A great brief is the difference between content that lands and content that gets re-shot. Five things every business should write down before booking.
If you're hiring a photographer, videographer, or UGC creator for the first time, the brief you send is going to do more for the final result than the price you pay. We've watched thousands of bookings flow through Flourich, and the pattern is clear: well-briefed projects get accepted on the first delivery; vague projects bounce back and forth in revisions until everyone's frustrated.
Here's what to include — and what to leave out.
1. The actual goal, in plain English
Not “we need photos for our website.” That tells the creator nothing. Try: “We're a Manchester-based skincare brand launching a new serum. We need product shots and three lifestyle images for our Shopify homepage and Instagram grid. Audience is women aged 28-45 who care about clean ingredients.”
That one paragraph contains everything a good creator needs to make creative decisions on your behalf — which is exactly what you're paying them to do.
2. Where it'll be used
A shot for a billboard is composed differently than a shot for an Instagram Reel. Tell the creator the platform: web, print, paid social, organic, internal deck, pitch document. They'll plan crops, aspect ratios and resolution accordingly. If you skip this, you'll get one master file that works for nothing in particular.
3. References, not Pinterest boards
Three to five reference images is the sweet spot. Twenty references is a hostage situation — the creator doesn't know which ones matter. For each reference, write one sentence explaining what you like about it: the lighting, the colour palette, the mood, the angle. “Like this one” isn't a brief.
4. What you absolutely don't want
Negative references save more shoots than positive ones. “No corporate-stock vibe, no over-saturated colours, no models smiling directly at camera” gives a creator hard rails to work within. Without this, you'll get the safest interpretation of your reference images — which is usually the most generic version.
5. The deliverables, written as a checklist
Don't say “a few photos”. Say:
- 10 final edited photos in JPG (web) and TIFF (print)
- Delivered as a downloadable zip
- Two of those should be hero shots in 16:9 and 9:16
This becomes the spec your creator works against and the checklist you use to accept the delivery. No ambiguity.
Briefing isn't a creative limitation
The best creators want a clear brief. It removes the guesswork and lets them spend their energy on craft instead of mind-reading. A 200-word brief, written carefully, will get you better content than a 60-minute kickoff call full of vibes.
Write it once. Save the template. Use it for every booking. Your content will get better, fast.