How To Write a Content Brief – Is There an Art and Science to It?
Co-Founder / CMO
A good content brief is more than a checklist. It does indeed blend art and science because you’ve got to think like a storyteller and be analytical at the same time.
Striking that balance between art and science is what separates a mediocre brief and a bad draft from a great brief and a game-changing final content piece.
Ready to explore some ideas? Let’s see!
Table of Contents
The Art
When it comes to creating the perfect content brief, you’ve got to channel your inner storyteller. And within storytelling come 3 different aspects you shouldn’t overlook:
- The actual storytelling
A great content brief should tell a story that relates to the target audience. It should capture their attention, evoke emotions, and create a narrative that keeps them engaged from start to finish.
- Tone and Voice
Establishing the right tone and voice is essential for connecting with your audience. The content brief should define the personality and style that the content should convey, whether it's authoritative, conversational, humorous, or something else entirely.
- Creativity and Innovation
While following a structured format, the content brief should also allow room for creativity and innovation. Encourage writers to think outside the box and explore unique angles or approaches that can make the content stand out.
At the end of the day, the “artistic elements” of your content brief are what will set your content apart, so make sure you have those sorted out. However, if we’d all be focused on writing creatively only, we’d be churning out novels.
Let’s have a look at the sciencey-side of how to write a good content brief.
The Science
Even the most beautifully crafted story won’t make a dent if it doesn’t reach the right people.
When it comes to the strategic elements of your content brief, you've got to think like a data-driven marketer. And that means doing your homework on your target audience.
Explore their demographics, interests, pain points, and behavior patterns. Ask questions like:
- Where do they hang out online?
- What kind of content do they engage with?
- What are their biggest challenges or frustrations?
You've also got to consider SEO and keyword research. Identify the search terms your target audience is using, and weave those keywords into your content naturally.
You can even take it a step further and look at industry trends, competitor analysis, and other external data sources. The more insights you can gather, the better.
So, how do you put together the art and science and come up with a final content brief?
The Step-by-Step
Define your content goals
Before you even think about putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be), you need to get crystal clear on what you're trying to achieve with your content.
Whatever the goal, you need to spell it out in your content brief. It must be specific, measurable, and actionable.
For example, instead of saying "educate our audience," you might say something like "increase understanding of our product's key features by 25% among our target demographic." See the difference? The first one is kind of ambiguous, but the second one gives you a clear target to aim for.
And don't just stop at one goal, either. Your content can (and often should) have multiple objectives.
The key is to identify all of your goals upfront and clearly outline them in your content brief. That way, everyone involved in the creation process is on the same page.
Identify your target audience for each content piece
This article targets content writers, but I do have other articles on the Yahini blog that target content agency owners or small business owners.
To create a good brief, you need to zero in on your target audience and really understand who they are inside and out. You need to dig deep and uncover their interests and pain points.
This all starts with research. Lost and lots of research.
You can start by looking at your existing customer base or subscriber list. See what they have in common and what their biggest challenges are.
From there, you can expand your research to include industry reports, social media analytics, and even good old-fashioned surveys or focus groups (but who does this anymore, huh?).
Develop a key message
Think of your key messages as the core ideas, themes, or value propositions that you want to communicate to your audience. And let me tell you, nailing these bad boys is important.
Why?
Well, for starters, your key messages help ensure that your content stays focused and on-brand.
But more importantly, well-crafted key messages have the power to resonate with your audience on a deeper level. They tap into their pain points, desires, and motivations, creating an emotional connection that keeps them engaged and invested.
Start with revisiting those content goals and target audience insights we talked about earlier.
Your messages need to align with your goals and your audience's needs and values. That way, you're not just spewing information—you're speaking directly to their hearts and minds.
Just remember to document those key messages in your content brief.
Establish tone and voice
You could have the most mind-blowing, earth-shattering information in the world, but if it's delivered in a dry, monotonous tone, chances are your audience is going to tune out faster than you can say "content brief",
The tone is essentially the overall vibe or attitude of your content. Is it serious and authoritative? Playful and lighthearted? Somewhere in between?
