How to Brief an Agency

When it comes to working with a marketing agency, the success of your campaign often boils down to one important thing: the brief.

A clear and concise brief can make all the difference, ensuring your agency fully understands your goals and can develop a strategy that meets your needs.

On the other hand, a vague or incomplete brief can lead to misunderstandings, missed deadlines, an unsuccessful campaign…and ultimately, a waste of time.

So, what do you need to think about when briefing your marketing agency?

Here are a few top tips:

Be clear about your goals
What do you want to achieve with your marketing campaign?

Whether it's increasing brand awareness, driving traffic to your website, or boosting sales, make sure you're clear about your targets from the outset.

Provide background information
Give your agency a thorough understanding of your brand and your target market.

This can include information about your products or services, your target audience, and a run down of your competition.

Define your target audience
Who are you trying to reach with your marketing campaign?

Be as specific as possible about the demographics, interests, and behaviours of your target audience.

No one will know your customers as well as you do. And the more insights to play with, the more likely that light bulb moment will occur for your agency team.

Set deadlines, have a budget in mind, and avoid a false start
Make sure you and your agency are on the same page about deadlines and budget availability for deliverables.

This can help ensure that your campaign stays on track - timings-wise and financially - and that you're meeting your goals in the necessary timeframes.

Gain full internal buy-in from key stakeholders
If you don’t have all the internal thumbs ups, green lights and approvals needed, then don’t allow your agency to carry out work and work up free ideas for you that then amounts to nothing.

This is a waste of everyone’s time.
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Be open to feedback and being challenged
Your agency team will be made up of experts in their field, and may have valuable insights and suggestions for your campaign.

Take onboard their feedback and be willing to collaborate on strategy. Marketing is all about testing, learning and optimising - so give your agency the chance to try different things. Performance may not go as planned, but this means you're closer to knowing what will work.


All in all, a well-briefed marketing agency is vital to a successful marketing campaign. By following these tips, you and your agency should be singing from the same hymn sheet. Your agency has all the information they need to develop a strategy that meets your needs and achieves success for your business.