A content brief is an essential communication tool to ensure that anyone working on your content, gets it right.
But how do you write a content brief?
If you’ve never written one before, it can feel slightly intimidating.
The Content Brief Template
The Content Brief template outlines all of the key information needed to help anyone writing your content, understand...
Not to worry, that’s what this post is all about so stay with us!
We’re going to explain what you need to include in your content brief so that anyone working on your content creation is rowing in the same direction. This is absolutely essential when you’re partnering with an external agency as all parties need to be wording towards the same goal.
If you’ve yet to check out any of the other brief posts on the Canny blog, we’ve covered:
- How to write a branding brief
- How to write a marketing brief
- How to write a design brief
- How to write a web design brief, and
- How to write an RFP or RFQ
For now though, let’s keep things solely focused on content.
As well as guiding you on how to write a robust content brief, we’ll also be answering some key questions such as:
Who should write a content brief? And, what tips should I be aware of when forming my own brief?
We’ll also be touching on some content brief examples to give you a better idea of what your brief could look like.
Let’s begin.
What is a Content Brief?
A content brief is a document made to outline what it is you want, complete with information that steers writers in the correct direction based on your own specifications.
It is a document that tells anyone who is working on your content exactly what you expect from it.
If you’ve only ever produced content yourself then it can be easy to assume that other people will simply know what you want from a few sentences.
However, this is not the case as anyone producing your content needs to fully understand the expected content deliverables so that you what you receive back fulfills your expectations.
This is extremely useful when your outsourcing work to a content marketing agency or a freelancer as it tells these parties everything they need to know so there is no room for ambiguity.
There’s quite a lot to consider to make sure you’ve covered all bases, and it’s all influenced by the ‘why’ behind your content.
Key things to cover in your content brief are:
- The type of content you want to create (blogs, ebooks, etc.)
- The intended audience of your content
- The goal of your content
Why Write a Content Brief?
Anyone involved in the content creation process needs to understand exactly is involved before they get started.
Being vague and simply telling your chosen agency or freelancer that you want to create a few blog posts aimed at people aged between 25-50 is not going to lead to the bets results.
It’s too vague and you’ve not given them any indication on why you’re targetting these specific individuals, the tone of voice you want to convey, or the purpose behind the content.
Without this information they’re going into the content creation process blind and they will probably do a lot of guesswork along the way.
Instead, you want to give people all of the information they could possibly need so that they can start creating your content. This not only gives everyone clarity, but it also gives you peace of mind as you know the content will fulfil your expectations.
Also, knowing that your writers fully understand the brief allows them to complete content with little to no supervision from you, which frees up valuable time at your end.
They should have everything they need right there in front of them and can refer back the brief at any given point.
Sure, they might have the odd question or two, but the bulk of the information will be gathered in the content brief — or, at least, it should if you’ve written it properly and covered all bases.
Not only does having a brief help your creators, it also helps you gain a deeper understanding of your content and what you’re hoping to achieve.
Brief Formats Work Great for Freelancers
We’ve touched on this slightly above but a well-written content brief ensures that writers (whether that be an agency or a freelancer) are on the right path.
Instead of them guessing certain things about your company and running off with their own ideas, your content brief will act as the guiding light to steer them in the right direction.
Aside from saving you time (which is an obvious benefit), this will save you a great deal of money too as you might have to pay for rounds of amends which could have been resolved by providing a robust content brief.
Who Should Write a Content Brief?
The task of writing a content brief usually falls to someone within the marketing department.
For example if a company is outsourcing their work to a content marketing agency, the marketing manager will usually be the person to put the content brief together to make sure everything is covered.
They will understand the importance of being thorough and detailed to make sure no important information is missed.
As discussed, this could lead to problems later down the line if an agency or freelancer are left to their own devices when it comes to making decisions.
A marketing manager will also have a better understanding and overview of upcoming activities and events which could affect content. For example, if a new product is launching in a few months time, the marketing manager will be aware of this and can include this information in the content brief.
This allows the creator to have a full oversight of what is happening so that they can produce content that aligns with these. This might include writing a blog that includes a preview of the product or sharing teasers on social media.
Content Brief FAQs
Before we go any further, let’s cover some content brief-focused questions that many marketers have asked with writing this type of brief.
