Requests from your marketing team are pouring in left, right, and center.
Your email marketer needs access to a tool, your content writer needs a brief for your latest blog post, and your social media strategist is asking for an increase in budget.
How do you manage all of those requests without going stir-crazy?
The answer: A marketing request form.
In this guide, weโll share exactly what a marketing request form can be used for, along with a step-by-step guide you can use to create your own.
[Tweet โMarketing Request Forms: How to Create One Your Team Will Actually Useโ]
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What Is A Marketing Request Form?
Before we dive in with the details, letโs be clear on what a marketing request form is.
Hereโs the simple definition: Itโs a form that your team can submit to request something related to your marketing strategy.
Requests could be related to anything your marketing team handlesโsuch as budget, new ideas, or asking for access to a toolkit. Anyone on your team can submit a request, but theyโre usually handled by someone senior, like a Marketing Ops Manager or CMO.
But a marketing request form isnโt just a faff, or a form that you spend hours creating but donโt actually use.
Marketing request forms solve five huge problems.
1. Requests Getting Lost
You know the feeling: Youโre planning a campaign. But just before youโre about to launch, youโve been asked by your social media manager to up budget, and your copy team has some last-minute changes.
How do you make sure those things get done?
A marketing request form prevents important tasks from getting missing in action. It gets rid of poorly articulated requests coming in from multiple places, and instead puts them into a consistent format, funneled through one location.
You wonโt lose track of them.
2. Forgetting About Them
The average office worker receives 121 emails per day. Combine that with Slack notifications and in-office chat, and your to-do list probably wonโt be bulletproof.
Weโve already mentioned that requests go missing when theyโre flying in from all directions.
However, another benefit of a marketing request form is that they funnel all requests into one placeโrather than noting them on sticky notes (which youโll probably forget about.)
[Tweet โReplace your sticky notes with a marketing request form. Hereโs how:โ]
3. Being Unsure Who Asked for What
Picture this: Someone passed through you in the corridor and mentioned they wanted to chat about a new campaign idea. When youโve got time to chat about it, you forgot who asked. You need to go round the office and disrupt peopleโs workflows to find out.
That wonโt do any favors for productivityโespecially if youโre doing a scavenger hunt in the office to find the person youโre looking for.
A request form solves that problemโฆ if you have a Name field.
4. Not Getting All the Information Needed
You can control exactly what someone needs to enter when they submit a form.
It will likely have a field for important things like:
- Budget required
- Team members involved
- Estimated timescales
- Resources needed
This solves the problem of back-and-forth to get the full details. Everything is there for you to see in the form submission.
5. Staff Being Unsure Who to Ask
Who should a marketing employee ask if they have an idea or request?
Itโs tricky for new employees to understand who they should direct their ideas toโor any member of staff if youโve got a large marketing team.
Solve that question for them with a request form that your CMO or Marketing Ops manager handles. They wonโt need to remember; the form will send their request to whoever you direct them to.
7 Marketing Request Form Examples (And What They Should Include)
Thereโs no doubt that a marketing request form makes it easier for teams to stay on track.
So, how do you create a request form that your team actually uses? And more importantly, what important fields should your forms contain?
1. New Project or Campaign
Marketing teams need to be creative and reactive.
Take this reactive tweetย from Specsavers, for example. Their quick-thinking post that jumped onto an Oscars blunder ended up landing them a customer:
You can create a marketing request form to do this. Itโs a simple way to allow your team to submit ideas that donโt get brushed offโand can be acted on quickly.
When creating this type of form, youโll need to include:
- Name
- Company Email Address
- Department
- Job Title
- Campaign Reason (e.g. โthis topic is trending on Twitterโ)
- Budget Needed
- Resources Needed
- Staff Involved
- Start Date
- End Date
- Platform(s)
- KPIs or Goals
Letโs put this form into practice.
You ask your team to brainstorm PR ideas for a client. Ask your team to submit ideas through this request form, instead of sitting around a table and balancing the dynamics of a group discussion.
It solves the problems of dominant staff overpowering shy staff, or team members feeling embarrassed about their ideasโฆ even though they might be golden.
By submitting campaign ideas through this form, everyoneโs voice gets heardโallowing their best ideas to shine through.
[Tweet โHelp your marketing teamโs ideas get heard by setting up a simple request form:โ]
2. Creative Brief
Did you know that mismatched communication costs the average organization $62.4 million per yearย in lost productivity?
When youโre outsourcing work to another member of staff, itโs easy for things to get missed or lost in translation. Prevent that from happening by using a request form to understand exactly what the person asking for it wants.
Create a marketing request form that includes:
- Name
- Company Email Address
- Department
- Job Title
- Content Title
- Keywords Targeting
- Purpose of Content
- Budget
- Resources Needed
- Staff Involved
- Lead Time
- Deadline
- Asset Type
- Audience
- Channel
You might use this type of brief form when youโre working with a freelance videographer to create a promotional video for social media.
