Have you ever had to rewrite a piece so many times even after listening to a brief, you can’t see what’s wrong with it anymore? The good news is that it’s not just you.

The problem that often lies at the root of such situations is that there exists a gap in the understanding of the writer and the person delegating the work. One way to resolve this is by asking a few stock questions each time round that ensure you understand the foundation of the project.

Here are five questions to ask while being briefed for a new content project:

1. What is the project’s objective? 

Every brief should outline a clearly defined goal. What is the business problem the brief is identifying? And what is the direction provided towards its solution? Is the client looking at more leads or brand recall?

A thought-through brief is a strategic roadmap of a project; it will leave you with clear ideas on how to immediately proceed towards reaching the goal. Any doubts on this front will muddle your mind, with your work going through several rounds of feedback and revisions at a later stage. Ask lots of questions if you must!

2. What are the brief guidelines? 

Guidelines bring consistency to all communication that goes out across a brand’s channels. Well-defined, clear guidelines chart out dos and don’ts, the tone of communication, fonts, logos, acceptable phrases on social media, etc. Ensure that you have internalised the guidelines before you begin work.

3. Who is the target audience? 

It is impossible to craft any communication, written or otherwise, without knowing whom you are addressing. Your content marketing agency should ideally provide you with the precise demographics of the audience that you are writing for.

What is their age group? Where do they reside? What are their internet habits? What are their likes and dislikes? Having a clear mental image of your reader will help you tailor your content better, leading to higher chances of hitting a home run in the first go.

4. What are the brand’s SEO goals? 

It is recommended that you have a set of clear SEO recommendations right at the briefing stage. Your content marketing agency’s brief will outline the following, among other factors:

• A clear SEO strategy
• Keywords
• Word length
• Keyword implementation strategy
• CTAs
• Number of H1 and H2 tags in the headline

Content for SEO needs to be crafted around the pre-specified guidelines and objectives. Trying to accommodate these recommendations later could result in major rewriting – or worse, having to start from scratch.

5. What is the exact scope of work? 

One can never say this often enough to content writers: Clearly understand the scope of work in your project when you receive your brief. Your agency will clearly list the number of content pieces they need, and in what form.

How many pages of content need to be written for the website? How many blog pieces are expected for the entire project? Will the topics be assigned to you? Discuss word counts and even the number of pieces that are to be written for social media for one week.

There are several advantages of detailing out your scope of work:

• You can accurately decide how much to charge for your services to avoid conflict later; this could also include discussing the number of revisions that are included within your package
• It helps you agree to reasonable deadlines
• You can plan the project and an execution strategy well in advance
• It sets expectations for you and the agency, right at the outset

In a nutshell 

Asking the right questions during the briefing session will save you a lot of time in the long run; it allows you to finish the project on time and move on to the next challenge.