What Makes A Great Content Brief — And Why Most Kerala Businesses Get It Wrong

With the rise of competition in the digital market space in Kerala, businesses are creating more content today than ever. Businesses publish their blogs, social media content, website pages, and marketing campaigns to create customer engagement and increase brand awareness. However, most of the time, the content created by these businesses doesn’t resonate with the targeted audience, fails to communicate a clear message and fails to make any contribution to the business. The problem isn’t always bad writing or weak design. In most cases, such content is the result of poor planning and the lack of a well-defined content brief.

Despite its importance, most businesses in Kerala still go for content creation without any proper planning or content brief. Most businesses give a deadline, topic, and an instruction to “make it engaging” to their creative team and leave them to find out about the audience, message and everything else on their own. Although this approach to content creation sometimes helps to come up with decent content, most of the time it ends up giving nothing except for good-looking content that lacks focus and direction. So, what makes a great content brief, and why do so many businesses in Kerala fail to use one? Let’s find out.

What Does a Great Content Brief Include?

A content brief should be able to answer these seven simple questions.

1. Purpose

What will this page achieve? - Generate leads? Get bookings? Get phone calls? Simply informed?

2. Target Audience

Who will be reading this? First-time buyers in Kozhikode? Families living in Dubai? Students studying in Kochi?

3. Topic and approach

What will this page contain, and what angle will it take for convincing the readers?

4. Keywords and intent

What keywords should be included, and what question should this page answer?

5. Tone of voice

Friendly but professional, informal and friendly, or something else?

6. Additional info

Services, rates, locations, awards, testimonials etc.

7. Formatting and next steps

Word count, languages, and what the writer should do after the draft is ready.

Even a half-page brief that includes these seven points will save hours of back-and-forth messages.

Why Do Most Kerala Businesses Get the Content Brief Wrong?

It is rarely by design. Sometimes, these omissions are made when business owners are too busy to write a brief. Here are common errors that happen often.
 

1. Giving topics instead of briefs

“Write about our interior design services” is a topic. It does not say who this is for, or what should be achieved.

The solution: Add one line for your target audience and one line for your purpose. It makes all the difference.

2. No mention of target audience

Several briefs we have seen make no mention of the audience. A brief that talks about “Kerala home buyers” does not say if they are local, or based overseas. A page for first-time buyers in Kozhikode has very different requirements to a page for NRIs looking to buy a home in Kerala.

Solution: Add two sentences describing your ideal customer. Where are they located, and what concerns are you addressing.

3. Ignoring keywords and search intent

Some businesses forget to include keywords. Some add keywords as an afterthought. Some expect the website content writer to guess what keywords to include, and why. Google and search engines love content that directly answers a search query. Search engines and artificial intelligence programs will always prioritize a web page that directly answers a question.

The fix: Include two or three phrases your customers are likely to search for. Add the question the web page should answer?

What Does a Good Brief Look Like?

Here is an example.

Weak brief: “Write a page about our dental clinic.” Strong brief: “Write a 600-word service page for our Calicut dental clinic. The readers are working individuals looking for painless treatment. Use a friendly and reassuring tone of voice. Mention our 15 years of experience and weekend timings. End with a ‘Book a Free Check-up’ button.”

The second brief took two extra minutes to write, but it can save a week of editing. The writer knows exactly who the page is for, what should be included, what tone to use, and what the end result should look like.

How Do Website Content Writers Use Your Brief?

Professional website content writers look at your brief as a guide. They will use the information in it to define the goal, the target audience, the headings, and the format and structure of the content. A clear brief allows them to write shorter sentences, making it easier for search engines and artificial intelligence programs to index the page. This is also the place to ask specific questions about your industry. A good Website Content Writing Service will ask these questions if they are not included in your brief.

Your Word will always ask these questions to understand your needs before writing any content. In the unlikely case, if your brief misses out on any information, we will reach out to you briefly, and move on. You do not need to be an expert on content writing to hire a professional.

Conclusion

A good content brief is not about writing more. It is about saying the right things once. When Kerala-based business owners talk about what they want to achieve, who they are looking to serve, what keywords to include, and what tone of voice to adopt, the website content that follows will always reflect their brand voice. If you would like to receive help for shaping your brief, or turning it into beautiful, professional website content, Your Word is happy to help.