By Terry Cole, Chief Content Officer

Your bank is ready to begin developing your next marketing campaign or communications program. You have some valuable new benefits to introduce and are excited about the opportunity to reach new prospects and deepen relationships with your existing customers. Your executive management team wants a campaign in the market now!

To get started, do you really need to take the time to write a marketing or creative brief or have your agency partner write it with your input? The simple answer is YES!  Here’s why:

• It helps to ensure that your end product is aligned with expectations.
• It serves as a clear roadmap for the creative team working on your marketing or advertising project.
• It provides all project stakeholders with a common understanding of the program objectives and overall strategies you will use to achieve your goals.

In short, a written marketing brief is a powerful tool for getting everyone involved on the same page. 

Writing a marketing brief also helps to ensure you have thought through all the details and have a sound plan before leaping too quickly into development.

Your marketing brief can be organized in different ways and vary in length based on the complexity and details of your program, but in all cases your brief should:

• Outline your primary objectives, including the metrics you’ll use to understand results.
• Describe your target audience, including audience personas where possible so that your marketing can be tailored specifically to those you are trying to reach.
• Define your primary message, making the focus of your desired marketing program clear. There may be a lot to say but what rises to the top?
• Provide your supporting messages or proof points. What makes your primary message credible?
• Include your call to action. What do you want your target audience to do?
• Outline the marketing channels you will use to reach your audience and the deliverables needed to deploy your strategy.
• Provide budget and timeline parameters.

The time invested upfront in developing and documenting a strategy and plan simplifies the remainder of the work and, undoubtedly, creates a better end result. With this carefully crafted, agreed-upon marketing brief in hand, you and your agency partner can move forward with confidence to develop and execute a stellar program that achieves your goals.

MKP communications inc. is a New-York based marketing communications agency specializing in merger/change communications for the financial services industry.