Content Brief: How to Prepare One for Your Freelance Writer

A good content brief is the document that determines whether a project handed to a freelance writer succeeds. The more precise it is, the more the delivered content will match expectations, cutting down on back-and-forth and frustration on both sides of the collaboration.

Key information to include

A good brief lays out the company's context, the target audience, the content's objective, and the desired tone. It also specifies the expected length, priority keywords if SEO work is requested, and examples of content the client likes or specifically wants to avoid, which is often more useful than positive examples alone.

Giving access to useful resources

Providing internal documents, studies, customer feedback, or links to already-published content helps the writer get closer to the mark from the very first draft. The more reliable information the freelance has, the less they need to guess or generalize about your business and its customers.

Avoiding briefs that are too vague or too rigid

A brief that is too vague forces the writer to guess at expectations, risking content that misses the mark entirely. Conversely, an overly rigid brief that dictates every sentence strips the freelance of their editorial value and turns them into a typist rather than a writer. The balance lies in framing the objectives clearly while leaving room for the writer's own phrasing.

• Company context and content objective.
• Target audience and desired tone.
• Length, keywords, and reference examples.
• Internal resources useful for the writing.

Find our full method in the web copywriting guide, or explore the web copywriting section for more advice. You can then post your brief directly to the web copywriting projects to receive proposals.