Content Briefs 201: Best Practices

In my last blog post, I talked about the importance of content briefs. But not all content briefs are created equal. As with everything in life, you should follow best practices so that your content briefs are effective and useful.

I’ve rounded up some content brief best practices so that your content production process can run smoothly and efficiently.

Content Brief Best Practices

Best Practice 1: Know Who's Going to Use the Content Brief

I have seen lengthy content briefs and very short content briefs. Both can be useful, but it depends on who’s going to be using them.

Sometimes, content briefs are used by multiple roles or teams. The content team uses content briefs to describe what the content is. The SEO team might use it for adding key words. The web development team might use it for uploading the content to the site’s back end. Maybe the content brief is about content for an event; the event team might need it, too.

Before creating a content brief template, consider who your stakeholders are. It’s possible to create a content brief that covers all your stakeholders, but that can also make the document needlessly complicated. A needlessly complicated content brief is, as you can imagine, not a best practice.

“But there are multiple stakeholders involved in the content creation process,” you say. “We need sections for a variety of teams.” In this case, it might make sense to color-code the content brief, so various teams know exactly which sections to look at.

Best Practice 2: Include the Right Information on the Content Brief

While you might have more than one team looking at a content brief, its ultimate role is for content writers. As such, there’s certain information you absolutely need on a content brief for it to be useful.

What do I mean by useful information?

·         The topic. What will the writer be writing about? If you’ve got a title, that’s also helpful. Sometimes, the stakeholder hasn’t come up with one, and the writer is expected to do so. In that case, let the writer know.

·         What points to cover. Sometimes, stakeholders want writers to talk about specific points. The content brief is the place to include those points. Otherwise, the writer won’t know (we’re not mind readers).

·         The audience. Who is the writer writing for? What are the audience’s pain points?

·         The purpose of this content. Where does it fit into the sales journey? Is it designed to raise awareness? Is it social proof, meant to convince someone to purchase something?

·         Where does this content fit into business priorities? How does it align with strategic goals?

·         Why does this content matter? You shouldn’t create content for content’s sake, so make it clear on the content brief why this piece of content absolutely must exist.

·         Keywords, their frequency, and important headings.

·         Calls to action. What action should the audience take?

·         Links to useful content. If you’ve got internal links you want to include in your content, the content brief is the place to add them.

·         Links to useful resources. Don’t make the writers hunt for the information they need.

·         The deadline.

·         Any specifications, such as word count or image requirements.

·         Contact information for stakeholders.

·         Instructions on deliverables. Will the writer be using a template? Do they need to write the content in a Word document or in a Google Doc? How will they submit the deliverable?

Best Practice 3: Paying Attention to What’s Working and What Isn’t

A content brief isn’t set in stone. They can and should evolve as your company grows and technology changes. AI is becoming an important consideration in online searches, and content will need to be optimized for that. Also, new content distribution platforms and methods will doubtlessly emerge, so content will need to be optimized for those, too. Make sure that your content brief evolves, too.

Which content brief best practices would you add? Let me know in the comments.