Brief for a copywriter: what should be inside
What really should be in a brief: working minimum
A good brief takes 1-2 pages and covers five semantic blocks. Not ten, not twenty points 'for the sake of order' — exactly five, everything else only inflates the document and distracts from the main point.
- About the business and the product — not a general company description, but what really affects the text: how the product differs from competitors, its limitations, what the client has already tried and what didn't work.
- Text goal with metrics — not 'to increase sales', but a specific indicator that can be checked.
- Target audience with insights — not just gender and age, but behavior, fears, and purchase triggers.
- Tone and style — with examples of texts the client likes, and texts that are absolutely unsuitable.
- Restrictions — volume, placement channels, prohibited formulations, legal boundaries.
A written brief on these five pages saves more time than it appears: oral calls and voice messages almost always lead to additional questions and ambiguities in the task. Based on agency practice, a brief of 1-2 pages before starting work reduces the number of revisions by 30-50%—simply because all agreements are documented and can be referenced.
How to formulate the goal of the text so that it can be verified
A vague goal is the most common problem with briefs, and it cannot be resolved with the phrase 'clarify the formulation'. The client almost always talks about recognizability, trust, or image — these are normal business goals, but they are not operationalizable for a single text. The task of the copywriter or project manager is to translate the abstract goal into a measurable formula.
A working goal is limited by three parameters: metric, volume, and timeframe. Not 'increase recognizability', but 'increase conversion from lead to application from 2% to 3,5% within a month at the current traffic volume'. Not 'make the text more sales-oriented', but 'reduce the bounce rate on the service page from 68% to 50%'. If the client cannot name the current figure — this is also a signal: perhaps the issue is not in the text, but in analytics, and the brief should start precisely with this question.
Audience without demographics: what to write instead of 'men and women 25-45'
A portrait based on gender, age, and region is an error that migrates from brief to brief and makes the text equally useless for everyone. Such a description gives the copywriter nothing to rely on when choosing arguments and tone.
A working audience description is not built around 'who they are', but around 'what keeps them and what pushes them toward a decision'. For example: 'use Telegram as their main communication channel, fear wasting time in vain, want to get a ready-made solution without consultations and calls'. Such a formulation immediately sets the tone of the text — short phrases, specificity, minimum 'please contact us'.
- Channels and habits — where the audience spends their time and how they make decisions.
- Pains and fears — what prevents a purchase right now.
- Triggers — what pushes toward a decision (time scarcity, social proof, guarantee).
- Objections — what the audience tells themselves when delaying a purchase.
Who fills out the brief — the client themselves or the copywriter with their input
There is no clear rule of 'only the client' or 'only the executor' — and this is a fundamentally different question than it appears at first glance. There are two working scenarios, and the choice between them depends on the client's readiness to formulate thoughts in writing.
- The client fills out the brief according to the template themselves — suitable when the client has already worked with briefs and understands business goals. Plus: saves time for the copywriter. Minus: without support, the client often writes in general terms.
- The copywriter fills out the brief based on the client's words — during a call or through a series of clarifying questions, and then sends the completed document for approval. This takes longer at the start, but almost always yields a more accurate result because the specialist immediately translates vague formulations into specifics.
The practical solution is a hybrid approach: the client is given a partially filled template, where some questions already have answer options (e.g., 'goal: sales growth / brand awareness / customer retention — select and specify the figure'). Such a template reduces the time needed to fill it out and guides the client on what to write, rather than leaving them alone with a blank page.
Brief or Terms of Reference: when to use each
These are different documents with different authors, and confusing them is a typical reason for misunderstanding between the agency and the client. A brief describes the task from a business perspective, while a Terms of Reference describes it from an execution perspective.
| Parameter | Brief | Terms of Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes | Client based on a template or copywriter based on the client's words | Copywriter (performer) |
| Volume | 1-2 pages | 10-20 pages |
| Content | Business goals, product, audience, tone | Text volume, keywords, density, structure, SEO requirements |
| When it is needed | Always before starting work on the text | When there are clear technical parameters (SEO articles, landing pages with structural requirements) |
If the project is simple and one-time — a short post, letter, or advertisement — sometimes the brief serves both functions, and a separate specification is not needed. If the text is substantial, with SEO requirements, or integrated into a marketing system with multiple executors, the brief and specification work together: the brief formulates 'why and for whom,' while the specification outlines 'how exactly technically.'
Typical mistakes in briefs and how to avoid them
Most problems repeat from project to project, and almost all are resolved at the stage of creating the template, not during the process of working on the text.
- Vague goal without metrics — resolved by requiring a number and deadline to be specified in the brief field itself, rather than leaving an open-ended question.
- Target audience only by demographics — resolved by adding a separate field 'pains and triggers,' which cannot be left blank.
- Verbal agreement instead of written — verbal agreements are forgotten and interpreted differently, so final formulations are always recorded in writing, even after a phone call.
- Mixing up the brief and the specification in one document — leads to business goals being lost in technical details, while the copywriter loses sight of why they are writing the text in the first place.
- Lack of examples of 'what not to do' — without anti-examples, the client and the copywriter understand 'friendly tone' or 'expert style' differently.
