What makes a perfect PR brief?

(Posted on 28/08/18)

When it comes to briefing an PR agency, whether it is the start of a totally new professional relationship or you are drafting a brief to your incumbent agency for a particular campaign, the rules to producing an ideal PR brief remain the same. Sticking to them will be of enormous benefit to your business in the long run as it means an agency can produce a proposal that is designed to reach your target audience and meet your objectives, while remaining within your budget, saving time and frustration on both sides. Taking time to brief an agency properly is never wasted effort and helps build the kind of mutually beneficial relationship that everyone wants.

1. Be concise and keep to the point.
2. Provide background information about your company, your brand’s USPs, any previous or ongoing marketing activity and your current requirements.
3. Carry out a brief SWOT analysis and share the results as part of the brief (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, as you see them).
4. What are your business objectives for the next, 12 months/ 5 years?
5. State your marketing goals. In other words, what do you want your PR campaign to deliver? Do you want to raise awareness of a brand, increase social media engagement, drive traffic to your website?
6. What are your brand’s key messages (you can have up to three, ideally)?
7. Who is your key target audience? Be as specific as possible.
8. What do you think success would look like?
9. Which brands’ marketing do you admire and why?
10. Lastly, your budget. How much do you want to spend and be realistic about what you can afford. This will impact the proposal a PR company comes back with and help define its scope.

Contact the Zebra team to find out how we can turn your brief into an integrated marketing campaign.