A fully developed content brief removes all the guesswork. It conveys all the details from target audience, the arc of the story, and what your reader should think, feel and do when reading. And it outlines the intended voice and style to the crucial SEO details.
A good content brief frees up more time for creating impactful content. It acts as a blueprint and a strategic guide, and help your content team work together on achieving the goals of your content program.
Who is this template for?
- Content Managers
- Content Editors
- Content Strategists
- Content Writers
The B2B Content Brief is accompanied by a guideline in How to use the B2B Content Brief Template.
What’s in the brief
The downloadable Google Doc is sectioned to make a single piece briefable in under 20 minutes:
- Title and meta: working title, content type, byline, perspective, target word count, channel, promotion plan.
- Strategy: content pillar, topic, related topics, purpose, narrative frame, brand angle, CTA placement.
- Target audience: primary persona, secondary persona, pain points, buyer awareness stage, buying committee map.
- Research: internal research starting points, external sources to consult, inspiring content to model.
- SEO: primary query, secondary queries, semantic variations, title tag, meta description.
- Structure and linking: outline, must-includes, internal and external link plan.
Frequently asked questions
What is a content brief?
A content brief is the working document that captures every decision a writer needs to make before drafting a piece: who it is for, what it has to say, what they should think or do after reading it, the SEO target, and the structural rules. A good brief makes the draft predictable. A vague brief turns drafting into a guessing game.
How long should a content brief be?
Long enough to remove ambiguity, short enough that a writer reads it without skimming. Two to four pages of structured fields is the working range. If your briefs are 12 pages, you are writing a manuscript with extra steps.
How do I write a content brief?
Start from a target query and a named audience. Decide what the reader does differently after reading. Pick a content pillar. Set a word count band, a structural pattern, the internal links to add, and the SEO targets. Hand it to a writer with the deadline. That sequence is what this template enforces.
What is the difference between a content brief and a content strategy?
A content strategy defines why you create content and for whom, across the whole program. A content brief operationalizes that strategy for a single piece. One strategy can drive hundreds of briefs.
What is the difference between a brief and a content brief template?
A brief is the filled-in document for a specific piece. A template is the empty shell you reuse to write every brief. Use this template as the shell, then duplicate and fill it in for each piece.
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