♾️ Your content briefs need a makeover

I’ve been working in the B2B SaaS space for almost four years now—which means I’ve been on the receiving end of hundreds of content briefs.

But I’ve always had a gripe with marketers who make it seem like this can be automated without a second thought.

Your content brief should do three things:

• Communicate the goal of the piece

• Get internal alignment on the thesis and direction

• Explain why your brand is talking about this topic

Typical SEO or AI tools can’t help you achieve these things.

They can give you the basic SEO data (which is important), but it’s up to you to add that layer of differentiation. As a result:

• Your content won’t feel like everything else out there

• Your writer will know how to make it brand-specific

• Your rankings and traffic can withstand algorithmic changes

Your content briefs need more depth—in terms of subject matter expertise, product information, and brand alignment.

Here’s how I see it.

There are three fundamental layers of differentiation you can add to each piece, irrespective of whether it’s for SEO or not:

• Brand’s strategic narrative and POV

• Product features, benefits, and use cases

• Topical depth based on SME input

Here’s how I create my content briefs:

1. Review existing content inventory or past interviews

Starting from existing materials lets me do three things:

• Find existing content on the website to link back to

• Find quotable stats or snippets to include (webinars, podcasts, blog posts)

• Find additional context for the current article (especially for interviews)

This prevents any extra legwork, and the writer can get started ASAP.

In some cases, I’ve already done an internal interview—but if you haven’t or don’t have the time to do it, reuse old material.