Campaign Brief

campaign-brief

Produces a campaign brief that an empowered team can execute without needing a follow-up meeting. Every brief is anchored to one phase of the customer journey (Before/During/After) using Allan Dib's 1-Page Marketing Plan. Phase determines channels, assets, and success metrics - not the other way around.

When to use

• "Plan a campaign for our Q3 launch"
• "Build a GTM plan for "
• "Brief a demand gen campaign targeting CMOs"
• "Write the launch plan for the integration with X"
• "We need a marketing plan for <event/feature/audience>"

Framework: Before/During/After (Allan Dib, The 1-Page Marketing Plan)

Every campaign primarily serves one phase. Force the choice before building anything else.

BEFORE - Prospects who don't know you exist.

• Goal: get strangers to raise their hand
• Focus: reach, awareness, USP clarity
• Channels: paid social, SEO, PR, cold outreach, events, partner content
• Success metrics: reach, impressions, hand-raisers (leads generated), CPL

DURING - Leads who know you but haven't bought.

• Goal: convert interest into purchase
• Focus: lead capture, nurture, trust-building, sales conversion
• Channels: email sequences, retargeting, demos, webinars, case studies
• Success metrics: MQLs, SQLs, demo bookings, trial starts, conversion rate

AFTER - Customers who have already bought.

• Goal: create raving fans who expand and refer
• Focus: world-class experience, upsell, cross-sell, referrals
• Channels: customer comms, CSM touchpoints, loyalty programs, referral incentives
• Success metrics: NPS, expansion revenue, referrals generated, churn rate, LTV

A campaign cannot serve all 3 phases at once. If the user wants all 3, split it into 3 campaigns.

Inputs needed

Walk the user through these one at a time. Do not skip.

1. Campaign phase: Before, During, or After? If the user isn't sure, ask: "Are you trying to reach new people, convert known leads, or grow existing customers?" Force a single answer.
2. Campaign goal: one sentence, tied to the phase.
3. Primary KPI: the one number that defines success. With a target.
4. Audience: which persona from knowledge/icp/personas.md. If multiple, force-rank.
5. Window: start date, end date (DD-MM-YYYY).
6. Budget: total, or "no paid budget".
7. Constraints: legal, brand, channel restrictions, dependencies on other teams.
8. What's already decided: any creative, channel, or partner choices the user has locked in.

Process

1. Load context. Read all reads: files. If knowledge/icp/personas.md is missing, stop and run /brand-context.

2. Identify the phase. Before generating any brief content, confirm the Before/During/After phase with the user. State it explicitly: "This is a BEFORE campaign. The goal is to generate hand-raisers from people who don't yet know us."

3. Check knowledge/learnings.md for any relevant past campaign retros. Reference them in the brief.

4. Generate the brief in this format:

   # <Campaign name>
   
   **Phase**: BEFORE | DURING | AFTER (Allan Dib framework)
   **Phase goal**: <get hand-raisers | convert leads | grow customers>
   **Campaign goal**: <one sentence, single-objective>
   **Primary KPI**: <metric> -> target <number> by <DD-MM-YYYY>
   **Window**: DD-MM-YYYY to DD-MM-YYYY
   **Budget**: $<amount> or <none>
   **Owner**: <person, ask the user>
   **Status**: draft
   
   ## Audience
   - **Primary persona**: <from knowledge/icp/>
   - **Top 3 pains we are speaking to**:
     1. ...
     2. ...
     3. ...
   - **Where they are**: channels, communities, publications
   
   ## Message
   - **Core message** (one sentence the audience should remember):
   - **Proof points** (3 max). Each must be lifted from `knowledge/company.md` verified proof points
   

with the source named inline. If fewer than three verified proof points exist, ship fewer: write [NO VERIFIED PROOF POINT] and move it to Open questions. Never generate a proof point - these flow straight into /linkedin-post and /landing-page-writer and become public claims: 1. ... 2. ... 3. ...

• What we are NOT saying: explicit anti-messages to avoid scope creep

Strategy

• Why now (timing rationale):
• Differentiation vs (how this plays where we win):
• What we learned from (from knowledge/learnings.md):

Channel mix

Channels must match the campaign phase. BEFORE = reach channels. DURING = conversion channels. AFTER = retention channels.

Assets needed

Group by team. Be specific.

• Content: 1 pillar article (1800w), 8 LinkedIn posts, 3 quote graphics
• Design: 1 landing page hero image, 3 ad creatives, 1 email header
• Video: 1 explainer (60s)
• Sales enablement: 1 one-pager, 1 deck update
• Web: 1 landing page

Timeline

Working backward from launch date.

