How To Write A Good Content Marketing Brief

A good creative brief is vital to any successful marketing campaign.

A creative brief needs to be specific, must contain all the elements the client is hoping to demonstrate through the campaign, along with its necessary restrictions.

It helps to outline the requirements for a campaign and sets the foundation for content direction. Through the guidelines of the brief, influencers are able to adhere to the expectations of the stakeholders and follow through with what they are hoping to convey through the campaign.

Here are some things you should be asking yourself when creating a content brief.

1: What Is Your Campaign About?

What is your content direction, and what are you trying to implement through your campaign? This section should indicate an overview of your campaign goals and include information about your brand, product or service. It should also include details about the campaign you want to launch in collaboration with your chosen influencer and should give the influencer an overview of your campaign theme.

For example, is it a campaign about a particular product or service, or the brand in general? Will the influencer receive a complimentary product, service or experience? Is it a social media campaign, an event or something else entirely?

2: What Are The Key Brand Messages?

This is an important part of the brief because this helps the influencer to understand the message you want to communicate through their content and how you’d like it to be communicated. It will also help in developing the call-to-action that is included into their creative output, and particular aspects that should be highlighted about the product, service or brand.

3: What Are Your Campaign KPIs and Goals?

In the KPIs (key performance indicators) section of your influencer brief, brands should clearly outline the goals they wish to achieve as a result of the influencer engagement. Transparency is best in this case as the more the influencer knows upfront, the better they can help support your goals and lead you to the path of achieving them.

Whether your campaign is to promote a sale, launch a new product, drive sales, increase brand awareness or grow your social following, you need to clearly outline the focus of the campaign and of what you want to achieve and how you intend on measuring the success of your campaign. You will likely need some statistics from the influencer about their content, such as the impressions, engagements and reach, therefore be sure to outline what you need in the reporting phase of the campaign so that everything is set up before the content is created.

4: What Are Your Influencer Deliverables?

This is where you will need to define the deliverables that have been agreed upon amongst all parties, as well as the expectations surrounding them, such as the deadlines and submission dates. It is also a good place to clearly include the mandatory requirements associated with the deliverables, such as the relevant tags, hashtags and/or links required, as well as any unique discount codes, landing pages or calls-to-action.

The deliverables will alter depending on the type of influencer and must be discussed before the final brief is put together.

An example of what the deliverables section of the briefing could look would be:

• 1 x Instagram post featuring product with branded @tag and #hashtag on June 5th
• 1 x Instagram story featuring product with verbal mention of the brand and swipe up link on June 5th
• 1 x YouTube video post that encourages the audience to make a purchase using the discount code: xyz on June 5th.

This section is best discussed with your chosen influencer as they would be well-knowledgeable of how to get better engagement from their target audience through bringing their creative content ideas to the table and be able to suggest ideas that will help achieve higher statistics.

5: What is the Content Theme & Mood of the Campaign?

Do you want the content to be family friendly, inspiring and creative, or fashion forward and classy? Or perhaps you’re looking for dreamy and adventurous, or a particular style of photo, such as a close-up of the product, the product in use or a flat lay. You can also include suggested pieces of content to give the influencer an idea of the style you are after.

6: What Are The Do’s and Don’ts For Your Influencer?

In your do’s and don’ts section, be sure to include everything that will help the influencer create the best content for your brand and uphold the brand message. If there are specific requirements to the content, be sure to mention it as this will be the guideline for your influencers to follow. For example, to not include other branded content in the post, or any mention of other brands, etc.

At Indie Collaborates, we also provide consulting services on how we can help you create a great content brief that will help you meet the KPIs for your brand. Drop us an email at [email protected] to find out more!