- Home
- Blog
- Web Design How to Write a Content Brief to Drive Traffic [+ Template]
How to Write a Content Brief to Drive Traffic [+ Template]
-
Published: Dec 17, 2024
-
6 min. read
-
Celeste YatesContent Writer
- Celeste has worked in the online marketing space for twenty years. She has written for sectors including tourism, sustainability, education, lifestyle, food, and marketing. You can find her work featured by Green Building Media South Africa, Stodels Gardening, and The Post House Hotel. In magazines, you may have seen her in The Cape Times, Oprah South Africa, and The Property Magazine. While you can find her writing up on the latest SEO trends and exploring digital techniques during the day, her love of story-telling carries on in enriched games and books after hours.
Creating compelling content begins long before the first word is written on the screen. It starts with a well-thought-out content brief that will reduce your writer’s production time and increase the quality of your website.
Support your team and give them the information they need to create content that meets your guidelines and converts readers.
Content brief template download
What is a content brief?

Definition
A content brief template is a roadmap that provides writers with the key details to produce content that aligns with business objectives.
It outlines the key information and instructions your team needs to create content, such as a blog post or landing page. They will understand what is expected of them in terms of message, tone, format and goals.
A few key elements of a content brief include:
- A recommended suggested title
- Description of the content
- Key information, such as what is the content type, deadlines, word count, author, and keywords that will be used
- Suggestion of resources for the author to use as a starting point in their research
- A rough outline that the writer can refrain
- Info on the tone or voice of the content. If possible, a link to a style guide should be provided.
Benefits of a well-executed content brief
A good content brief offers several key benefits. Here is a breakdown of the most notable ones:
- Clear direction and focus for your team: The content creator can make a final product that aligns with the correct goals and messaging set out for them.
- Consistency across content: When you have multiple writers and creators, consistency can be challenging. With a brief, you can ensure tone and brand voice are uniform from post to article.
- Easy collaboration: Sales, marketing, and design are all on the same page, communicating clearly about who is doing what. A single content brief will be a central reference point for all parties.
How to write a content brief in 8 steps
You need a number of key elements for your content brief. This keeps each brief structured and makes it easy for writers to understand their objectives with the content.
1. Craft a workable page title
The title should be catchy and engaging for the reader but also include the keyword so that search engines know what your article is about. This can just be a working title for now, and the writer can refine it once they have completed the piece.
2. Provide foundational information
Foundational information can include the content length and word count. Also, include whether graphics or videos need to be created. Some articles or blogs will need an interactive tool, or perhaps for social media, you could do polls and surveys.
Other foundational information would include deadlines and timelines for editing or first and second drafts.
3. Explain the goal and give the angle
Give a clear description of the goal of the content. For example, are you focusing on brand awareness or education? You can also pop in what level of the content marketing funnel the article is aimed at.
4. Describe your target audience
Describe who the content is for. You can include different demographics affecting the writing styles and references, like age and location. Also, offers the pain points of the audience. Cover what their goals are and what will encourage them to make a decision.
5. Give a voice and persona
Specify the desired tone of the content if you aim it at a professional or casual audience. Indicated what type of buyer persona they are and the brand voice. You can provide examples to other works on the site or even just provide a paragraph or two to show the style.
6. Create a rough outline
You can either create a rough outline or make general key notes about the core message and main points that need to be communicated. While you want to encourage the writer and give them creative freedom, it is also important to note the objectives within the actual piece.
7. Give links, sources and examples where applicable
Other articles or search results might need to be considered when putting together an article. Look at what your competitors are doing and if there is content that already covers the subject. What value can you add? You can supply the writer with a starting point from which they can begin their research.
8. Add a search engine optimization (SEO) checklist
Give your content brief tick boxes for SEO optimization to remind the writer and editor about the various points that must be included. For example, you might focus on two or three keywords that must be mentioned within the articles and headings.
You could also have a linking strategy and do internal linking. At the end, add a box for a metadata description that briefly describes the article.
Content brief templates for different types of content
While content brief templates might have similar elements that stay the same from brief to brief, some types of content require unique consideration. A few types of content that your brief could cover include:
- Blog posts and articles
- Social media posts
- Video scripts
- Email newsletters
- White papers and ebooks
Lengths, tone, and audience types will change between these different types of content. The other element that will change is the call to action (CTA). This is what you want to achieve with the reader and what step you would like to encourage them to take after reading the content.
Measuring the effectiveness of a content brief
There are several ways to check the effectiveness of the brief. The first is to check with the writers themselves. Is there any information they would like added, or perhaps they would like less information to be more creative?
After you have used the content brief for a while, check the quality of the content itself. You can do this both at the editing stage and through the analytics, which will show how it performs online. Metrics such as leads and sales will let you know if readers are engaging with the content in the way you want.
Not all briefs are created equal, and the effectiveness of a brief can vary from the different content types. In time, you might adjust or add in information as needed. You can also create different templates for the different types of content, if you find that suits your team better.
Need more content than your team can handle?
An alternative to doing content in-house is to outsource it to an agency, like WebFX. We have a full team of 100+ at your disposal, ready to write high-quality content for your website and social media channels.
Connect with us online, or give us a call at 888-601-5359 to start turning your content into clicks and revenue!
Our digital marketing campaigns impact the metrics that improve your bottom line.
See Our Approach$10 billion
24 million
7.14 million
-
Celeste has worked in the online marketing space for twenty years. She has written for sectors including tourism, sustainability, education, lifestyle, food, and marketing. You can find her work featured by Green Building Media South Africa, Stodels Gardening, and The Post House Hotel. In magazines, you may have seen her in The Cape Times, Oprah South Africa, and The Property Magazine. While you can find her writing up on the latest SEO trends and exploring digital techniques during the day, her love of story-telling carries on in enriched games and books after hours.
-
WebFX is a full-service marketing agency with 1,100+ client reviews and a 4.9-star rating on Clutch! Find out how our expert team and revenue-accelerating tech can drive results for you! Learn more
Make estimating web design costs easy
Website design costs can be tricky to nail down. Get an instant estimate for a custom web design with our free website design cost calculator!
Try Our Free Web Design Cost Calculator


Web Design Calculator
Use our free tool to get a free, instant quote in under 60 seconds.
View Web Design CalculatorProven Marketing Strategies
Make estimating web design costs easy
Website design costs can be tricky to nail down. Get an instant estimate for a custom web design with our free website design cost calculator!
Try Our Free Web Design Cost Calculator