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What is a Project Brief? (Part 3).  

What is a Project Brief? (Part 3)

March 19, 2020

written by
Barbara O Stephenson

In the final post for the series, we’re outlining the marketing & PR, technology, and closing portions for your brief. Before reading this conclusion, make sure you’ve gone through parts 1 and 2 in order to cover all the important points and get a full picture of what a project brief should look like.

7. Marketing and PR

Adding a section for Marketing and PR sums up how the company promotes itself, if it works, and potential areas for us to explore when teams need/ are ready for it. You may work with a team of vendors who provide these services (PR) or do them in house because they are important to the overarching strategy. Client questions to include:

  • How do you currently market your services? Where, how, and how often for each platform. Include both offline and online. Which performs best and which not so well? 
  • Explain how marketing, sales, and finance teams work together. For example, does revenue forecast seasonality swings and provide that data? Does sales review projections and targets, requesting marketing assistance for goals?
  • How much time per week are you able to commit to your business development and marketing?
  • How do you manage your lists of long leads & potential clients? Does this tie into your sales cycle outlined above?
  • Have you ever done search engine optimization? Do you have a GTM account? Please provide us with access.
  • Do you use google local? What about Bing? Any others?
  • Do you have a google ads account and have you used it? What is your average spend and conversion rate monthly? 
  • Do you have a PR company? Who are they, what is their scope, and can we see a monthly report. 
  • What marketing techniques/platforms are you aware of and have yet to try: newsletters, face to face networking, meet-ups, conferences, industry associations, instagram, other social media, etc.
  • Do you have a content calendar that ties your marketing, social, and PR together?

8. Technology

Our final structured question is about technology. What are your current needs and given all the previous questions, how can technology best be used to support you and your company.

  • Do you have specific requirements for hosting? At 3FO our recommendation is to host on Pantheon as they are responsive, secure, provide a multi-dev environment that speeds up development and testing. Who on your team needs access? Who on your team can assist us and is responsible for hosting on your end?
  • Most people want to control their content, with WordPress being the most popular and well supported option.  Is there another content management system (CMS) you would prefer?
  • HTTPS is required for all our builds. On top of that, we recommend all clients install Cloudflare for speed and security. Do you have any questions or concerns? Will you be hosting sensitive data? 
  • How often will you be updating your website with blogs, new content, new images? Do you have a content schedule and a team to support your needs? We can create login accounts for each person so please list them here and what type of access you’d like for them (editor, admin, reviewer, creator)
  • What type of functionality do you need on your website? Newsletter sign up, blog, contact form, photo or video gallery, location map, gated content, password protected areas, app integration, downloads, forms,
  • Do we need any third-party integrations such as Salesforce, Marketo, MailChimp, e-commerce, fundraising or donation support?
  • Do you need any type of database development for marketing, sales, or customer management?
  • Please list all your domain names.
  • How are you planning on conducting server and website maintenance for security and browser updates?
  • Do you have a privacy policy or terms of use for compliance with California state and European (CCPA & GDPR) privacy regulations? Do you have someone who manages all of your data in house?
  • Do you have accessibility requirements such as section 508?

9. Miscellaneous

  • What will make this project a success for you?

We hope this outline will be useful in helping you and your clients achieve your desired goals and outcomes. For your easy reference, we’ve attached a pdf with the full list of questions.