Once the content calendar is ready with the topics of our choice, the next step is to create a content brief for every topic. The goal of these content briefs is to provide a set of recommendations on what to include in the article and a clear structure on how the presentation of the article should look like
Goal of Content Briefs
- Guide the content team on how we want the final content output to look like while making sure that the content has the right keywords included adequately
- Make sure that the final content output is comprehensive and covers all required aspects of the topic
What should a good content brief include?
- The focus keyword or topic
- Notes on brand voice, style and tone
- Subheadings that outline the article
- Questions the content should answer
- Internal linking suggestions
- Related materials and references that should be referenced in the content
- Specific instructions on what the goal of that piece of content is (Drive traffic / leads / sign ups etc.)
- Specific instructions on how sections in the brief should be written or structured
Content Brief Template
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KolKB3Doj0xUaiDiaFFXaEql0ShX_dLV4IJK-wuQepk/edit?usp=sharing
Every content brief has two parts:
- AI Content assistant generated brief (Page Optimizer Pro, WriterZen, SurferSEO,Frase etc.)
- Content structure outline (Based on the angle of the topic, a content skeleton to be prepared to guide the content writer on how the article body should flow)
Part 1: AI Content Assistant Generated Brief Creation
Step 1: Identify your topic (existing / new)
Step 2: Identify the target primary and secondary keywords for the topic
Step 3: Go to your AI content assistant tool and create a brief by adding the selected keywords and select the target country.
Step 4: Remove irrelevant keywords and competitors during brief creation to keep only the best match competitors and content in your brief
Step 5: You will have an AI content assistant brief which will now include the recommendations for which keywords to include in the title, meta description, subheadings and content body. It will also have a section that shows the content score. Guide your writers to maintain a score of 75 and above so as to not under or over optimize the content
Step 6: Check if NLP recommendations are available within the tool
Part 2: Content Structure Creation
Step 1: Check the SERP landscape to see what rich features are getting triggered for your target queries (Featured snippets, PAAs, rich snippets like schema for e.g. pros/cons etc.)
Step 2: Get a list of top 3 ranking competitors ranking for target keywords and variations.
Step 3: Go through their content to see if the content sounds repetitive on all the sites or significantly unique from each other. Analyze the competitor content to see how they have structured their content. Check competitor content to identify gaps within our content, or gaps in the topic as a whole (meaning no one in the space has covered any content on relevant keywords which are important for our audience). Also check if better quality, relevant and unique information can be found on other forms of media like podcasts, Instagram reels, YouTube videos etc. so that our content scores better in terms of relevance and uniqueness when speaking to our end audience
Step 4: Check if the topic requires any expert commentary to make the content rich (For e.g. Sploot might require expert inputs from a vet or a pet behaviourist, 1HairStop might require an expert quote from a hair stylist or hair care expert etc.) Make notes of this and add them in the specific section within the content and connect the writer to an expert or get the required information from the clients’ expert panel if our team is going to write the article
Step 5: Create a skeleton of how our article should look like, what sub-headings/sections to group the content. For every section, make sure to give inputs regarding:
- How long should it be
- What keywords to use
- Reference links
- Whether an expert commentary is to be requested from the client
- How many images should the writer add
- Whether better quality information can be sourced from YouTube, Instagram, Podcasts or articles so that the writer is focused on making our content unique
- Mention if there’s an opportunity to rank in featured snippets and how should they structure content according to the same
- Most consumable format for the content (table, bullet list, paragraph etc.)
Step 6: Give clear instructions on the goal of each section and what we want the writer to convey. Do not give the answer directly, but instead give guidance on the purpose of the section and what the reader wants to know there. Also consider pointing out details that the competitors might have missed but we feel we want to add them in our copy