You send them a creative brief using the form template youโve already created to make sure they create the right thing. That way, theyโve got all the information they need, and know exactly what you want.
It makes sure neither of you waste your time (or money.)
Thereโs a reason why 44% of businessesย think that project management improves the quality of the final product.
3. Content Asset Ideas
Your team need a particular assetโlike a blog post, video, or social media post.
Instead of getting lost in your crowded inbox, you can use this form to encourage staff to submit details about the assets they need. Then, you can decide whether to give them the resources/staff/budget they need, or whether itโs a waste of time.
To create your own asset creation request form, add required fields for these things:
- Name
- Company Email Address
- Department
- Job Title
- Asset Title
- Asset Description
- Resources/Budget Needed
- Lead Time/Time Needed
- Deadline
- Staff Involved
For example, letโs say a huge SEO goalย is to rank for the term โcar insurance,โ but youโre not sure how. You can ask your content team to submit their ideas through this request form.
Since each idea is fleshed and thought-out, youโre able to go through their ideas and pick the one most likely to make you rank.
Itโs the simplest way to get feedback thatโs easy to digest.
[Tweet โHereโs how to make digesting creative feedback easier using a marketing request formโ]
4. New Marketing Hire Onboarding
Employing a new marketerย is exciting, but donโt forget that onboarding can come with a lot of paperwork.
And, remember: if you donโt impress your new member of staff, theyโre twice as likelyย to look for other career opportunities in the future. That could add up to lots of onboarding and recruitment costs, along with huge disruption to your team.
This type of marketing request form makes sure youโve got all the information you need from your new hire, so long as you include:
- Name
- Address
- Personal/Company Email Address
- Emergency Contact
- Department
- Job Title
- Start Date
- Reporting to
- Hardware/Software Requirements
Letโs say that youโre employing an email marketer, for example. They use this form to tell you that theyโre starting next week, and need a desk, ConvertKit account, and $50 monthly budget for email-related tools before they start.
That preparation makes sure theyโre off to a smooth startโand stops them from falling behind whilst theyโre waiting for resources.
5. Advertising Budget Request
Most social platforms have an advertising network, and it often falls into the hands of a marketer to run PPC campaigns.
The downside? Advertising campaigns need money.
You can use this type of request form to manage budgets for your advertising campaigns, making sure youโre not spending more than planned.
This form should include:
- Name
- Company Email Address
- Department
- Job Title
- Advertising Platform
- Budget
- Campaign Start
- Campaign End
- Advertising Budget Breakdown (e.g. $50 for Female, $20 for Male)
- Objective
Hereโs what that might look like: Your social media team wants to spend $5,000 on a new Facebook retargeting campaign in the run-up to Black Friday. However, they need approval before going aheadโso they use this form.
The advertising manager approves the request, then passes to your CFO for final approval (if the budget is significantly larger than usual.)
6. Toolstack Access
The average company has over 120 marketing technology toolsย in their arsenal.
If you need to grant someone access, donโt do it in passing in the corridor. That could be a huge security riskโespecially if youโre in a shared office environment.
Instead, ask staff to complete this request form to gain access to a specific tool.
To create this marketing request form, add the following fields:
- Name
- Company Email Address
- Department
- Job Title
- Tool Required
- Purpose
- Duration
An example of this form would be if your social media executive needs to cover for a social media manager whilst theyโre on vacation. They use this form to ask for access to your clientโs Facebook and Instagram accounts, along with your scheduling tool.
7. Issue or Resolution Request
A problem has happened and your employee isnโt sure who to report it to. Or, theyโre worried about it getting lost.
Direct staff with any issues or problems to this formโand watch for responses like a hawk.
Add the following fields to this marketing request form:
- Name
- Company Email Address
- Issue
- Explanation
- Location (i.e. where to find the issue)
- Reason
- Solution
- Urgency (i.e. does it need attention ASAP or can it wait a few days?)
- Person Responsible for Change
You might need to use this form if a customer informs a sales rep that thereโs a problem with a blog post. Itโs showing the YouTube video youโve embedded has been removed.
The sales rep uses this form to tell you, who can then tell the writer to fix it.
Problem solved.
The Easy Way To Create A Marketing Project Request Form
Ready to implement your own marketing request form?
In this post, weโll show you two ways to do this: using Google Forms & Request Forms in Marketing Suite.
Create A Marketing Request Form In Google Forms
There are hundreds of form builders to choose from, includingย Paperform,ย Jotform,ย Typeform, and much more.
However, a Google Form is the simplest option because theyโre easy to use. You likely already have your team using GSuite products like Gmail, Docs, or Sheets. Itโs also free to create a Google Form.
Hereโs a Google Form template weโve created for you.
