what's inside the marketing brief
22 questions divided into 6 sections plus a final instruction “where to send." Each question has a wording hint and a highlighted answer field. DOCX, not PDF - client can edit directly in Word/Pages/Google Docs and do not open any online services.
- Section 1. Business and context. 4 questions. What the business in one phrase, how many years on the market, current revenue, what changes at 12 months.
- Section 2. Product. 4 questions. What product promote, average bill and transaction cycle, difference from competitors, frequent complaints in the first 30 days.
- Section 3. Audience. 4 questions. Decision maker, JTBD, triggers for purchase, where it lives.
- Section 4. Goals and metrics. 4 questions. The main goal in one metric, marketing KPI, budget, tested hypotheses.
- Section 5. Competitors and the market. 3 questions. 3-5 key ones, their channels and formats, what we don’t repeat from their arsenal.
- Section 6. Limitations. 3 questions. What we don't do compliance restrictions, who makes decisions internally.
- Final. Where to send and what happens next - without At this point, 30% of briefs are lost.
why is it structured this way?
In every brief for a client, I tried to put a “general template from all Internet" - and each time it turned out to be either too general (3 sheets and not a single useful answer), or too technical (with tone-of-voice and pantone codes, when the client has not yet decided who he sells).
The logic of this brief is a pyramid from wide to narrow. First "what the business" - without this there is no point in discussing the product. Then “what the product” - without this there is no point in talking about the audience. Then "who audience” - and only after that “goals and metrics”. When you violate order and start with goals (“we want CPL ≤ 800 ₽”), 9 out of 10 cases you get unrealistic numbers - because the client himself does not know what perhaps in his niche.
The “Limitations” section at the end is not an accident. This is the most underrated section of the brief. When a client says “we don’t do advertising in Zen, because last year they lost 400k ₽”, you save yourself a month work. When a client says “our decision maker is not the director himself, but his assistant,” you rethink the tone-of-voice in advance.
how to use the brief
- Step 1. Submit before the meeting. One line letter: “I am enclosing the brief. Please fill it out before the call - at the meeting Let's discuss only the controversial. The average filling time is 30-40 minutes.”
- Step 2. Don't insist on 100% filling. If the client left 3-4 fields empty - this is the answer in itself. Most often empty What remains is “average bill” (didn’t count) and “difference from competitors” (didn’t count) formulated). This is your first iteration of work.
- Step 3: Walk into empty spaces in a meeting. 60 minutes Distribute meetings: 10 minutes - general context, 35 minutes - empty questions and contradictions, 15 minutes - next steps and deadlines.
- Step 4. After the meeting, complete it and come back. “I am attaching a completed brief taking into account the meeting. If you understand something incorrect - mark it in red, come back within 24 hours.” In 70% of cases they come back with edits - that's normal.
- Step 5. Use as input to the first media plan. Answers from “Goals” → sheet “Goals” in media plan. Answers from “Audiences” → “Audience” sheet. The brief is not a separate artifact, but raw materials for the following documents.
what is NOT in this brief
- Branding questions about tone-of-voice and palette. This is a marketing brief, not an identity brief. If you need a brand book - separate document with the designer.
- Technical questions about CRM, services, integrations. At the brief level, this is noise. One question “what CRM” is enough; A detailed audit of the infrastructure occurs after the strategy has been agreed upon.
- Legal contractual block. Do not confuse the brief with TK. TOR is a contract document. A brief is a conversation on shore.
- “Design wishes” and “landing page references”. There is a separate one for the landing page Technical specifications for landing page, don't mix in one file.
what briefs do I consider bad in RuNet?
Ran through the top Yandex results for the request “marketing brief template”. The majority are:
- Briefs for 80+ questions. The client opens and sees volume and closes. In reality, 2-3 out of 10 will be filled. I keep the bar at 22 question is a ceiling that the average person fills without active resistance.
- “Describe your company in your own words.” Useless question. The client writes “we are a dynamically developing company on the Russian market" - and then you spend 2 hours asking what they they really do. A better specific question is: “What does the business do? in one phrase, without jargon? with the hint “so that you understand a relative without an industry.”
- Briefs without response fields. When the client returns the completed document, you spend 20 minutes on “where is this answer to the fifth question? In my template, after each question - explicit field with underscore.
- Briefs with hidden sales at the end. "By the way, our the company makes...” This is a client brief, not an agency business card. Your own I hide the offer in the “Next” section - two lines with next step, no more.
The brief is not a “questionnaire for statistics.” This is the first iteration of the dialogue, in which the client understands his product a little better than before filling it out. If after the brief the client said “oh, I myself am somehow new looked at our audience” - the brief worked.
related materials
A brief is the entrance to the funnel of working with a client. What comes next: