How to brief a copywriter properly

Most bad content begins with a bad brief. We show you how to fix that.

You know that feeling when you commission content and then, when it comes back, something’s off. The facts aren’t right, the angle’s wrong, it doesn’t sound like you or it’s just plain boring.

The result is you end up spending more time rewriting their work than it would’ve taken to write it yourself.

In our experience this is almost never the writer’s fault. (Seriously, there are lots of good writers out there and not all of them work here). It’s a fault of process and, more particularly, it’s the fault of the brief.

The brief is the single most important document in any writing engagement. That’s because it’s where you set expectations, align on goals and give the writer what they need to actually start writing.

More than anything, however, the brief is what dictates the quality of the copy you’ll get back. It’s the difference between getting words you can actually use or words that force you to grind through revision after revision.

So, whether you’re commissioning an article, eBook, report, advertisement, profile, brochure or anything else, here are eight questions you should always answer in your copywriting brief.

1. Who’s your target audience?

The first question to ask is who do you hope will read this? Then ask yourself what they’re interested in, what they know and don’t know, and – most importantly – what decision of theirs your content is supposed to be influencing.

Defining an audience is the single most important factor in producing good writing of any kind because it dictates the tone, style and voice the writer uses, as well as what information they include (or leave out).

If you have a formal audience persona, use it. If you don’t, answering those three questions is a good enough starting point, and often reveals that what you thought was one audience is actually two or three quite different ones.

2. What’s the key message?

Most people aren’t going to read every word of anything you write, no matter how good it is. Instead, they’ll scan it, skim the headings, read the first sentence of each paragraph and quickly move on.

Even the ones who do take the time to actually take in every word usually won’t remember much.

That’s why it’s vital you know what message you want to leave behind in the reader’s head. That way your writer can make sure it’s clear from the very first line.

3. What outcome do you want?

Every piece of writing should perform a specific job. For instance, are you trying to generate leads, build authority, change a perception or move someone further down a decision-making process?

How you answer this question will shape how the writer executes the words: the angle they choose, the tone they write in, the call to action they build to and even the length. A piece designed to rank on Google looks different from one designed to convert a warm prospect. A thought leadership article for LinkedIn works differently from a white paper gated behind a form.

Be honest about what success looks like, too. Content rarely goes viral. More often content works through slow accumulation: consistent, purposeful publishing that builds trust over time.

4. What format works best?

Content can take many forms: press releases, studies, feature articles, profiles, Q&As, listicles or even short social posts. And, a long-form white paper and a 300-word LinkedIn post can cover identical ground, but they’ll reach different people, at different moments, in completely different states of mind.

Length matters too, particularly if the content needs to fit a design template or a print publication. Always give your writer a target word count. Without one, you’ll get whatever they think is appropriate.

If you don’t know what format suits your material or audience, just ask. We’re always happy to advise clients on what we think will work (and why). Any good agency or consultant should be able to do the same.

5. How will you get the word out?

We can write you the best article or report possible but without an effective distribution plan, it’s unlikely to ever reach your audience.

How you intend to get the work out influences how your work gets written. The best content is always tailored to take into account the style, tone and format of the intended publication channel or outlet.

So don’t treat distribution as an afterthought, put it in the brief.

Will your content sit on your website or will it be published in print? How will it be promoted: will you email it to an existing mailing list, post it on social media, or pay for targeted advertising? Are there any SEO or AI keywords that need to be included?

The simplest test: before you commission anything, ask yourself how a member of your target audience is actually going to find it. If you can’t answer that, the distribution plan isn’t ready yet… and neither is the brief.

6. What does your writer need to know?

Give your writer the information they actually need to do the job, like the key facts, the proof points, the USP and the competitive context. If there’s a stat that you want to include or a claim that needs to be made, put it here. Don’t make the poor writer hunt for it when you’re halfway through the second round of revisions.

Just as importantly, tell them what’s off limits. Sensitivities, legal constraints, topics or angles that are out of bounds for commercial or reputational reasons. A writer can’t avoid a minefield they don’t know is there.

If the piece is going out under someone’s name (like a CEO, a partner or a subject matter expert) say so. Even share examples of how that person actually writes: emails, LinkedIn posts, previous articles and anything you think might really help the writer understand their voice and their thinking.

Finally, think about whether the main piece will need supporting assets like data, charts, images or links to related content. If it will, flag it now. Retrofitting structure around assets that appear late in the process is one of the more avoidable ways to blow a deadline.

7. What’s next (i.e. the call to action)?

Good content always has a clear next step.

Sometimes that’s passive: read this, understand this, trust us a little more than you did before. More often it’s active: subscribe, download, call, book and (most importantly) buy.

You need to know which one you’re writing toward before the first word goes down. A piece built around raising awareness reads very differently from one built around converting someone into a buyer.

The call to action should be the destination the whole piece navigates toward. If your writer doesn’t know what it is, they’ll invent one – and that means the whole piece could be heading off piste.

8. What’s the deadline?

Sounds obvious, but so many briefs leave out this vital detail: the due date.

When you’re deciding yours, remember to build in a timeline for revisions and changes, edits and a final proofread.

We suggest you provide your writer with both a due date and a publication date – and that, ideally, you try to make these at least a week apart (depending on what the content is). Use this window for revisions, edits, a final proofread, and the inevitable last-minute change from the person who wasn’t in the original briefing meeting but has very strong opinions on exactly what it should say.

A rushed brief produces a rushed draft and (as we’ve already established) a rushed draft produces a painful revision process. So build the time in now and you’ll spend less of it later.

And finally, keep your brief, well, brief…

A brief should be a summary of what you need and can be as simple as a bullet point list. With the exception of background research, it should never be longer than the piece of copy or content that you need written.

We speak from experience. We’ve frequently received briefs that are two, three, four, five or even six times as long as the piece of content we’ve been asked to write.

Cluttering your brief with repetition or extraneous information and detail makes it harder to find the real message or what’s really important.