When using content writing services to provide your blog or business with quality articles, it is helpful to provide the company with a content brief. This will help them write an article that best suits your needs. But you’re obviously here because you want to know how to write the content brief for a content writing service?
The point of your brief is to be pointed to receive an end product that is in line with what you were expecting. Removing all levels of ambiguity is key to this as you want to be sure of what you’re going to get.
All individuals have their own spin on things on what they want to receive but the below is a great break up of questions to start thinking about when you are creating your brief. Creating a template for your content briefs should be your end goal but first lets start thinking about what you want to information you want to provide to help guide the content writing service.
Content Brief Questions you should think about when working out how to write the content brief
Before you formalise your brief into a template is best to start by answering the following questions:
What is my main purpose of the content?
The purpose of your content piece should demonstrate to the potential writer of what the content is trying to do or explain. This should sound something like:
“This is a blog post that I want to use as a guide on how to correctly apply the CUSTOMER, QUALITY and RELIABILITY standards to my product.”
What is our main reason for writing this piece?
This should give your content writing company some type of direction of what your end goal is. Once they have an idea from which they can start working on a draft, then you have already helped them with their work.
Who will the target audience be?
The audience is key to the content piece as it will determine the style, voice and format that you want. This is where your content writing service can help you with a few ideas in order to guide you.
What do we want to achieve in this article?
If the content is for your blog then you want your readers to keep reading and to ensure that you need to provide them with something that they will enjoy. Do you want to educate or entertain?
Where do we want our reader’s attention directed?
What parts of the post do we wish people to read? This should be part of your headlines as this is going direct eyes in a certain direction. Then when writing the body content headlines are also very important as this telegraphs what the larger article is going to be about.
What is the search intent of this article?
This is very similar to the purpose but looking at it from the lens of the person using the search engine. What is it that they are trying to find and what can they read about it. This is where you can use keywords in order to help direct them further.
What is the focus keyword you want to write for?
One you understand the search intent this is where keyword research comes into play. What is the keyword which is the focus? Not only should you know it but it should be something that you want to be seen for. This will help your content writing company write a piece from this perspective as they will be moving their focus on that aspect.
Are there any other supporting keywords that need to be included or thought of?
This is where the keyword research will give you more keywords that you want to include in your content piece. You should be mindful of using these keywords as they should be placed within the article but not too important to distract from the main purpose of the post.
What is the tone of the post?
This is going to tell your content writing service whether they need to be formal or a little more informal. Telling them the tone can help with search engines and also readability within the content piece.
How much depth should the article have?
One of the most important questions to ask is how deep or how shallow do you want the article. Do you want a high level overview or do you want full on detail. This will eliminate any confusion with your writing and it will help better define what purpose your article may have.
How does the article relate to your blog and site’s goals?
Content shouldn’t be written in a silo, considering how it relates to your site and its goals should be a deciding factor. Similar to how a business doesn’t produce one product for one type of customer, you shouldn’t either.
What is the overall length of the article?
Length is important as it will tell you if your content breaking down correctly. You want to make sure that there are enough sections or paragraphs but not so much that it becomes overwhelming.t
What is the outline of the article or blog and what about subheading suggestions?
This is one of the most important questions to answer as this is what will help guide your content writing service on where you want your readers attention directed. You will also need to give them an indication as to how much information you want to include per paragraph. You can do this by adding a word count number.
Should there be any images included in the article?
Images are often important as they give a visual representation of the article. Agencies also like images to help sell your services.
Should there be any graphics or charts included?
This will also give your writing company an idea on how to present the information. Don’t get too complicated or it will have a negative effect on the overall article.
Where should links and calls to action be placed and why?
Linking out allows you to give mentions to others and also connect with them. Calls to action are where you’re wanting your readers to share, comment or contact you via your site (form)..
Creating your content writing service content brief
So you have gone through the motions of answering some questions to help formulate your content writing brief. Now it’s time to put this into a form that your content writing service can read and understand.
If you are doing this for the first time. It’s worth creating a template you can use in the future. You can create these in a Google Doc or spreadsheet which has all the areas you want to cover.
Try and keep it concise but also at the same time providing all the information that they need to create the end product you have in mind.
At minimum your content brief should look something like this:
Content Writing Service Brief
Post Title:
Topic
Primary Keyword:
Other Keywords
Target Audience:
The goal of post:
Length of article:
Article outline (inc subheadings):
Any questions to consider:
Due date:
Conclusion
There you have it. The process from start to finish on how to create a brief for a content writing service. Hopefully understanding the questions which lead into creating the content writing service brief have been helpful.
If you have any questions, comments or would like to point out something that I may have missed, please get in contact with us. As always I appreciate your feedback.
If you are in need of a content writing service, we can definitely assist with any requirements there. Feel free to fill in one our quote requests here.
