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How to write a task brief

Many businessmen and women are not in the habit of regularly writing.Sure, they write emails, memos, instructions, etc., but they often do not need to write the little details of a process- that is usually left to the secretary or other employees with less of a managerial position.However, writing things like a task brief is something that you can't avoid.You need to know how to write them, what to include, and how to make them easy to read and understand.Follow these instructions to learn how.

First, you should complete an outline of your task brief.Write a short overview by which your management team can check the design of the document. This summary will evolve into the preface and introduction to the finished document, and will explain the following: why the document is being written; the nature of the document; and the major tasks it makes possible.

Then, using the outline you have just written, follow these steps to write the actual task brief.

1. Description of task: This needs to be a complete description of the task involved.Include important names, dates, places, etc.It should be brief and to the point, yet full of all the relevant information.
2. Background on product/company: You, as the copywriter will usually be more "up to speed" than the people you're writing the brief for.It's easy to assume that the brief receivers have an in-depth knowledge that he or she does not have.So it's important that you give "too much" background information on the client and the product or service being written about so that all those reading the brief will understand.
3. Audience description: The fastest way to undermine your ability as a brief writer to do a good job is to deprive you of your crystal clear image of the target audience.You need to need to feel an intimate understanding of what the audience wants, needs and desires. That understanding needs to be of a depth that it allows the you to picture clearly and accurately an individual within the target group.You should be able to close your eyes, see the person, picture his or her home and yard, know how s/he likes to spend his free time and understand what most excites and scares him or her in life.
4. Principal purpose of the communication: Again, this is extremely important. Many a well-written piece of advertising has failed to deliver, simply because the writer was never given a clear view of what that "deliverable" really was.What is the principal purpose of this email, web page, newsletter?The more precisely this question can be answered, the better you will be able to write a clear, sharp communication that stays on purpose from the first word to the last.
5. Timeline: Great briefs cannot be written in an hour. The assimilation of background information, a growing understanding of the audience at the individual level and the process of writing itself is a creative process when done well. It takes time.The first draft is never the best draft. Nor the second. As a result, you need to be given sufficient warning of an upcoming job and be provided with enough time to do the job well.

The heydays of great brief-writers are long past. Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that online account groups haven't had the same training as can be found in traditional, offline advertising agencies.Regardless, the best possible copywriting and content writing is possible only with the support of the best possible task briefs.


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