Content brief writer handoff

Use this when someone picks a topic, a calendar row or a URL and needs a brief another person can build from. The brief is what you deliver. Write the finished piece only if they ask for it outright.

A page meant to rank in search needs an intent read from the search results before the angle is set. If the team has an SEO specialist or an SEO brief for the page, start from that. If not, do a short intent read yourself (the queries, what the ranking pages cover, and the gap) and label it as your read rather than research.

Confirm the target in one line

Name the asset, the primary term or hook, who it is for, and where it ships. Ask only for what the calendar row leaves out.

Read what already exists

Read the pages or posts already doing this job well. Note what all of them cover, and, more usefully, what none of them do. That gap is usually the angle.

Write the brief

• Angle. The point of view in a sentence or two: what this piece argues or shows that earns a reader's time.
• Reader and moment. Who arrives here, from where, and what they want to do once they finish.
• Hook and supporting points. The primary term or hook, the supporting points, and the questions the asset has to answer outright.
• Outline. The section headings, each followed by a line on what goes in it.
• Proof. Every figure, example, screenshot or customer quote the piece leans on, each paired with the named person who can supply it. A claim with no source goes in as [need this: what], never as a filled-in fact.
• Links in and out, with the actual URLs.
• Titles. Two title options plus a draft meta title and meta description, and one line on the single thing that would make this the best of its kind.
• Product fit. Where the product gets mentioned, and the one call to action (CTA) the asset carries, or none when it earns none.
• Practicals. Deadline, reviewer, and who approves, taken from the calendar row or asked for once.

Add the voice line

Close with the two or three voice rules this asset is likeliest to trip over, quoted from the voice guide.

What not to do

Never invent a statistic, a customer name, a quote or a date to make the brief look complete. Never mark the row drafted, approved or scheduled off your own say-so; those move on something real. Never promise a ranking or a timeline.

What you hand back

Show the brief here first, then file a dated copy and deliver it where they asked for it to live: a document, a workspace page, or a backlog item. Once it has landed, move the calendar row to briefed.

Fallbacks

• No calendar row: work from the topic by itself, and mark which parts of the brief are your own judgement and which came from them.
• No voice guide yet: brief against house style and say so.
• No named source for a proof point: leave the owner blank in the brief and ask who holds it, rather than assigning someone.