HOW TO BRIEF A CREATIVE AGENCY TO GET RESULTS
5 minutes 12 seconds
When briefing a Creative Agency you may want to just run a campaign, or you’re looking for a creative partner to help with your marketing strategy, produce content, and deliver a cohesive customer experience.
In this video, I will help you create a clear brief for an agency to ensure you get the result you need.
You can download ‘THE AGENCY BRIEF TEMPLATE’ to create your own.
Please SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube channel.
A Creative Agency can look at your business holistically and design and implement a plan that will serve your long-term goals,
Do you require a re-brand, a new website, are you entering a new market, launching a new product or initiative?
Whether it’s a one-off project or marketing partners you require, you’ll need to give a clear brief.
A good brief will save time and money as it will reduce the need to continually go backward and forwards for more information.
It’s also important to get a full understanding so we’re on the same page and we can create a proposal that fits your needs.
AGENCY BRIEF
1) Give a little BACKGROUND information about your company like the length of time you’ve been trading, how many people do you employ, the company mission and where you stand in the marketplace, what makes you different. And add the challenges you face.
2) Next, what are the BUSINESS OBJECTIVES, where do you want to take the company, what do you want to achieve? What does success look like for you? Make sure your goals but objectives are specific and measurable.
3) Note down what MARKETING OBJECTIVES you are aiming to achieve? What are the marketing activities that support your business objectives now and in the future?
4) As part of your marketing objectives what ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS are you planning, such as, increasing awareness, acquiring or retaining customers, generating demand, or increasing loyalty and advocacy.
5) What’s your TARGET AUDIENCE? Don’t say everyone, be specific, market to an audience of one, describe one persona. You can have more than one persona but for different campaigns. You don’t have to stick to this rule but the simpler and more direct you are the more effective you’ll be.
6) What’s the KEY MESSAGE, what do you want the campaign to communicate to your audience? If it’s a series of campaigns or marketing initiatives the key message may be something like positioning in the market or sharing company values etc.
7) Knowing some features is important but customers want to know the BENEFITS and how your product or service improves their lives. This is the most important piece of information as this is what they will emotionally connect with and this is where they will convince themselves so you don’t have to.
8) Be sure that any marketing has a purpose. What do you want to happen next? Be intentional about the CALL-TO-ACTION you want the customer to take.
9) It’s helpful to be clear about what your expectations are and what the DELIVERABLES are.
10) Write down TIMINGS. specific milestones and go-live dates.
11) What’s the COMPETITION and what are their successes and failures. And what companies do you admire, regardless of their sector?
12) With BUDGETS, it’s always good to provide a realistic budget so that your agency doesn’t brainstorm a million-pound campaign idea when you can only afford a fraction of that.
13) Who are the STAKEHOLDERS? List everyone involved, who’s the point of contact, is there a designer, technician, head of marketing, etc, and who gives the sign-off.
14) Lastly It’s always helpful to include the BRAND GUIDELINES. logos, colors, fonts, as it ensures any design work is on-brand and it saves time later on.
CONCLUSION
You may think this is a lot of work and you may question whether it is all necessary. And the truth is often we have to work with less information or do a bunch of research but as the title says ‘IF YOU WANT TO GET RESULTS, GIVE A GOOD BRIEF’ and that means letting the agency get under the bonnet and share as much information as possible so that they get a full understanding.
SUMMARY
So in summary remember to just cover:
BACKGROUND, OBJECTIVES, CAMPAIGNS, AUDIENCE, KEY MESSAGES, BENEFITS,, CALL-TO-ACTION, DELIVERABLES, TIMINGS, COMPETITION, BUDGETS, STAKEHOLDERS, BRAND GUIDELINES.
Get these covered and your good to go.
FREE DOWNLOADS
THE AGENCY BRIEF TEMPLATE