The creative brief isn't just paperwork; it's the cornerstone of your marketing project. Yet, briefing often turns out to be a challenge even for seasoned professionals. A startling study points out that a whopping 30% of agencies' wasted time can be attributed to poor client briefing. That inefficiency translates into more than just lost time—it affects your project management, strains your internal resources, and slows down your go-to-market strategy. If you find yourself bogged down by ineffective briefing habits, it's high time to review how you manage your project briefs for a better creative workflow and enhanced marketing project management.
While the creative brief is universally acknowledged as a valuable tool, it's ironic that it often goes neglected. Both marketers and agencies concur that a well-crafted brief is indispensable for producing quality work, yet there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to executing it effectively. Here's a deeper look into the statistics that shed light on this paradox:
Given the substantial cost, both in terms of time and resources, bad briefing habits can no longer be an oversight. These statistics underscore the urgency for a streamlined, effective briefing process—something Admation’s Marketing Management and Approval software excels at. By adopting such a solution, you can bring much-needed alignment between marketers and creative agencies, effectively manage creative projects, and ultimately, improve your go-to-market strategy.
In light of the statistics and challenges presented earlier, there's a palpable need for enhancing the briefing process. The good news is, there are actionable steps you can take to better your briefs and avoid pitfalls. Let's dive into some key areas that can bring immediate improvements:
More than 7 in 10 marketers believe that project briefings could be vastly improved with a more structured approach. Admation's marketing project management software allows for tailored online briefs that capture all necessary details—budgets, milestones, keywords, and more—right upfront. This ensures that all stakeholders are aligned and there are no grey areas, thereby reducing the room for misinterpretation and misdirection.
Benefits:
One of the recurring issues is that often the right people are not signing off on the marketing briefs. The impact of this is more significant than it appears at first glance. It leads to unnecessary revisions and hampers the project's smooth progress. Admation's brief approvals feature allows you to nominate stakeholders who are critical for approval, ensuring that the brief receives the right internal vetting before any work begins.
Benefits:
Incorporating these best practices can bring a significant turnaround in how you manage creative projects. Admation's features are tailored to address these exact pain points, offering a comprehensive solution for your marketing approval and project management needs.
Incorporating features specifically designed to make briefing as efficient and effective as possible, Admation transforms the briefing process. Here's a closer look at the six ways Admation enhances this critical activity:
Gone are the days of fragmented conversations and incomplete briefs via email. Admation's online briefing forms come tailored to both the organisation and various project types. These comprehensive forms capture all essential information like project overviews, budgets, milestones, keywords, tags, audience, regions and attachments. This structured approach minimises guesswork and time-consuming back-and-forths, setting the stage for a successful project.
Admation’s brief templates enable marketers to create reusable templates for recurring campaign types. This feature is a timesaver that ensures consistency and quality in every new project.
Benefits:
Admation goes beyond serving as a centralised platform for all project-related files, including creative briefs. In addition to safeguarding your documents and enhancing accountability, the platform also lets you duplicate previously approved or submitted briefs. With just a few clicks, you can update these duplicates with new dates or target markets, saving you precious time and effort.
Benefits:
Once a brief is approved, Admation automatically generates a new project based on the brief's details. This feature eliminates the need for manual re-entry of project information, thereby expediting the project initiation process.
Benefits:
Admation revolutionises the approval process. Nominated stakeholders can quickly review and provide input, ensuring alignment before the project begins. This eliminates the need for post-brief clarifications and excessive revisions.
Admation's mandatory fields in the brief forms ensure that no critical information is missed. This level of control ensures that every project starts on the right foot, fully aligned with your marketing strategy and compliance requirements.
Benefits:
With these benefits outlined, it's clear that Admation provides a 360-degree solution for managing briefs, from project inception to completion. The platform's capabilities help you optimise each step of the process, leading to more effective and efficient marketing campaigns.
In a landscape where inefficient briefing can cause significant time and resource drain, Admation emerges as an indispensable solution for enhancing your marketing project management and creative workflow. Its comprehensive features tackle the core issues that plague the briefing process, bringing alignment and efficiency where it's most needed. From online briefs tailored to your organisational needs, to streamlined approval processes, to the ability to centralise and even duplicate prior briefs, Admation is your one-stop hub for eliminating bad briefing habits.
The financial and operational costs of poor briefing are too high to ignore. As the data reveals, this isn't just a challenge; it's an industry-wide predicament that needs urgent redress. With Admation, you're not just investing in software—you're investing in a strategy for more effective, efficient, and compliant marketing campaigns. Don't let poor briefing be the weak link in your marketing chain; let Admation redefine how you manage your creative projects and approvals.
To learn more about marketing project briefs, their pivotal role, the challenges they bring, and the solutions that technology offers, watch our video where Margaret Foley, Simple's Chief Customer Officer and renowned subject matter presents Mastering Marketing Project Briefs: A Deep Dive into Effective Briefing.
Source: Data is sourced from Better Briefs Global report which can be accessed here