If you’re considering of outsourcing your content marketing, you’re going to hopefully spend a while briefing your copywriter and offering them with every thing they should create glorious content material. An glorious transient produces good outcomes each time. It might be nerve-wracking entrusting your content material advertising and marketing to a different individual however as long as you present an in depth transient you don’t have any want to fret.
In this put up, I’m going to provide you completely every thing it is best to embody to create the all-time content material transient for a author. I do know it appears so much however there are some superb causes to create an in depth transient when working with copywriters, the primary one being that it’ll prevent time in the long term. If you don’t give your copywriter sufficient info beforehand, you’re going to spend extra time requesting edits, and even losing content material as a result of it didn’t meet your expectations.
It’s a indisputable fact that the extra detailed a quick is, the much less probably the possibilities are the ultimate piece will have to be edited. I’ve a singular perspective on this subject too as I’ve employed copywriters and needed to create briefs – I’m additionally a content material marketer myself and obtain briefs. Working from each side I perceive how irritating it may be to be inadequately briefed and the way annoying it’s once I’ve needed to make numerous edits to a chunk of labor I paid another person to create!
So, right here is every thing it is best to embody in a quick to make your copywriter love you and to be sure you get again precisely what you anticipated.
General Things You Should Include In A Content Brief
Word depend
This one is straightforward however give your copywriter an anticipated phrase depend. Now, we usually say {that a} piece of content material shall be as many phrases because it takes to clarify one thing effectively…however if you’re outsourcing work it’s greatest to provide a information on phrase depend. Don’t be too strict although – give tips for a weblog put up, for instance, of between 1500 – 2000 phrases in order that your author has some room to mess around. Different items of content material will fluctuate – an eBook and a little bit of copy for a e-newsletter are two vastly various things so simply make it clear what number of phrases you anticipate at least.
Deadline `
Again, one other apparent and easy factor however be sure you give your author deadlines. This is especially necessary for time-sensitive items or content material you want for campaigns. If you’re giving your author content material briefs in batches, perhaps organize them by precedence and put anticipated dates on them. It’s additionally necessary to work round the potential for edits. If your content material transient is evident sufficient, you hopefully gained’t need to request edits, but it surely occurs generally, and also you don’t need a time-sensitive piece to be delayed by edits. I like to recommend setting the deadline effectively earlier than you want the piece of content material! For huge items of labor which can be going to take a while, you could need to request a midway ‘check-in’ together with your copywriter so you may see what they’ve down to date. This isn’t an unreasonable request for items corresponding to guides, white papers or ebooks.
Suggested title and headers
I say urged as a result of as a copywriter myself I actually don’t prefer it once I’m feeling very restricted by titles! Sometimes, as soon as I’ve written one thing, the title may even change barely! There is a stability available although between what you anticipate and giving your author somewhat little bit of freedom – so recommend titles however let your copywriter know they’re okay to vary them up a bit and naturally, that you simply belief their experience to generate higher titles
Content construction and sections
Personally, I believe this is among the greatest issues a shopper can do for a copywriter! Yes, it’s extra give you the results you want however creating an in depth transient actually does imply you get content material again that you’re tremendous pleased with! When I write a weblog put up, for instance, I prefer to get the construction down first, and add little notes beneath every part that element what to incorporate in that half. Bullet factors will do – it simply makes writing a chunk a lot simpler and quicker! However, don’t be too inflexible with the construction both…let your copywriter know they’re free to vary it up in the event that they discover it isn’t working and also you belief their judgement.
Key inquiries to reply
All good content material solutions questions. Content can delight, be entertaining, be unhappy, humorous – all these issues however it’ll additionally reply questions readers have. Even in the event that they didn’t know they’d these questions earlier than they began studying! When you’re planning content material, it’s essential all the time ask your self ‘what is this answering?’. If you don’t know the reply, return to the drafting board! When it involves briefing your copywriter, be sure you allow them to know what questions you need the content material to reply.
The tone of voice and elegance
One of the largest points companies usually have with outsourcing content material is the sensation {that a} stranger simply gained’t be capable to choose up on the appropriate tone of voice for the model or firm. However, if you’re working with knowledgeable copywriter you don’t want to fret about this as long as you transient your author in your fashion! It’s actually useful to ship a copywriter instance items that display your tone of voice. It’s additionally not unreasonable to ask for a pattern of writing earlier than your author goes on to work on extra tasks. At GrowTraffic we do that for all of our new purchasers – we are going to write one piece and allow them to overview it for tone of voice and elegance. Of course, that is presuming you’ve gotten a tone of voice, if you’re outsourcing content material for the primary time and haven’t produced an terrible lot in-house, you won’t make sure what your tone of voice is! You ought to talk about this together with your copywriter and whether or not they’re up for serving to you develop a mode. You can even discover a actually useful information here.
