00:00 Hello and welcome to the Better Content Club, the place for happier marketers. This is our first ever free module, and it is on how to write better creative briefs.

00:11 This will just show you how the Better Content Club training is presented, and we’ll give you a bit of an insight into what you can access via the full library.

00:22 In this module we’re going to focus on transforming how you approach creative briefing. so we’ll give you some stats on how agencies perceive briefing as a whole from an agency’s in-house teams, and we’ll give you some guidance as to some of the foundational steps you can put in to make your briefs land

00:40 better, which ultimately will make the creative process thereafter less painful, more streamlined, and definitely, definitely more creative. So this is a bit of a reality check.

00:54 There was some, research done by the Better Briefs Project, and they surveyed over 1,700 marketers and agency staff from across 70 countries.

01:03 80% of marketers believe that they write good briefs. They’ve possibly never had pushback on that from the agency, so there’s a, responsibility lies there as well.

01:12 But only 10% of briefs agree. 78% of marketers feel that their briefs provide clear strategic direction. Only 5% of agencies agree.

01:25 83% of marketers believe their briefs are clear and concise and own their 7% of agencies actually see it that way.

01:32 So there’s a massive disconnect between the time effort and energy that in-house teams are taking on their briefs and actually how they’re being received by the agencies.

01:41 So a little bit of a time of reflection here. Have a little think back to some recent briefs you’ve written and give yourself a little score out of 10.

01:51 Then once we’ve completed this training, you can go back and then you can re-evaluate those briefs, just to see where potentially you’ve there’s a, a gap, that could make them better.

02:04 cost of a poor brief, A-P-S-I-S have said that 33% of marketing budgets could go to waste due to poor briefing.

02:11 And at the moment, we know that budgets are tight. So we need to do everything we can to protect that.

02:18 We’ll also protect your time because you won’t be caught up in endless revision cycles. You will keep momentum. If you’ve got internal and you’ve got budget, and you can write the brief and engage an agency, you want to keep that momentum.

02:29 There’s nothing worse than a project lagging on for months and months and months, and everyone just losing interest. and energy for it.

02:38 You don’t want to damage your client-agency partnerships, and actually, for yourself, you don’t want to have to keep going back to internal stakeholders saying the project’s not finished or it’s not quite right.

02:47 So, yeah, keep your sanity. We’re all about what happier markets is here. So, a decent creative brief really matters, because, it helps you clarify your output in your own mind.

03:04 It forces you to consider your core proposition, any key deliverables, timing and constraints, and what success looks like. What does good look like?

03:15 That needs to be factored in. It is strategic thinking disguised as project planning. For agencies, a good brief means that we’re starting on the same page as our client, there’s less time scrambling around for information, and there is more time for creating new content.

03:32 If you don’t know what you want, the agency won’t either. And too many times, a thin brief would be put forward, because ultimately there might not be strategic direction internally.

03:44 and what that means is you’re paying an agency to show you what you don’t want, which can be soul-destroying for everyone involved.

03:51 So, I think there needs to be permission within briefing to push back internally as well. Make sure that you’ve got your, strategy up to date.

04:00 Make sure that you’ve even seen what’s in sight of it. Some marketers may not have even, had a strategy in front of them in order to anchor any sort of further projects that they might be briefing out.

04:11 That leads us to strategic foundation first. This is where great briefs begin. Strategy matters more than tactics. And as a marketing agent, tactics for business for almost two decades.

04:27 I know that might seem a bit, off. But without that strategy, you’re scattering your- You’re putting You’re putting waste up there.

04:36 You’re wasting time, effort, energy, Ultimately, you’re not going to get the results you want. Have a look at your last three marketing projects.

04:44 Do they feel like they’re from the same brand? Do they align with your business objectives? Do they deeply speak to your customers?

04:54 And, have you got measures in place to understand how effective they’ve been? If you know you need a new website, brochure or campaign.

05:02 But you haven’t actually defined your core positioning and key messages in line with your strategic objectives as a business, you’re kind of putting your finger in the wind.

