6 Steps to Get AI to Recommend Your Brand

Making great content isn’t easy, but a solid content brief can make all the difference.

A good brief helps everyone—writers, editors, and strategists—stay on the same page. This ensures every post is useful, clear, and built to perform.

At Backlinko, we’ve seen how strong content briefs drive results. They’ve helped us attract over 635,000 organic visitors every month.

In this guide, you’ll learn what to include in a content brief, see three examples, and get step-by-step instructions to create your own.

What Is a Content Brief?

A content brief is a blueprint for high-quality, engaging, and SEO-friendly content. It includes elements to help writers create content that connects with the audience.
Content briefs help teams work together by reducing revisions and speeding up the writing process. Strategists set the goals. Writers follow the plan. Editors make sure the content meets the brief’s requirements.

When everyone is aligned, things run smoothly, and communication improves. The result? High-performing content.

What to Include in a Content Brief

Outside of keywords, it’s debatable what you should include in your brief. But after publishing hundreds of articles, we’ve found these elements work best:

• Primary keyword: The main term or phrase your content must focus on.
• Secondary keyword: Related words or phrases that support the primary keyword.
• Estimated word count: Suggested length for the content.
• Competing URLs: Links to top-ranking posts for the primary keyword.
• Notes about the search engine results page (SERP): Observations about the search results for the primary keyword.
• Internal link suggestions: Links to other relevant pages on your website.
• Reader profile: Describes the ideal reader.
• Notes for writer: Provides specific guidance to help them meet the objectives.

How to Write a Content Brief

Creating an effective content brief requires balancing structure with flexibility. These steps will help you build briefs that set your content up for success from day one.

1. Research the Primary Keyword

Focus on terms that fit your goals. Use tools like Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool to find promising keywords.

2. Identify Relevant Secondary Keywords

Add secondary keywords to help your blog post rank for more than just the primary keyword. Tools and search engines can help discover these terms.

3. Analyze the Top-Competing URLs

Review the top-ranking URLs for your primary keyword. This process offers valuable insights into why those pages perform well.

4. Calculate the Estimated Word Count

Every content brief should include an estimated word count to help writers understand how detailed the content should be and keep them on track.

5. Add a Reader Profile

Including a reader profile in your content brief gives writers a clear understanding of who they’re writing for ensuring the content resonates with the audience.

6. Perform Original Research

Unique insights from surveys or case studies can help your content stand out. Utilize your in-house expertise to add depth to your work.

7. Create a Suggested Structure

A clear outline helps writers understand the scope and expectations. The key is maintaining flexibility for evolution from brief to outline to final draft.

3 Effective Content Brief Examples (+ Why They Work)

Backlinko

A template that helps maintain consistent quality across hundreds of published articles.

Why Our Content Brief Stands Out:

• Competitor analysis: Identifies what works in top-ranking content and where to make improvements.

Relato

A project management platform designed for content marketing teams, focusing on B2B.

Why Relato’s Content Brief Stands Out:

• Differentiation focus: Challenges writers to highlight unique selling points.

Beam

A B2B content marketing agency that values transparency and collaboration, sharing their content brief template openly.

Why Beam’s Content Brief Stands Out:

• Narrative frame: Sets the tone and message of the content.

Turn Your Content Briefs Into High-Converting Blog Posts

Encourage your writers to add unique insights, data, and examples to make the content even more valuable and interesting.