Marketing brief template that gets you a proposal you can actually use

What a brief is for

A brief is not a request for ideas. It is the information a supplier needs to tell you three things: what they would do, who would do it and what it would cost. If your brief makes those three answers possible, it has done its job. Anything beyond that, such as long company histories or brand manifestos, slows the reader down.

Describe the company in one paragraph

Write what you sell, to whom, at what price range and through which route, online, sales team, partners or stores. Add your website and one sentence on where the company is today, for example "profitable, growing slowly" or "raised a seed round, no marketing yet".

Good example: "We sell scheduling software to physiotherapy clinics in the US, on monthly plans from 99 to 399 USD. Most customers find us through search and sign up for a trial. We have one marketer who also handles support."

Set one goal for the next 90 days

One sentence, measurable if possible. More qualified demo requests from clinics with more than five therapists. Lower cost per trial on search. A launch of a new plan to existing customers. If you have several goals, rank them. The supplier will plan around the first.

Avoid goals that cannot be checked, such as "raise awareness" without saying how you will know it rose.

Explain what you do today

• Channels in use and roughly what each one produces
• Tools in place, analytics, CRM, email, ad accounts
• Who in your team works on marketing and how much of their time it takes
• What was tried before and why it stopped

Honesty here saves weeks. A supplier who knows that paid social failed twice will plan differently from one who has to discover it.

Give the budget in two separate numbers

Give the monthly fee you can spend on the work and, separately, the monthly ad spend. A range is fine. Without numbers, proposals swing between the cheapest version and the most expensive one and none of them fit.

List the constraints and rules

• Industry rules, such as healthcare privacy, legal advertising rules or financial disclosures
• Brand rules, tone, things you never say
• Approvals, who signs off on copy and spend and how quickly
• Deadlines, launches, seasonal peaks or a board meeting

Say exactly what you want back

Ask for a fixed structure, so proposals are comparable.

• The approach in a few paragraphs
• The team and who your main contact is
• A 90 day scope, week by week
• The monthly fee, with inclusions and exclusions
• KPIs and reporting rhythm
• Notice period, minimum term and who owns the accounts

Name the decision date and the decision maker

Say when you need proposals, when you will decide and who decides. Suppliers prioritise briefs with a real decision date.

The template ready to copy

Mistakes that make proposals vague

• No budget, so every proposal guesses
• A goal that cannot be measured
• Asking for "a full marketing strategy" instead of a 90 day scope
• Leaving out what failed before
• Sending different information to different suppliers
• Omitting who approves work, so timelines in proposals are fiction

How long the brief should be

One to two pages is enough for most engagements. If yours is longer, check whether the extra pages change what a supplier would propose. If not, move them to an appendix or delete them. For a formal procurement process, use the longer format in our RFP in marketing guide.

What happens after you send it

Good suppliers reply with clarifying questions before they reply with a proposal. That is a positive sign, because it means they read the brief. Answer quickly and share your answers with every supplier, so the comparison stays fair. When proposals arrive, compare them against section 6, line by line, as described in how to choose a digital marketing agency.

A filled in example for a B2B company

Here is how the seven parts read when they are filled in for an imaginary company, so you can see the level of detail that works.

• Company: accounting software for construction firms in the US, plans from 150 to 600 USD a month, sold through a two person sales team after a demo request.
• Goal: 40 qualified demo requests a month from firms with more than 20 employees by the end of the quarter, up from about 15.
• Today: search ads run by the founder two hours a week, a blog with eight posts, no email nurture, CRM in place but deal sources are not tracked.
• Budget: 4,000 to 5,000 USD a month for the work, 6,000 to 8,000 USD a month in ad spend.
• Constraints: no claims about tax outcomes, every ad reviewed by the head of sales, a trade show in month three.
• Response: approach, team, 90 day plan by week, fee, KPIs, notice period, account ownership.
• Decision: proposals by the 20th, decision by the end of the month, the CEO and the head of sales decide.

A supplier reading this knows the channel mix is likely search plus LinkedIn, that tracking needs fixing in the first weeks and that the budget fits a small channel team. Every proposal that comes back will be about the same job, which is what makes them comparable.

Adapting the template to other companies

An ecommerce brand swaps demo requests for revenue, return on ad spend and repeat purchase rate, and adds product margin to the company section, because a supplier cannot judge paid social without knowing what an order is worth after costs. A practice in a regulated field, such as healthcare or law, adds the advertising rules it works under to the constraints and states who reviews claims. A startup with no marketing yet keeps the today section short and says so plainly, because "nothing has been tried" is useful information too. The structure stays the same in every case. Only the measures and the constraints change.

Questions to expect back

Expect a good supplier to ask how leads are qualified today, who owns the ad accounts and analytics, how quickly the team can approve copy, and what happened to the last supplier. If the first reply is a price without a single question, the brief was either perfect or not read. It is rarely perfect.

Brief or RFP, which one you need

A brief is enough when one person decides, the budget is clear and you want proposals from a few suppliers within weeks. An RFP adds formal scoring, a fixed question period and legal terms, which is worth it when procurement is involved, several departments decide or the engagement runs into six figures a year. If you are unsure, start with the brief. It takes an hour to write, and you can always turn it into an RFP later by adding the scoring sheet and the process section.

Sharing the brief safely

A brief often holds sensitive numbers: margins, targets, past results, what went wrong with a supplier. Share it only with suppliers you are seriously considering, ask how they store it and who reads it, and leave out anything a supplier does not need to price the work, such as customer lists or passwords. Access to accounts comes after you sign, not before.

Keeping the brief up to date

A brief is not a one time document. Once an engagement starts, keep the goal, budget and constraints sections current and share changes with the team in writing. When the goal shifts, for example from leads to revenue, or a new product launches, update the brief first and ask for an updated plan. This keeps the scope and the reporting honest and avoids months of work aimed at a goal the company has already left behind.