05:14 You will try your best and you will have a gut feel. every marketer’s got to have a gut feel and a confidence in and around their brand, but that needs to be written down, and it needs to be agreed with internal stakeholders.

05:27 Because otherwise, you’re starting each new project from scratch, and the direction it ends up in could go anywhere. this could end up in is your website could say one thing, your brochures say another, social media say another.

05:41 Certainly if you’re outsourcing to multiple agencies, if you’re not underpinning it with strategy, you’re not going to get that cohesive, confident driving force behind your brand.

05:53 Now this is a bit of a controversial one because I don’t think it usually happens, but get internal buy-in first.

06:02 Write your brief. Draft it and then circulate it around the team and the stakeholders internally that are going to have a lot to say about the finished product.

06:12 Very, commonly we see projects that are, that the marketing manager is going to be really happy with and the marketing team are happy with, and then someone in the C-suite might see it and question, why wasn’t this included?

06:26 I was expecting more of this. So understand who your critical stakeholders are going to be, and work through the key elements together.

06:35 I know that time is short. I know that people are busy. It may just be beneficial to you to put that one step of sign-off and feedback in place before the project starts.

06:46 And if it’s positioned to save budget, time, money, energy, then you hopefully that would be received, well, internally. Critical questions that you need to align on as a team, a wider team internally.

06:59 What problem are we actually trying to solve? Who has final sign-off authority? What does success look like? And what are our non-negotiables versus our nights to have?

07:09 Nothing will derail a project faster than discovering three people that think they’re the ultimate decision-maker when you get the materials into a vehicle.

07:21 That hierarchy needs to be really, really clear up front. So here is our ultimate brief template. Keep it human. You can use AI to help you actually draw a good brief together, but keep it human.

07:35 Describe in plain English what your company does. Explain who you are and what you do. If you have a clear strategy document, attach it.

07:44 That should underpin everything. So be really, really clear and in plain English. You don’t have to be clever. You don’t have to include buzzwords.

07:52 You need to get every person on that creative team that’s going to be working for your brand on board and understanding up front.

08:00 Everyone needs to be on the same page. yeah, don’t put anything in a briefie your grandmother wouldn’t understand. Honestly, it’s, you’re not, it’s, it’s not highbrow.

08:08 It’s a very, very, very practical document. Write your background description, in one clear paragraph using this approach. It will be really, really helpful.

08:18 You can link out to any, any strategy talks. but a very concise background section underpins the entire document. Core proposition and competition.

08:33 In plain English, detail out what you do, what makes you better or different than your competition, and detail any unique selling points.
08:41 Can you prove it? A very common mistake is confusing what you think makes you special with what actually matters to customers.

08:51 So, there is that core proposition work to be done, that should be a We do have a module on marketing strategy if you want to join the Better Content Club.

09:03 If not, dig into the archives, see where your strategy document is internally and look if that needs to be updated.

09:11 Then do some competition analysis. Who are your competitors? What do they do that you like? you don’t like? Any, any examples of their communications?

09:20 and actually it doesn’t just have to be competitor-based. If you see someone else in a totally different industry, communicating or moving in a way that you’ve never would benefit your customers, or engage your customers better, include it.

09:34 Include as many reference materials as you possibly can. And, remember, sometimes it’s as effective to include what you definitely like.

09:44 If you don’t want, then inspiration for what you do want. You can’t put enough information in this space. We really like this.

09:53 It’s the brand person test. So, have a think about and discuss this in terms of internally. If your business was a person, who would it be?

10:01 This really, really helps to get creative teams on the same page and it’s a nice conversation starter internally for you and your colleagues.

10:10 It often makes clients squirm because we put them on the spot if we’re doing it in a workshop with them, but actually it’s very revealing for the tone and style that you’re looking for.

10:21 Be very, very, very specific when it comes to your objectives. The more specific you are with the deliverables you require and the outcomes you expect, the fewer surprises there’ll be all round.

10:34 also means that your agency can just be better at quoting for the work, because the parameters and the deliverables will be really, really clear.

10:45 something that’s really important, and again, this comes back to being a happier marketer if you do this work up front, do a little risk assessment.