The voice, on the other hand, is more about the personality and style you're conveying; think friendly, conversational, or formal tone.
Make sure you choose a tone and voice that align with your audience’s personality. If you're targeting C-suite executives at Fortune 500 companies, a casual, bro-ish voice might not be the best approach.
The truth is, you can’t nail tone of voice on your first try. It’s a tough process that takes a great deal of time and understanding of your audience. Truth be told, not all companies need to “nail” tone of voice, especially nowadays. If your company values this, then by all means, go ahead.
But you can also create great content without a specific tone and voice.
The holy grail of keyword research…
… is that there’s no holy grail.
There are hundreds of SEO and keyword research tools out there, and if you landed on this article, then I’m 100% sure you don’t need a breakdown.
But here’s something not everyone dares to say: you can use AI to come up with a list of super-relevant keywords and pain points and start targeting those instead of paying $$$ for keyword tools.
That’s because we don’t need to stuff the internet with more content. We just need to provide the internet with new, valuable content. And the keyword research tools out there can limit that by putting a value on their volume.
Let me give you an example:
Person A chooses a $ 540-a-month keyword research tool and comes up with 100 keywords with a volume between 500 and 1000. They start writing the content, and bam – crickets. The keywords are great, so why aren’t they ranking?
That’s because Person A, like most other Person Cs, Ds, and Es, spends 10 hours on choosing the perfect keyword and one hour writing the content. And the result is the same content all over again.
The takeaway? Try to focus a bit less on “keywords” and more on topics, ideas, and pain points.
P.S.: you can use Yahini to build strategist-level content briefs without spending hours on keyword research, as it gives you priority-based keyword clusters and topics that make the most sense for your product in an instant.
The ✨outline✨
And here comes the content skeleton, the “anatomy” of a high-converting content brief template.
"But isn't that the easy part? Just slap some words on a page and call it a day, right?" Oh, how I wish it were that simple. In fact, this is one of the most common content briefing mistakes strategists make…
The first step is actually to outline the overall flow and organization of your content.
Find out if you want to follow a traditional intro → body → conclusion format or if you want to go for something more unconventional.
You need to also consider the stage of the funnel you’re writing for. As a side note, Yahini builds various types of content briefs for all three stages. Here are a few examples:
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TOFU
- Evergreen guide
- Hot topic
- AIDA
- Problem-agitation
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MOFU
- How to guides
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BOFU
- Comparison pieces
- Alternative pages
Now that you have it all set, it’s time to include things like headings, subheadings, and any specific formatting requirements (like bulleted lists, pull quotes, or callouts).
The traditional standard approach is to start with a compelling hook to grab your audience's attention, then dive into the meat of the content, and wrap things up with a strong call to action.
And keep in mind, structure isn't just about organization – it's also about pacing and flow. You want to create a rhythm that keeps your audience engaged and interested without overwhelming them with too much information all at once.
Set some expectations and guidelines
This is what comes after the brief creation process.
We're talking things like:
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Word count requirements (both minimum and maximum);
-
Tone and voice guidelines (remember what we discussed earlier?);
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Style and formatting preferences (AP style? Chicago Manual of Style? Your brand's custom style guide?);
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Deadlines and turnaround times;
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Revision and approval processes;
And any other specific requirements or preferences you might have.
So, is content briefing an art? A science? Or both?
I think the answer is clear: it's a delicate balance of both art and science.
On one hand, you've got the artistic elements – the storytelling, the tone and voice, the creative flair. This is where you get to flex your creative muscles and think outside the box.
But on the other hand, there's also a science to it: the audience research, the keyword strategy, and the data-driven insights.
Yahini offers you the strategic advice you need to create a content strategy from the ground up. Its AI has been trained by seasoned content strategists, providing you with expert-level content briefs right at your fingertips.
Ditch the generic outlines! Sign up now.