An informed and structured content brief keeps your project on track.
FEbruary, 2022
4 minute read
As a content designer with a specific ask on your plate, how many times have you had to crib from a strategy deck, a developer’s ticket, or seek guidance from an email chain to help give your work focus? It surprises me how often teams, especially small ones, skip making content briefs. Maybe the assumption is everyone is on the same page by working closely together. Or that it's considered an unnecessary step. But without it, a project is set for failure from day one.
An informed and structured content brief is crucial to clear, transparent and efficient work. It helps keep the project’s deliverables and goals clear and the real secret is: it’s key to project management. It also helps align your team. I’ve written this guide for content specialists but the truth is, these elements will help any project brief or kickoff documentation whether in GitHub, Jira, or a Google Doc.
In this guide, I’ll feature five considerations for building your own clear, informative and succinct brief to guide content specialists and give stakeholders transparency.
What is a content brief and why do you need one?
A content brief outlines what you will produce and how you will produce it.
A brief gives a content designer a project plan and it gives colleagues, stakeholders and leaders transparency on what is being worked on. You can share it to ensure everyone is on-board before you get working.
It’s an invaluable step that many miss. Especially on small teams, teams with close alignment and even, those working largely on their own. Whether you build one as a leader or build one to keep yourself clear and focused, skipping a brief will undoubtably take you off course and create inefficient work down the road.
Align and Guide
There are many templates out there but regardless of how a brief is formatted, it should be an understanding that every brief states why work is being undertaken, what that work helps to achieve (goals, KPIs, OKRs) and how it aligns to a project plan, strategy and/or product vision. Using a content brief can create clarity, transparency and alignment.
Briefs can quickly get dense and confusing when really, a useful brief is informative and lean.
Five considerations to make your content briefs clear and purposeful:
1. Deliverables: what are you producing?
A brief should demonstrate scope of work. It can be as simple as a list of deliverables the content designer is responsible for.
Example 1: you are tasked with writing an article. A bullet list might include:
Image or video with accreditation
Header
Copy (word count)
Recommendations on linked articles
Example 2: you are releasing a campaign. A bullet list might include:
Audit
Analysis and recommendations
Proposal
Content Strategy (and determine how it is delivered: Word doc, presentation deck, etc.)
Number of pages or pieces of content
Image and video recommendations
2. Timeline: ensuring everyone knows how long it will take.
A brief snapshot of key dates and an estimation of when deliverables are due. Something a content designer and stakeholders can quickly make sense of.
Align dates to project plans or project calendars by linking to those. You might even attach the brief you are creating in a project plan or calendar. Do not overcomplicate formatting.
A timeline might be as simple as listing expectations week-by-week. The goal of including a timeline is really to ensure everyone is onboard with the scope of the work listed under deliverables.
The brief you are building may be for many people so include assignments: who is responsible for each deliverable.
3. Fact Sheet: quick context to save time and keep you on track.
Create a baseline level of awareness to work from. Whether your brief is for a project or simply an article, include key facts for the content designer to remember. These may include:
The 5 W’s: who, what, where, when, why.
Special considerations on the customer or client.
Topical considerations: why is this relevant now?
Relevant stats and insights and data.
For example: a quick fact sheet I made for a content designer at Benevity to provide foundational context on Hispanic Heritage Month:
”What is it? Running September 15 - October 15 in the US, National Hispanic Heritage Month honors the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latino/Latinx Americans as we celebrate heritage rooted in all Latin American countries. Hispanic Heritage Month is an official celebration of American citizens whose ancestry can be traced back to Spain, Mexico, Central and South America and the Caribbean.
Why start middle of the month? The celebration starts in the middle of the month, as opposed to the end, because the 15th marks the independence days of five Latin America countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile, and Belize follow shortly after, on the 16th, 18th and 21st.
How big is the U.S. Hispanic population? Almost a fifth of the total U.S. population is Hispanic, according to the Pew Research Center. At a population of 57 million, they are the second-fastest growing racial or ethnic group behind Asians. Hispanics made up just 5% of the population back in 1970. Of that population, around two-thirds, or 35.3 million, are people of Mexican origin. Those of Puerto Rican heritage are next at 5.3 million, and around 1 million each of Salvadorans, Cubans, Dominicans, Guatemalans and Colombians are living in the United States.
Sources: https://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/”
The fact sheet does not need to be laborious, it needs to ensure some basic facts are not missed. Its intention is to equally save time and quality control that basic information is accurate. You may include key details from vision or strategy docs and link to where those are housed. Keep it simple but keep it accurate.
4. Relevant Past Work: previous work to reference or leverage.
Just like in the last section, to goal is quick context and reference. There may be previous work that provides a template, example or can otherwise inform the current ask.
This is easy: include a list of past work and where a designer can find it. Include links and include max one-to-two sentences for context. For example, “remember this example was from before we switched document formats,” or, “Jean Smith in product marketing is the subject matter expert to speak to about this doc.”
5. Resources: a list of sources the designer may need.
This is the “other” or last chance section of your brief. You might ask yourself the following:
What other documentation or websites might be relevant here?
Where can they find source material that has already been raised?
Who are subject matter experts to seek out?
Where is the strategy or vision doc which they need to align to?
Again, the goal is a quick reference and to ensure the designer is equipped with everything they need.