Building a Better Content Brief Using Tech [with Template]

Learn what it takes to make a great content brief, including a GDocs template you can immediately use.

When the American Marketing Association asked 500 marketers to weigh in for its 2016 Marketing Pain Points Survey, one of the main findings was that content marketing is a leading cause of grief among those tasked with building a digital presence.

In an industry full of creative, tech-savvy visionaries, how can it be that so many have a hard time creating content?

It’s because no matter how much cumulative knowledge your team has about your industry, putting it all down in words is a job itself. In fact, it may be many jobs, depending on the size of your company.

So, the question becomes, how can founders, experts, and SEOs better brief their content writers to ensure the results achieve topical authority and high rankings? With content briefs or outlines –  but the one-page template you’re probably already using won’t cut it.

The key is building a better brief that’s based on existing data from top-ranking content – i.e., its word count, content depth and breadth, and the topics discussed – and supplemented with insights that take SEO into consideration.

In this post, we’ll discuss what content briefs usually include, and how to amplify your briefs to ensure that each time you give an assignment, the result is predictable, high-quality, and optimized for search engines. Additionally, we’ll give you tips on how to effectively communicate with both staff and freelance writers.

First, let’s talk basics:

What is a Content Brief?

A content brief is a document you give to a writer that outlines the scope and specs of a project. Ideally, you’ll want to have a new brief for every piece of content you assign. Commonly, agencies will have editorial and creative briefs for each client, while companies will have in-house brand guidelines that extend to content, but all of these don’t provide much detail into how individual pieces should be crafted.

Client briefs and editorial guidelines will often include:

• Keyword list.
• Audience or Buyer Persona
• Goals and Objectives.
• Tone of Voice and Style.
• Word count range.
• Linking strategy.
• Resources.
• Delivery instructions.

This is all very useful and necessary information for your writers to know, but providing them with an overview of a content marketing strategy instead of a specific content brief leaves a lot of room for creative freedom. And if you’ve worked with enough writers, you know that’s not always a good thing.

When companies do provide content briefs for individual posts, they typically specify:

• Title
• Summary
• Word count
• Sources
• Internal and external links
• Keywords
• CTA
• Deadline

Again, great information, but does it tell the whole story? Could a writer refer to that document to determine exactly how to craft a piece to your expectations? Not quite.

The problem with content briefs as we know them is that they often lack the key questions and insights that differentiate page-one results from page-two results; shallow content from deep content; content with a purpose from content that meanders. You get it, but how do you get it ?

You can achieve high-performing content with a brief that goes above and beyond, answering your readers’ every question, as well as the ones they didn’t even know they had. Each post should aim to address a set of questions, both obvious and obscure.

How to Write a Better Content Brief

Building a better brief entails a thorough analysis of the content that’s already ranking for your focus topic, and supplementing that with information that will differentiate your piece from the rest. It’s essentially the idea behind skyscraper content, where you look at what’s already at the top of SERPs and create a more robust piece of content.

The problem with the skyscraper technique is that it requires a lot of manual action and analysis, which is both time-consuming and unreliable because you’re using your subjective judgment to determine what “better” means.

The time spent manually building a brief becomes unrealistic when you’re trying to scale content production beyond a few posts a week or month. This is where having an automated content brief template that analyzes the competitive landscape on a topic, finds the key questions that need to be answered to satisfy the user intent, and locates topical gaps in coverage comes into play. 

Below, we’ll walk through what a MarketMuse Content Brief looks like and how each section contributes to a more reliable outcome.

MarketMuse Content Brief Basics

Here’s what a MarketMuse content brief looks like. Let’s take a look at the key elements in more detail.

1. Executive Summary

A concise overview of the content piece, including its goals, target audience, and key messages. This also includes strategy highlights which offer insight into ways of making the content more engaging.

2. Targeting Details

The targeting details section includes the target keyword, search volume, highest ranking URL (if any) and its position in the SERP, title recommendations, Content Score and Word Count information Target Theme.

3. Target Personas

This section includes both personas, funnel stage, and pain points.

