Support marketing claims with evidence you actually have

What this means for your practice

Build the brief around evidence that actually exists. Describe verified processes clearly and leave unsupported comparative or numerical claims out of the approved copy.

What to discuss with your agency

Choose the strongest claim in the draft and ask the agency to show its support. A process document may support an explanation of how work is organised without proving a numerical outcome. Where evidence falls short, change the wording or remove the claim. Keep ownership of the evidence clear for future updates.

Put the brief into practice

Prepare a small evidence pack that distinguishes verified facts, approved descriptions and claims still awaiting support. Give each material statement an owner who can answer questions about its basis. A description of the appointment process may be supported by the service's working instructions, while an outcome figure needs an appropriate record and context. Do not ask the writer to convert one type of evidence into another simply to make the page sound more impressive. Review comparative words as carefully as numbers: a phrase implying superiority can create a claim even without a percentage.

Ask the agency to flag unsupported statements while drafting rather than hide them in persuasive language. Keep necessary qualifications close to the claim in the final layout. If evidence changes or expires, the editorial record should make the affected wording easy to locate. This gives the practice content it can explain confidently and avoids repeated late-stage rewrites caused by promises that should never have entered the draft.

How to check the result

Measure the number of unsupported claims discovered before final approval.