A novel POV
It’s necessary that content material is useful and solutions questions, but it surely additionally must be distinctive…sure, a tall order! Making your content material distinctive is a good way to face out out of your opponents and please the Google algorithm overlords too. In every bit of content material, it’s essential be including one thing new to the dialog to make it your personal. One of the best methods to do that is by including private expertise, anecdotes, your personal examples, analysis and knowledge solely you’ve gotten entry to. Of course, when you’re outsourcing content material creation it’s essential guarantee your copywriter is provided with the appropriate info. For instance, when you’re asking your author to create a chunk of content material on an already broadly mentioned subject, ensure that your transient contains your model’s tackle the subject, you may even present quotes from key members of employees and to be controversial…why you could disagree with what others are saying on the subject!
Target viewers/purchaser persona
A copywriter can’t create content material (that’s any good anyway!) with out realizing who the reader is. Understanding the audience means a author is aware of at what stage to pitch concepts and ideas, what questions the reader is more likely to have, what makes them tick and what’s going to inspire them to take motion. A superb understanding of your audience is one thing you’ll probably have already got so stick it in a doc and share it together with your copywriter. For every of our purchasers at GrowTraffic, we create purchaser personas that we will check with when writing for particular person purchasers, they’re actually helpful – shoot us an e-mail if you want a purchaser persona template!
Call to motion and intention
Every piece of content material ought to have a name to motion (CTA), for items like blogs it won’t essentially be a gross sales message however could possibly be to learn one other piece of content material or attempt to entice the reader to enter their e-mail for extra info. Whatever motion you need your finish buyer to take, be sure you relay this to your copywriter to allow them to embody it. This ties into the larger image of what the intention is for the content material you need to produce – don’t throw out content material only for the sake of it, fastidiously take into account “what is the point of this?” if you’re planning content material after which share your reasoning together with your copywriter. If the purpose is just to entertain, that’s nice! Some content material is simply sensible for reinforcing engagement however doesn’t essentially have a severe level to get throughout.
Graphics/pictures/illustrations
If you imply in your last piece of content material to incorporate pictures or graphics, share these belongings together with your copywriter beforehand. This is especially necessary if you’d like the content material to reference the belongings and so they aren’t simply being added for adornment. You can even ask your copywriter to let you already know what images and graphics they assume it’s essential assist illustrate key factors.
search engine optimization Stuff You Should Include In A Content Brief
This subsequent half relies on the kind of content material your copywriter is producing and their understanding of search engine optimisation (search engine optimization). It’s necessary to keep in mind that not all copywriters are specialists in search engine optimization. They would possibly effectively be glorious writers however have little or no understanding of easy methods to optimise content material for search engines like google like Google. If you are on the lookout for an search engine optimization copywriter or somebody that is aware of easy methods to write website content for search, get in contact!
Back to the purpose, in case your copywriter isn’t clued up on search engine optimization and also you need them to provide content material like blogs in your web site, you will have to information them on just a few parts:
Primary and lengthy tail key phrases
Make it clear in your transient what key phrases the content material must comprise, the place they need to go and even give your copywriter a little bit of steerage on what to not do when utilizing key phrases (for instance, you don’t need them to get carried away and begin key phrase stuffing). If you aren’t 100% sure the place key phrases ought to go in a chunk of content material, you could discover our Keyword Pyramid useful! You may even share it together with your copywriter.
Internal and exterior hyperlinks
Your web site must be a pleasant little community of hyperlinks that ties all of your pages collectively, so it’s essential let your copywriter learn about inside linking. This is so simple as letting them know what present net pages you need them to check with within the piece they’re producing. If you’re being tremendous useful present them with the URL and recommend the anchor textual content. Blogs ought to ideally have a few exterior hyperlinks too. These must be hyperlinks to related web sites which have a good area authority – you may assist by sending your copywriter hyperlinks to web sites you assume they may be capable to discover info that’s related to the piece they’re creating and will hyperlink to.
Phew. I hope this has lined every thing it’s essential embody in a content material transient. If you’ve gotten any questions or assume I’ve missed something, let me know!
