The Brief is Broken — Here’s How to Write One That Gets Results

If you’re a marketing lead juggling multiple projects, stakeholders, and expectations — this is for you.

You’ve probably experienced this: you’ve briefed an agency, given them the logo, the deck, the download. Weeks later, the work comes back… off. It ticks the boxes, but not the ones that matter. It’s underwhelming. Or it’s off-brand. Or it’s just not what you imagined.

It’s not because the agency missed the mark. It’s because the brief didn’t give them the target.

So what goes wrong?

Most briefs (even from very smart teams) are:

• Written too fast
• Overloaded with internal language
• Missing a clear problem to solve
• Focused on outputs, not outcomes

They often assume the agency knows more than they do. Or they bury the lead in 27 slides.

What a great brief does differently

It makes your goals clear — commercially and creatively. It helps your agency deliver something that actually solves a problem or unlocks a moment.

Think of it like a design brief for your own decision-making process. Done well, it saves you rounds of revision, clarifies stakeholder feedback, and brings the work closer to the vision you had in your head all along.

So what should you include?

• The core problem: What are we trying to shift — perception, engagement, understanding, sales?
• The intended audience: Not just demographics — what’s going on in their world?
• The single most important message: If someone remembers one thing, what is it?
• The call to action: What should they do, feel or consider next?
• How this fits: How does this project relate to the other campaigns, initiatives, or sales efforts happening around it?
• Measurement context: How are you planning to evaluate this alongside those other efforts — and what does success look like across the board?
• Any real constraints: Timeline, budget, tone, channel, cultural flags
• Success looks like: What does ‘good’ mean on this project? What gets it approved?

This isn’t about process. It’s about impact.

Good briefs don’t just help your agency — they help you look like a confident, strategic marketer who knows how to get great work made, efficiently and with less stress.

And when you nail it once, you can use that structure again and again — for everything from brand campaigns to event invites to packaging refreshes.

Need a template or a sanity check?

We’ve written and received hundreds of briefs. Some good, some great, some… let’s just say “full of potential.”

If you want help sharpening yours, we’re happy to collaborate. And if you’re about to write a big one — let’s talk first.