Developing a marketing campaign can be a complex process, with myriad moving parts to put in place and act upon.
A clear plan that details the essential steps from idea inception to execution is vital – and it’s important that team members all follow the same processes for a successful outcome. Drawing up a marketing campaign brief template will help you to organise thoughts and actions and serve as an anchor for your team so everyone knows what’s happening – and what to expect next.
What is a marketing campaign brief template?
A marketing campaign brief template – sometimes called a creative brief – is a living document that acts as a blueprint for your marketing campaign. Its purpose is to keep your creative team literally on the same page when designing messaging and creative output for various channels and purposes. It will also help you to organise your ideas, streamline collaboration, and ensure your creative team has access to essential information.
Download the free template here
Why is a marketing campaign brief important?
Marketers use creative briefs to outline the goals, strategy, and execution plan for marketing campaigns – and to ensure that all stakeholders are informed and focused.
Marketing campaign briefs can be useful for blogger outreach, influencer marketing, social media marketing, digital marketing and PR campaigns. Using a template gives you a predictable, repeatable way to create briefs, whatever the type of marketing campaign.
“You’ll know what information is important to collect and share across your creative team so that no details are overlooked,” says Dana Ben Ami, Product Specialist, Klear. “Once you create the template, you can fill in the blanks based on your current campaign initiatives.
“This can be a huge time-saver for busy teams, especially if you are launching multiple campaigns within a short period of time.”
Key components of a marketing campaign brief
Your marketing campaign brief will be unique to your business and goals, but, generally speaking, most campaign briefs will include the following information:
- Objective: define the purpose of the campaign – for example, a new product launch, brand awareness, promotion of a new programme, to increase referrals or sign-ups.
- Campaign summary: provide a high-level summary of the campaign, including specific campaign goals, how you plan to execute the campaign, the expected response from your target audience, and how the campaign will tie into greater company objectives.
- Project roles and points of contact: include the names of people involved in the project and their contact details, for any internal questions.
- Target audience: share details about your target audience – this could be a specific buyer persona, a customer segment, such as current customers and Facebook leads, or general information about the customer you want to attract.
- Marketing strategy: detail how you plan to execute the campaign. Include each channel you plan to use, such as email, social media, SEM. A SWOT analysis might also be helpful here to reveal potential weak points or threats that might derail your campaign goals.
- Deliverables: this is anything that needs to be created for the campaign, such as video, a static image, copy, a list of keywords, or other assets that will contribute to the campaign. It can also be helpful to assign responsibilities here for each deliverable.
- Schedule: this refers to the timeline for the campaign. How much time do you have to prepare the campaign prior to launch? How long will the campaign run?
- Budget: set a budget for the campaign – this should include the cost of deliverables and advertising spend.
- Metrics or KPIs: set out how you will measure the success of the campaign.
Some of these elements might require more specific details. For example, you might break down the campaign strategy into different channels, then flesh out specifics for each channel in more detail.
Measurement is key
Every campaign has something specific you want to achieve and it’s important to define your goals and objectives, making sure they’re clearly spelled out so you can easily see whether you achieved them.
Ben Ami recommends using the SMART goal framework where goals must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
Ben Ami says: “Examples of SMART marketing goals are to increase monthly website traffic by 30% within three months, to use influencers to gain 500 loyalty programme sign-ups in one week, or to grow your Facebook audience by 1,000 new followers in one month.
“Each of these goals is clear and to the point. They have start and end dates and give you something specific to measure.”
Seek input from key stakeholders
When creating your marketing brief, consult your team, related departments, and even marketing colleagues outside the company about what you should include in the brief template. You’ll craft a more comprehensive brief, which will help you to ensure you don’t miss any key details that could support a better campaign.
Define your target audience
Before you delve too deeply into campaign planning, it’s critical that you fully understand your audience. This knowledge will guide the rest of your campaign decisions, from the messaging to the creative to the channels.
“Depending on your campaign goals and purpose, it may be worth narrowing your target audience by demographic factors, such as age, gender, income, location, and career,” says Ben Ami. “You could also look at things like buying behaviours and patterns, interests, or lifestyle factors.
“The more you know about your target audience, the better you can develop a campaign that meets them where they are, earns their attention, and encourages them to take action.”
Cover your legal bases
You may need to include certain disclaimers, copyright information, or legal language in your output. Additionally, you may need to adhere to specific brand guidelines relating to logos, colours, and taglines. These are mandatory and are critical when developing a consistent, legally compliant campaign. Always collaborate with HR, legal, and your CMO to ensure that each campaign deliverable complies with legal and brand requirements.
Set a realistic budget and timeline
Last but not least, every marketing brief should include a realistic timeline so that all participants have enough time to create their deliverables. Remember to factor in enough time to review and revise each deliverable.
“Before you set dates,” says Ben Ami, “discuss them with marketing team members to ascertain whether your timelines are realistic and achievable.”
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