The one-page brief to write before you talk to any marketing agency
Most agency discovery calls follow the same script. The agency asks about your business, you explain it from scratch, and they go away and write a proposal based on what they heard. Repeat that with three agencies and you’ve told your story three slightly different ways. You get three proposals answering three slightly different questions.
A one-page brief fixes that. You write it once, send it before every call, and every partner responds to the same facts.
It saves money after you hire, too. Clutch’s pricing data puts the typical hourly rate for US digital marketing agencies at $100 to $149. Every hour a partner spends piecing together context you could have written down is an hour you pay for.
Here’s what goes on the page.
1. The business in three lines
What you sell, who buys it, and how they buy (online checkout, a sales call, retail). Add your revenue band and how fast it’s growing. A partner can’t size the work without it.
2. What’s working and what isn’t
List the channels you run today, with rough monthly spend and results. Be honest about what’s failing. “Meta ads worked at $5K a month and stopped working at $15K” is far more useful than “we want to scale paid social.” If you know your gross margin or how much a customer spends over time, add it. It changes how much a partner can afford to spend to win each customer.
3. The problem, in your words
One paragraph on what you think is holding growth back. You might be wrong, and that’s fine. A good partner will challenge it, and how they challenge it tells you a lot about them.
4. What success looks like in 90 days
One or two numbers, each with a target. Not ten goals. If everything is a priority, the partner will choose for you, usually in the direction of what they sell.
5. Budget and constraints
Your total monthly budget, split into fees and media if you can. Your team’s capacity: who will manage the partner, and for how many hours a week. Anything fixed, such as a launch date, a platform you can’t change or a contract that’s ending.
6. Access and ownership
Which accounts exist and who owns them. Partners should work inside accounts the business owns, so say that up front.
7. How you’ll decide
When you’ll choose, what you’ll compare and who signs off. This keeps proposals focused and timelines honest.
What to leave out
Keep the brief to facts and goals. Leave out the solution you think you need (“we need TikTok”), the long company history and any list of competitors’ tactics. The point is to see how each partner thinks about your problem, and a prescribed solution stops them thinking.
How to use it
Send the brief before the first call and ask each partner to respond to it directly. Then put the replies side by side. Which ones questioned your diagnosis? Which ones priced against your budget rather than above it? Which ones asked about margins and repeat customers before talking about channels?
If writing the brief turns out to be hard, that’s useful information too. It usually means the first job is a diagnosis, not a vendor. That’s where many founders start, with a strategy call with Connectwright: agree what to do, who should do it and what to pay before anyone sends a proposal.
Connectwright is a marketing advisor for founders, based in New York. Partners it introduces pay it a referral fee, and you’ll always know before you sign.
