image from: jjpacres
Being a freelancer the client is the center of your economic world. A satisfied client comes again, hires you for other jobs and spread away good feedback about you. He is a powerful advertising “tool”. That’s why it is very important how you prepare yourself to the first meeting with him. It is not about how you dress yourself. A professional look helps, sure, but definitely your best weapon to strike the goal and win the customer is the brief.
An effective design brief is one of the most critical factors in ensuring that you will get the client. This article doesn’t want to be exhaustive on the topic but a first overview to inspect the issue and a start for other studies on that.
What Is in a Brief?
A brief is a collection of information that you need to better understand your customer exigencies.Talk, talk and talk with your client but in a structured way! To focus on the problem and center the results you have also focus the business objective of the design project.
A design project is based on what your customer want to achieve and your responsibility is giving to him the right tools to reach that.
A good design brief could help you to focus the needs, providing the steps that you have to follow in your workflow to have your customer satisfied.
How does a brief should be written?
image from: the trial
The way in which you write your briefing shows the quality of your design. A detailed brief helps you to understand the client so the more detailed it is the high quality you get.
A good brief from the very start also gives you a higher knowledge about what you want achieves from the project. You may not be the designer but the account that goes to meet the client but you have to collect the right information to provide to the designer that has to carry on the project.
The brief is a powerful marketing tool. It should be detailed and questions should be chosen with accuracy. You have to avoid that your customer views this stage has a waste of time. The final result has to be a list of guidelines for the job.
So, which elements need to be highlighted to be sure that the creative will be perfectly able to catch the client needs?
12 essential Questions that can’t be leave away
Which questions should be included in a good brief?There are many different kind of brief. Its nature depends on the final use. There could be a general project brief or a specifically aimed for a logo creation one. So, if you are the client the brief depends on what you want and the service which you require. On the other hand, if you are the creative, it depends on which services you are able to offer.
The following short list is composed of questions which should be always included in a brief:
1. Company core business: the main activity of the company, what it sells or promotes
2. Company target: describe the audience of the company and that one specific for the project
3. Company position in the market: how the company is positioned economically, perspective, trends
4. Service required description: what the company need, the service accurately described together with expectations
5. Existent marketing materials samples (logo, brochure, posters, ads, every kind of communication document)
6. Competitors’ description, eventual list and materials. This is an important point to better understand how to promote the company in the referring market
7. Company strength and weaknesses
8. Competitors’ strength and weaknesses
9. Goal of the service required: why the company has chosen that service instead another media.
10. Budget
11. Scheduling of the different steps to follow
12. Deadlines: when the service need to be ready to be distributed or shown to the public.
