Anyone in business will probably have been in the situation where they’ve tried to DIY (Design It Yourself) a brand, a company brochure or marketing piece, and, after several attempts (stress-fully) come to the conclusion… “perhaps I should find a ‘creative’ to do it for me”. Usually, the next concern is who, what’s the cost, and how much of my time will it take up to liaise with these people? After all, if you don’t have a brand manual they won’t know your brand – and worse case scenario – may even mess it up! Then they need to get to know your business. You know it well. you’ve been doing it for X years, so how can you expect a newbie to get to grips with it in minutes, enough to promote it?
If these concerns sound familiar, or you’re in the process of considering dipping your toe into the unknown territory of ‘the creative world’, please read on as I have some really useful tips here.
OK, so the first thing to remember is that you are in charge – don’t let any designer tell you otherwise. You know your business, and what you want from it. A solid brief is all you need here.
- You tell your story – your business, and what you want from it
- You set the brief – what you want them to produce for you
- You set the goals – what you want to gain from it
- You set you budget – what you are willing to allocate.
If you can get all of the above down in pure and simple terms – prior to the briefing meeting – you’ve set yourself up for a successful result.
Designers/brand creators/copywriters – we all need a solid brief. So many times we go to a meeting with a new client and have to fish really hard. So many companies don’t know what they don’t want – until they see it! By which time, with a poor brief dictating the outcome, we’ve gone round the block several times, only to determine what’s not right!
Spending time ascertaining the outcome – NOT the nitty gritty is far better time well spent. Think about what you need from your allocated budget and let the ‘creative’ make it happen. With a solid brief in their hands a professional experienced ‘creative’ WILL come up with the goods.
So here’s my ultimate Success Brief for hiring creative talent. In a nutshell, use this for any briefing session with a creative and watch the end result happen. Just write the following..
- A brief description about your business – what it offers, and more importantly what the benefits to the client/customer are.
- What is your target audience is – who is it you want to speak to with this creative piece? Describe the person, NOT the company – so is it an FD, the CEO… etc? This part is crucial.
- Where they are located – locally, UK, Internationally? It does make a difference.
- How would they like you to contact them – which channel will work best (Online/offline)
- If you’re going to be asking them to do something – what is it (put simply)
- What’s the timescale – immediate, slow burner, long-term?
- What’s the format? Give a technical spec here if you know it, if not suggest options for the creative to work to. The more information you can give here the better.
- Are you supplying content or will you be looking for copy writing or images etc from the creative. If so, put a budget allocation to this.
Finally… ask them:
- For a portfolio of clients’ work, and their professional history
- For any of their clients you could contact for a reference
- For a brief synopsis of their work process
- For a breakdown of costs
- For a fixed fee
- For a realistic time-frame
If you’ve found this useful let me know. Or if you have a story to share, I’d love to hear it.
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