How to Write a Marketing Brief That Gets Results From Any Agency or Freelancer
A practical guide for SME owners and business leaders who are tired of briefs that go nowhere
A practical guide for SME owners and business leaders who are tired of briefs that go nowhere.
The Brief Is Where Most Agency Relationships Go Wrong
Most business owners who are frustrated with their agency or freelancer assume the problem is with the supplier. The work is off-brief. The ideas are weak. The results are disappointing. And while that is sometimes true, the research tells a different, more uncomfortable story.
The BetterBriefs Project, the largest global study ever conducted on the topic of marketing briefs, surveyed 1,731 marketers and agency staff from more than 70 countries. Its findings were striking. A full 80% of marketers believed they wrote good briefs. Only 10% of creative agencies agreed. When asked whether the briefs they received provided clear strategic direction, 78% of marketers said yes. Only 5% of agencies agreed.
The cost of that gap is not abstract. The same research found that marketers and agencies, on average, estimated that 33% of marketing budgets are wasted due to poor briefs and misdirected work. A subsequent UK-specific survey of 508 marketers put the figure at 26% of total marketing spend. Either way, we are talking about a substantial portion of your budget producing work that misses the mark before it even begins.
The implication for any business owner working with an agency or freelancer is direct: if you want better work, the most impactful thing you can do is write a better brief. Not hire a better agency. Not increase the budget. Write a better brief.
This guide will show you exactly how to do that.
What a Marketing Brief Actually Is
A marketing brief is a document that gives your agency or freelancer all the information they need to produce the right work, the first time. It is not a mood board, a wish list, or a long email thread. It is a structured, strategic document that defines the problem you are trying to solve, the audience you are trying to reach, the outcome you are trying to achieve, and the constraints you are working within.
A good brief does not constrain creativity. It directs it. As the legendary David Ogilvy put it, great creative work requires the freedom of a tight brief. Vagueness does not give agencies freedom. It gives them confusion, and confused agencies produce generic work.
Think of a brief as a commercial agreement. It aligns expectations before work begins, prevents scope creep, reduces the need for rebriefs, and gives you an objective basis for evaluating the work when it comes back.
The Most Common Briefing Mistakes (and Why They're So Costly)
Before covering what to include in a brief, it helps to understand what tends to go wrong. The BetterBriefs research identified several patterns that consistently undermine brief quality.
Briefing too early, before the strategic thinking is done
A brief should summarise your strategic thinking, not kick it off. When a brief goes out before the objective is clear, the audience is defined, or the business context is understood, the agency ends up filling those gaps for you. That almost never ends well. The work reflects the agency’s best guess at what you meant, rather than a precise response to what you actually need.
Writing by committee
The BetterBriefs research found that briefs edited by multiple senior stakeholders consistently become unfocused and contradictory. Each person adds their own priority, audience, or objective until the document tries to do everything at once and ends up directing nothing. One person should write the brief. One person should approve it.
Vague or overloaded objectives
‘Increase brand awareness’ is not an objective. It is an aspiration. A real objective names a specific, measurable change: what you want people to think, feel, or do, by how much, and by when. Without that specificity, your agency cannot aim for a target, and you cannot evaluate the work fairly when it arrives.
Using internal language the agency does not understand
The research found that 83% of marketers believe their briefs contain clear and concise language. Only 7% of agencies agreed. The Drum’s reporting on the IPA / BetterBriefs study highlighted that acronyms, internal jargon, and corporate buzzwords are among the leading causes of agency confusion. Write for the person reading it, not the person approving it.
No clarity on how the work will be evaluated
According to the IPA / BetterBriefs research, 88% of agencies are unclear on how the work they produce will be evaluated by their clients. If your agency does not know what good looks like to you, they will default to what good looks like to them. That misalignment is what produces work that feels off, even when it is technically competent.
How to Write a Marketing Brief
What to Include in a Marketing Brief
A strong marketing brief does not need to be long. It needs to be complete and clear. Below are the sections that matter, and what to put in each one.
Section | What to Include |
Business Background | Who you are, what you sell, your competitive landscape, and the context behind this brief. |
The Objective | One clear, measurable outcome. What does success look like in 30, 60, or 90 days? |
The Audience | Who you are trying to reach. Be specific: demographics, behaviours, pain points, and where they spend their time. |
The Message | What is the single most important thing this work needs to communicate? |
Tone and Personality | How should the brand sound and feel? Provide examples of work you like and work you don’t. |
Channels and Format | Where will this work appear? Social, paid, email, video, long-form? Be explicit. |
Budget | What is the total budget available for this piece of work, including production? |
Timeline | Hard deadlines and any key milestones or review checkpoints along the way. |
Mandatories | Brand guidelines, legal requirements, logo usage, disclaimers, anything non-negotiable. |
How We’ll Evaluate It | What metrics will be used to assess whether this work succeeded? |
A Closer Look at the Sections That Matter Most
The Objective: one outcome, stated clearly
This is the most important section of the brief and the one most often written poorly. Resist the temptation to list multiple objectives. A brief that tries to increase awareness, generate leads, improve consideration, and drive website traffic simultaneously is not a brief. It is a strategy document that has not been prioritised yet.
