A useful content brief names the one question the piece answers, who is reading it, what it must cover, what it must not become, and what a good version looks like. Fifteen minutes on those five prevents the rewrite that costs a day.
Word count and keyword are the least important fields and are usually the only ones filled in properly.
The fields that actually change the draft
Each of these removes a decision the writer would otherwise guess at.
- The single question the piece answers, written as a question
- Who is reading and what they already know, so the writer pitches it correctly
- The subtopics it must cover, taken from the current top results
- The angle: what this piece says that the existing ones do not
- Two examples of pieces you consider good, and one you consider bad, with a line on why
- What it must not become, which is the field that prevents the most rework
The angle is the field people skip
Without an angle, a writer produces a competent summary of what is already ranking, because that is the only instruction the rest of the brief contains.
The angle is your reason for publishing: an opinion, a piece of data, an experience, a different structure. It is the thing only your company can supply, and it usually has to come from whoever commissioned the piece rather than from the writer.
If you cannot state an angle, that is useful information. It means the piece may not need to exist yet.
Give examples rather than adjectives
Asking for a conversational, authoritative tone communicates very little, because those words mean different things to different writers.
Two links, one you like and one you do not, with a sentence on why, communicates more than a page of description. This is the single fastest improvement most briefs can make.
What to leave out
Briefs get bloated with things that feel thorough and change nothing.
A prescribed heading structure, which removes the writer's judgement and produces stilted pieces. Keyword density targets, which have not mattered for years. A long list of secondary keywords, which encourages stuffing. Company background the writer will not use.
If a field has never changed a draft, delete it from your template.
Who should write the brief
Whoever knows why the piece matters, which is often not the person who will write it.
The brief is where subject knowledge enters the process. If both the brief and the draft are produced by someone researching the topic from scratch, the result is a summary of existing pages, no matter how well written.
A fifteen minute template
Fill these in and stop. Question. Reader and what they already know. Must cover. Angle. Two examples, one good one bad. Must not become. Where it links from and to.
That is enough to produce a first draft you can accept rather than rebuild, and it is short enough that people will actually complete it.
Common questions
- What should a content brief include?
- The one question the piece answers, who is reading and what they already know, the subtopics it must cover, the angle, two examples you consider good and one bad, and what it must not become. Word count and keyword are the least important fields.
- What is the angle in a content brief?
- Your reason for publishing: an opinion, a piece of data, an experience, a different structure. Without it a writer produces a competent summary of what already ranks, because that is the only instruction the rest of the brief contains.
- Who should write the content brief?
- Whoever knows why the piece matters, which is often not the writer. The brief is where subject knowledge enters the process.
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