What is a Marketing Brief and How Do I Compose One?
Introduction
Having a comprehensive blueprint of your project can help it function more easily and effectively. A marketing brief is a framework for your marketing project or campaign, keeping your team current and targeted on your plan’s key goals.
Developing a productive marketing brief can guide you in arranging ideas, optimizing plans of action, and distributing essential data.
What a Marketing Brief Is
A marketing brief is a marketing strategy outline, given as a document to all involved, who use this shared information for collaboration.
The marketing brief can help a marketing department develop innovative strategies while keeping management and associates up to date. This brief keeps all vital information, such as deadlines and client information, in one location for easy access.
What it includes:
A marketing brief should contain the following:
- Business or customer overview
- Purpose of project
- Summary of campaign
- Objectives of project
- Intended market
- Project strategy
- Deliverables
- Mandatory details
- Timeline
- Campaign budget
- Campaign contacts
How to Compose a Marketing Brief
By following these steps, you can develop a comprehensive, productive marketing brief:
1. State your objective – Explore the objective for your marketing campaign with management and associates. Define the goals your business wants to achieve through this campaign. For example,
- More brand awareness
- Increased web traffic
- Boosted sales
- More referrals
Learning your project’s objective can allow your team to develop the optimal strategies for reaching the ultimate goal.
2. Solicit feedback from chief colleagues – Instead of developing a marketing brief alone, glean input from affiliated departments and those on your team. With more points of view, your marketing brief will have more thoroughness and diversity. Plan a preliminary meeting dedicated to recognizing trouble spots and exchanging ideas. Then you can incorporate these findings while refining your marketing objectives and methods.
3. Set Your Project Goals – While the purpose of your project reveals what you expect to achieve in general, its objectives and goals give the quantifiable numbers you need to determine its success.
These goals should be concise and quantifiable. They should also be challenging but achievable. In addition, your marketing brief will specify how and when these goals are to be measured. Example goals might include:
- Boosting web traffic by 15%
- Expanding monthly gross revenue by $2,500
- Gain 2,000 social media interactions within three months
4. Identify Your Target Market – To understand what tactics and actions work best with your audience, you need to identify your target market. You can perform research, such as through surveys, focus groups, and market research, to refine your target market into specific categories, such as:
- Income
- Job industry
- Geographic location
- Age group
- Gender
- Lifestyle
- Hobbies and interests
- Political and/or religious affiliation
5. Outline Your Marketing Strategy – Your marketing brief’s strategy contains the specifics of how your campaign will reach its goals. In this part, you present these segments of your strategy:
- The campaign’s general topics and tone
- The precise sales channels you’ll use. For example, social media, direct mail, or email.
- Any media attention and purchases, like press releases or ads
6. List Deliverables – The marketing brief should itemize all deliverables required to finish your project, including:
- Website content (copy and photography)
- Campaign motto
- Brochures
- Images and videos for social media posts
- Press releases
7. Confirm required details – Double-check with management, human resources, and legal professionals regarding any required content your marketing materials must contain. This content might include:
- Contact information and site URLs
- Logos
- Copyright notice
- Disclaimers
8. Review your schedule – The marketing brief requires a project timeframe for assisting your departments in task planning. In the beginning, your deadlines can be flexible. With even an estimated schedule for your project, it can help keep your project on track and stay productive. Review the timeframe with your main departments to ensure your deadlines are attainable.
9. Verify Your Budget – Verify your company’s budget with management and your department in charge of finances. Give estimates for budgeting each step of your campaign.
An Example Brief Format
Your marketing brief could be formatted this way, with your own company’s project information:
[Name of Campaign] Marketing Brief
Submitted by: [submitter’s name]
Date: [date brief is submitted]
Marketing Overview: [Company name]’s objective is [state company objective]. [Company name] values [state valued trait] and wants to achieve [state company’s goals].
Campaign purpose: The campaign’s purpose is to [state campaign purpose].
Campaign summary: The campaign will implement an all-around strategy to [summarize campaign and approaches].
Goals and objectives: The campaign intends to achieve the following: [measurable goals/objectives] by [give target date].
Target market: The target market is [describe features of your target market].
Marketing plan: The marketing plan involves: [detail marketing plan].
Deliverables: The campaign must have these deliverables:
[list each deliverable].
Required Details: This project’s content must include:
[list required content]
Campaign timeframe: The campaign timeframe contains three stages. The anticipated deadline for stage 1 is [give date], for stage 2 is [give date], and for stage 3 is [give date].
Budget: The campaign budget is [give amount], which covers:
[item amount] for [product/service]
[item amount] for [product/service]
Campaign Contact: For project-related inquiries, contact:
[Contact’s name]
[Contact’s business title]
[Contact’s email]
[Contact’s phone]