According to findings from SEMrush, 36% of brand marketers have been disappointed with content from outsourced copywriting agencies because their output required too much editing. Despite this sombre figure, only two-thirds of the marketers polled provided an adequate content marketing brief in the first instance.
Could there be a correlation here? We certainly believe that this sort of communication breakdown can undermine the impact of your content marketing strategy. As an agency, we prioritise understanding our clients’ and audience’s needs so we can tick all the right content planning boxes.
This article will outline the process we use to scrutinise content briefs so we avoid potential hurdles and execute your high-impact content marketing strategy with efficiency and precision. Read on to learn more.
First and foremost, we strive to understand your website or social media follower's intent when they come across your proposed piece of content.
We use the tried-and-tested method of audience persona building (or customer avatars) because it helps us draw a complete picture of your target customer's pain points, what they need in a solution, as well as the various types of content they interact with online.
We ask if the client has drawn up their own set of audience personas, which may comprise two or three audience segments with differing needs and preferences. If our clients do not have this information or feel their existing collateral can be improved, we offer tailored core messaging and persona-building workshops. These sessions are designed to help you create customer avatars using competitor research, social listening and SEO research tools. At the end of the online workshop, we'll send you a branded document with our audience findings.
Once your personas are locked in, we'll tailor each brief to align with the persona's specific intent. For example, if you're targeting a CFO, we may seek to highlight evolving industry cost pressures or demonstrate exactly how your solution will help them develop new revenue streams. In essence, we make sure the brief crystallises your brand message and aligns with your target audience's needs.
Next, we analyse where we think your content marketing brief fits in the B2B Sales Funnel below:
You can read more about how the Sales Funnel works in our previous article. However, in a nutshell your content marketing brief should help your audiences with the following:
A 2021 marketers survey found that only 64.71% of content marketing briefs contain relevant keyword terms. Keywords are vital for Search Engine Optimised (SEO) content, as they highlight the audience's knowledge of the subject matter and the awareness level of your solution.
If your content marketing brief doesn't identify any keywords, we will find the most relevant ones for you based on search volume per month, the level of keyword difficulty (i.e., how many big name brands are topping the search engine results page with the keyword), and which we think will work best with your target audience's topic understanding. You can read more about Keyword Research in this previous article.
Briefing details like approximate word count, content placement, (whether it will be a blog article, whitepaper, infographic, etc) may seem like basic details, but it's surprising how many clients may be unsure of the best medium for their message.
We closely examine the project's scope and advise on areas where the project can be improved to enhance the marketing message. For example, if we plan a case study, we will ask to interview the previous customer to quote them directly and boost its credibility.
If the informational context would benefit an accompanying infographic, distilling the complex ideas into digestible 'chunks', we'll pitch some ideas. Defining the project scope also helps us plan our time for execution properly so we provide the best possible service for your needs.
Providing links to kick off our research phase is certainly very helpful, but it is not always necessary for our copywriters to get started with the brief. Likewise, competitor examples may also provide us with some inspiration.
However, ultimately, we're looking for direction on how you want the reader to feel after interacting with your content and their next steps. To that end, we always ask what the Call to Action will be.
For example, do you want readers to get in touch with a specific member of your team, watch one of your webinars, or leave a comment on your LinkedIn post? Providing this information will help us improve our content planning by giving you concrete impact metrics to track.
In summary, the best content marketing agencies should transform your basic copywriting brief into valuable marketing collateral that informs, educates, and entertains your ideal customers.
CopyHouse applies strategic content marketing to tech-led B2B clients, both domestically and internationally. Find out more about how we can help optimise your campaigns and content activity - contact us today.
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