Content brief
The spec sheet a writer or an AI gets before drafting: reader, angle, key message, outline, constraints, and what 'done' looks like.
See it
What it is
A content brief is the spec sheet handed to whoever drafts the piece: a human writer, a subject-matter expert, or a model. A working one names the reader and the job they are trying to finish, the angle (what makes this take different from the ten existing pages), the one key message, a section-level outline, must-include facts and sources, rough length, internal links, the CTA, house-style notes, and an explicit 'do not do' list. The last item does more work than people expect.
Reach for one at every handoff, and especially before prompting an AI tool, because a brief is just a prompt with the thinking done in advance. The two-line version ('write about onboarding, 1500 words, keyword: user onboarding') is exactly the input that produces the generic, interchangeable article everyone complains about. The angle and the key message are the parts that cannot be guessed.
Gotcha: briefs drift in two directions and both are failures. Too thin and the writer invents the strategy themselves, badly. Too thick and you have written the article in bullet form, which kills any voice the writer had and wastes the reason you hired them. Aim for one page: decisions and constraints, not sentences.
Ask AI for it
Write a one-page content brief using [topic], [reader], [goal], [competitor and SERP notes], [source pack], [approved angle], [CTA], and [style rules]. Include: (1) the reader and the specific job they are trying to finish, (2) the search or question that brings them here, (3) the angle in one sentence, taken from the approved angle and justified against the supplied competitor notes, (4) the single key message they should remember, (5) a section outline with an H2 list and one line on what each section must prove, (6) the facts, sources, or SMEs to pull from, drawn only from the source pack, (7) target length, tone, and CTA, (8) a 'do not do' list of cliches, claims, and structures to avoid. Do not invent a differentiator, a statistic, or a source: where a strategic decision or a piece of research is missing, mark it as an open decision for the owner. Decisions and constraints only. Do not draft any of the actual copy.