A creative brief functions as a road map for any marketing effort. It’s the first step in clarifying the purpose of your marketing campaign, whether it’s an advertisement, a door hanger promoting your services, a direct mail campaign, or a website landing page.
A creative brief should limit itself to about a page. Here are the essential elements of a creative brief:
What is your business objective? This is a fundamental question and should go beyond something like “increase sales.” A competitive analysis might help define your objective. For example, do you need to highlight your competitive advantage — your deep experience and familiarity with the neighborhood you farm — to increase sales? Or are you new to the business? Think about how you can approach this question.
Who are you talking to? In this section, you want to define your target audience, such as investors, new homebuyers, second homebuyers, or clients you know are raising a family and might be in need of a bigger home. Whatever the target audience, your marketing piece should be singular in focus.
What are the preconceptions of your product? In this section, you could address certain market conditions. If you’re targeting investors, you should address the preconceptions that investors have in your farm. Do they think the area is overvalued? If so, present a case why some areas might be undervalued.
What is your key message? This section should be extremely concise and identify exactly what you want to say to your target audience. It might be an offer or discount. More importantly, it might communicate something about your brand (local expertise and years of experience) as well as a discount offer.
Use a creative brief as a starting point for all your marketing efforts, and you’ll have both a precise concept of the purpose of your marketing campaign and the execution.