{"id":70111,"date":"2018-04-13T16:49:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T15:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T17:17:45","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:17:45","slug":"briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Briefing: the (not so) secret ingredient of the best agency relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-20913 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Swimmers-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"402\" height=\"268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Swimmers-1-1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Swimmers-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Swimmers-1-1-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Swimmers-1-1-640x427.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 639px) 98vw, (max-width: 1199px) 64vw, 402px\" \/><br \/>\nOver nearly 10 years\u2019 managing projects of all shapes and sizes, I\u2019ve come to realise that the most successful projects are, nine times out of ten, those with the best briefs.<br \/>\nReceiving a good brief can sometimes feel like finding the holy grail. \u00a0But when I get one, I know my client is much more likely to get exactly what they want from us, and they are much more likely to get it at the first pass. So from our point of view, a good brief is ALWAYS worth investing time into.<br \/>\nWe know that one of the key reasons for sketchy briefs is the time it takes to write one. That\u2019s why our account managers will often do all we can to find the best way to get the information we need, whether that\u2019s a confirmation phone call or travelling to meet with our clients face to face. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for our clients to brief us properly.<br \/>\nSo what makes a good brief? We\u2019ve made some suggestions below\u2026<br \/>\n<strong>Context is king<\/strong><br \/>\nThere are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/our-top-tips-for-briefing-copywriters\/\">some obvious basics<\/a> that should be in any brief \u2013 the desired format, the optimal length, the deadline and other executional guidance is a good place to start. But these are the easy bits aren\u2019t they? When it comes to a good brief, it is the broader context that gives us the insight we need to nail a project first time.<br \/>\nEssentially, it\u2019s the back story that has led you to the point of contacting us:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What has triggered the need for this project\/piece of comms?<\/li>\n<li>Where does it sit in the customer\u2019s journey?\n<ul>\n<li>What else will they already have read, what else will they receive after this?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>What activity will be going on around this communication? Are there any related pieces?<\/li>\n<li>How, where and when are you distributing and using it?<\/li>\n<li>What response are you looking for? What do you want your audience to think, feel and do?<\/li>\n<li>What does success look like for this piece of communication? How will you be checking that it\u2019s worked?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The answers to these questions can sometimes be hard to uncover, but knowing this information makes the difference between tactical and strategic comms. And as Sun Tzu said, \u201cTactics without strategy is just the noise before defeat\u201d. What\u2019s more, if you don\u2019t have the answers yet, it might be time to take a step back to your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/content-funnel-target-customers-right-content-right-time\/\">content strategy<\/a>.<br \/>\n<strong>Invite us into the inner circle<\/strong><br \/>\nAlong with the above insight, we think the best projects are those where we become a seamless extension of our clients\u2019 teams. Whether we\u2019re working on-site with them or remotely, there are some simple things we need to know so that we can work most effectively with you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who is involved on the project and what are their roles in it?<\/li>\n<li>What\u2019s the sign-off process \u2013 how do you review things and who looks at what? When are those people available to review the work?<\/li>\n<li>What are your expectations of us? What role do you want us to play within your team\u2026 what gap are we there to fill?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Opening up your strategic discussions to us is invaluable. To us and to you. For your benefit, we can bring an objective and external point of view into the room, and share ideas about how strategy can be articulated across your comms. For us, we get to understand the context of the work first hand.<br \/>\nWe have various brief templates we work with to help our projects run smoothly. If you\u2019d be interested in seeing one, just drop us a line!<br \/>\n<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over nearly 10 years\u2019 managing projects of all shapes and sizes, I\u2019ve come to realise that the most successful projects are, nine times out of ten, those with the best briefs. Receiving a good brief can sometimes feel like finding the holy grail. \u00a0But when I get one, I know my client is much more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[305,314],"tags":[538,515],"class_list":["post-70111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-content-strategy-us","category-copywriting-us","tag-agencies-us","tag-briefing-us"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The (not so) secret ingredient of best relationships with agencies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Receiving a good brief can sometimes feel like finding the holy grail. When we get one, we know our client is much more likely to get exactly what they want from us, and they are much more likely to get it at the first pass\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The (not so) secret ingredient of best relationships with agencies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Receiving a good brief can sometimes feel like finding the holy grail. When we get one, we know our client is much more likely to get exactly what they want from us, and they are much more likely to get it at the first pass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Stratton Craig - Global Copywriting &amp; Content Strategy Agency\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-13T15:49:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-07T17:17:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Swimmers-1-1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nina Whittaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nina Whittaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nina Whittaker\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8ccafc0a4cd5d3ad3ddccebe13b39309\"},\"headline\":\"Briefing: the (not so) secret ingredient of the best agency relationships\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-13T15:49:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-07T17:17:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":626,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/Swimmers-1-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"agencies\",\"briefing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Content strategy\",\"Copywriting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"us-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/\",\"name\":\"The (not so) secret ingredient of best relationships with agencies\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/insight\\\/briefing-not-so-secret-ingredient-of-best-agency-relationships\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/Swimmers-1-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-13T15:49:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-07T17:17:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.strattoncraig.com\\\/us\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8ccafc0a4cd5d3ad3ddccebe13b39309\"},\"description\":\"Receiving a good brief can sometimes feel like finding the holy grail. 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