Featured · Agencies
Writing the brief before you approach a single agency
The commonest complaint about hiring a law firm digital marketing agency is that the proposals cannot be compared: three documents, three prices, three descriptions of entirely different work, and no rational basis for choosing between them.
That is almost never the agencies' fault. Asked what they would do, each answers with what they are best at — which is the correct response to an open question and useless to a buyer. The comparison problem is created by the brief, or by its absence, and it is solved before anyone is contacted.
What a usable brief contains
It does not need to be long. Two pages, written by the firm, containing the things only the firm knows — which is precisely what the agencies cannot guess and will otherwise invent.
The matters you want more of, named specifically, with an indication of what each is worth to the firm.
The matters you do not want, which is information no agency will ever think to ask for and which changes the whole shape of a proposal.
Where you practise, and where you are willing to take work from — a distinction firms treat as obvious and agencies cannot infer.
What you have already tried, what it cost and what happened, including the failures. Withholding this guarantees a proposal to repeat them.
Who inside the firm will own this, what they can approve alone, and how quickly. Agencies price around approval speed whether or not you mention it.
The budget, or at least the range. Refusing to say produces proposals aimed at a number the agency has guessed, which is the main reason three quotes arrive that cannot be set beside each other.
Firms resist naming a budget because they expect the number to be spent whatever the work. In practice the opposite happens: without it, you receive one proposal at four thousand a month and one at twenty, describing different work, and you learn nothing about either agency.
Give the range and ask what each would do with it. That question produces genuinely comparable answers, and how an agency allocates a fixed sum tells you more about its judgement than any case study.
Briefs that produce noise
These patterns reliably generate proposals nobody can evaluate, and they are worth recognising in your own draft.
Asking for more leads without saying which matters, so every proposal optimises for volume in whatever area is cheapest.
Specifying the solution rather than the problem — we need SEO — which forecloses the possibility that an agency tells you something more useful.
A requirements list assembled from other firms' websites, containing services nobody has connected to an outcome.
No named contact, so questions go unanswered and each agency proceeds on a different set of assumptions.
Sending it to eight agencies. Beyond three or four the responses stop improving and you will not read them properly anyway.
And no decision date, which quietly signals that the firm may not decide at all — the strongest agencies will simply deprioritise you.
Running it so the answers are comparable
The aim is three responses that describe the same problem differently, rather than three describing different problems. That is entirely within your control.
Write the two pages first, internally, and circulate them to whoever will be in the decision. Disagreement surfacing now is far cheaper than in month three.
Send the identical brief to three or four agencies, with the same deadline and the same named contact for questions.
Ask each for the same three things: what they would do in the first ninety days, what they would need from you, and what they would measure.
Ask them to price a defined first phase rather than an open retainer, so the numbers are attached to comparable scopes.
Publish the questions and answers to all of them. It costs nothing and removes the advantage of whoever happened to ask first.
Score against the brief, in writing, before the presentations rather than after — presentations reward presenting.
Keep the brief afterwards. It becomes the document you measure the engagement against at six months, when everyone's memory of what was agreed has drifted.
And treat an agency that pushes back on the brief as a good sign, provided the challenge is specific. The ones with a method have opinions about your scope.
An afternoon spent writing this saves weeks of comparing incomparable documents, and it improves the proposals themselves — agencies respond to a serious brief with their better people.
FAQs
Why do agency proposals always look so different?
Because an open question gets answered with whatever each agency is best at, which is a reasonable response and useless to a buyer. Comparable proposals come from an identical brief describing the same problem, the same budget range and the same three questions.
Should we tell agencies our budget?
Yes, or at least a range. Withholding it produces quotes aimed at guessed numbers that cannot be compared. Ask each agency what it would do with the same figure — how they allocate a fixed sum reveals more judgement than any case study.
How many agencies should we brief?
Three or four. Beyond that the responses stop improving and you will not read them carefully. Send the identical brief with the same deadline and the same named contact for questions.
What is the most overlooked item in a brief?
The matters you do not want. No agency will think to ask, and it changes the entire shape of a proposal — a firm that will not take low-value work is buying something quite different from one that will.
Should we specify the services we need?
Describe the problem, not the solution. Asking for SEO forecloses an agency telling you the constraint is actually your site, your response times, or the matters you are targeting — which is the more valuable answer.
End Note
Firms approach this as a selection problem and it is mostly a specification problem. Three agencies answering the same well-posed question produce answers you can weigh; three answering an open one produce brochures.
Spend the afternoon on two pages. It improves the proposals, shortens the process, and leaves you with the one document worth having when the engagement is reviewed a year later.
Key Takeaways
Incomparable proposals are a briefing failure, not an agency one.
Two pages containing what only the firm knows — matters, geography, history, budget.
Name the matters you do NOT want; no agency will ask.
Describe the problem, not the solution, or you foreclose the better answer.
Keep the brief — it is what you measure the engagement against at six months.