4. Intent Analysis

Covers both SERP intent and User intent.

5. Keywords/Topics

Lists the keyword cluster plus the topic model associated with the main topic of the content brief.

6. Competitive Analysis

This is a competitive analysis of the top 10 domains for the keyword cluster as identified in the previous section. The table shows the domain name, the number of keyword in the cluster for which they rank, across how many pages, and the percentage of traffic each site receives from the cluster.

7. Recommended Questions

A list of recommended questions your content should answer, sourced from across the web using an array of methods.

8. Custom Brief Guidelines

This lists any custom guidelines you provided, which influence the creation of the outline. Specific inputs can guide style, tone, voice, expertise, point of view, and more.

9. Content Structure Outline

This is a blueprint for the content piece, outlining the main sections and subtopics. MarketMuse supports a number of content types including article, guide, how-to, listicle, product review, comparison, news, local, and FAQ. Key elements include introduction (where you briefly introduce the topic and provide a thesis statement), body (to develop the main points and supporting evidence), and conclusion (that summarize the key points and reiterates the thesis statement).

10. Checklist

Each MarketMuse content brief is designed to be tailored to a specific piece of content. That’s why we include a customized checklist to ensure that all relevant elements are addressed. It helps content creators to stay organized, ensure quality output, and deliver the best possible results.

Effectively Conveying Your Content Strategy

Your writers should be aware of the goals and objectives you want to achieve with your content, as this will give them context for the posts and resources they create. This applies whether you’re working on a specific campaign or as part of an ongoing blog strategy. 

Both existing and new writers should have access to a user-friendly document that outlines all the items mentioned earlier when we talked about client briefs – your goals, audience, tone/style, keywords, linking, resources, delivery instructions, desired length.

But to truly communicate what you want to achieve, you should be able to speak specifically about your strategy. Aim to provide examples to clarify what you’re looking for, and give statistics, facts, and resources to bolster your writers’ expertise and fuel their creativity.

Ultimately, the more your content creation team knows about what you’re trying to achieve and the mission of your company, the better prepared they are to create content that’s on point.

Caveat: If you’re working with freelancers, there may be some information you’ll want to protect, particularly if you’re in a highly competitive market. Considering having your contractors sign a non-disclosure agreement, or only give them the information that you’d be comfortable making public.

Now, even if you create an immaculate content brief and have your strategy pitch down pat, chances are you’re still going to need to give your writers feedback from time to time. This is normal, so don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater if you have a writer who doesn’t hit the mark on the first try.

Tips on Providing Writer Feedback

If you’re busy or don’t like confrontation, it’s all too easy to just fix errors and re-work sentences yourself rather than talking to your writers about the issues. But if you nip it in the bud and give them feedback, you’re giving your content writers the chance to truly excel and meet your expectations every time.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when giving your writers critiques:

• Be understanding. Writing is subjective work and your writer has feelings, so consider her/his perspective and admit fault if you failed to make something clear.
• Be specific. Instead of saying, always use active voice, give them an example of where they used passive voice. Seeing an example usually helps the message stick.
• Be consistent. Learning sometimes requires having to repeat yourself, but don’t assume your writer just doesn’t get it and give up. (Not right away, anyway.).
• Be helpful. Notes like “fix this” or “don’t like that” are not helpful. Be constructive with your feedback, and if you can’t articulate what you want, find an example of something you like or ask a third-party for perspective.

Of course, there will be times when a writer is just not meeting expectations and you need to cut ties. This post we wrote for Boston Content has some great tips on how to manage a team of writers, including dealing with some difficult situations. Bear in mind that excellent teams aren’t built overnight, but you can still create high-performing content in the meantime.

Key Takeaways:

There’s no doubt that crafting a comprehensive and effective content brief is essential for producing content at scale. Not just any content, but the high-quality type that aligns with your goals and resonates with your target audience. By incorporating the key elements outlined in this guide, you can ensure that your content is well-structured, informative, and optimized for search engines. Remember, a well-crafted content brief serves as a valuable roadmap for content creators, guiding them towards success.