How To Brief A Content Marketing Agency

Every brand dreams of solid content that exceeds expectations and delivers on key objectives. Sometimes, you can request a piece from your content marketing agency, and it instantly hits the nail on the head. Other times, you’re left scratching your head. So, what makes the difference?

The truth is, your content is only as good as your brief. If you can’t explain what you want, your content marketing team won’t understand what you want. Often, companies fall at this hurdle because they’re trying to save time. But while outlining your intention in detail might seem long-winded initially, it pays off in the long run – eliminating costly back-and-forths between brand and agency while you try and read each other’s minds. 

Not sure where to start? Here are our top tips on effectively communicating your vision… 

Consider the objective

Before diving into the content creation process, it’s important to clearly define your objectives. Consider exactly what it is you want to achieve from this process, using the sales funnel as a guide. Are you aiming to boost brand awareness, generate interest in your products and services, aid decision-making, or prompt action?

Once you’ve identified the goal behind your content, communicate these objectives to your content marketing team, empowering them to craft content that aligns with your purpose.

Provide plenty of context

This step is more applicable if it’s your first time working with the content agency. Have you already sat down together and established what your business does? If not, it might not be 100% clear how they can link the content back to your offering, or you may end up getting your wires crossed further down the line.

Helpful information that ensures a clear understanding of your brand could include insights into your company history and how you got to where you are today, what drives your team, and what your customers expect from you. With some pieces, bear in mind that you may need to provide industry- or process-specific information to guarantee accuracy.

Establish your brand tone of voice

Once you’ve established who your company is, you can get to work determining what you sound like. You might already have a clearly defined tone of voice, and this will simply be a case of making sure your content marketing team upholds your brand voice throughout all communications. 

Don’t worry if you’re still honing your messaging. An experienced agency can help you navigate and refine your tone of voice, considering elements such as:

• Do you want to sound formal and expert-like, or relatable and approachable?
• Do you like to use colloquialisms or slang? What about emojis?
• Are contractions or abbreviations part of your tone of voice?
• How personal do you want to get when addressing your audience?

By considering the above factors and more, you can equip your marketing agency to weave a consistent and authentic narrative in every piece of content.

Identify your target audience

Who are you trying to reach? Often, brands will already have an idea of their audience. But the more detailed this is, the better positioned your agency will be to craft relevant, engaging content. If you’ve already developed audience personas, fantastic! Otherwise, start thinking about the audiences you cater to. 

If your offering is primarily B2B, delve into the roles, goals, and frustrations of the individuals within the organisations you’re looking to appeal to. It’s also worth thinking about the varying levels of awareness that different groups will have. It’s unlikely that a Chief Technical Officer will approach an IT article from the same angle as a small business owner, for example.

For B2C, focus on demographics such as age, sex, socioeconomic classifications (like occupation, education, and income), media channels, and interests. This nuanced understanding allows your agency to craft content that resonates on a personal level.

Choose the right format for your brand

This next step might seem like a given, but you’d be surprised at just how many brands aren’t sure on precisely the type of content they need. There are a whole host of content formats you can choose from, and each one serves a different purpose – with some likely more suited to your objectives than others.

Below are just a few examples:

• Blogs – Provide valuable information to your audience while boosting SEO through regularly updated, keyword-rich content.
• Guides – Establish your authority in the industry, positioning your brand as an expert source of information. They can also serve as evergreen content.
• Landing pages – Optimised to convert visitors into customers, with tailored content and persuasive language significantly improving conversion rates.
• Emails – Powerful direct communication with your audience, nurturing leads and driving conversions.
• Case studies – Offer real-world examples of your success, instilling confidence in potential clients. 
• Press releases – Spread the word about your brand, product launches, or important developments. 
• Brochures – Serve as informative, visually appealing tools to convey messages and enhance brand visibility. They can be shared physically or digitally. 
• Social media content – Boosts brand visibility, engagement, and community building – with the potential to go viral.

Not certain which one is right for you? Ask the agency for advice. Once you’ve decided, settle on a rough word or character count – considering any limits imposed by certain formats. 

Celebrate content triumphs – and learn from your mistakes

Sharing examples of previous content that has performed well for your business can make the world of difference. They give the content agency an immediate insight into how you look and sound, as well as what your business does. Equally important are the times when content didn’t quite resonate, helping your agency avoid pitfalls.

Including some of your competitors’ content that you admire can also be helpful, as well as resources for additional research and brands that you aspire to align with.

Establish housekeeping rules 

Just like any other work with a supplier, you should make your content marketing agency aware of your expectations in terms of deadlines and the way you expect your content to be delivered. It’s important to allow some wiggle room to enable time for any amendments. You should also consider whether you would prefer for the content to be submitted via email or using a specific organisational system. 

You may have additional requirements on top of your agency creating the content – would you like them to upload it and source the imagery too? You may be looking to boost your SEO – in this case, do you have a list of keywords you’d like to rank for?

How will you keep track of the content? Maybe your team would benefit from regular Zoom calls, interactive formats like a Miro or Trello board, or a simple Slack channel. Ticking off all these elements guarantees a smooth process from start to finish. 

Key takeaways

Ready to request some exceptional content tailored to your brand’s unique identity and objectives? We’ve created a quick-fire checklist for you to ensure your brief is comprehensive and ready to go, as well as a briefing template to adapt to your needs.

• Clearly define your content objectives
• Share key details about your business, its history, and purpose
• Describe your target audience in detail
• Communicate your brand’s existing or desired tone of voice
• Outline the types of content you need
• Share successful examples and other helpful resources
• Establish deadlines, preferred delivery methods, and additional requirements

 

Objective(s) (purpose/reason for the content, how you want your brand to come across)
Audience(s) (i.e. demographics, personas, how you want people to think and feel when reading the content, what you want them to do after reading)
Key messaging
About the brand (i.e. mission, vision, values, history, differentiators)
About the product(s) or service(s) (name, key features, how it works, benefits)
Key considerations (i.e. SEO keywords and keyword frequency, structure, meta titles, and descriptions required)
Useful links (i.e. competitor content, content you like, TOV guidelines)
Other notes (i.e. useful background knowledge)
Supporting content required? (i.e. social media/blog/email/newsletter copy)
Deadline
Contact for delivery (i.e. who to send the content to and how/their email address)

 

If this all feels overwhelming, we’re here to help. Our experienced team can craft a detailed brief that encompasses your aims, helping ensure your resulting content is exactly what you envisioned. 

Get in touch with us today, and let’s start creating content that’s a true reflection of your brand.