Success metrics

Phase-specific. Do not mix metrics from other phases.

BEFORE campaigns:

• Primary: <reach | CPL | hand-raisers generated> =
• Secondary: impressions, CTR, email sign-ups
• Leading indicators (visible by week 1): ad CTR, organic post reach
• Lagging indicators (visible by week 4): total leads captured, CPL

DURING campaigns:

• Primary: <MQLs | SQLs | demo bookings | trials> =
• Secondary: email open rate, demo-to-close rate
• Leading indicators (visible by week 1): email opens, landing page CVR
• Lagging indicators (visible by week 4): total SQLs, pipeline generated

AFTER campaigns:

• Primary: <NPS | referrals | expansion revenue | churn rate> =
• Secondary: product usage, upsell conversion, CSAT
• Leading indicators (visible by week 1): feature adoption, support tickets
• Lagging indicators (visible by week 4): NPS score, referrals, expansion ARR

Risks and mitigations

• Risk: Mitigation:

Open questions

• List anything you do not have an answer to. Do not invent.

Approvals

• Marketing lead
• Product
• Sales
• Legal (if applicable)

5. **Self-check**:
- Phase is declared and all elements serve that phase
- Channels match the phase (no conversion channels in a BEFORE campaign, no awareness channels in an AFTER campaign)
- Single primary KPI - not three
- Specific persona, not "marketers"
- Working-backward timeline, not aspirational
- Concrete assets list with counts
- References at least one prior learning if `knowledge/learnings.md` exists
- Phase-specific success metrics only

6. **Save** to `output/campaign-brief/<DD-MM-YYYY>-<slug>.md` with frontmatter:
```yaml
---
format: campaign-brief
campaign: <name>
phase: <before|during|after>
goal: <awareness|demand|expansion|retention|recruitment>
start: DD-MM-YYYY
end: DD-MM-YYYY
primary-kpi: <metric>
target: <number>
budget: <amount or none>
created: DD-MM-YYYY
---

7. Offer next actions:
   • Generate the asset list as individual skill calls (/linkedin-post x 8, /landing-page-writer x 1, etc.)
   • Build the launch deck (/ppt-maker)
   • Remind the user: "Set a calendar reminder to run /retro on [launch date + 28 days] to capture learnings."

Rules

• Declare the phase before writing a single line of the brief. Phase determines everything else.
• One primary KPI. If the user names three, force them to rank and pick one.
• Channel mix must match the phase. A BEFORE campaign with a demo CTA is a contradiction. Call it out.
• Never copy a previous campaign brief without reading knowledge/learnings.md first. Past failures should change current plans.
• If budget is zero, do not propose paid channels. Reallocate to organic.
• Timeline must be working backward from launch. If the user gives a launch date, derive milestones from it. If not, ask.
• If the user wants to run a BEFORE and DURING campaign simultaneously, produce two separate briefs. Mixed-phase campaigns are unfocused campaigns.

Handling [UNVERIFIED] and [NEEDS INPUT] tags

brand-context tags any number the user was unsure of as [UNVERIFIED], and several skills tag gaps as [NEEDS INPUT]. Those tags are a contract, and it only works if this skill honours it.

1. Carry the tag forward. If a baseline, benchmark or proof point arrives tagged, every figure derived from it is tagged too. A target built on an unverified baseline is an unverified target.
2. Never silently promote. Do not drop the tag because the number looked confident in the source file.
3. Say it in the output. List every tagged input in its own line near the top, so a reader knows which numbers are measured and which are estimates before they act on them.
4. A decision that would change if the tagged number were wrong must say so explicitly.

The Before / During / After model (Allan Dib)

Allan Dib's The 1-Page Marketing Plan splits a campaign into three phases with different jobs, different audiences and different metrics. Most failed campaigns are a During-phase tactic aimed at a Before-phase audience.

One campaign, one phase. A brief covering all three is a strategy document, not a campaign, and it produces channel plans nobody can execute. Pick the phase, then choose channels that serve it.

Decision thresholds

Related skills

• /brand-context owns knowledge/company.md, the source of verified proof points
• /social-calendar turns the content line of this brief into a dated schedule
• /kpi-review reads the results against the target set here
• /retro runs after the campaign and writes reusable learnings back
• /growth-experiment when a channel in the plan is unproven for this audience

What this skill cannot know

• Whether the team has capacity to produce the assets this brief plans. Ask before finalising
• Whether the budget figure is approved or aspirational
• Whether a channel worked for this audience before, unless it is in knowledge/learnings.md
• Whether the target derived from an [UNVERIFIED] baseline is reachable