How to Write a Reason to Believe [Creative Brief?Series]

In this video, Kevin teaches how to write a reason to believe so that you have a stronger creative brief. This video is a part of the series that teaches you how to write a creative brief and provide creative feedback.

Transcript:

Hello, Kevin Namaky here and today we’re going to learn how to write the reason to believe in your next creative brief.

THE CENTRAL QUESTION WHEN WRITING A REASON TO BELIEVE

When we’re writing creative briefs and we get to the box that says reason to believe, the key question that we’re trying to answer is: Why should consumers or customers believe us? So far in the brief, we included a desired takeaway that we want someone to remember after the communication. We now need to follow it up with some proof—why should they believe us?

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN WRITING A REASON TO BELIEVE

Here are some things to consider and use as prompts, which should help you come up with ideas for your RTB (Reason to Believe).

HOW DOES IT WORK?

How does your product or service work at a fundamental level? How does it operate or actually deliver what it does? 

UNIQUE FEATURES OR INGREDIENTS

What is unique about your product or service?

UNIQUE PROCESS

A process that you go through, a process that your product/service uses, or a process of how it’s made. 

THINGS TO DO IN A REASON TO BELIEVE

These are a few tips you should be doing when you’re writing a reason to believe. 

FEW RTBS

Use as few reasons to believe as possible in order to convince the target audience of what you’ve said in your message. This helps keep your message focused and memorable.

CREDIBILITY

Use points that enhance your credibility. Those would include things like testimonials or torture-test demonstrations. 

TIE TO BENEFITS

Lastly, tie it back to the benefit you’ve already identified. You want to make sure that any reason to believe information that you provide or show directly supports the benefit or main takeaway of the communication. If it doesn’t directly tie back to that, then it’s a miss. 

THINGS NOT TO DO IN A REASON TO BELIEVE

Next, these are the things we want to avoid when writing a reason to believe. 

MORE BENEFITS

It can be very tempting to add “reasons to believe” that are actually new and additional benefits. This is a watch-out. You don’t want to add too many benefits because it dilutes the takeaway, and your audience may not remember what you want them to remember. 

SOUND LIKE COMPETITORS

Second, you don’t want to sound like your competitors. A lot of communications and advertising tend to sound the same, and competitors often mimic each other. We don’t want to do that—we should be different. 

TECH SPEAK

Lastly, don’t use tech speak. If you work behind the scenes in a business, it’s very easy to fall into this trap and use technical speak or jargon that your target audience might not understand. 

REASON TO BELIEVE (RTB) EXAMPLES

Below are ways you can come up with RTBs. These are good for ideation.

Design/Feature Example: Luxurious furnishings 

A hotel is trying to create a certain type of experience or make guests feel like royalty and they may use design or luxurious furnishings in the hotel to do that. 

Mode of Action Example: Patented algorithm

This falls under the “how it works” category. When you get down to its most fundamental level, how is the product/service working or operating—that is the mode of action. For example, you might have a software program that uses a patented algorithm and that’s the mode of action to do what it does. 

Ingredient Example: Unique combination of moisturizers 

For example, in skincare, you might have a product with a unique combination of a certain number of moisturizers.

Process/Source Example: Builder? workshop process

Process or source could be how something is developed or where it comes from. In this case, a consultant has a trademarked workshop process that’s unique to them. That would be an example of a process RTB. 

Endorsement Example: 3 out of 4 recommend 

This could be external endorsements. For example, 3 out of 4 recommend. Maybe if you’re selling a dental product, 3 out of 4 dentists recommend. It could also be your consumer or target audience base, so maybe a certain number of your target audience actually recommends or prefers a product. 

Testing Example: In clinical studies, 85%…

Last, but not least, you could have clinical or scientific testing that produces hard data. 

This list is not an exhaustive list of the possible RTBs that you could come up with. It’s simply meant to provide examples as thought starters. 

CONCLUSION

Use these tips the next time you write your creative brief to spark inspiration for reasons to believe.

TEACH YOUR BRAND TEAM HOW TO WRITE AN EFFECTIVE CREATIVE BRIEF

If you need help teaching your brand team how to write an effective creative brief and provide creative feedback, click here for more information on our in-depth training for brand teams.

Or if you need a consultant to help you with a creative process, click here to learn more about brand consulting opportunities.

You might also like:

• How to Write a Desired Behavior [Creative Brief Series]
• How to Write a Key Insight [Creative Brief Series]
• How to Write a Target Statement [Creative Brief Series]

This article originally appeared on the Gurulocity marketing blog. If you found the article helpful, use the buttons below to share this post. You can also subscribe to receive marketing strategy tips and updates.

Kevin Namaky is the founder of Gurulocity, a marketing education company that trains brand teams to enhance their brand management skills, lead and grow their business, and accelerate their career.