Choose the one outcome that matters most for this piece of work. State it in measurable terms. If this is a lead generation campaign, say how many leads, from what audience, within what timeframe. If this is a brand campaign, define what change in perception you are trying to create and how you will measure it.
The Audience: more specific than you think
‘South African business owners aged 35 to 55’ is a demographic. It is not an audience. A useful audience definition includes what that person is trying to achieve, what is preventing them from achieving it, what they currently believe about your category or your brand, and what needs to change.
The more precisely you can describe the person your agency is trying to reach and influence, the more precisely they can craft the message and choose the channels.
The Message: one thing, said simply
If your audience takes away one thing from this work, what should it be? This is the single most important communication your campaign needs to make. Not a list of product features. Not a company overview. One clear, true, relevant thing that moves your audience closer to the action you want them to take.
Writing this forces strategic clarity. If you cannot state the most important message in a single sentence, the brief is not ready to go out.
Budget: be honest and be specific
Withholding the budget from your agency brief is one of the most counterproductive things a client can do. Agencies do not use budget information to inflate costs. They use it to tell you what is realistic within your means, to allocate resources appropriately, and to avoid producing concepts you cannot afford to execute.
If the budget is genuinely flexible, say so, but give a range. If there is a firm cap, state it. A brief without a budget is like asking an architect to design a house without telling them the land size.
How you will evaluate the work
This section is often missing entirely, and its absence creates more post-project tension than almost anything else. Before the agency starts work, agree on the criteria you will use to assess whether the output is good. What are the non-negotiables? What are you willing to be flexible on? What does success look like from your side?
Stating this upfront gives the agency a clear target and protects you both from the kind of subjective feedback that derails projects. ‘I’ll know it when I see it’ is not a brief. It is a guarantee of frustration.
How to Write a Marketing Brief
Briefing the Brief: The Step Most People Skip
Writing the document is one thing. Briefing it in is another. Once your brief is ready, walk your agency or freelancer through it in person or on a call. Do not simply send a PDF and expect them to absorb it without questions.
A good briefing session covers three things. First, the context behind the brief: the business situation, the opportunity, and why this work matters now. Second, the brief itself, section by section, with space for the agency to ask questions and flag anything that is unclear. Third, the process going forward: timelines, review stages, who has sign-off authority, and how feedback will be given.
This investment of 30 to 60 minutes at the start saves hours of rework later. The BetterBriefs research found that 69% of marketers and 73% of agencies agree that rebriefs happen too often, and both sides acknowledge the cost: wasted time, budget, and erosion of the working relationship. A thorough briefing session is the most effective preventative measure available.
A Note for South African Businesses Specifically
In the South African market, the briefing gap carries additional weight. Many SMEs are working with smaller agencies or individual freelancers who do not have dedicated account managers or strategists to fill in what the brief leaves out. In a large multinational agency, a weak brief might be caught and interrogated by a senior strategist before creative work begins. In a smaller local setup, the gap in the brief tends to become a gap in the work.
This means the standard of your brief has a more direct impact on the quality of the output than it might in a larger, more resourced agency environment. The expectation that the agency will figure it out, or that you can course-correct mid-project, tends to be costlier in smaller engagements where there is less slack in the system.
Write the brief well at the start. It is by far the most efficient use of your time in any agency or freelancer relationship.
The Brief Is Not Overhead. It Is Strategy.
Many business owners treat the brief as an administrative step before the real work begins. It is not. The brief is where your marketing strategy gets translated into clear, actionable direction for the people responsible for bringing it to life.
Done well, a brief saves time, reduces wasted spend, produces better work, and builds a stronger working relationship with your agency or freelancer. Done poorly, it does the opposite on all four counts.
If you have been disappointed by agency work in the past, read back through the brief you gave them. The answer to what went wrong is often right there.
SOURCES REFERENCED IN THIS ARTICLE
Marketing Week (2022). Best practice guide unveiled to tackle ineffective briefs. marketingweek.com
BetterBriefs (2025). How to Write a Better Marketing Brief: 6 Mistakes to Avoid. betterbriefs.com
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