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How Do I Create a Content Brief for SEO?
If SEO plays an important part in your content (as it should based on its value), then you need to make sure your brief includes any and all keywords that you want to rank for.
This is something you will need to research ahead of time yourself; unless you choose to work with an agency (like Canny) who handles the research for you. All you’d need to work out at that point is what type of content strategy you want.
Long-form or short-form? Informal or formal?
These are the questions you need to be asking yourself.
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How Long Should My Content Brief Be?
The answer to this question can, and will, vary depending on a multitude of factors. The most obvious being:
What the topic is.
How long your content brief is will also depend on how much information you want to include to help whomever you’re handing this brief to. Be careful though, including too much detail can take a while which can eat into your day!
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What is the Best Content Brief Tool?
There are many content brief tools at your current disposal, be it Buffer, Trello, or Scoop It.
That said, our content brief template is a lot less complicated to use than anything else on the market (plus, it’s 100% free to download).
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People Also Ask: What Makes For a Good Brief?
A short and sweet content brief will almost always reign supreme.
They’re less strain for marketers to write, they include everything that is actually relevant (minus the fluff), and it gives the creator enough room to be as creative as possible.
That’s not to say that creators can’t be creative with a long brief either, by the way. We’re just illustrating a point that less tends to equal better results.
Why do you think most content brief examples are so short and simple?
What Should Be Included in Your Content Brief?
Now that you understand what a content brief is, it’s time we looked at what should be included in one. Not every content brief is the same, so instead use this list as a solid base.
That said, most content briefs consist of the following:
- Content Details
- Competitor Analysis
- Content Research
- SEO Research
- Visual Elements
Covering all of these elements ensures your content writer fully expects what is required of them.
Spending time on this part of the process will save you time in the long run so don’t scrimp and scrape on the level of detail you provide.
Content Details
Treat this section like an overview as it needs to clearly outline various points such as your titles, word count, target keywords and more.
A standard content brief overview for writers typically consists of the following:
- Title: Here you state the main heading for the post in question (including the main keyword).
- Post Description: A general 101 of the post itself — it should consist of no more than three sentences. This should consist of no more than three sentences.
- Headings: Break down all of your headings, from the introduction right down to the conclusion.
- Word Count: How many words would you like this piece of content to be total? Be as specific as you like here (e.g. 1,500-2,000 words or 3,000+).
- Keywords: Just as important as your word count are the keywords you want writers to use. Outline your main target keyword and the secondary keywords that should be used within the post.
- Target Audience: Mention a few key demographic that you’d like to pinpoint with these posts. Another option would be to simply list their interests if you’re struggling.
How to Write a Content Brief Tip: Try to outline the correct tone of voice that your writers should follow within the post. Remember, the content must represent brand guidelines.
Don’t Forget About the Deadline
Another important element of an effective content brief is your deadline. Deadlines are beneficial to everyone that comes in contact with your content brief.
They keep you on track, they keep your team in the loop, and then ensure that agencies/freelancers are fully clued in.
The date and time you choose is completely up to you, just remember to leave enough time for the work to be completed. You wouldn’t ask an agency to write you a 3,000 word blog post with 24 hours notice as the quality of the post might suffer for it; a 300 word post, sure, but nothing that requires more detail and more research.
Competitor Analysis
Act like you don’t care what the competition is doing all you want, they’re still an important factor in how you should approach your content briefs, and the content you hope to produce, generally.
There’s a lot to learn from your competitors, including any relevant keywords for you to pull from if you’re stuck.
Performing competitor analysis through a tool like Ahrefs will highlight any relevant keywords that others already rank for. Here you can see the keyword difficulty and volume of each keyword.
It’s all super helpful when sourcing keywords, and titles by proxy!
So, how does this apply to how you’d write a content brief? Well, outside of lending a helping hand keywords-wise, competitor analysis can also help your writers out.
If you find a blog post you like the look of — this can be from a content or formatting standpoint (anything that you like the look of, basically) — then feel free to copy and paste a link to this post and put it in your content brief.
Putting it in there will provide guidance to writers (just make sure they don’t copy it word for word).
In a perfect world, you have no competition. It’s just you at the tippy top of the mountain solo. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. Still, there’s a lot to learn from how your competitors approach content.
