Content Brief Template: Describe Your Writing Requirements
You've heard it everywhere, including from us: To grow your website traffic - you need great content. If you haven’t got the time to thoroughly research, plan, and write a piece that demonstrates your expertise on a given subject, however, combining professional help with a content brief template might be the answer.
Writing thoughtful content is a time-consuming task. Writing engaging content requires the skills of an experienced writer. And getting the content to rank well on search engine results requires knowledge of search engine optimization. You can help a professional co-ordinate all these disciplines by putting together a content brief template in which you describe your writing requirements.
Hiring a Content Writer
To ensure that quality content is posted regularly, many business owners choose to hire a content writer to do the job for them. This way, they can take advantage of all the benefits that content beings without having to do the job themselves. But, there is one major job that needs to be done before you leave your content in the hands of your writer. You need to develop and complete a content brief template.
Without a content brief template, your writer won't have a clear idea what needs to be done. It's not enough to say you want a piece on "running in the winter." An instruction this vague can go in many directions. Your writer needs to know a whole host of other details if you want him or her to do a better job for you and more quickly.
What to Include In Your Content Brief
1. The Basics
A few essential ingredients form the basis of your content brief template. Be sure to include these upfront. And make sure that these ideas are understood before going into more detail.
Type of content: What is being written? Is it a blog post, information article, magazine publication, social media post, or something else?
Deadline: When do you need it completed by? Give a reasonable deadline so that the writer doesn’t need to rush the job. And also make the due date specific so that everyone understands and agrees when the work is due.
Word count or range: How long or short do you want your content to be? Different lengths require different structures and work for different audiences. This information will help your writer create the content you need for your market right off the bat.
Content title: What title do you have in mind for your content? This will help your writer understand the keywords targeted and the focus or angle of the article.
Topic overview: Which subjects do you want the writer to cover? Give a succinct overview - no more than a paragraph.
2. Outline the Objective
There needs to be a point to the content. What do you want your readers to get out of it? Are you looking to educate, inform, sell, or simply tell an engaging story? The clearer you are about your objective, the easier your writer will find it to position the content.
3. Define Who They Are Writing For
Tone and language are extremely important when writing content. Your choices depend on your audience. For example, if you want content for high-level corporate business, then it's going to sound very different from a piece written for stay-at-home-moms. Outline who your audience is in your content brief template. Make sure you include details on:
The type of person reading your content
The industry they work in and their interests
Whether it needs to be written at beginner, intermediate, or expert level
The tone of the content (informal, formal, jargon)
4. Outline Key Headings
This is an extension of the topic overview. Are there any essential headings under which you’d like the writer to produce content? For example, if your topic outline is to create a beginners guide to running a marathon, some key headings might include:
Creating a running schedule
Essential nutrition
Warming-up successfully
Choosing the right running shoes
By doing this, you will be avoiding the problem of the writer missing out on essential information that you were sure you wanted to be included. The more the writer knows about what you want, the easier it will be for him or her to create the content you desire.
5. Helpful Resources
Where would you like your writer to get their research? Perhaps you know of a number of good resources that the writer can use to develop the content. Provide them with links or copies of the information. Equally, let the writer know if there are any resources you don't want them to use.
6. All Other Necessary Information
Written pieces are often considered more credible if they're backed by statistics, facts, quotes, and other sources of information. If you have any of these, it’s likely a good idea to add them. Make sure your writer knows about them and knows where to find the information.
7. The Call to Action
This area is tied to the objective of the piece. Are you planning to add contact details for your business? Are you offering a free trial, download, or something else? Give full details to your writer and indicate clearly where and how often you’d like the call to action to appear in the piece.
8. Keywords and Phrases
To be visible high in search engine results, you've got to be thinking about which keywords and phrases you want to be included in the content. Of course, we know that SEO is a complicated beast, so if you're unable or unwilling to identify the best keywords for your content, you need to hire a content writer that can.
A Final Word on Your Writer
Although your budget matters when choosing a content writer, it's more important to consider how the two of you get along. You're going to have a working relationship, so it's crucial that you choose a writer that "gets you" and finds it easy to understand your vision. By hiring someone that can deliver what you want rather than what they think you want, you'll save yourself time, money, and headaches. It's also helpful (though not always possible) to find a writer that has expertise in your industry or niche.
Posting regular content on your website will grow your traffic and rank you higher on search engine results. If you lack the time and/or expertise, there are plenty of people out there who can do it for you. They just require clear direction.
Keep in mind that the content you publish under your name or brand is a direct reflection of your expertise and knowledge. Great content boosts your credibility and consumer trust, as well as driving more traffic to your website. Bad content, understandably, has the opposite effect. Developing a winning content brief template will ensure that both you and your writer are on the same page and ensure they do a stellar job each and every time.