7 Steps on How to Write a Content Brief (Template + Examples)
7 Steps on How to Write a Content Brief (Template + Examples)
Riley Walz
Riley Walz
Riley Walz
Apr 22, 2025
Apr 22, 2025
Apr 22, 2025
Consider this: You have a fantastic idea for a piece of content. Maybe you’re even halfway through writing it. Then, someone asks you if you’ve written a content brief for it yet. Your enthusiasm quickly dampens as you realize you have no idea what a content brief is, let alone how to write one. If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone who needs to brainstorm ideas for writing.
Writing a content brief can feel daunting. However, like any writing assignment, the best way to tackle it is to break it down into smaller, more manageable parts. In this guide, we’ll explore the different steps of writing a content brief to help you understand how to write one from scratch. When you finish this piece, you’ll clearly understand how to write a content brief, including a template you can use to create your own and examples to guide you.
Table Of Contents
What Is a Content Brief?
A content brief is a structured document that outlines all the key information needed to write a specific piece of content. It acts like a roadmap for writers—whether freelancers, in-house team members, or AI-powered tools—so they can stay aligned with the brand’s goals and expectations. You can think of a content brief as the blueprint before building a house. It doesn't tell the writer exactly what words to use, but it does tell them:
What is the piece about?
Who are they writing it for?
What message does it need to convey?
What tone, format, and keywords should you follow?
What does success look like?
What a Content Brief Is Not
It’s not a full article or blog draft; it’s not just a title and a word count. It’s not optional if quality and consistency matter to your content strategy.. Without a proper brief, you leave your writer guessing and risk getting off-brand, off-topic, or unusable content.
Why a Content Brief Matters (for You and Your Team)
It saves time
Writers know exactly what to do, reducing the back-and-forth.
Fewer revisions, faster turnaround, and publishing.
The writer hits the target on tone, structure, and intent.
Keywords and SEO goals are built in, not added as an afterthought.
It aligns everyone involved.
Content managers, editors, SEOs, and clients all see what the piece is supposed to achieve.
Reduces miscommunication between teams or contractors.
It helps scale content production.
You can create multiple briefs simultaneously, assign them to different writers, and still get uniform, on-brand content.
This is especially helpful when managing large volumes of blog posts, landing pages, or product copy.
Why Content Briefs Are Even More Essential in an AI Workflow
With AI tools like ChatGPT or Numerous being used to generate or support content writing, a content brief becomes the anchor point for ensuring the output:
Stays accurate and brand-aligned
Includes the proper structure, keywords, and intent.
Doesn’t drift from your marketing strategy
A prompt can create content. But a content brief turns that prompt into content that performs.
Related Reading
• How to Come Up With Content Ideas
• How to Write Product Copy
• What is an AI Content Writer
• How to Name a Product
• Content Outline
• How to Organize Your Thoughts
• How to Write Character Descriptions
• How to Be Productive
The Key Elements of a Strong Content Brief
Crafting an Effective Title: Why It Matters
The first step in creating a brief for a content piece is to write a clear and detailed title. This working headline summarizes the content's topic. A well-defined title gives the writer a clear direction right from the start and sets the tone for the entire brief. A vague title leads to unclear writing.
Who Am I Writing For? Nail Your Audience
The second step in constructing a content brief is identifying the target audience. Who is the piece for? You can describe this group in detail so the writer understands exactly who they are creating the content for. This helps them choose the right tone, vocabulary, examples, and depth of detail. Include demographics (age, job title, location), experience level (beginner, advanced), pain points and goals, and common objections or questions.
What Is the Goal of the Content?
Every piece of content should have a clear purpose. Defining this goal in your content brief helps the writer understand what they should aim to achieve with the piece. It also helps shape the direction of the piece so every paragraph serves this goal.
Keywords: What They Are and Why They Matter
Keywords are the main search terms and supporting phrases a piece should target for SEO. Including them in your brief ensures the writer bakes them into the structure naturally. This is important because search visibility depends on whether the content matches how users search.
What’s My Angle?
Every piece of content must have a unique spin that separates it from what’s already out there. With so much recycled content on the web, you must give your brief a strong angle to help it stand out and connect with readers emotionally or practically.
Word Count and Format: What’s the Structure?
Next, you need to establish the expected length and structure of the piece. This tells the writer how deep to go and what kind of layout to follow, especially important for skimmable content or structured outlines.
