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Creative Brief Checklist
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Benjamin Franklin The 4 Part Creative Brief It’s impossible to write effective copy if you’re not clear who’s reading it or what they want. A Creative Brief solves this problem by providing the instructions for effective copy development. Here are 4 types of information a copywriter needs. Not all this information will apply to every project. Additional information may be required. * A brief can be created for each piece of copy or content in your marketing strategy. 1. Content Strategy Content marketing strategies have many moving parts that must all fit together into a coherent whole. Knowing what role a piece of copy or content plays in the overall strategy can help develop ideas for improvement or alignment. How does the piece of copy or content fit into your sales process? What job must it do within the overall framework of your marketing strategy. How does this project support the sales effort? (what’s is the call to action) What is the single most important idea to get across? What should prospects remember most? What mandatory elements must be included? 2. Audience The more the copy is directed to a specific audience for a specific reason, the more leverage the writer has for getting results. Copy directed at everyone for any reason is like trying to boil the ocean. Who is the targeted market? (what is their industry) Who is your target audience (who specifically will be reading the copy) What will motivate them to read the piece? (what excites them) What keeps them awake at night? (what influences their decision to buy) What do they already know about your product? (what are their alternatives) What argument or explanation will engage them? (wants, needs, interests) What do prospects know about the product? (what are their existing perceptions) What are the barriers to the sale? (What objections might hold them back) 3. Context The context where the copy appears can completely change how a reader engages with the copy. If not taken into consideration, the copy may not be read at all and could completely fail. What channels are being used to deliver the message to the audience? (website, industry blog, social media post, etc.) What ’s the copy format? (article, eBook, web page, etc.) What frame of mind will the reader be in? How much of their attention can you hope to get? What length can the copy be without losing reader’s attention? (How many words?) 4. Expected Results The Creative brief should articulate the expected results of the copy as much as possible. Without this information, the copywriter is left guessing. What are the expected results of the copy? What’s its mission? (the more specific the better) How will success be measured and understood? (this is impossible to do without clarity on what result is expected) What key takeaways should the reader get? What messages or content should be delivered? What do you want the reader to think after reading the copy? What do you want the reader to feel after reading the copy? What do you want the reader to do after viewing the copy?
Copywriting Development Process
“Today’s marketplace is no longer responsive to the strategies that worked in the past. There are just too many products, too many companies, and too much marketing noise.” Jack Trout and Al Reis, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (1980). The 7 Quality Checkpoints of High-performance Copy Does your content sound like corporate spin? Do your emails go straight to the spam box? Are your blogs nothing more than self-indulgent ramblings? Prospects are reading someone’s content – just not yours! Attracting their attention in today’s overcrowded marketplace is like shaving off a few seconds of lap time in a Formula One race. The right marketing strategy and content are critical to hold your audience’s attention. These seven quality checkpoints combine both for creating high-performance copy. 1. Project Information Marketing is cumulative. It’s critical to get it right because your copy is often the only part of your marketing your prospects see. Your copywriter must have a Creative Brief to guide their work or they’re left guessing. This information should describe who’s reading the copy and where. The more it’s focused on a specific audience for a specific reason the more leverage the writer has to get results. Copy directed at everyone for any reason is like trying to boil the ocean. 2. Research plan There’s two basic parts to creating a piece of copy or content. There’s the “what,” or the information deliverable. Then comes the “writing” itself. You’re mistaken if you think a writer simply sits down and starts writing. First comes the research. And it’s wise to make a plan for collecting the research, too. The primary focus is usually the target audience. What do they want? What will motivate them to read the piece? As much as companies love their products, customers care about solving their problems. What excites them? What keeps them awake at night? What do they already know about your topic? What argument or explanation will engage them? 3. Research gathering Copywriters are experts on writing copy. It’s wrong to assume they must be product experts, too. The copy should be focused on the audience not the product. Too much product knowledge could limit the writer’s ability to be customer-centric. In a hyper-connected digital environment, content is the new commodity. Good research reports are used repeatedly. Want your content to stand out? You need original research – interviews. Interviewing lets a writer instantly plug into the expert knowledge of anyone who’s relevant to your content.Asking the right interview questions is the master skill of a good copywriter. It’s the key to creating high-value content that attracts the best customers. Your product manager, salesperson or one of your customers could be sources of information for commodity resistant content. 