3 Reasons Copywriters Need a Creative Brief — and Why Businesses Need One Too

When I started work as an in-house content manager as a startup many years ago, I was the sole content professional at the company, and there were zero processes in place to support creative work. Account managers would literally stop by my desk and tell me that they needed a landing page or an email. When I asked for more details, they would say, “Oh you know, it should talk about the company and what we’re offering.”

Well, that was helpful. As you can imagine, content creation and the subsequent reviews were pretty torturous. We needed some standard documentation and processes, and fast. I came up with a basic creative brief designed to help account managers think through and communicate their requests.

While this is standard practice at advertising and marketing agencies, companies handling their own creative in-house or contracting it out to freelancers may not be aware of the need for a brief or what they entail. The following is an overview of why everyone should provide writers with a brief before they start working. (Graphic designers and other creatives should also get briefs, but here I’m focusing on copy.)

Planning and Communication

It’s not the copywriter’s job to plan or figure out the marketing strategy on their own — rather, they are there to help you plan and create content that best meets the goals for that strategy. To do this, they need both the big and small pictures: they need guidance on your overall strategy and how this content piece fits into it. This boils down to:

· What are the main points and/or information that need to be communicated?

· Who are you trying to reach?

· What do you want them to feel and do after reading it?

Does thinking about this sound like work? Well yes, it is. It forces account managers and other stakeholders to think through the purpose of the piece and what they want it to say and do, so they can communicate that effectively to the copywriter and others on the creative team. If you don’t do this effectively, you end up with the dreaded “needle in a haystack” situation, where your copywriter tries to guess what you want. This usually results in frustration, endless rewrites, and wasted energy on all sides.

If you don’t know exactly what you have in mind, but you’ll “know it when you see it,” you’re going to cause your creatives a lot of angst — and if they’re freelancers, they may decide that working with you is not worth the effort, or they’ll end up charging you a lot more money for the hassle.

As an example, I once was asked to work on a project without a brief — I was told it would involve straightforward descriptions and a brief wasn’t needed. Well, you can guess what happened: no one knew exactly what they wanted or had thought through the purpose of the project, so everything I wrote was torn apart, with five or six people reviewing each section at different stages, sometimes contradicting each other. I repeatedly voiced my frustration, but since there was no documentation, I was the one held accountable for the problems. It really soured me on that client. Lesson learned!

A brief is also a tool for teamwork. The creative team may identify gaps between strategy and execution or point to better solutions or refinements. For instance, the account manager may want a long article for the company blog, but the creative team sees greater possibilities for engagement with an infographic. This is not a problem, but an opportunity. At this stage, the brief should be a living document used by all team members to share their expertise and experience to ensure the best possible results.

In other words, no one really owns the creative brief process. An idea may come from the account manager or even the creative side, but both perspectives are required.

Documentation

How many times have you had to go back and search through emails to remind yourself about what someone said about a project, or you’ve had to refer to handwritten notes from a meeting that might be outdated? The finalized brief eliminates confusion and saves time by serving as a centralized document with all the required information in one place. Ideally it is saved on a shared drive or other accessible location (such as a project management tool) to ensure that everyone has access to the correct, updated document. If you must make changes after a brief is final, make sure that all team members are made aware of them.

Accountability

The brief also keeps the entire team accountable about the details of the request and associated deadlines. For instance, it can help prevent the dreaded “scope creep,” whereby team members make mid-process changes and additions that weren’t requested at the outset of the project. It can also serve as a touchstone to make sure that everything in the brief has been included, and that the completed piece meets the strategic goals outlined in the brief.

What Should Go in a Creative Brief?

Briefs vary, but generally they should include the following:

· Suggested deadlines (first draft, reviews, final version, target in-market date, etc.)

· Names of all stakeholders

· List and description of deliverables (e.g., “a four-page conference brochure” or “case study for the website”)

· A description of the target audience (such as demographics, industry, age, gender breakdown, etc.), including the concerns or “pain points” the deliverable is meant to address

· Objective and strategy of the deliverable — how the deliverable fits into the overall marketing campaign and what you want the audience to do with it (call a number, look at a web page, click on a link)

· Key message(s)

· Reference materials such as additional documents, links, previously used copy, etc. — but make sure the relevant sections/passages are clear

· Required copy or key points to cover

· SEO keywords/phrases

· Additional notes for anything not covered

In short, a creative brief is a vital step in the content creation process that is not intended only for writers — it also helps you identify, develop, and communicate the exact kind of content you need to reach your goals. Whether you are working with agency copywriters to create ads or long-form writers to compose blog posts and white papers, a creative brief is an essential tool for successful teamwork.