A brief that actually works is not a checkbox form, but a tool for setting tasks with a measurable outcome. If after filling it out you cannot understand what would be considered success for the text, the document will have to be rewritten together with the text itself.
- About the business and the product — not a general company description, but what really affects the text: how the product differs from competitors, its limitations, what the client has already tried and what didn't work.
- Text goal with metrics — not 'to increase sales', but a specific indicator that can be checked.
- Target audience with insights — not just gender and age, but behavior, fears, and purchase triggers.
- Tone and style — with examples of texts the client likes, and texts that are absolutely unsuitable.
- Restrictions — volume, placement channels, prohibited formulations, legal boundaries.
A written brief on these five pages saves more time than it appears: oral calls and voice messages almost always lead to additional questions and ambiguities in the task. Based on agency practice, a brief of 1-2 pages before starting work reduces the number of revisions by 30-50%—simply because all agreements are documented and can be referenced.
How to formulate the goal of the text so that it can be verified
A vague goal is the most common problem with briefs, and it cannot be resolved with the phrase 'clarify the formulation'. The client almost always talks about recognizability, trust, or image — these are normal business goals, but they are not operationalizable for a single text. The task of the copywriter or project manager is to translate the abstract goal into a measurable formula.
A working goal is limited by three parameters: metric, volume, and timeframe. Not 'increase recognizability', but 'increase conversion from lead to application from 2% to 3,5% within a month at the current traffic volume'. Not 'make the text more sales-oriented', but 'reduce the bounce rate on the service page from 68% to 50%'. If the client cannot name the current figure — this is also a signal: perhaps the issue is not in the text, but in analytics, and the brief should start precisely with this question.
Audience without demographics: what to write instead of 'men and women 25-45'
A portrait based on gender, age, and region is an error that migrates from brief to brief and makes the text equally useless for everyone. Such a description gives the copywriter nothing to rely on when choosing arguments and tone.
A working audience description is not built around 'who they are', but around 'what keeps them and what pushes them toward a decision'. For example: 'use Telegram as their main communication channel, fear wasting time in vain, want to get a ready-made solution without consultations and calls'. Such a formulation immediately sets the tone of the text — short phrases, specificity, minimum 'please contact us'.
- Channels and habits — where the audience spends their time and how they make decisions.
- Pains and fears — what prevents a purchase right now.
- Triggers — what pushes toward a decision (time scarcity, social proof, guarantee).
- Objections — what the audience tells themselves when delaying a purchase.
Who fills out the brief — the client themselves or the copywriter with their input
There is no clear rule of 'only the client' or 'only the executor' — and this is a fundamentally different question than it appears at first glance. There are two working scenarios, and the choice between them depends on the client's readiness to formulate thoughts in writing.
- The client fills out the brief according to the template themselves — suitable when the client has already worked with briefs and understands business goals. Plus: saves time for the copywriter. Minus: without support, the client often writes in general terms.
- The copywriter fills out the brief based on the client's words — during a call or through a series of clarifying questions, and then sends the completed document for approval. This takes longer at the start, but almost always yields a more accurate result because the specialist immediately translates vague formulations into specifics.
The practical solution is a hybrid approach: the client is given a partially filled template, where some questions already have answer options (e.g., 'goal: sales growth / brand awareness / customer retention — select and specify the figure'). Such a template reduces the time needed to fill it out and guides the client on what to write, rather than leaving them alone with a blank page.
Brief or Terms of Reference: when to use each
These are different documents with different authors, and confusing them is a typical reason for misunderstanding between the agency and the client. A brief describes the task from a business perspective, while a Terms of Reference describes it from an execution perspective.
| Parameter | Brief | Terms of Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes | Client based on a template or copywriter based on the client's words | Copywriter (performer) |
| Volume | 1-2 pages | 10-20 pages |
| Content | Business goals, product, audience, tone | Text volume, keywords, density, structure, SEO requirements |
| When it is needed | Always before starting work on the text | When there are clear technical parameters (SEO articles, landing pages with structural requirements) |
If the project is simple and one-time — a short post, letter, or advertisement — sometimes the brief serves both functions, and a separate specification is not needed. If the text is substantial, with SEO requirements, or integrated into a marketing system with multiple executors, the brief and specification work together: the brief formulates 'why and for whom,' while the specification outlines 'how exactly technically.'
Typical mistakes in briefs and how to avoid them
Most problems repeat from project to project, and almost all are resolved at the stage of creating the template, not during the process of working on the text.
- Vague goal without metrics — resolved by requiring a number and deadline to be specified in the brief field itself, rather than leaving an open-ended question.
- Target audience only by demographics — resolved by adding a separate field 'pains and triggers,' which cannot be left blank.
- Verbal agreement instead of written — verbal agreements are forgotten and interpreted differently, so final formulations are always recorded in writing, even after a phone call.
- Mixing up the brief and the specification in one document — leads to business goals being lost in technical details, while the copywriter loses sight of why they are writing the text in the first place.
- Lack of examples of 'what not to do' — without anti-examples, the client and the copywriter understand 'friendly tone' or 'expert style' differently.
A brief that actually works is not a checkbox form, but a tool for setting tasks with a measurable outcome. If after filling it out you cannot understand what would be considered success for the text, the document will have to be rewritten together with the text itself.
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