How to write a video brief (free template included!)
Brief your way to consistently effective video content
In this blog we’re going to look closely at the video brief; a crucial part of all successful video production projects (though a lot of the approaches and ideas we share here could also help you to successfully plan many other creative projects too).
You can also fast-track yourself to successfully planning and creating video content by downloading our ready-made briefing template for free.
Why is a video brief so important?
A brief is essentially the project plan for your video content. Every effective and engaging video you’ve ever watched – regardless of scale, budget or duration – started with a well-written video brief.
The brief gives all your creative decision-making direction and purpose; making every variable much easier to choose between with confidence. And it enables you to deliver the video content results your key stakeholders are looking for, every time!
Yes, writing a good video brief takes time to create from scratch
Don’t let this put you off from your video production dreams and plans though, because once you’ve taken a little time to create a simple briefing template you’ve done most of the hard work!
Creating a rinse and repeat video briefing template gives you a quick and effective launchpad to make every video project a success. And we’re going to share all the ingredients you need to create your briefing template from scratch in under 10 minutes (or you could just download our ready-made briefing template for free and start planning your next video project straight away).
What makes a good video brief?
A good video brief answers all the crucial project questions quickly and clearly. You’re aiming to share your project objectives and outcomes concisely; so pages and pages of overly diluted content isn’t helpful. Instead, you want to present your project information in the most inarguably quick and easy to digest way possible.
Ultimately the reason you’re creating a video brief is to get all project stakeholders aligned; whether external video production professionals, line managers or simply the rest of your marketing team. With everyone on board and up to speed, you’re ready to put your creative plans into action quickly and effectively.
What is the best way to write a video brief?
We recommend creating a briefing template, using a simple formula to launch every video production project. By using a template to share briefing information consistently, your team know what to expect and can quickly and accurately understand the details of every project.
(Of course, you could just save time and download our ready-made briefing template for free!)
Before you start writing your video brief though, you need to spend a little time thinking about some of those bigger picture questions. Remind yourself of your marketing strategy and / or business goals. Because the time and effort you put into any video production project, should be time invested directly into achieving those goals.
Some other important things you can do to prepare to write your video brief include:
→ Clear your head; remove all those distractions so that you're able to focus
→ Clear your space; dedicate time in your diary to write your brief, 30 minutes should do it
→ Focus on your objectives; keep your marketing strategy and business goals front of mind
→ Style samples; find 2 or 3 examples of relevant video content that you love
What to include in a video brief?
The best video briefs clearly answer five crucial questions about a video project. These are the critical questions that we always ask at the start of every video production project, regardless of scale, scope or budget.
Essentially you want to establish:
What is the overarching message in your video?
Who are you targeting your video at?
Where will they see the video?
How will the message be constructed in this video?
Why do you want to share this message / what effect do you want this video to have?
It's also important to share key specifics such as project deadlines and budget. There can sometimes be a hesitance from project sponsors to share budgetary parameters. We can’t stress how important it is to be clear about your budget up front though, because it’s impossible for any creative team to design an appropriate proposal without so much as a ballpark.
Where our clients are struggling to clearly answer these questions, we’ll carry out a short exploratory briefing consultation to help project stakeholders outline and agree their answers. Investing time and effort in this stage of every video project is essential to delivering successful outcomes for your video project.
How long should a video brief be?
We're often asked how many pages a video brief should be. Let’s just say, it’s called a brief for a reason!
In truth, we aim to summarise our video brief into just five sentences. Because our experience has taught us that really, we only need to answer those five critical questions to gain enough information to start planning any video project successfully.
The more you can refine your briefing content the better
Perhaps five sentences might seem somewhat briefer than you and your team are comfortable with. Nevertheless, we’d recommend you aim to keep your brief no more than one A4 page, or 500-700 words.
Tables and bullet points are also incredibly helpful in presenting your information in as orderly and consolidated a manner possible (as you’ll see if you’ve downloaded our free template). Your video production team will love you for that!
And if you’re struggling to format your brief then simply download our ready-made briefing template for free and fast-track your way to success!
Download our ready made video briefing template for free!
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Also, see our other helpful posts like Three types of charity video content that will ignite support and change lives or Nurturing customers through your sales funnel; the power of video
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