Save Time with Creative Briefs for Marketing Campaigns [Includes Sample Template!]

Creative Briefs result in lots of efficiencies when executing on a multi-channel marketing campaign. In this brief How-To, we review the essential components of

Creative Briefs result in lots of efficiencies when executing on a multi-channel marketing campaign. In this brief How-To, we review the essential components of a Creative Brief and how you can create one in no time with our downloadable template. Plus, we include a sample Tactical Blueprint so that you can go from concept to execution with little effort!

What is a Creative Brief?

Usually, most marketers create a marketing campaign by thinking of an offer, deciding which channels to execute on, and then assembling the creative.

But advertising agencies have created a more efficient system — they write out a Creative Brief for a product, which then informs all campaigns, regardless of the channel.

In its purest form, a Creative Brief is a one-page document that includes all the essential terminology and facts your company needs to execute a marketing campaign for a product.

The beauty of creating a Creative Brief is that it puts everyone on message, reduces your thinking and communication time to staff members, and can be used over and over again.

A Creative Brief usually includes copy points, key facts, key search terms, a benefit statement, the offer’s terms, and everything else you need — but no more — to execute a marketing campaign on a product. Creative Briefs can also be paired with Tactical Blueprints, which explain how to execute a campaign on a particular channel. When you combine these two documents together you allow your marketing director to shape the offer, pricing and benefit, but an intern can then plug the approved wording and creative through the Tactical Blueprints to execute the campaign on any channel.

6 Questions You Need to Answer for Your Creative Brief

  1. Who are you trying to sell to? Or, what’s your target market? Include demographics if you can here, but more importantly, include psychographics. Also, make sure to include self-identifying terms here, not your lingo. (For example, Indian-Americans identify themselves as Indian-American or South Asian; rarely do they use the term Asian, even though the US Census does. Unless you’re in the UK, in which case, Asian implies South Asian, not East Asian descent. So know how your audience refers to itself, even if you use different terms for market research.)
  2. What are you selling? The answer should be phrased in terms of a benefit, not a product or its features. Martha Stewart Living sells an organized, upscale DIY lifestyle. The Economist sells membership to the global intelligentsia (trust me, this is a deliberate branding effort on their part). Note: Metered news sites will have the hardest time with this.
  3. Why does your subscriber need you? In other words, what’s his or her pain point and how are you solving it? If you’re not solving some problem for your subscribers, it’s going to be very, very hard to convince them to pony up cash in the digital expanse of the free. Perhaps you have information that can’t be found for free online. Or you’ve aggregated and streamlined public and/or free content so that it’s easier to digest. Or you can help them lose weight (without spending thousands on expensive gym equipment). Whatever it is, make sure you convey how your publication/site solves their problems.
  4. What do you want your marketing to do? Sell more subscriptions? Grow your email list? Whatever it is, make sure your goal is clear so that you’ll know how to measure the success of your marketing program.
  5. What do you want prospects to do? In other words, what action do you want people to take? Do you want them to sign up for a free newsletter? Or buy a subscription? Or register for an event? This is your Call-to-Action copy. Include some variations, but make sure every channel has some.
  6. What do you want people to feel? This can feel like an exercise in abstraction, but smart marketers (and behavioral economists) know that people make emotional decisions with their money all the time. Emotions are a better conversion trigger  than facts and logic almost all the time (even a fact-driven executive is going to make a largely emotional decision how much they can trust your facts and figures before buying). So spell out the emotional pay-off for buying your product. Try to be positive, but recognize that sometimes people are more motivated to remove a pain point that to increase a pleasure point. Here are some emotions that consumers report feeling when engaging with successful brands:
      • Motivated/Inspired
      • Accepted/Nurtured
      • Smarter/Wiser
      • Safe/Respected
      • Honest
      • Relaxed/Comfort
      • Welcomed/Friendly/Happy
      • Trendy/Popular/In-the-Know
      • Alive/Excited
      • Relieved

When you answer these questions, you should be able to complete our Creative Brief Template.

Tactical Blueprints

Once you create a Creative Brief, it should be paired with Tactical Blueprints.

Tactical Blueprints allow your team (or your future self) to know how to execute any marketing campaign along various media channels. You should write a Tactical Blueprint for any of the marketing channels you use. This can include:

    • SEO
    • PPC
    • Paid Discovery
    • Email broadcasts
    • Email ads
    • House and display ads
    • Affiliate marketing
    • Social media
    • Webinars
    • Press coverage
    • TV and radio ads
    • Print ads
    • Direct mail
    • Telemarketing
    • Speaking gigs
    • Event sponsorship

Your Tactical Blueprint will vary based on your in-house operations and the platforms you use for execution. For example, a Tactical Blueprint for social media should answer the following questions

    • What channels are we using? Include all the login information here.
    • What day/times are best for posts for each channel? How often do we re-post?
    • What are the word limits/specific formatting details for each platform?
    • Who are the influencers you know on each platform?

 

To help you create your own, we’ve created a sample Tactical Blueprint for Social Media campaigns for a fictional company, AuntyBrigade.com, a B2C digital publication for “childless and happy” women.

Sample Social Media Tactical Blueprint

This is just one option. You can also create a Tactical Blueprint in outline form, assigning one social media platform to each heading and then including sub-points below it.

DO NOT use prose and paragraphs for your Tactical Blueprint. The Blueprint should be easy to read and skim for instructions, not a leisurely read through your philosophy on social media.

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