Internal and External Links: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?
Internal and external links are essential for SEO and reference purposes. In your content brief, you’ll want to list any links you want included in the article. Internal links improve site structure and SEO. External links add credibility and save time for the writer.
What’s the Call to Action?
Every piece of content should drive an outcome—whether it's clicking, subscribing, or buying. Defining a clear call to action (CTA) in your content brief helps the writer understand the piece's goal so they can create the proper structure and tone to achieve it.
Tone and Style Guidelines: What Are They?
Tone affects trust. A casual blog post needs a different voice than a whitepaper. Style guidelines help maintain brand consistency across platforms and creators.
Due Date and Delivery Format: What’s the Big Deal?
Clear timelines and expectations help manage workflows and reduce back-and-forth confusion. The first step is to define the due date. Next, include the file format (Google Doc, CMS entry, Word file) and any tools used (e.g., Grammarly, Hemingway, or review checklist).
7 Steps to Writing the Perfect Content Brief
1. Define the Goal of the Content
Every brief should begin with a purpose. Are you trying to educate, convert, build awareness, or rank in search? This shapes everything from tone to structure.
What to do
Be specific: “Drive newsletter sign-ups from SEO traffic” is better than “Just write a blog post.”
Align the goal with your broader marketing funnel.
How Numerous supports this
When planning content at scale in spreadsheets, use Numerous to auto-fill goal fields for content pieces based on the topic or format.
Example: “Assign primary goals to blog titles listed in Column A based on keyword intent.”
2. Identify the Target Audience
If the writer doesn’t understand who they’re writing for, the message won’t land. A clear audience profile helps set the right tone, depth, and examples.
What to include
Pain points
Industry or job role
Stage of awareness (beginner, informed, ready to buy)
Numerous tip
Use a prompt like: “Based on this product category, describe a typical reader’s pain points and buying intent.”
This helps you automatically generate target audience blurbs inside your content planning sheet.
3. Choose the Format and Word Count
Writers need to know what they’re creating and how long it should be. A product page differs significantly from a 2,000-word guide or a short-form email.
What to include
Content type (blog, newsletter, ad script, etc.)
Approximate word count range
Any formatting requests (e.g., intro → sections → CTA)
Numerous application
In bulk content plans, you can tag or assign format types using clever prompts: “Tag each content title in Column A with the appropriate format based on keyword and intent.”
4. Provide Keyword Research and SEO Notes
An strong content brief includes the keywords and search intent to help the piece rank on Google.
What to include
Primary keyword
2–4 secondary keywords
Questions to answer (“People Also Ask”)
Internal pages to link to
Numerous supports this beautifully
You can automate keyword assignment using prompts like: “Based on this blog title and audience, generate a primary keyword and three related keywords.”
It saves hours of manual SEO tagging and ensures consistency across your briefs.
5. Clarify the Tone and Voice
Tone defines how your brand is perceived. It ensures your content sounds cohesive, even if you work with multiple writers or tools.
What to include
Adjectives that describe your tone (e.g., warm, technical, bold, witty)
Content examples that match your preferred voice
What to avoid (e.g., jargon, humor, passive voice)
How Numerous helps
If managing 10+ briefs, you can use prompts to generate tailored tone guidelines based on your brand description.
Example: “Rewrite this tone field to match a SaaS company targeting enterprise customers with a casual but confident voice.”
6. Add References, Assets, or Required Links
Resources give the writer context and ensure the content is accurate, on-brand, and up-to-date.
What to include
Internal articles for linking
Product pages or feature lists
Competitor articles to avoid copying
Image or data sources
Efficiency tip
Numerous tools can help organize these across large content calendars.
For example: “Insert links to existing blog posts that match the keywords listed in Column A.”
7. Specify the CTA and Delivery Expectations
The CTA drives the result, and the delivery instructions reduce handoff confusion.
What to include
What should the reader do? (Click, subscribe, book a demo?)
File format (Google Doc, Notion, CMS entry)
Deadline or publishing date
Any review or approval steps
Pro tip with Numerous
You can automate CTA creation for multiple briefs using: “Generate 2 natural-sounding CTAs for each content goal listed in Column B.”
This keeps your calls-to-action fresh, contextual, and easy to A/B.