How do you think most marketers/content strategists source their ideas?
Content Research
Content research and competitor analysis are pretty linked. After all, it’s your competitors that serve as the perfect reference point most of the time.
Some will expect writers to perform their own research on each brief.
In our experience, the quality of the content brief reflects that of the content itself. Meaning you should be as informative as possible in your briefs if you want the best work possible in return.
It takes seconds to link off to relevant statistics, studies and related blog posts. You probably have them bookmarked already!
Why wouldn’t you include them in your briefs to give writers a head start? Who knows, maybe they’ll finish the work ahead of schedule.
Let’s face it, some need all the help they can get.
SEO Research
From one type of research to the next.
Search engine optimisation (SEO) research will dictate the majority of how the post is titled and formatted. Most content marketing heads will use keywords to actually come up with post topics and titles.
That’s how important SEO is to content.
We’ve already covered Ahrefs so you should have an idea of how you can source keywords and see what ranks and what doesn’t. But that isn’t everything you need to consider when looking at how to write a brief that’s content-centric.
Always ask yourself if the keywords you’re looking at are worth pursuing. Ask, is the volume high enough and the keyword difficulty not too high.
For example, did you know that some ask writers to come up with meta descriptions tied to each brief?
Some might even take it a step further and mention the internal/external links they want to spread about the post once it’s been written. Details such as these will vary from one brief to the next, as mentioned.
You might not want to include them, but a bakery in Belfast wanting to create some internal synergy across their site might.
Visual Elements
This mostly applies to writers within an organisation, as you wouldn’t usually ask a freelancer to supply images to posts. A) because the quality could be naff, and B) the images might not be free to use.
One way around this would be to ask your writers to use sites like Pixabay, Unsplash and Pexels if you were to ask them to source images. But again, this isn’t a common request for freelancers.
You might ask them to give you some ideas for visuals that might work in line with what they’ve written, just not for the images themselves.
When writing your content brief, you should probably have an idea of the sorts of images you’d like to include anyway. Images that are relevant to your chosen topic.
We’d recommend you source these images after the content is written. It’s just easier, and you get a better idea of what the finished item will look like!
Do you feel confident in your content brief writing abilities now? If not, make sure you get a real good look at the content brief template we’ve included.
It’s a template we’ve created ourselves, complete with most of the inclusions seen above.
The template has everything you should ever need to get the content wheel in motion. But don’t take our word for it, see for yourself!
Content Brief Examples
We understand that a lot of you tend to learn better when you see an example of something in practice, which is why we’re dedicating an entire section on content brief examples.
The examples we’ve created are directly inspired by those you’ll likely find out in the wild if you’ve ever searched for content brief examples in the past.
You’ll find three examples below, each as different as the last as far as brief goes. Yes, there will be some similarities, but we have tried to split some of these example content briefs up to help.
We’ve tried to split each up to give you a different
Content Brief Example 1: Dog Blog
Title: Dog Walks London: The Best Spots for Your Pooch
Word Count: Between 1,500 to 2,000
Keywords: Dog walks London, dog walking, London dog walks
Description: This post should outline all of the best dog walking locations in London, with additional emphasis placed on local parks and areas known to let dogs roam free in.
Audience: We’re targeting active dog-owners between the ages of 35 and 55.
Notes: Please provide a solution for all weather types. Also, please talk about our line of dog coats at least twice in the post (preferably, somewhere that makes sense and doesn’t feel shoe-horned in).
Content Brief Example 2: Top 10 List
Blog Title: The Top 10 Drones to Buy in 2022
Primary Keyword: Drones to buy in 2022
Secondary Keywords: Drones 2022, best drone 2022, Copter5000 drone
Words: 3,000 – 4,000
Blog Details: Cover only the following drones in this post and link to those we mention:
- Copter5000
- WoopDeeDoo2 (link)
- Rowe 12.5
- GoPro AirGo
- Dr@ (2022 model)
- SpinnyVinny 2.0
- XCV6-7
- Mil SE
- The Airwalker
- Mirmax 89 (link)
Additional Notes: The post should also include a buyers guide which will cover relevant info when buying a drone. Film students are one of our biggest customers, so can we include examples of drone footage in movies to engage them directly?
