Creative Briefs: Where You’ll Find the Human Truths That Move B2B Buyers

Remember playing tug of war on playgrounds and at summer camp? It’s the game in which players divide up into two teams. Each team’s members grab ahold of one end of a long rope. Then the teams pull in opposite directions until one wins by dragging the other team past their starting point.

It’s certainly a test of strength and teamwork; a tug of war game can be a lot of fun for kids.

But pitting marketing and sales or other teams within a B2B company against each other is rarely a winning recipe.

What’s one of the most difficult challenges for a B2B marketing leader?

Getting everyone in the company — the product team, sales, senior leadership — to pull together and agree on a strategic direction. Whether it’s defining the overarching messaging about the benefits your products and services provide to customers, or developing a specific campaign to launch a product, gaining internal alignment is critical to your success.

It’s Job No. 1 for B2B marketers.

Others might prioritize objectives for brand awareness, lead generation, customer acquisition and revenue growth. All are clearly important goals, but none can be achieved without every one of your organization’s stakeholders agreeing about what’s to be done and how it will be done.

There’s one tool that’s ideally suited for your job: a creative brief. It’s so simple to use and so effective. Here’s a quick look at how, when and why you should write one.

Confirming Your Customers — and Their Emotions

B2B buyers are people first. Emotions significantly influence their purchasing decisions, even when it comes to industrial equipment or technical services. 

But who exactly are these people? That’s among the initial questions a creative brief will help you answer. 

In a tug of war game, the teams identify their biggest and strongest players and put them at the front and back to anchor the line and provide the most leverage. They fill in between with the rest of the players who can help pull the rope. 

In a B2B project, the first step is to research and identify who the audiences and/or customers are, what they need and what motivates them. Then talk with them about what they believe. Sometimes they see their B2B world differently than the ways your company’s team views it and will share real-world insights you can act on. Other times customers will validate what your internal team already understands. 

Either way, you will discover and confirm your target audience and what business problems they can solve with your products, services and expertise.

Answering Three Main Questions

The second step in writing a creative brief revolves around your B2B company. Again, discuss, probe and confirm with each manager, director and executive involved to answer three main questions:

1. What’s the big opportunity?
2. What are the most significant inhibitors we need to overcome?
3. How will we measure success?

Don’t be surprised by how differently each team member responds. Product engineering will tout a new feature or technology that no competitor can match. Sales will lay out a pricing strategy to meet market expectations. Somebody in the C Suite will push to shift resources into an emerging market in which your company can build a leading position. All of these opinions can be technically correct, but what’s the one, clear direction?

To cut through the divergent opinions, keep asking those three main internal questions. Keep digging until you reach focus on a unifying theme.

Discovering and Responding to Real Human Insights

That same thing happens in every tug of war game.

Early on, the teams dig in and pull to a stalemate. The rope they’re tugging on from opposite directions barely moves. But at some point one side senses the other team tiring. They see some of the players losing their grip. They spot their opponents’ weariness, impatience and pain.

These are instant glimpses into the game conditions and what the other team is thinking, needs or how they might respond. With the information, one team can time its next pull for just the moment when the opponents relax. Or they can quickly move one or two players to the end of the rope to increase their leverage. 

This tug of war may be a kids’ game but the lessons many of us learned playing it can be applied to leading B2B projects. The secret is identifying real human insights that enable us to break through barriers together. That’s the power of a creative brief.

Distilling Down to What Customers Really Want

A tug of war team certainly does not need a creative brief, but it should be simple and clear, just like the call along a rope line to pull together one more time.

The next step in writing a creative brief requires stating what every one of the company’s leaders agree will be their main message.
 
Writing it explains what customers really want and the value your B2B company really adds to address that need. The creative brief should be concise so everyone on your team can understand and support it.

Can You Afford to Not Write a Creative Brief?

Whenever you intend to elevate creative concepts and messaging, all major branding initiatives, product launches and campaigns should begin with a creative brief. 

Certainly, this exercise requires a commitment of time, but if necessary a creative brief can be produced with little or no budget upfront. Whatever the cost, it’s justified when the creative brief sets a precedent for deep thinking and new approaches. 
And let's be honest, a well-constructed creative brief eliminates potential roadblocks because B2B marketers can point back to it as the agreed-upon direction. This results in:

• Fewer changes to creative concepts and messaging close to the project’s launch
• Projects within the timeline and budget

You’ll be equipped to encourage either your internal creative team or your external marketing agency partner. My teammate, Jonah Otchy, creative director at TriComB2B, says that a well-done brief enables writers and designers to reveal human truths that move B2B buyers. That’s what inspires the best creative ideas that move customers to respond to your campaign or launch.

When that happens, your creative brief just got real. You will have solved your No. 1 challenge. Just like during a tug of war game, your team will pull together.