Numerous is an AI-powered tool that enables content marketers, Ecommerce businesses, and more to do tasks many times over through AI, like writing SEO blog posts, generating hashtags, mass categorizing products with sentiment analysis and classification, and many more things by simply dragging down a cell in a spreadsheet. With a simple prompt, Numerous returns any spreadsheet function, complex or straightforward, within seconds. The capabilities of Numerous are endless. It is versatile and can be used with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Get started today with Numerous.ai so that you can make business decisions at scale using AI, in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Learn more about how you can 10x your marketing efforts with Numerous’s ChatGPT for Spreadsheets tool.
Related Reading
• To Do List Ideas
• Blog Post Ideas
• AI-based Content Curation
• Generative AI Content Creation
• AI Content Repurposing
• Creating a Tagline
• Product Name Generator
• How to Make a Daily Checklist
• How to Use AI for Content Creation
• AI Content Tagging
Template and Examples of a Content Brief You Can Use
Numerous: The Spreadsheet Tool for Content Writing
Numerous is an AI-powered spreadsheet tool that can help content marketers and SEO practitioners write better and faster. You can use Numerous to analyze existing content and create highly targeted SEO blogs to improve your rankings. For example, you can input a blog’s URL, and with a simple prompt, Numerous returns any spreadsheet function within seconds. The capabilities of Numerous are endless. It is versatile and can be used with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Get started today with Numerous.ai so that you can make business decisions at scale using AI, in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Use Numerous AI’s spreadsheet AI tool to make decisions and complete tasks at scale.
Related Reading
• How to Get Unique Content for Your Website
• Benefits of Using AI Writing Tools
• How to Create a Tagline
• Event Description
• AI List Generator
• AI Listing Description
• How to Write Seo Product Descriptions
• How to Write a Business Description
• How to Write a Menu Description
Consider this: You have a fantastic idea for a piece of content. Maybe you’re even halfway through writing it. Then, someone asks you if you’ve written a content brief for it yet. Your enthusiasm quickly dampens as you realize you have no idea what a content brief is, let alone how to write one. If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone who needs to brainstorm ideas for writing.
Writing a content brief can feel daunting. However, like any writing assignment, the best way to tackle it is to break it down into smaller, more manageable parts. In this guide, we’ll explore the different steps of writing a content brief to help you understand how to write one from scratch. When you finish this piece, you’ll clearly understand how to write a content brief, including a template you can use to create your own and examples to guide you.
Table Of Contents
What Is a Content Brief?
A content brief is a structured document that outlines all the key information needed to write a specific piece of content. It acts like a roadmap for writers—whether freelancers, in-house team members, or AI-powered tools—so they can stay aligned with the brand’s goals and expectations. You can think of a content brief as the blueprint before building a house. It doesn't tell the writer exactly what words to use, but it does tell them:
What is the piece about?
Who are they writing it for?
What message does it need to convey?
What tone, format, and keywords should you follow?
What does success look like?
What a Content Brief Is Not
It’s not a full article or blog draft; it’s not just a title and a word count. It’s not optional if quality and consistency matter to your content strategy.. Without a proper brief, you leave your writer guessing and risk getting off-brand, off-topic, or unusable content.
Why a Content Brief Matters (for You and Your Team)
It saves time
Writers know exactly what to do, reducing the back-and-forth.
Fewer revisions, faster turnaround, and publishing.
The writer hits the target on tone, structure, and intent.
Keywords and SEO goals are built in, not added as an afterthought.
It aligns everyone involved.
Content managers, editors, SEOs, and clients all see what the piece is supposed to achieve.
Reduces miscommunication between teams or contractors.
It helps scale content production.
You can create multiple briefs simultaneously, assign them to different writers, and still get uniform, on-brand content.
This is especially helpful when managing large volumes of blog posts, landing pages, or product copy.
Why Content Briefs Are Even More Essential in an AI Workflow
With AI tools like ChatGPT or Numerous being used to generate or support content writing, a content brief becomes the anchor point for ensuring the output:
Stays accurate and brand-aligned
Includes the proper structure, keywords, and intent.
Doesn’t drift from your marketing strategy
A prompt can create content. But a content brief turns that prompt into content that performs.
