How to Brief Your Copywriter to Make Sure You Achieve Your Content Marketing Objectives
Content has become king in the world of marketing but let's face it, not everyone is a writer (even though we might want to be) plus, not all businesses have the time and resources to create the volume of content you need that will drive increased web traffic and lead your customers through the sales funnel from awareness to purchase. Hiring an experienced content writer is a great solution but before you start, the best way to make sure you're creating business content that meets your business and marketing objectives is to invest some time in a clear copywriting brief. In this blog, we'll run through some of the key points you need to address in your brief and share our copywriting template checklist to help you prepare copywriting briefs that help your writers (either n your team or externally) create the best content quickly and easily.
Tips for a Great Business Copywriting Brief
It's not just the copywriter who benefits from a great brief, you do too. The process of a brief will make sure that you have clarity on what needs to be achieved from the project and that it aligns with your wider marketing objectives, be it for digital channels or offline sales tools.
Brief Your Copywriter About Your Business
In order to write a good business content piece (however short) your copywriter needs a more thorough background than your website provides; this includes:
Background to your company: the vision, mission, the brand position (are you a new brand, or established, for example) and what you sell.
Who your clients are: whose problems do you solve and why and who are your typical buyers or decision-makers
Your brand voice: make sure you are clear about your tone of voice (e.g. formal vs informal) and the kind of messaging you use. For example, there may be key phrases or statements that are a part of your brand story; there may also be words and phrases you absolutely do not want used in your brand content.
Clearly Define the Purpose of Your Copywriting Project
Clearly defining the purpose might seem obvious but it doesn't always come through clearly from a brief, usually because when we work in a team and discuss projects, many elements around brand, the campaign and positioning become second-nature and subconscious and so we don't share them all the time. When you use this business copywriting template, you'll make sure you include all the elements (however simple they may be to you) which will help your copywriter complete the project easily without being slowed down by having to go back and forth with new information and clarification. The brief will take some time but will save you more time in the long run because everything you need is in one place. This information will also help inform the budget required and delivery times.
Now, let's talk about purpose. What is it that you want written and WHY? What is the objective you want to achieve? You have a campaign but what part of the sales journey is it serving, is it Awareness, Consideration or Decision? Then, is it a thought leadership piece, client testimonial, social proof, SEO, engagement or perhaps client retention? Be clear on this because it will impact how the piece is written and its relationship with your other existing and planned content. Now, let's get down to the nitty-gritty;
Content format: for example is it a case study, blog, web content, e-book or white paper? It's also useful to be clear on whether this is part of a series of content, or a wider campaign.
Length of content: the length of the content will have a direct impact on the time required and the price quoted by your copywriter.
Your audience: yes, you've already described your business audience but does this individual content writing project need you to narrow down even more precisely? Are you targeting people in the USA, or perhaps a specific job role? What's different about the solutions they need to their problems?
The subject: do you know the subject, or are you wanting your copywriter to come up with creative ideas for a series of pieces for your campaign? Make this clear as it will affect the price.
Keywords: it's likely that your business content will be shared on your website, so what keywords are important to be included in the project?
Call to Action (CTA): the call-to-action will link to your content objective. Do you have a download, or form you want to link to? Whatever the CTA make sure your copywriter knows so they can lead your reader to it.
Additional Elements You Can Add to Complete Your Copywriting Brief
Your copywriter will focus on copy, unless you request additional elements in your brief but please bear in mind that these elements might come at an additional cost.
Images: some copywriters might like to find a headline image for a blog, for example. When they do this, it will probably be an image that links to the context or the headline of the piece. If you want more images in your blog or e-book (Google likes multiple images in a blog for SEO), you will need to include this in your brief and bear in mind that your copywriter will need to account for time to find relevant images. If you don't want to use a free photostock resource like Unsplash, you will need to assign budget for purchasing images as well.
Amends: most copywriters will include a maximum number of amends. If you go over this, you will be charged extra time, so make sure you get all your proofing done before you send the changes back!
Sign-off: You can add a sign-off to the brief as a contract between you and the copywriter (include date of writing the brief, name of commissioner and company and signature, name of copywriter/company and signature and date of the agreement.
While this might seem like a lot of information, it's worth it to get a high quality product that meets your objective quickly and easily. What's more, if you commission a lot of content, the information you complete in your first copywriting brief can be used as a template for the future, speeding the process up.
You can get started now by using The Content Maven's Copywriting Template Checklist. Any further questions, ask us how we can help you create quality B2B content for your business.
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