4. Content Outline Every type of copy has an underlying structure. Email campaigns and video scripts are structured for persuasion. Informational content like eBooks or White Papers are designed to be rational and objective. Content that tells a story such as a case study or article is structured for that purpose, too. The copywriter must determine the copy structure based on the Creative Brief. Once a basic outline has been determined, the writing can begin. However, this is just a starting point. The copy structure may change slightly depending how the project comes together. 5. Writing Copywriting is more of an assembly job, than writing. In fact, it’s nothing like what most people think of as writing. The research is assembled rather than written into the outline. The purpose of the initial rough draft is to make an idea that’s intangible more concrete and prepare it for the next step. At this point the copy is little more than halfway finished. The writing is an initial rough draft for the writer’s eyes only. It’s at the next stage where the real copywriting magic happens. 6. Revising Your copy must be road tested. And the race simulator for copy is inside the copywriter’s imagination. To run it, they imagine themselves walking in the shoes of the target audience as they read the copy. How will the reader will react? Will the copy persuade or educate them as directed by the Creative Brief? The goal here is to shape the copy until it aligns perfectly with the Creative Brief in the fewest possible words. But the creative process takes time. An incubation period is needed for the best ideas to evolve and reach their full potential. This stage can take longer than all the previous steps combined. Try to speed up the process and the copy will suffer. The best approach is to use a marketing calendar to plan projects in advance rather than rush the copy to completion. 7. Proofreading Proofreading the content is the final step. The proofreader doesn’t need to worry about the meaning of the copy or its impact on the target audience. So, they can focus on the written form it takes. Their job is to eliminate distracting grammar issues, spelling mistakes or sentence structure. This job is best left to professional proofreaders with fresh eyes and advanced degrees in English. Give Your Copy More Grip Your company may spend 100K annually on marketing, but your results will be severely limited without effective copy. A Creative Brief gives your copy its best chance for success. There’s more to copywriting than the writing. In fact, 80% of the work is something other than writing. Here again are the seven checkpoints to achieving results driven Trailblazer quality copy. Creative Brief Research Plan Research Gathering Outline Writing Revising Proofreading Your copy is where the rubber hits the road for your marketing. Check my writing portfolio for examples of my best work.
How to Honor Your Product with Storytelling
Germany is home to the Nürburgring race track. It’s one of the longest and most challenging racetracks in the world. So much so that it has 3 to 12 fatalities each year. Surrounded by dense forest, the 22.8 km circuit has over 150 corners. These elevate over 300 meters through a mountain range. Formula One racing champion Jackie Stewart once called it “the green hell.” It’s also where the showdown between two of F1’s greatest drivers took place. And one almost lost their life. The movie ‘Rush’ directed by Ron Howard does a fantastic job of telling this story. So great, that instead of re-telling the story I’d rather describe something else. The formula Howard used to structure his film. It’s similar to a type of B2B content that has helped countless B2B companies succeed – the Case Study (aka. The Success Story) Your Products and Services at Their Best There are many types of business stories. Each serves a different purpose. Like your origin story. Its job is to inspire stakeholders with a common purpose. But that’s not what a Case Study does. Its role is to help close the sale by proving you can deliver on what you promise. If your services are complex, expensive, or innovative, then you need Case Studies. They’re critical to your sales process. B2B firms read them because they can’t risk making a buying mistake. In the same sense, writing your own Case Studies can be a big mistake. Here’s why … Steps to a Great Case Study You may have read business success stories that impressed you. But what you may not have realized is that these marketing assets don’t write themselves. A Case Study specialist has conducted expert interviews. They’ve dug up the facts and shaped them into a compelling marketing piece. The first interview in the process is usually with you. What are your business goals? What are you hoping your customer will say? They may have a different version of events. And it may be better than yours. Next, the Case Study Specialist interviews your customer. They’ll ask them about the challenge they faced. What journey did they take to find a solution? How did they use your product to overcome their obstacles? What were the results? They’ll also dig for real-world details that make all the difference in making a story stand out. What’s Your Story? Formula One racing is inspiring. In fact, the movie Rush inspired me to write my book on B2B copywriting best practices. Stories are told about athletes because of the challenges they overcame. Your product could gain some mythical significance too, if you told stories about the challenges they helped your customers overcome. The truth is, great athletes started with no special status. It’s stories that make them significant. Put yourself in the shoes of someone on their buyer’s journey. One good story could raise your product from the ordinary to the extraordinary. So, what’s your story?

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