Related Reading
• How to Come Up With Content Ideas
• How to Write Product Copy
• What is an AI Content Writer
• How to Name a Product
• Content Outline
• How to Organize Your Thoughts
• How to Write Character Descriptions
• How to Be Productive
The Key Elements of a Strong Content Brief
Crafting an Effective Title: Why It Matters
The first step in creating a brief for a content piece is to write a clear and detailed title. This working headline summarizes the content's topic. A well-defined title gives the writer a clear direction right from the start and sets the tone for the entire brief. A vague title leads to unclear writing.
Who Am I Writing For? Nail Your Audience
The second step in constructing a content brief is identifying the target audience. Who is the piece for? You can describe this group in detail so the writer understands exactly who they are creating the content for. This helps them choose the right tone, vocabulary, examples, and depth of detail. Include demographics (age, job title, location), experience level (beginner, advanced), pain points and goals, and common objections or questions.
What Is the Goal of the Content?
Every piece of content should have a clear purpose. Defining this goal in your content brief helps the writer understand what they should aim to achieve with the piece. It also helps shape the direction of the piece so every paragraph serves this goal.
Keywords: What They Are and Why They Matter
Keywords are the main search terms and supporting phrases a piece should target for SEO. Including them in your brief ensures the writer bakes them into the structure naturally. This is important because search visibility depends on whether the content matches how users search.
What’s My Angle?
Every piece of content must have a unique spin that separates it from what’s already out there. With so much recycled content on the web, you must give your brief a strong angle to help it stand out and connect with readers emotionally or practically.
Word Count and Format: What’s the Structure?
Next, you need to establish the expected length and structure of the piece. This tells the writer how deep to go and what kind of layout to follow, especially important for skimmable content or structured outlines.
Internal and External Links: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?
Internal and external links are essential for SEO and reference purposes. In your content brief, you’ll want to list any links you want included in the article. Internal links improve site structure and SEO. External links add credibility and save time for the writer.
What’s the Call to Action?
Every piece of content should drive an outcome—whether it's clicking, subscribing, or buying. Defining a clear call to action (CTA) in your content brief helps the writer understand the piece's goal so they can create the proper structure and tone to achieve it.
Tone and Style Guidelines: What Are They?
Tone affects trust. A casual blog post needs a different voice than a whitepaper. Style guidelines help maintain brand consistency across platforms and creators.
Due Date and Delivery Format: What’s the Big Deal?
Clear timelines and expectations help manage workflows and reduce back-and-forth confusion. The first step is to define the due date. Next, include the file format (Google Doc, CMS entry, Word file) and any tools used (e.g., Grammarly, Hemingway, or review checklist).
7 Steps to Writing the Perfect Content Brief
1. Define the Goal of the Content
Every brief should begin with a purpose. Are you trying to educate, convert, build awareness, or rank in search? This shapes everything from tone to structure.
What to do
Be specific: “Drive newsletter sign-ups from SEO traffic” is better than “Just write a blog post.”
Align the goal with your broader marketing funnel.
How Numerous supports this
When planning content at scale in spreadsheets, use Numerous to auto-fill goal fields for content pieces based on the topic or format.
Example: “Assign primary goals to blog titles listed in Column A based on keyword intent.”
2. Identify the Target Audience
If the writer doesn’t understand who they’re writing for, the message won’t land. A clear audience profile helps set the right tone, depth, and examples.
What to include
Pain points
Industry or job role
Stage of awareness (beginner, informed, ready to buy)
Numerous tip
Use a prompt like: “Based on this product category, describe a typical reader’s pain points and buying intent.”
This helps you automatically generate target audience blurbs inside your content planning sheet.
3. Choose the Format and Word Count
Writers need to know what they’re creating and how long it should be. A product page differs significantly from a 2,000-word guide or a short-form email.
What to include
Content type (blog, newsletter, ad script, etc.)
Approximate word count range
Any formatting requests (e.g., intro → sections → CTA)
Numerous application
In bulk content plans, you can tag or assign format types using clever prompts: “Tag each content title in Column A with the appropriate format based on keyword and intent.”
4. Provide Keyword Research and SEO Notes
An strong content brief includes the keywords and search intent to help the piece rank on Google.
What to include
Primary keyword
2–4 secondary keywords
Questions to answer (“People Also Ask”)
Internal pages to link to
Numerous supports this beautifully
You can automate keyword assignment using prompts like: “Based on this blog title and audience, generate a primary keyword and three related keywords.”
It saves hours of manual SEO tagging and ensures consistency across your briefs.