Content Brief Example 3: Complete Guide
Title: The Complete Guide to Hybrid Events
Description: This post should serve as a complete end-to-end guide of hybrid events.
Headings should include/be a variation of:
- An introduction
- What are hybrid events?
- The benefits of hybrid events
- Costs associated with hybrid events
- Tips when organising a hybrid event
- Examples of hybrid events
- Conclusion
- Must haves (what should be included overall)
- Should haves (additional info/guidelines including links)
- Could haves (potential inclusions that wouldn’t hurt)
- Won’t haves (avoid X, Y and Z)
Primary keyword: Hybrid events
Secondary keyword: Hybrid event planning, hybrid event tips, hybrid event examples
SEO title: The Complete Guide to Hybrid Events
Meta description: ‘Hybrid events have become the premium event format. In this post we look at why that is and give you everything you need to run your own.’
Word count: 5,000+
Internal links: Link to hybrid services page, technology solutions webpage, and get in touch page.
Competitor articles: Check out the blogs from our competitors x and x.
We want the informal tone of those posts to carry over into this one.
CTA: The call to action in this post needs to get people onto our hybrid events page and fill in the web form.
Notes: Please use as many statistics a possible in this post. We will send you a separate document with quotes from members of the team to use too.
*This third example demonstrates just how detailed you can be with your content brief.
Not all content briefs outline the meta description or feature competitor articles, but if you’re looking to be as comprehensive as possible, it need to be included.
Tips on Writing an Effective Content Brief
Everyone has the capacity to write a content brief, but there are still some things to consider. It’s why we’re dedicating this final section to cover some helpful tips to maximise the overall effectiveness of your plans.
So let’s take a look…
Always Summarise
We’re starting with one of the most important tips to keep in mind when writing your own content brief. That being: keep it as tight as possible.
Keeping your content briefs as concise as possible will go a long way in ensuring that your writers have enough wiggle room to be creative (if your content is of the informal variety, that is).
Remember, your content brief is there to help others create/write something for you. You shouldn’t be writing the equivalent of a 2,000 word blog post in the brief alone.
Try to summarise your points as often as possible. Short bursts of information are key. And as long as you cover all the main points (keywords, target audiences and titles) the rest of the process should run smoothly.
Remember to Mention Your CTAs
Your call to actions (CTAs) are how you turn readers into customers, at least from a content standpoint.
They’re crucial parts of the content you create. That being said, those that work for healthcare brands, might create content simply to offer something informative with no CTAs to show.
Electronic resources like ebooks are a fine example of this. Although we have seen a few CTAs appear in these resources in the past, usually to encourage students to enroll at certain universities.
So, what does this have to do with how to write a content brief?
Well, CTAs are one of, if not the most important part of the content you create. Which means you might want to mention them in your content briefs as they’re so intertwined with your wider content strategy.
Content should always follow some kind of journey — typically directed by the appropriate sales funnel. Think of your CTAs as the destination.
How can you expect a writer to create effective content for you without knowing the destination?
*Spoiler Alert* You can’t for the most part.
CTAs don’t always appear towards the end of the content you publish either. Dropping them in every now and then will ensure that your content is as relevant/helpful as possible, only with intent.
Use the MoSCoW Matrix
A MoSCoW matrix has multiple applications in the ever-expansive world of marketing and business. It’s also pretty helpful when putting together brief formats of a creative nature.
Adding a small MoSCoW matrix could work wonders for your content briefs, steering writers in the right direction. Here’s a quick rundown of what it might look like:
Using a MoSCoW matrix is a great way of reining in your content briefs as you’re leaving nothing to chance.
Of course, letting the writer put their own spin on things is warranted from time to time (depending on the intent of the post/your brand). But you should always have a rough idea of what the work should look like once complete.
Brief Formats Should Answer these Questions
When in doubt, ask yourself why does this article need to be written? Alongside how will it be any different to those that you call competition?
We couldn’t not mention these questions when talking about how to write a content brief as most skim them — or outright forget about the intent behind each post.
Don’t get it twisted, we understand the creative limitations of running an authoritative website. The questions we’ve just mentioned apply to the businesses with more leeway in how they approach/execute content.
Most brief examples we’ve seen online don’t make this clear enough, which sucks, and should give you even more of a reason to check out our content brief template.
