How to Write a Content Brief That Gets You the Article You Want

“Write 1,500 words about standing desks” is not a brief. It is an invitation for the writer to guess, and you will spend longer fixing the guesses than writing a proper brief would have taken.

A useful brief answers eight questions. It works the same whether you send it to a freelancer, to us, or to an AI tool.

The eight fields

1. Working title. It does not need to be final, but it sets the promise.
2. Primary keyword and search intent. What will people type, and do they want to learn, compare or buy?
3. The reader. Who they are, what they already know, and what they are worried about.
4. The angle. One sentence on what will make this article better than what ranks now. This is the most important field.
5. Must-cover points. The subtopics, questions and examples that have to be in it.
6. Avoid. Claims you cannot make, competitors you will not name, topics covered elsewhere on your site.
7. Sources and links. Where facts should come from, and which of your pages to link to.
8. Call to action. What should the reader do when they finish?

An example angle

Weak: “A comprehensive guide to standing desks.”

Strong: “Every other guide lists features. Ours shows the five setup mistakes that cause back pain, each with a photo of the correct position and a 60-second fix.”

The strong angle tells the writer what to research, what to photograph and what to lead with.

Shortcuts

• The free Article Brief Builder on ArticleWay turns these fields into a formatted brief you can download.
• When you order a custom article, paste the brief into the brief box and we will follow it.
• For AI tools, the AI Article Prompt Builder wraps the same information in a prompt.

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