5. Clarify the Tone and Voice
Tone defines how your brand is perceived. It ensures your content sounds cohesive, even if you work with multiple writers or tools.
What to include
Adjectives that describe your tone (e.g., warm, technical, bold, witty)
Content examples that match your preferred voice
What to avoid (e.g., jargon, humor, passive voice)
How Numerous helps
If managing 10+ briefs, you can use prompts to generate tailored tone guidelines based on your brand description.
Example: “Rewrite this tone field to match a SaaS company targeting enterprise customers with a casual but confident voice.”
6. Add References, Assets, or Required Links
Resources give the writer context and ensure the content is accurate, on-brand, and up-to-date.
What to include
Internal articles for linking
Product pages or feature lists
Competitor articles to avoid copying
Image or data sources
Efficiency tip
Numerous tools can help organize these across large content calendars.
For example: “Insert links to existing blog posts that match the keywords listed in Column A.”
7. Specify the CTA and Delivery Expectations
The CTA drives the result, and the delivery instructions reduce handoff confusion.
What to include
What should the reader do? (Click, subscribe, book a demo?)
File format (Google Doc, Notion, CMS entry)
Deadline or publishing date
Any review or approval steps
Pro tip with Numerous
You can automate CTA creation for multiple briefs using: “Generate 2 natural-sounding CTAs for each content goal listed in Column B.”
This keeps your calls-to-action fresh, contextual, and easy to A/B.
Numerous is an AI-powered tool that enables content marketers, Ecommerce businesses, and more to do tasks many times over through AI, like writing SEO blog posts, generating hashtags, mass categorizing products with sentiment analysis and classification, and many more things by simply dragging down a cell in a spreadsheet. With a simple prompt, Numerous returns any spreadsheet function, complex or straightforward, within seconds. The capabilities of Numerous are endless. It is versatile and can be used with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Get started today with Numerous.ai so that you can make business decisions at scale using AI, in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Learn more about how you can 10x your marketing efforts with Numerous’s ChatGPT for Spreadsheets tool.
Related Reading
• To Do List Ideas
• Blog Post Ideas
• AI-based Content Curation
• Generative AI Content Creation
• AI Content Repurposing
• Creating a Tagline
• Product Name Generator
• How to Make a Daily Checklist
• How to Use AI for Content Creation
• AI Content Tagging
Template and Examples of a Content Brief You Can Use
Numerous: The Spreadsheet Tool for Content Writing
Numerous is an AI-powered spreadsheet tool that can help content marketers and SEO practitioners write better and faster. You can use Numerous to analyze existing content and create highly targeted SEO blogs to improve your rankings. For example, you can input a blog’s URL, and with a simple prompt, Numerous returns any spreadsheet function within seconds. The capabilities of Numerous are endless. It is versatile and can be used with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Get started today with Numerous.ai so that you can make business decisions at scale using AI, in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Use Numerous AI’s spreadsheet AI tool to make decisions and complete tasks at scale.
Related Reading
• How to Get Unique Content for Your Website
• Benefits of Using AI Writing Tools
• How to Create a Tagline
• Event Description
• AI List Generator
• AI Listing Description
• How to Write Seo Product Descriptions
• How to Write a Business Description
• How to Write a Menu Description
Consider this: You have a fantastic idea for a piece of content. Maybe you’re even halfway through writing it. Then, someone asks you if you’ve written a content brief for it yet. Your enthusiasm quickly dampens as you realize you have no idea what a content brief is, let alone how to write one. If this scenario sounds familiar, you’re not alone who needs to brainstorm ideas for writing.
Writing a content brief can feel daunting. However, like any writing assignment, the best way to tackle it is to break it down into smaller, more manageable parts. In this guide, we’ll explore the different steps of writing a content brief to help you understand how to write one from scratch. When you finish this piece, you’ll clearly understand how to write a content brief, including a template you can use to create your own and examples to guide you.
Table Of Contents
What Is a Content Brief?
A content brief is a structured document that outlines all the key information needed to write a specific piece of content. It acts like a roadmap for writers—whether freelancers, in-house team members, or AI-powered tools—so they can stay aligned with the brand’s goals and expectations. You can think of a content brief as the blueprint before building a house. It doesn't tell the writer exactly what words to use, but it does tell them:
What is the piece about?
Who are they writing it for?
What message does it need to convey?
