Content Brief: What It Is

A content brief is the instruction document a writer receives before producing a piece: the audience, the intent, the message, the keyword and the action the piece must win. A good brief is a target map; a bad one is a topic and a word count.

What a real brief contains

1. The reader. One persona, with the pain point in the customer’s phrasing.
2. The intent. What the reader is trying to do when they meet this piece.
3. The action. The one thing the piece exists to make happen: a click, an enquiry, a next paragraph read.
4. The message and theme. Which storyline of the company’s framework this piece serves.
5. The evidence. The facts, numbers or stories the writer builds from, ideally from primary sources.

The uncomfortable truth about briefs

Most briefs are a translation of a translation: the customer said something to a salesperson, the salesperson summarized it to a manager, the manager compressed it into an email, and the writer received the residue. In my experience the email brief is lousy and off-point more often than anyone admits, and one conversation with the salesperson changes everything.

The rule

Where the brief and the primary source disagree, the primary source wins. A writer who has interviewed the sales team can ignore a wrong brief with evidence and with pride; a writer who has interviewed nobody can only obey it.

The interviewing method sits in voice of customer research, and briefs built this way are how I run copywriting engagements.

This micro-blog is part of Rajat Jhingan’s copywriting essentials. Explore more micro blogs here.

By Rajat Jhingan — Content Strategist & Copywriter