Creative people work best when they are given limitations. I know that sounds counterintuitive but is it true. These limitations help your creative team members focus so that the message they develop will be relevant, impactful, original and true.

So, how do you provide these limitations to your creative team: with a creative brief. Lets take a look at how you go about developing one.

There are five basic areas of information you need to supply your creative team in order to get the best possible work. First, is an overview that spells out whats happening in the market and with the client. Additionally, you need to outline who the communication is addressing and what is the one thing we want to say to that target audience. Think of this area in terms of headlines. Well get more specific later in the brief.

Next, what is the purpose of this communication. What do we want our target audience to think, feel, or do after seeing the message? Do we want them to visit a website, call an 800 number, tell a friend?

In the next section of the brief, we more clearly define who we are addressing. Delve as deeply as possible into the demographics and psychographics of an audience. What drives them? Will this be a rational decision or an emotional one for this particular audience? What are their media habits? Where do they live and work? What do they read, watch, listen to, and which websites do they frequent? Detail is king in this section of the brief.

Next, we outline the single most persuasive idea we can convey. This should be a simple, highly specific sentence or two. This is hard work and is where most creative briefs fail. You shouldnt expect great creative if you cant give your team this highly condensed information.

Now we need to provide the rest of the story. Is there evidence to support our single most important idea? This is where we layer on both rational and emotional reasons to believe what we have said. Are there other major copy points to help persuade our audience? What is the clients brand personality? This helps your team understand the tone the message should take.

Then, relate all the details of our offer, if there is one, as well as mandatory client information like logos, address, phone number, and web address.

A final word on developing great creative briefs: bring your brief to life with customer quotes, stories from the marketplace and research. Once youve outlined the limits, your team can come back with communications that are on target, creative and effective.

Harry Hoover is a partner in My Creative Team. He has 30 years of experience in crafting and delivering bottom line messages that ensure success for serious businesses like Bank of Commerce, The Bray Law Firm, Brent Dees Financial Planning, CruisingTheICW.com, Duke Energy, Focus Four, Levolor, North Carolina Tourism, TeamHeidi, Ty Boyd Executive Learning Systems, VELUX, and Verbatim.