What tone, format, and keywords should you follow?
What does success look like?
What a Content Brief Is Not
It’s not a full article or blog draft; it’s not just a title and a word count. It’s not optional if quality and consistency matter to your content strategy.. Without a proper brief, you leave your writer guessing and risk getting off-brand, off-topic, or unusable content.
Why a Content Brief Matters (for You and Your Team)
It saves time
Writers know exactly what to do, reducing the back-and-forth.
Fewer revisions, faster turnaround, and publishing.
The writer hits the target on tone, structure, and intent.
Keywords and SEO goals are built in, not added as an afterthought.
It aligns everyone involved.
Content managers, editors, SEOs, and clients all see what the piece is supposed to achieve.
Reduces miscommunication between teams or contractors.
It helps scale content production.
You can create multiple briefs simultaneously, assign them to different writers, and still get uniform, on-brand content.
This is especially helpful when managing large volumes of blog posts, landing pages, or product copy.
Why Content Briefs Are Even More Essential in an AI Workflow
With AI tools like ChatGPT or Numerous being used to generate or support content writing, a content brief becomes the anchor point for ensuring the output:
Stays accurate and brand-aligned
Includes the proper structure, keywords, and intent.
Doesn’t drift from your marketing strategy
A prompt can create content. But a content brief turns that prompt into content that performs.
Related Reading
• How to Come Up With Content Ideas
• How to Write Product Copy
• What is an AI Content Writer
• How to Name a Product
• Content Outline
• How to Organize Your Thoughts
• How to Write Character Descriptions
• How to Be Productive
The Key Elements of a Strong Content Brief
Crafting an Effective Title: Why It Matters
The first step in creating a brief for a content piece is to write a clear and detailed title. This working headline summarizes the content's topic. A well-defined title gives the writer a clear direction right from the start and sets the tone for the entire brief. A vague title leads to unclear writing.
Who Am I Writing For? Nail Your Audience
The second step in constructing a content brief is identifying the target audience. Who is the piece for? You can describe this group in detail so the writer understands exactly who they are creating the content for. This helps them choose the right tone, vocabulary, examples, and depth of detail. Include demographics (age, job title, location), experience level (beginner, advanced), pain points and goals, and common objections or questions.
What Is the Goal of the Content?
Every piece of content should have a clear purpose. Defining this goal in your content brief helps the writer understand what they should aim to achieve with the piece. It also helps shape the direction of the piece so every paragraph serves this goal.
Keywords: What They Are and Why They Matter
Keywords are the main search terms and supporting phrases a piece should target for SEO. Including them in your brief ensures the writer bakes them into the structure naturally. This is important because search visibility depends on whether the content matches how users search.
What’s My Angle?
Every piece of content must have a unique spin that separates it from what’s already out there. With so much recycled content on the web, you must give your brief a strong angle to help it stand out and connect with readers emotionally or practically.
Word Count and Format: What’s the Structure?
Next, you need to establish the expected length and structure of the piece. This tells the writer how deep to go and what kind of layout to follow, especially important for skimmable content or structured outlines.
Internal and External Links: What Are They and Why Do They Matter?
Internal and external links are essential for SEO and reference purposes. In your content brief, you’ll want to list any links you want included in the article. Internal links improve site structure and SEO. External links add credibility and save time for the writer.
What’s the Call to Action?
Every piece of content should drive an outcome—whether it's clicking, subscribing, or buying. Defining a clear call to action (CTA) in your content brief helps the writer understand the piece's goal so they can create the proper structure and tone to achieve it.
Tone and Style Guidelines: What Are They?
Tone affects trust. A casual blog post needs a different voice than a whitepaper. Style guidelines help maintain brand consistency across platforms and creators.
Due Date and Delivery Format: What’s the Big Deal?
Clear timelines and expectations help manage workflows and reduce back-and-forth confusion. The first step is to define the due date. Next, include the file format (Google Doc, CMS entry, Word file) and any tools used (e.g., Grammarly, Hemingway, or review checklist).
7 Steps to Writing the Perfect Content Brief
1. Define the Goal of the Content
Every brief should begin with a purpose. Are you trying to educate, convert, build awareness, or rank in search? This shapes everything from tone to structure.
What to do
Be specific: “Drive newsletter sign-ups from SEO traffic” is better than “Just write a blog post.”
Align the goal with your broader marketing funnel.