10:52 What could go wrong? What might change? Where do you see internally there may be bottlenecks? Have a check on timings, have you got annual leave locked in?

11:02 Are there a bunch of bank holidays that are going to derail progress or certainly slow it down? And this is the time to be really, really, really realistic with this.

11:11 Budget. Now, this is the elephant in the room. Nine times out of ten, as a marketing agency, if we ask clients what their budget is, they don’t know.

11:19 And actually, they use this process as a bit of a, information-seeking, process. It really, really helps to understand what the budget is.

11:29 if there are budget constraints, then you’ll get a response to that brief and a proposal that aligns with what’s realistic for you.

11:37 you don’t want to have a, this is what you could have one, knowing that you don’t have the budget to fulfil the project.

11:43 So be up front, there’s no shame in it. So, I mentioned up front that, AI can actually help support your briefing process.

11:51 It can, support your research, and analysis support. So, if there are industry papers, if there is new legislation that might be impacting how you deliver what you do, you can actually put those papers and those articles into AI.

12:06 We would suggest using a paid closed version, so that your, thoughts, your thought processes, your briefing is private and secure for your business.

12:16 and you can draw out core data. Relevant information to add depth to your brief from relevant documents. You can upload examples of work that you’ve currently got that you like, other industry materials that you like, and you can ask questions.

12:36 to derive the core elements out of that, to help support the brief and help you brainstorm really what it is that you’re looking for in that space.

12:47 You can find audience insights, industry reports, and you can use them against your strategy document within AI and extrapolate the meaningful data, that can save hours and hours of time and actually can draw some really interesting audience insights that you might be looking at and otherwise have been

13:07 able to put, put your finger on. What AI can’t do is absolutely it cannot replace human insight and strategic thinking.

13:15 Do not do these things, copy and paste them into a brief, think you’re done. it doesn’t understand your company politics or your customer relationships.

13:21 And it won’t catch those brand nuances. So, yeah, be aware. Don’t just use AI to brief because you won’t get the personality you’re looking for at the other end of it.

13:32 You can try prompting. If you’ve already written a brief to review it and identify anything that’s not particularly clear or any missing information that might confuse an external agency.

13:44 And this is a really great way of just sanity checking yourself. So, yeah, AI can definitely enhance your briefing process.

13:50 I would never, ever, ever replace, briefing altogether with AI. So, how to make your brief stick. Once you’ve actually got your brief signed off by all your parties, the brief becomes the North Star for your entire project.

14:04 And every subsequent decision, creative review, and project milestone should refer back to this document. Use it as a living document.

14:12 It’s a guide for immediate projects, but also future communications. Make that you reference, any source materials clearly, so your agency can put their hands to them.

14:26 And update strategically. If your core strategy evolves, make sure you update your brief template. We have a template available within this training module that you can download.

14:36 Have a look at it. Don’t take our word for red. Have a look at it and see if there’s elements in there that are critical to you, like, a section on relevant legislation, for example.

14:47 Or a section, if you’re laying documents before government, a section on those requirements, as an example. We are sending you our overarching creative brief.

15:00 It is for you to develop and use for your business. can you do to, recognize success, in improving your briefs?
15:12 You will notice fewer revision cycles. You will notice stronger creative outputs. You will be more confident because your will be more strategically aligned.

15:21 your client-agency relationship will likely improve. And, ultimately, when all the stars align, receive better project outcomes and ROI, which stands you in great stead internally, for leading on future projects.

15:38 So that is the end of our briefing. I’m sure you agree that strategic briefing is the foundation of great, great creative work.

15:47 And actually having that clarity yourself as a marketer can boost your mood. It can make you feel better. and it can help you get more buy-in internally from other stakeholders.

16:01 So, if you’re ready to transform your next project, start with strategy, align internally, brief comprehensively, and watch your creative partnerships flourish.

16:11 You can download our brief template and pre-brief checklist from the training page. And if you want to take this further, you can join the Better Content Club via the training page and access our strategy messaging content ideas.

16:27 audit and distribution modules. Thanks for listening.