Follow this step-by-step guide to learn the modern process of writing an effective marketing brief in Milanote, a free tool used by top creatives & marketers.
At the heart of every successful marketing campaign lies a carefully crafted marketing brief. In essence, a marketing brief acts as a blueprint for your campaign, providing a structured framework that outlines your goals and deliverables, identifies your target audience, and maps out the metrics for measuring success.
It offers guidance to help you and your team stay focused, ensuring that every aspect of your campaign is aligned with your mission.
In this guide, we'll walk through the process of writing a marketing brief using Milanote. Remember, the process is non-linear, so it's OK to move back and forth between the steps as you go.
Before moving into the specifics of the marketing campaign, let's begin by describing the background of the campaign. This step helps sets the context for the campaign, providing the framework from which we'll develop our strategy.
Begin by introducing the brand or organisation behind the campaign and clarify the brand's desired outcomes for the campaign. Finally, outline the scope of the campaign, including the timeline, key milestones, and the key stakeholders involved.
Create a new board for your marketing brief.
Drag a board out from the toolbar. Give it a name, then double click to open it.
Choose the built-in Marketing Brief template.
Each new board gives you the option to start with a beautiful template.
Defining clear goals and deliverables is essential for guiding the campaign to success. To begin, it's important to establish specific and measurable goals that align with the overall business strategy. These goals should be realistic and achievable within the given timeframe, whether they involve driving sales, increasing customer engagement and promoting brand awareness.
Next, outline the key deliverables that will contribute to achieving these goals. This may include launching targeted advertisements, creating engaging content, or implementing social media strategies.
Add a note to describe the deliverables.
Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.
When writing a marketing brief, shift the focus from the product or service itself to the experience it offers. How does it make the customer feel? What problem does it solve in their life?
Add any additional materials that will help your team get to know the brand personality. Detail the tone of voice, brand values, color scheme, and any other relevant guidelines that will inform the campaign's creative direction and messaging. This gives everyone easy access to important assets throughout the project and saves time hunting through emails and folders.
Add a note to list the personality.
Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.
Defining your target audience is essential for creating a campaign that connects with the right individuals. Begin by clearly pinpointing the specific audience that aligns with your campaign goals.
To gain deeper insights, develop a customer persona that includes key demographics and behaviors, such as age, gender, location, income level, interests, needs and pain points. By understanding these factors, you can tailor your messaging and strategies to engage your audience more effectively.
Add a note to describe the audience.
Start typing then use the formatting tools in the left hand toolbar.
Choose a photo to represent your audience.
Search over 3 million beautiful, free photos then drag images straight onto your board. Powered by Pexels.
Identify the most important key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure the success of the marketing campaign. These metrics may include sales figures, social channel traffic, conversion rates, engagement metrics etc.
Use a table to define the success metrics.
Create a table
Drag a table out from the toolbar. You can add simple formulas, dates, currencies and more.
Once you have everything you need, it's time to organize your content into logical topics. The goal here is to present the most important points in an inspiring and concise format. Remember, it's called a brief. In its simplest form, writer and illustrator Maira Kalman says a brief consists of "a deadline and a dream".
Create a column for each of the main topics in the brief
Name it, then drag any relevant notes, images or boards into your column to stay organized.
Save time on your next project with the free Marketing Brief template.
While a campaign brief is typically drafted by a single person, the most effective briefs will be reviewed by stakeholders, clients, or team members before the final approval. This is a great opportunity to ensure that everyone is aware of the direction, goals, and deliverables before embarking on the campaign. Utilize this feedback to make any necessary revisions to the brief before finalizing it.
Invite a team member or client to provide feedback.
Open the "Share" menu from the title bar of your board. Add email addresses of the people you'd like to collaborate with—they'll receive an invitation via email.
Start a comment thread.
Drag out a comment from the toolbar on the left and place it on your board. Other editors can reply to your comment.
Mention teammates to get their attention.
Type '@' in any text field to mention someone who has access to your board. They'll receive a notification and be able to respond to your comment.
Once you’ve made any final tweaks to the brief, it’s time to share the completed brief with the your team, organize a kickoff meeting and start the project.
Share a link to the brief with your team.
Click Share in the top right of your board. You can add a Welcome message for viewers, allow comments, set a password or embed the board in another app or website.
Now that your marketing brief is complete, you have an inspiring starting point for your next campaign. Remember to revisit your brief at each stage of the project. It's a great way to ensure you're still headed in the right direction!