How Numerous supports this
When planning content at scale in spreadsheets, use Numerous to auto-fill goal fields for content pieces based on the topic or format.
Example: “Assign primary goals to blog titles listed in Column A based on keyword intent.”
2. Identify the Target Audience
If the writer doesn’t understand who they’re writing for, the message won’t land. A clear audience profile helps set the right tone, depth, and examples.
What to include
Pain points
Industry or job role
Stage of awareness (beginner, informed, ready to buy)
Numerous tip
Use a prompt like: “Based on this product category, describe a typical reader’s pain points and buying intent.”
This helps you automatically generate target audience blurbs inside your content planning sheet.
3. Choose the Format and Word Count
Writers need to know what they’re creating and how long it should be. A product page differs significantly from a 2,000-word guide or a short-form email.
What to include
Content type (blog, newsletter, ad script, etc.)
Approximate word count range
Any formatting requests (e.g., intro → sections → CTA)
Numerous application
In bulk content plans, you can tag or assign format types using clever prompts: “Tag each content title in Column A with the appropriate format based on keyword and intent.”
4. Provide Keyword Research and SEO Notes
An strong content brief includes the keywords and search intent to help the piece rank on Google.
What to include
Primary keyword
2–4 secondary keywords
Questions to answer (“People Also Ask”)
Internal pages to link to
Numerous supports this beautifully
You can automate keyword assignment using prompts like: “Based on this blog title and audience, generate a primary keyword and three related keywords.”
It saves hours of manual SEO tagging and ensures consistency across your briefs.
5. Clarify the Tone and Voice
Tone defines how your brand is perceived. It ensures your content sounds cohesive, even if you work with multiple writers or tools.
What to include
Adjectives that describe your tone (e.g., warm, technical, bold, witty)
Content examples that match your preferred voice
What to avoid (e.g., jargon, humor, passive voice)
How Numerous helps
If managing 10+ briefs, you can use prompts to generate tailored tone guidelines based on your brand description.
Example: “Rewrite this tone field to match a SaaS company targeting enterprise customers with a casual but confident voice.”
6. Add References, Assets, or Required Links
Resources give the writer context and ensure the content is accurate, on-brand, and up-to-date.
What to include
Internal articles for linking
Product pages or feature lists
Competitor articles to avoid copying
Image or data sources
Efficiency tip
Numerous tools can help organize these across large content calendars.
For example: “Insert links to existing blog posts that match the keywords listed in Column A.”
7. Specify the CTA and Delivery Expectations
The CTA drives the result, and the delivery instructions reduce handoff confusion.
What to include
What should the reader do? (Click, subscribe, book a demo?)
File format (Google Doc, Notion, CMS entry)
Deadline or publishing date
Any review or approval steps
Pro tip with Numerous
You can automate CTA creation for multiple briefs using: “Generate 2 natural-sounding CTAs for each content goal listed in Column B.”
This keeps your calls-to-action fresh, contextual, and easy to A/B.
Numerous is an AI-powered tool that enables content marketers, Ecommerce businesses, and more to do tasks many times over through AI, like writing SEO blog posts, generating hashtags, mass categorizing products with sentiment analysis and classification, and many more things by simply dragging down a cell in a spreadsheet. With a simple prompt, Numerous returns any spreadsheet function, complex or straightforward, within seconds. The capabilities of Numerous are endless. It is versatile and can be used with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Get started today with Numerous.ai so that you can make business decisions at scale using AI, in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Learn more about how you can 10x your marketing efforts with Numerous’s ChatGPT for Spreadsheets tool.
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Template and Examples of a Content Brief You Can Use
Numerous: The Spreadsheet Tool for Content Writing
Numerous is an AI-powered spreadsheet tool that can help content marketers and SEO practitioners write better and faster. You can use Numerous to analyze existing content and create highly targeted SEO blogs to improve your rankings. For example, you can input a blog’s URL, and with a simple prompt, Numerous returns any spreadsheet function within seconds. The capabilities of Numerous are endless. It is versatile and can be used with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Get started today with Numerous.ai so that you can make business decisions at scale using AI, in both Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Use Numerous AI’s spreadsheet AI tool to make decisions and complete tasks at scale.
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© 2025 Numerous. All rights reserved.
© 2025 Numerous. All rights reserved.
© 2025 Numerous. All rights reserved.