Today, a considerable amount of content can be found online, and a decreasing amount is created in-house.
SMEs need to have the skills or resources to create a professional copy. Employees are better off focusing on high-value tasks.
Many companies outsource their marketing content for this reason. Communication and clarity are essential in a distant relationship.
If the person or agency who writes for your website needs to have all the information they need to write it correctly, then complications and bottlenecks can occur.
We are a B2B agency for startups that specializes in digital content. Why is it so important to write a good brief?
What are you writing?
This is the most obvious thing we could come up with. You would be right. What about writing briefs that so many people miss these crucial details?
People often leave out important details when describing concepts they understand well. This is because we are terrible at estimating how much someone else knows. We assume that other people know the same information as we are.
Brief writers must assume that the writer knows or does not know certain things. They tend to do either of two things in this situation:
* Assume the writer already knows all the information and only needs the bare minimum. It is all too common to receive a brief that says, “1,000 words are our latest solution”.
* Assume that the writer needs to be more knowledgeable and try to convey as much information as you can in as few words as possible. This will ensure that even the most savvy writer cannot find the main point.
Research the writer’s abilities.
Research is a skill that freelance writers excel at. Much of their work involves quickly gathering as much information as possible about a topic. All the research skills they have will only matter if you know where to look for the info.
Contextualize a bit
A freelance writer or an agency may need to find out where their piece fits in a larger content strategy. It’s crucial to good short writing, but many people need to remember it.
Consider, for instance, a project where you have commissioned landing pages to promote a new product. You can send them to different freelancers, but they will want to see the others. This is because they need to understand the context and structure.
If you send them to the same agency, they may be written by a different person. Make sure that all information is included.
Also, it’s helpful to let them know about other content that you write, have previously registered, or plan to write, and how the new content will fit in. A writer must spend some time familiarizing themselves with your site. Make sure you list the most critical points.
How to talk about your brand
We now arrive at the most often discussed but poorly described phenomenon: branding. It isn’t easy to learn how to convey factual information through branding, as it is abstract and symbolic. Even the best writers of briefs need help with this.
Unsurprisingly, people like to discuss their brand in great detail. Unsurprisingly, branding is a symbol that unifies all things associated with a business. It’s a combination of a color, style, set of values, aesthetics, and other seemingly unrelated elements. For more information, check out our best brand agencies for startups.
So how on earth do you communicate all that in the space of a brief?
It is better to describe a brand than to explain it. You should limit yourself to three or five adjectives that describe the brand.
Adjectives that don’t usually go together can help you to create a more diverse image of your attitude, outlook, and style. Choose your words carefully. The right combination of adjectives will help you describe your brand.
This brief should guide the graphics and design of the piece and its words. So make sure it’s a good one.