TL;DR: What is a Content Brief?
A content brief is a document that outlines the objectives, audience, message, and guidelines for a piece of content. This tool ensures that everyone involved in the content creation process, from writers to editors to marketing teams, shares a common understanding of what needs to be achieved. The purpose of a content brief is multifold: it aligns the content with the brand's goals and audience needs, provides clear direction to content creators, and helps in measuring the effectiveness of the content against its intended objectives.
How Content Briefs Fit Into Content Marketing Workflows
Content briefs bridge the gap between strategy and execution. At the beginning of a content creation workflow, content briefs inform the planning stage, helping to identify topics that align with marketing goals and audience interests. During the creation phase, they guide writers and designers, ensuring that the content aligns with the initial strategy. Finally, in the analysis stage, the objectives outlined in the content brief serve as benchmarks to evaluate the content's performance.
Steps to Create an Effective Content Brief
1. Understanding Your Audience and Goals
The first step in crafting an effective content brief is to have a deep understanding of your audience and your content goals. Who are you writing for? What are their interests, pain points, and preferences? Knowing your audience helps tailor your content to speak directly to their needs and interests. Additionally, clearly defined goals guide the direction of your content. Are you aiming to educate, inform, persuade, or entertain?
2. Conducting Keyword Research
Keyword research is crucial in optimizing your content for search engines and improving its online visibility. Identify keywords and phrases that your target audience uses when searching for information related to your content. This involves using tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush to find keywords with high search volume and low competition. Including these keywords in your content brief ensures that the content not only resonates with your audience but also performs well in search engine results.
3. Defining the Angle and Tone
Every piece of content should have a unique angle or perspective that makes it stand out. This could be an unusual viewpoint, a fresh take on a common topic, or an insightful analysis. The tone of your content should also be specified in the brief. Whether it’s formal, conversational, humorous, or authoritative, the tone should reflect your brand's voice and appeal to your target audience.
4. Outlining the Structure and Format
An effective content brief includes an outline of the structure and format of the content. This may involve specifying headings, subheadings, paragraph length, and the overall flow of information. Decide whether the content will be a blog post, an infographic, a video script, or another format. A well-structured content brief helps creators understand the expected format and organize their ideas coherently.
5. Including Relevant Keywords and Search Volume
Include a list of relevant keywords along with their search volume in your content brief. This not only guides the SEO strategy but also helps writers understand the importance of certain keywords. Knowing the search volume helps in prioritizing keywords and incorporating them strategically within the content. Furthermore, Google is not only looking for relevant keywords, but also related terms that prove that the content contains Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T). Semantic analysis will help you identify the adjacent terms that your content needs to rank.
6. Gathering Competitor Research
Competitor research is an integral part of a comprehensive content brief. It involves analyzing content from your competitors that ranks well for similar keywords. The aim is to understand what they are doing right and identify opportunities to differentiate your content. Look at their topics, formats, tone, and how they structure their content. This research helps in crafting content that not only stands out but also leverages successful strategies used by others in your industry.
7. Adding Internal and External Links
A well-crafted content brief should also include recommendations for internal and external linking. Internal links connect your content to other relevant pages on your website, enhancing user experience and boosting SEO. External links, on the other hand, should point to authoritative sources, adding credibility and depth to your content. The brief should specify key pages or external sources to be linked, ensuring a coherent and resourceful content piece.
8. Incorporating Visuals and Call-to-Actions
Visuals are crucial in making content engaging and easy to digest. Your content brief should specify the types of visuals needed, such as images, infographics, or videos. This guides the design team in creating visuals that complement and enhance the content. Additionally, including a call-to-action (CTA) is vital. Whether it’s to encourage the reader to subscribe, download a resource, or contact your business, CTAs guide your audience on what to do next, making your content more effective in achieving its goals.
Tools and Templates for Creating Content Briefs
When creating content briefs, having the right tools and templates can streamline the process and ensure consistency across all content pieces. Various tools are available, each offering unique features to suit different needs.
- Content Management Systems (CMS): Many CMS platforms come with built-in templates for content briefs, which can be customized according to specific requirements. These platforms often provide collaborative features, allowing multiple team members to contribute and edit the brief simultaneously.
- SEO and Keyword Research Tools: Tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or Moz offer robust keyword research capabilities. They help in identifying the right keywords to target in your content briefs, ensuring your content is optimized for search engines.
- Project Management Software: Software like Trello, Asana, or Monday.com can be used to manage content briefs within a larger content strategy. These tools help in tracking the progress of each content piece from the brief stage to publication.
- Google Docs and Sheets: For a more straightforward approach, Google Docs and Sheets are effective for creating and sharing content briefs. They offer flexibility, and collaboration options, and can be easily integrated with other Google Workspace tools.
- Custom Templates: Creating custom templates in word processing or spreadsheet software can be highly effective. Tailored templates ensure that all essential elements of a content brief are consistently covered for each content piece.
Each of these tools offers unique advantages, and the choice depends on the specific needs of your content strategy and team dynamics.
Conclusion
Content briefs are strategic tools that shape the direction and effectiveness of content marketing efforts. By clearly defining the audience, goals, structure, and SEO elements, a content brief ensures that each piece of content is purposeful, audience-aligned, and optimized for search engines. The benefits of using content briefs are evident in the consistency, relevancy, and efficiency they bring to the content creation process.
Whether it’s for a blog post, an SEO-focused article, or an eBook, a comprehensive content brief lays the foundation for content that not only resonates with the audience but also strengthens the brand's online presence.
FAQ
A content brief is a document that outlines the key elements of a piece of content, including its purpose, target audience, tone, structure, and key messages. It serves as a guideline for content creators to ensure that the content aligns with marketing objectives.
Content briefs are important because they ensure that all content is strategically aligned with business goals and audience needs. They provide clarity and direction to content creators, leading to more effective and consistent content.
Typically, content briefs are created by content strategists, marketing managers, or anyone in charge of content planning and strategy. However, input from SEO specialists, writers, and designers is also valuable.
A content brief should include the content's purpose, target audience, desired tone and voice, structure, key messages, SEO keywords, and any specific requirements for visuals or formatting.
A content brief benefits SEO by identifying target keywords and phrases, which helps in optimizing the content for search engines and improving its visibility and ranking.
Yes, content briefs should be flexible and evolve based on content performance data, audience feedback, and changes in marketing strategy.
The level of detail in a content brief can vary depending on the complexity of the content and the experience of the content creators. It should be detailed enough to provide clear guidance but not so detailed that it stifles creativity.
No, content briefs are meant to guide creators, not restrict them. They provide a framework within which creators can innovate and experiment while still aligning with strategic goals.
Content briefs are a crucial component of the overall content strategy. They ensure that each piece of content serves a specific purpose and contributes to the broader marketing objectives.
Content briefs should be reviewed regularly to ensure they remain relevant and effective. This might be after each content piece is completed or at regular intervals within the content marketing cycle.
