Why you must be upfront when briefing B2B content

Ask for advice to save time and money

The thing about reaching your mid-fifties is that there shouldn’t be much that can surprise you. Okay, apart from teenagers. But I’m talking work here. Yet, here we are.

Just in the last few weeks, I have been asked to:

·      Film “everything” and “everyone” at an industry event and then just “figure out” what to do with the footage.

·      Write a “regular blog” on Sustainable Development Goals, with no information on the target audience, purpose, angles, budget or regularity of said blog.

·      Film a five-hour-long “roundtable” of 28 people and edit it into “several” slick marketing videos. With a budget for one camera.

·      Film several high-end interviews in a room the size of a phone box with bland walls and bad acoustics.

Over the years, you learn to get the job done with the minimum fuss. Fixing problems is easier than complaining about them. Editing hours of conference video without audio? Let’s sync what we have. Jumbled, incomprehensible copy? Fact-check, rewrite and polish. Jargon? Just simplify. Interviewees or event speakers pulling out? Find a replacement from your trusted contact list. An unknown topic? Research like a demon.

There’s always a Plan B if you are resilient, flexible and experienced – and freelancers have to be all of the above.

However, no Plan B or C or Z can rescue a job if clients don’t tell you exactly what they want, how they want to use it and who the target audience is.

In briefing B2B content – whether social media campaigns, thought leadership pieces, event reports or videos – ambiguities, fuzziness and surprises are unnecessary and costly.

I am not talking about tick-box content brief templates, although they are useful and more often than not essential.

I am advocating for upfront discussions of the job at hand, warts and all. This will allow me (and other content fixers) to help you. We can advise on what is doable and come up with better alternatives. We’ll share our experience and expertise to sharpen and improve content and plan to work around or fix problems. We like you because you pay us, and we want you to succeed so that you can keep on paying us.

But then we must know what you want to achieve. And you need to know, too.