a brief?

Depending on the task and personal preferences, you can use a Word document or PowerPoint slide deck to create a brief. Also, the agency can provide its brief template, so you must fill in the requested information.

What are the rules for creating a brief?

The brief and information you put into the brief depend on the situation and the type of request. Before creating a brief, consider what you want from the agency and what information you have to support your request.

The rule would be to provide clear, detailed, fulfilled information about your request. So the agency will clearly understand what they should deliver.

What is the structure of the brief?

The structure of the brief and information may vary depending on the context of the request, whether it is a tactical task (for example, to design a banner within the existing creative concept and strategy) or more strategic (for example, to create a creative concept for the new product). The more complex task, the more detailed information you should provide.

However, the general structure of the brief may consist of the following sections*:

1. The company name, your contact information, the date you submit the brief to the agency, and the type of the request.

2. Task summary - a short overview of the task to give the agency a general idea of their work.

3. Company description (if it's a first interaction with the agency):

• Company name

• Type of business

• What they sell

• Geography

• Sales channels

• Who are the main competitors

4. Product description (if required for the task):

• What is the product? What it does

• Current market situation and competition

• Target segment (or target audience-TA), personas, and their pain points

• How the product solves TA's problems

• Product strategy and positioning

• Unique sales proposition (USP) and key differentiators

5. Market data (if that applies to the task)

• Market trends

• Competition

• Market data (volume, share, etc.)

• Customer data

• Media usage

6. Past marketing campaigns/projects

• Challenges

• Successful/unsuccessful campaigns

7. Restrictions

• Anything that the agency should avoid (for example, any restrictions related to images "exclude children in visuals")

8. Task details:

• What exactly agency should deliver (here, describe in detail what the task is about)

• What is the deadline

• What is the budget

Download Brief Template

Professional tip!

Always approve your brief with the key stakeholders within your company before sending it to the agency. Whether it is a product manager, CEO, sales director, or financial controller, always include them when preparing a brief. Once approved, you are confident that the brief is aligned internally and that the agency will receive the correct and true information, which will avoid any miscommunication and task delays in the future.

What information should you NOT include in the brief?

First, the agency should have enough information to understand the task and start the project, but a multipage long read may lead to confusion. It should be balanced in the information you provide in brief. For example, if you have market data in a separate file - indicate it in the brief and provide it separately.

Also, almost every company has a brand book and brand guides, the basic documents explaining the rules the agency must follow in their work. There is no need to duplicate the information and demonstrate these standards in the brief - instead, send them as an attachment to the brief.

In conclusion, be professional. Provide only useful information that can be helpful for the agency team to execute the task at a quality and on time. Avoid "marketing water" that can be good for PR publication but useless for the concrete task. Productive cooperation with the agency will result in good task execution and your performance as a marketer.

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*be advised that each brief is unique; this example is provided for consideration and customization.