Describe the problem, not just the task

"We need a new campaign" is a task. "Enquiries have dropped by about a third since spring and we are not sure why" is a problem a team can investigate. Start your brief with a short paragraph on what is not working, when you noticed it and what you have already tried. Agencies will often suggest a better route than the one you had in mind, but only if they can see the real situation.

State the business goal and how you will know it worked

Connect the project to something the business cares about: qualified enquiries, sales of a particular product, bookings, or retention. Then give the current numbers if you have them. Without a baseline, no one can say later whether the work succeeded. If you are unsure which numbers matter, our guide to measuring marketing ROI explains how to choose measures you can trust.

Define the audience in their own words

Broad labels such as "small business owners" do not help much. Describe who actually buys, what triggers them to look, what they compare you against and what makes them hesitate. The best source is real language: phrases from sales calls, emails, reviews and support tickets. If you have a customer research or analytics data, mention it. A few genuine customer quotes can shape a proposal more than a page of demographics.

Share your competitors and what makes you different

Name two or three competitors, including one you admire and one you would rather not resemble. Explain why customers choose you instead. If that answer is hard to write, it may be a sign that positioning needs work before any campaign does, and a good agency will tell you so. Our guide to writing a brand positioning statement can help you get that clear first.

Set practical boundaries

Give the agency the limits it must work within so that proposals are realistic from the start:

• A budget range, including any media spend on top of fees

• Key dates, such as a launch, trade show or seasonal peak

• Brand rules, fonts, tone and anything that cannot change

• The tools and platforms already in use, for example your website platform or CRM

• Who approves work and how long feedback usually takes

Sharing a budget range is not a weakness. It simply stops you receiving a proposal you cannot afford. If you need help setting one, see our guide to building a small business marketing budget.

Include examples and references

Show work you like and work you dislike, and explain why. Link to your current website, the analytics you can share and any past campaign material. If your site is part of the problem, mention that too. Research from groups such as Nielsen Norman Group is a good way to describe usability issues in agreed terms, rather than personal taste.

Ask for the response you want

Finish by saying what you expect back: a written proposal, a rough approach and price, or a call to discuss. Give a deadline and say how you will make the decision. If you want every agency to respond to the same questions, put them in the brief so that you can compare answers side by side. Keep the whole document to two or three pages. A brief is a conversation starter, not a contract, and it can always be refined once you speak.