How to Write a Marketing Agency Brief

A useful marketing agency brief explains your business, audience, objective and current problem, then sets out the available assets, scope, constraints and responsibilities. Separate what you know from what needs research, and explain how you will review the work and measure its results. Start with the business outcome before listing channels or deliverables.

If you ask three agencies for “better marketing,” you may receive three very different proposals: social account management, advertising, or a website project. This guide helps you give them a shared starting point so you can understand those differences. It includes a copyable brief template and a clearly hypothetical example.

What should a brief do before you request proposals?

A brief is a working document that explains what your company wants to change, what it has available and what it expects from the engagement. It does not need to answer every strategic question. It should prevent an agency from having to guess your business model, budget or team's responsibilities.

When proposals arrive, return to the brief. Does each proposal address the same problem? Which assumptions affect the scope? Which items require discovery before they can be priced? Clear inputs help you compare the work being offered; they do not guarantee successful execution or business results.

Once those inputs are ready, use our guide to choosing a digital marketing agency in Jeddah to assess working methods, measurement and account ownership alongside the proposal.

Describe the business, audience and problem

Explain what you sell, who buys it, where you operate and how a purchase happens. An agency needs to distinguish a service sold through a long contract from a product purchased directly online. It also needs to know whether the buyer decides alone or needs approval from other people.

• Offer: Priority products or services, including what is included and excluded.
• Audience: Sector or segment, location, decision-maker and the need that starts the search.
• Sales process: Steps from enquiry to agreement, with the team responsible for response and follow-up.
• Value: Reasons to choose the offer that you can substantiate, such as service specifications or delivery arrangements.
• Current problem: The specific issue you observe, such as few enquiries, poor fit or opportunities that stall before agreement.
• Sales questions: Recurring questions and objections, summarized without sharing raw customer conversations.

Separate facts from assumptions

Where available, give the source and period for each factual statement. “Most enquiries are unsuitable” needs a definition of unsuitable and records to support it. “We think the page does not explain the service clearly” is a useful hypothesis to investigate, rather than an established fact.

Do not enter zero for missing data or present a remembered percentage as measured performance. Mark information as unavailable and identify who can provide it or what process is needed to collect it.

Distinguish objectives, scope and deliverables

The objective is the business change you want. The scope is the work to discuss with the agency. The deliverables are the items you will review and receive. A number of social posts is a deliverable; more qualified enquiries is an outcome that needs a definition, measurement and sales follow-up.

Where possible, choose one initial priority. If you want suitable enquiries for a particular service, explain the service, audience and qualification criteria. The scope might involve reviewing the messaging, service page and enquiry journey, followed by channel recommendations informed by that review.

Channels should support the objective. If a channel is mandatory because of an existing commitment, explain why. Otherwise, give the agency room to explain its recommendations. Also state the exclusions: is website development a separate project, does your team provide photography, and who responds to customers?

List assets and constraints that affect delivery

List the website, advertising and social accounts, content, brand guidelines and available reports. Record the owner, current condition and access arrangements for each asset. Having an advertising account does not establish that permissions, data or payment arrangements are ready.

Explain any deadline and its reason, plus your team's capacity to supply materials and approve work. Where possible, separate agency fees from advertising spend, production and tools. If you do not know the right budget, state the limit you can discuss and ask for options with clearly defined scope rather than assuming one ideal amount.

What should you leave out of the brief?

Do not include passwords, verification codes or access keys. Avoid attaching raw customer lists or unnecessary personal information to explain your audience. Start with aggregated summaries that do not identify individuals, and obtain the appropriate internal authorization before sharing additional information.

Provide account access through suitable invitations and permissions using your company's approved channels. The brief can say “access can be arranged after scope and responsibilities are agreed” instead of containing login credentials.

Agree responsibilities, measurement and review

Identify the decision-maker, day-to-day coordinator, content approver and people who provide product information. State how feedback will be collected, the expected review time and how conflicting comments will be resolved. Several approvers without a clear sequence can cause approved work to change repeatedly.

Define acceptance criteria for deliverables: agreed scope, factual accuracy, complete materials and a process for addressing comments. Then explain the business measures and their sources. A contact-button click, a received enquiry and a sales-qualified opportunity are different stages.

If existing data is insufficient, make establishing a baseline an explicit part of the discussion. Agree who reports results, who reviews enquiry quality and how the review informs the next phase.

A marketing agency brief template to copy and complete

This is a general planning template to adapt to your business. Complete the intentional blank fields with your business information, then discuss items that need research or a clearer scope.

1. Business and priority offer: ____________________
2. Audience, region and purchase decision-maker: ____________________
3. Current problem and examples: ____________________
4. Verified facts, sources and reporting period: ____________________
5. Assumptions and research questions: ____________________
6. Business objective and definition of success: ____________________
7. Proposed scope and deliverables to discuss: ____________________
8. Items outside the scope: ____________________
9. Available assets, owners and access status: ____________________
10. Budget limits and treatment of advertising and production: ____________________
11. Deadline and reason: ____________________
12. Decision, approval, materials and follow-up owners: ____________________
13. Deliverable acceptance criteria and feedback process: ____________________
14. Measurement definitions, sources and missing data: ____________________

A short hypothetical example

Imagine a company providing recurring office maintenance in Jeddah. It wants enquiries about business maintenance contracts but receives many questions about individual household repairs. This is a teaching example, not a client case or a result attributed to Sadin.

Its manager could write: “Our priority is to explain the contract service to businesses. We need a review of messaging, the service page and enquiry journey, followed by suitable channel recommendations. Sales receives and qualifies enquiries when they come from a business within our service area and match our offer. Source data is incomplete, so we need a way to record it. Rebuilding the website and responding to customers are outside the initial scope.”

This gives the agency a defined problem, clear exclusions and a measurement gap to address without turning a hypothesis into a promised sales increase.

Check completeness before sending

Confirm that the brief states an understandable objective, separates facts from assumptions, sets scope boundaries, distinguishes budget items and identifies decision and measurement owners. Remove unnecessary sensitive information. Ask each agency to disclose assumptions, exclusions and the inputs it needs from your team.

Frequently asked questions

Should I write the brief before choosing an agency?

Prepare the core information before requesting proposals so agencies respond to the same need. Develop the scope with them after discussing questions and alternatives; you do not need a complete strategy in advance.

What if I do not know the right budget?

State the objective, available financial limits and items that need estimating. Ask agencies to distinguish fees, advertising spend, production and exclusions so you can compare the options meaningfully.

Should I send customer data?

Start with aggregated summaries that do not identify people. If additional data is required, define its purpose, permissions and an approved sharing method. Do not send raw lists without a clear need.

Must I specify every channel?

Describe the need, assets and constraints first. Include channels with a clear reason and make assessment of other channels part of the professional discussion.

Discuss your scope with a clear brief

Complete the template using the information available and mark remaining gaps. Review Sadin's digital marketing page, then discuss your project requirements to establish the scope and necessary inputs before agreeing a proposal.