Sep 25

New clients or existing clients with new projects could streamline the creative process if they provide a clear outline of projects, their goals, and a budget.

 

First and foremost, keep it brief. It should be a quick read, a single-sided 8.5 x 11 page. Sure you may have additional info attached, but this is support and education material. The creative brief should not be pages long. Remember, it's a brief.

1) Provide company background

In any new designer client interaction, the first thing a designer needs to do is to familiarize themselves with the client's business, what they've done in the past (as to design and marketing), and learn everything they can about the business and the client's competitors. Even if the client knows the industry, there's still the education period as they learn about the client's specific marketing needs, preferences, and positioning. In a new relationship, make sure you allow for this learning period and be sure to supply ample amounts of past material, background information, etc. At the minimum, provide all recent marketing materials and a executive summary on the company.

 

Be sure you outline your top 3 competitors, provide their company names and websites, and other specific information. Include what you do better and what they do better?

2) Describe your target audience in detail, not generalities

It's easy to state we sell to consumers. But it's impossible to create advertising or marketing to all consumers. Narrow down the focus and be specific when possible, such as "We market to small business decision makers of companies making over five million in revenue in the tri-state area." And even this isn't specific enough....what types of small business? Marketing an auto body shop and a tech start-up are vastly different. Provide demographics - and if possible create a personalized customer profile as we've discussed previously.

3) State the objective(s)

Your primary objective should be the most important item and should be stated succinctly and definitively. Only then can you smear on some secondary objectives. So, something like "we want decision makers to call us or accept our call with the aim of scheduling a meeting. Second to this, we'd like them to subscribe to our online newsletter, or to follow us on Facebook or Twitter, etc.

 

A word of caution, your objective should not be vague like - we need to build a website. That's a deliverable, an outcome, a medium. Why are you building the website? What's it purpose. What do you want it to do to help the sales process. That will be your objective.

4) What is the message or offer

What are you trying to say? And more importantly, what you trying to achieve when saying it? Getting this right is essential. Beware, if you're not sincere and genuine in your message it won't be believed. And don't be wishy washy. Don't tout "our quality and service is number one." Yeah...and the competitor down the street doesn't say the same thing?

 

Be sure you can back up your words. We could say "we help business increase sales and revenues."  But if we don't back this up with proof it's just fluff. It's like saying this snake oil will cure anything wrong with you. Instead, be specific, "we helped a cosmeceutical start-up grow from zero to four million in revenue in three years - and we'd like to do the same for you." Then we'd include our case study on Janson Beckett.  

 

Or you could be making an offer. This is a little simpler, but still it's important to make it clear and concise. Such as "download our software for free and try it for 30 days! Or save an extra 10% with this coupon." 

 

Provide support and reasons that support your claim or that can used to convince your target audience that your service or product is what they need. Write a simple statement, such as: Convince "who" to "do what" by "doing this".  It might be something like "Convince current customers to start an email campaign by showing examples of success with other clients." Or for an offer, "Convince prospects to download our 30 day trial by sending out an email blast and publicizing the offer on social networks."

5) Requirements or things to avoid

List out any specific requirements or things to avoid. This could be company or industry specific. Or it could be personal. We have one client who doesn't like green. We could execute a design using green and it could win every award imaginable and be lauded across the world....but he's still not going to like it and he'll reject it. So for him, no green. Industry specific? Your industry may require regulatory oversight, such as with the medical industry where you must be mindful of HIPPA. Or it could be company specific where you have a review board that must insure all advertising meets internal guidelines. Or with packaging, does your product require FDA compliance or will it ship internationally so it must meet EU regulations? Outline these requirements or issues and time won't be wasted.

6) Desired media mix and/or deliverables

Outline what your vision is for the types of media or what's the desired deliverable. It could be simple, we need a corporate brochure. Or you could indicate for your website you wish to advertise it on social networks, discussion boards, via google adwords, and through increased SEO-based natural listings. Indicate if you're interested in other ideas and opportunities. This helps to focus creative energies.  

7) The budget and the time frame

Provide a budget and a deadline. It's that simple. A budget will avoid "out of the box" thinking that can't be funded. It helps to structure and focus the creative solution. And often, it can challenge the design team to think more creatively, to get more from a limited budget. Equally important is the time frame. You can create a one page promo website in a day or so...but a full blown, CMS-based corporate site will likely take longer. The same goes for developing a brand or creating a direct mail campaign. Time will often affect creative execution. So make sure everyone knows when the deadline is.

8) How success will be measured

How will you rate the effectiveness of the marketing? This is germane to why you're executing this creative. And again, don't be vague. Avoid things like, we want to increase our name recognition. Or we want to increase market share or grow sales. Yeah, who doesn't.  Be specific. For a website, it might be, we want to increase new visitors from our current 100 to 1000 per day within 3 months. Or for a billboard series, you might want to increase inbound calls from 3 per day to 50. How you will measure success will again effect the creative and will impact on the budget. Creative or goals may need to be scaled if your measure of success is unrealistic - or the time period will need to be adjusted. Is is possible to go from 100 to 1000 new visitors a day...sure, but can you do it on your budget. And then again...is this a good measure of success. Normally it's not. We'd normally reshape the client's goals and expectations - we'd say, visitors are great...but wouldn't you rather measure sales....or subscriptions to your email newsletters? Getting new customers and qualified prospects is better than merely increasing web traffic.

9) The decision makers and/or responsible parties

Provide contact information for each decision maker and outline the review process. Will three people be providing feedback or will one person be the company liaison - coordinating internal feedback and relaying it to the designer. And be honest when indicating who has final approval.

10) Anything else...

Provide any other information, insight, or documentation you can or that you think is or might be useful or valuable.