Don’t Go Keyword Crazy
Try to limit how many target keywords you want writers to include. Overloading your content briefs with keywords is just asking for bad content in return.
It’s why you should focus on highlighting a main keyword alongside half a dozen secondary keywords. To be fair, you might not even need that many (this might vary depending on the topic/length of text).
A post with over 2,000 words does not need a ton of keywords. Plus, you need to think about the quality of the content if it’s all padding.
Are your readers going to be as engaged if they feel like they’re in a keyword pinball machine, bouncing from one to the next in rapid succession?
Keyword overload is also pretty harmful to the creativity of your writers. Again, we get it if you aren’t in the market to craft conversational-styled content.
Still, you could call keyword overload a wider problem. A calculated approach could work a lot better.
What if instead of cramming multiple keywords in the same post, you create individual posts based on set subtopics that you can internally link to?
That way, your content can breathe a little and encourage readers to spend more time with you and your brand.
How to Write a Content Brief (with Content Brief Template!)
What’s that saying?
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
Yeah, that applies to content marketing and content generally, and content briefs simply by extension. Hopefully, thanks to our help you now understand what a content brief is and how beneficial they are.
Also, we hope our tips on how to write a content brief come in handy at some point — the same goes for the content brief template attached!
Quality content begins with a content brief.
But who said you had to write the brief, or create the content within the organisation to reap the rewards of effective content that gets you results?
This is where a creative agency enters the picture.
At Canny, we take your wants/needs, apply research relevant to your market, match you with the right keywords, and then form a content brief around it all. Regardless of which sector you work in, whether that’s recruitment and training, healthcare, or Tech and IT, our team are here to help.
Other Design Brief Templates in the Series
As well as The Content Brief Template we’ve also created a whole range of other brief templates that you download and use completely free.
So, no matter what sort of creative project you need to write a brief for, we’ve got you covered. Check them out below:
The Design Brief Template
The Design Brief Template will help you get the foundation for any design project right. It’s a good all rounder!
From graphic design to interior design, no matter the type of design project you need – The Design Brief Template is sure to help you out.
The Branding Brief Template
The Branding Brief Template will help you get the brief for your company branding project right.
From straight up branding projects for small businesses, to the full scale branding of larger companies – The Branding Brief Template has all types of branding projects covered.
The Rebranding Brief Template
The Rebranding Brief Template will help you get the brief for your rebranding project right.
From smaller rebranding projects, to full scale enterprise rebranding – The Rebranding Brief Template has all sizes of rebranding projects covered.
The Web Design Brief Template
The Web Design Brief Template will help you get the brief for your web design project right.
Whether you’re creating a new website for your business, or redesigning your existing website – then The Web Design Brief Template is going to be useful.
The Video Brief Template
The Video Brief Template will help you get the foundation for your video project right.
Whether you’re embarking on a corporate video, documentary, explainer, or any other type of video project – then The Video Brief Template is sure to help you out.
The Marketing Brief Template
The Marketing Brief will help you get the brief for any of your marketing projects right.
Whether you’re looking to grow traffic to your website, or increase conversions from existing traffic – then The Marketing Brief Template is here to help.
The Packaging Brief Template
The Packaging Design Brief template will help you communicate the needs of your packaging project.
From cartons and bottles to boxes and envelopes, knowing what to include in your brief can be confusing – that’s why we designed The Packaging Design Brief template, to help you make sense of the packaging madness.
The RFP / RFQ Template
The RFP / RFQ Template will help you to create an easy to understand document that communicates the needs of your project.
Whether you’re embarking on a branding, web design, brochure design, packaging design, or any other type of design project – then The RFP / RFQ Template can help.
The Creative Brief Template
The Creative Brief Template will help you get the foundation for any creative project right.
From understanding your project objectives, to identifying your project budget – The Creative Brief Template is sure to help you out.
The Advertising Brief Template
The Advertising Brief tells your chosen agency everything about your advertisement or campaign.
From understanding your project goals, to detailing examples of work you like – The Advertising Brief Template is sure to help you out.
The Project Brief Template
The Project Brief Template helps you outline exactly what is required your next project regardless of what you’re working on.
From identifying your project name, to budget and timescales – The Project Brief Template covers all bases.