To get started, head toย Google Forms. Browse the selection of templates, or click โBlankโ to create your own from scratch:
Give your form a name, and add a description that tells your team:
- Who should use the form
- The purpose of the form
- The person who will be handling responses
Hit the โAdd Questionโ button to insert the fields youโll need for your request form:
Not sure what to put in your form? Hereโs an example Google Form you can use as inspiration: Download Now
If you find that Google Forms lacks the capabilities you need, we suggest checking out Request Forms in Marketing Suite.
Create A Marketing Request Form In Marketing Suite
Request Forms in CoSchedule Marketing Suite make it quick and easy to set up a marketing request form for your internal team to use.
Build out Request Forms to capture the required details your marketing team needs to complete the new project. When you capture this information upfront, it speeds up timelines by reducing back & forth with requesters.
Best of all, you can customize your forms using many features exclusive toย Marketingย Suite: project template, project type, initial status, label, and custom fields.
These tools help you build out workflows for managing incoming requests & getting work assigned to your team quickly.
Get a more in-depth guide on how to use Request Forms in Marketing Suite.
To see how other teams have used & created Marketing Request Forms in Marketing Suite, check out this Power Tip.
Share Your Form With Your Organization (& Explain Why They Should Use It)
Once youโve created your form, itโs time to start sharing.ย We recommend sending it via email to any people in your organization that could benefit from using request forms.
In your email, itโs important to explain the benefitsย we discussed earlier and build the new marketing request form into your process. If your team has never used marketing request forms, you should also include some examples of what they may look like. Bear in mind that you might need help fromย Marketing Opsย here.
In your explanation, tell your team who will handle the requestsโand that requests wonโt be accepted unless they come through the form.
Something like this might work:
โWeโre making it easier to submit your ideas for new projects.
Please use this new marketing request form to submit your ideas. All responses will go to Lucy, our Head of Content.
When you submit ideas, youโll receive a confirmation email that our team has received the request. This helps the Marketing Team prioritize projects & ensure your requests get the priority & attention they need.
Please bookmark this link, so you can easily submit new requests whenever necessary.
Thanks!โ
We recommend bookmarking the link yourself for quick access when people inevitably forget to use it. You can simply respond by sending them the link again until they get the hang of the new process.
Share Your Google Form
You can share a link to a Google Form with anybody by hitting โSend,โ and limit permissions to only allow internal staff members (or departments) to access it:
Share Request Forms With Marketing Suite
To share your Request Form, simply copy the link and send it via email or direct message.
Prioritize & Organize Marketing Requests
Congrats! You have a beautifully crafted system where your team members can submit form requests. To get the most out of your new system, make sure you routinely check incoming requests and take action promptly.
Prioritize Marketing Requests With Google Forms
Now that you have your Google Form, you need a place to organize form submissions. You can do this with your Marketing Calendar by following these steps.
To do this, head over to your freshly-made Google Form and go to the โResponsesโ tab to turn this form into a Google Sheet.
You will receive all requests in this sheet, so we suggest bookmarking this sheet and checking it daily.
However, as a marketing manager, you are extremely busy and wonโt always remember to check the spreadsheet. How do you keep control over the requests and make sure youโre spending enough time monitoring the responses?
Luckily, some slick processes in your CoSchedule Marketing Calendar can help you with this.
If youโve created your marketing request form with Google Forms, submissions can be automatically added to Idea Bin within Marketing Calendar by using the Zapier integration.
With this integration, youโll be able to prioritize and organize all marketing request forms in an easy-to-see calendar view.
Learn more about organizing your request forms in Marketing Calendar: How To Triage Incoming Marketing Requests With CoSchedule Marketing Calendar
Prioritize Marketing Requests With Request Forms
Marketing requests have begun trickling in, and you need a comprehensive system to monitor, organize, and prioritize them.
Since you used Request Forms in Marketing Suite, you already have a system to do this.
As these requests come in, you will get notifications via email and through your CoSchedule App.
You can easily create a custom workflow within your Idea Boardย that will gather and organize requests for you.
Here is an example of what your custom workflow for Request Forms could look like in the Idea Board.
New Requests submitted through your Request Forms will appear under the status โNew Requests.โ From here, you can prioritize them & transition them to their โnext stepโ status to move work forward.
Having a complete understanding of where youโre at with each request allows you to prioritize which ones need to be worked on next.
To learn exactly how to set this up, you can find a step-by-step guide here.
Learn more about managing the Idea Board by checking out our support doc.
Put New Projects Into Action
Spend some time looking at your teamโs requests and decide your next action plan. That might include:
- Scheduling a meeting with the person who submitted the idea to discuss in detail
- Approving their request and giving them the go-ahead for a new project
- Passing the request to someone better-placed to handle it
The best part? If your marketing request submissions are added to Marketing Suite, you can decide whether to activate them into your marketing calendar. This makes it easier than copying and pasting ideasโor remembering what you should be doing.
For more information on using Request Forms in Marketing Suite, visit this blog post.