So, you’ve just chosen and hired your new digital marketing agency. Phew! Weight off your shoulders, right?
Except now you need to think about writing your brief for your agency. Sorry.
Writing your brief is so critical to your future marketing as this is your chance to fully present your new marketing agency with your vision. This is how to make sure you start on the same page and continue that way.
But don’t worry! It doesn’t have to be a difficult operation. We’ve put together everything you’ll need to write the perfect brief for your digital marketing agency. Follow our simple process and it’ll be a breeze.
What’s your goal?
It may sound silly, but the best place to start is the end. What's your ultimate goal? What’s the dream? Is there a major problem that you need to fix? You need to know what you’re working towards to be able to follow the right steps in that direction.
If you’re clear about your goal, this will make it so much easier for your digital marketing agency to understand and plan for that conclusive end result. Working with a specific solution in mind from the offset is far more effective than working it out later. If you don’t have a goal, how do you know if you’re succeeding?
What are your objectives?
As well as your high-level goal, you’ll want to outline clear objectives for your business and marketing. By how much do you want to increase your profit growth? What percentage do you want your sales to reach? What inflation in brand recognition would you like to see? Be as clear as you can.
You can make these calculations based on whatever time period you want. Could be one year, could be five. However, bear in mind that effective marketing doesn’t happen overnight. It’ll take time to see real results, so please try to be as realistic as you can in your brief. If you’re struggling with this, your new agency should be able to help with these numbers so that they’re as attainable as possible. Alternatively, you can download our short ebook “6 most important numbers for business growth” at the bottom of this blog which will walk you through all the numbers you’ll need and why they’re essential to your business.
What’s your story?
Explain exactly who you are and what you do. You’d think this would be a given, but speaking from experience there is absolutely nothing worse than trying to market or sell something you don’t even fully understand yourself.
Telling your business’s story is a great way to do this. It’ll help motivate your digital marketing agency, set the scene of what you’re wanting to achieve and grasp a better understanding of your purpose. If they know the whole story they’ll feel more a part and involved with the success.
What channels are you using currently?
Including what channels you’re currently using is really helpful to your digital marketing agency. They’ll be able to get a sense of what kind of online presence you already have as well as get an idea of which platforms work best for your business. This way we won’t be wasting time trying to work out information we already know.
Although it’s not unheard of that we do get clients who are completely new to digital marketing. No emailing, no social media, and that’s okay - but even then include that in your brief. It’s all about putting everything on the table so you and your agency can work best together.
What’s your timeframe?
Timeframe is key in your brief for many reasons. As I was saying earlier about your objectives, it’s important to think carefully about what is attainable in a certain time period.
This aside, you may also want to include if you have a product launch coming up or if your product is more season specific. If you hired the agency so you can market effectively in the lead up to your launch etc., then they need to know the specifics.
What’s your target audience?
Know your customer. Who are they? Where are they? What do they do?
Your agency needs this information. The best way to communicate who your target audience is, is by using buyer personas which are fictional people that represent the different types of customers you have. They have all the demographic information your agency will need, such as age, gender, occupation etc., and will really help your agency understand who they’re marketing to.
Buyer personas are becoming more common, but if your business doesn’t use any then you can just provide them with any target audience evidence you have. Your agency will want the figures, but if possible try to bring them to life. After all they’re real people, not just numbers and letters.
Who’s your competition?
Every industry has some form of competition and you need to know who yours are.
Providing your digital marketing agency with your competition information will allow them to look into what kind of marketing campaigns they’re doing and see how it works for them. Learning from your competition is crucial. If you can be strong where they’re weak then you’ll succeed.
Knowing how you differentiate from your competitors is also great to include in your brief, what do you offer that they don’t and vice versa.
So that's it! Put all this together and you’ll have the perfect digital marketing brief to provide to your new agency.
