3 Ways Content Briefs Benefit Marketers Too
Google generates 655,000,000 results for a simple “content brief template” search. Almost every marketing agency, content management system company, and search engine optimization (SEO) consultant has opinions on how to write a great content brief.
Instead of introducing yet another version of the “best” content brief, this blog covers how putting together a content brief benefits you, the marketer. We’ll also throw in some tips on making your content brief more effective for both you and your writer.
Benefit #1: Keeping the “strategy” in content strategy
Content marketing turns businesses into mini-publishing houses, like magazines or newspapers. However, unlike a traditional publishing house, content marketing teams do not always have the funds or staffing to churn out fresh, timely articles constantly. At some point, marketers must face the dilemma between publishing steadily or strategically.
The content brief is a simple way to ensure that strategy remains part of your content. Content briefs encourage marketers to ask themselves:
- What product the content promotes
- Where the content fits into the sales pipeline
- How the piece will help promote visibility (SEO) while converting readers (solving customer pain points)
Building a content brief can also serve as a “gut check.” If defining the target audience and purpose of a piece feels like a struggle, the piece may not fit with your content strategy.
Benefit #2: Involving the writer as a partner
Contracting out marketing content is a great way to put an expert in your corner without committing to hiring a full-time staff member. Freelance writers can scale up or down to fit your content needs and bring valuable experience and outside perspectives.
However, outsourcing content means the people writing it are not receiving the same internal communications as those planning it. Writers may not know about an exciting new product line or the CEO’s perspective on a recent event.
This is where the content brief once again saves the day. Marketers creating a content brief must think through which product to promote and where to send readers next through the call to action (CTA). This means that writers won’t inadvertently promote a product that the company is phasing out or a benefit they no longer want to highlight.
Benefit #3: Improving the content development process
Creating a content brief is more cost-effective than tossing a subject to a writer and hoping they come up with something good.
A well-thought-through brief can reduce time spent on revisions and clarifying project details with writers. Using a content brief for a project is like preparing for a shopping trip by making a grocery list. The brief helps you remember key details to communicate and ensures you don’t forget essentials, like deadlines and word count.
I’ve seen a few content briefs that include the entire content team—designers, SEO specialists, social media managers—in addition to writers. These briefs often serve as a single master document the team can pass around instead of circulating individual drafts. While this takes planning, it can simplify the process even further.
A tale of two types of content briefs
Content briefs often come in extremes. Sometimes, a client will mention a blog topic during a meeting and let the writer run with it. When I first started writing marketing content, writing content without a brief felt okay. But now that I’ve learned more about content strategy, I think there are flaws in this bare-bones approach.
Effective content must speak to a specific reader and be visible. Providing the writer with information about the intended audience, target keywords, CTA, and place in the sales funnel helps them tailor the piece to create or convert leads. Without this information, even the most interesting and beautifully written content will not perform well.
On the other extreme is the ultimate content brief—a large document (or series of documents) including not only word count and topic but also the exact points to make, the brand’s entire content strategy, and a copy/paste CTA. One version of the ultimate brief by Marketing Profs even recommends providing secondary and tertiary headings for the writer.
Here’s my spiky stance on detailed briefs that are basically fill-in-the-blank for writers. When briefs mandate the course and content of the article, the piece will lose the magic that comes from writing. Ultimate briefs limit the writer’s ability to add their unique, human touch to the flow of ideas. And the human touch is what an article needs to stand out in a world brimming with homogenous AI-generated content.
Finding the brief that is “just right”
An effective brief gives the writer just enough information to make strategic decisions and leaves room for them to craft how to communicate the primary message. Here are the core elements of a “just right” content brief:
- Content goals
- Content type
- Main point/thesis
- Target audience
- Keywords
- Deadlines
How in-depth you decide to go with these points depends on your relationship with the writer. If they are unfamiliar with your company, you will probably need to include brand guidelines, suggest internal links, and brief them on your overall content strategy.
The best briefs treat the writer/content manager relationship as a partnership. Writers have the information needed to create a strategic piece but also have room to use their skills to craft a unique piece with good flow. Marketers share their vision for the content with the writer but don’t take on the burden of co-authoring the piece.
Templates are just the start
Content briefs are not a one-size-fits-most type of situation. Templates are a good starting place, but shouldn’t determine everything you include in the brief—that depends on your relationship with the writer and the project.
No matter where you go with your content brief, putting thoughts down to pass on to the writer has tangible benefits for marketers. The effort can result in better-performing, more cost-effective content that takes less time to produce.
Are you looking for writers to turn your technical ideas into engaging articles? Let’s discuss how we can help you create strategic marketing content.