How to Create a Content Brief ?

A content brief compiles all the information a content creator needs to produce a content piece. 

The best content briefs combine editorial direction with content strategy to ensure that every content piece is well-written and optimized to drive SEO results. It ensures that you do not miss any critical information necessary for your target audiences. 

Want to create content briefs within minutes? Look no more. Follow these steps. 

STEP 1

Login to your Scalenut account. Then, click the “Article Writer/Cruise Mode'' button available on your Scalenut Dashboard.

STEP 2

Next, select the article you want to work on and click on the keyword. If the article is already generated, you’d be directly redirected to the editor. Simply click on ‘Brief’ to access the content brief section.

STEP 3

The Brief section begins with General instructions like the suggested range of images, word count and headings. The option to add additional notes, references, and notes comes next, followed by the Outline and Key Terms section.

You can add or edit any information in these sections. Or, click on the expand arrow to view the detailed layout and copy the entire section.

STEP 4

The Outlines' section covers an overview of the blog headings - from H1 to the subheading tags (H2s and H3s) and FAQ. You can click on any H2 or H3 to add it to your content brief and add notes along with the headings. You can also hover your cursor over the H tags in the guidelines to edit or delete them.

STEP 5

If you are satisfied with the guidelines, you can now download them as Doc or PDF. All you need to do is select your desired format.

STEP 6

Scroll extreme down and you’ll find the Key Terms section. Here, the blue marked ones stand for unused key terms that you can include in the content to increase SEO Score. While the striked through grey ones stand for key terms that have been already used.

Alternatively, you can also access the Content Brief section from the Research tab>Detailed Report in the editor.

1. Competition Overview - Users can access different parameters of the top ranking pages around the main keyword from here. The section covers top page statistics such as the word count, SEO score(using our proprietary marking scheme), number of H Tags (headings), and images. Users can also get a metric overview of each of these aspects covered.

Please note: You can customize the competition overview as per your preference.

Let’s consider you have chosen to view your competition for top 30 URLs, this is how your screen will look like -

2. Outlines - The ‘Outlines’ tab covers an overview of the content brief creation process. For example, it fetches the heading and subheading tags (H2s and H3s) used by the top 30 ranking pages on your main topic. You can click on any H2 or H3 to add it to your content brief and add notes along with the heading

3. Questions - 

The ‘Questions’ tab helps you research the queries of your target audiences and help you in social listening. You can use these questions for creating the frequently asked questions (FAQs) section in your content. 

The tab lists all the questions fetched from different sources such as Quora, Google, and Reddit focused on the topic. It includes questions and other popular forums. You can select any of these questions and add them to your FAQ section.

Additionally, our powerful AI also generates questions based on the topic that you can answer in your content.

4. Statistics - The "Statistics'' tab streamlines the process of making your content more convincing and trustworthy. Whether you're trying to make a point or bolster your argument, including statistics is one of the most effective ways. It sets your content apart and makes it more valuable to your audience.

5. Citations - 

The next tab is the ‘Citations’ section. You can click on it to get a list of all the popular citation sources on Google used by the top 30 ranking pages. You can get the exact page URL hyperlinked by different content pieces, its anchor text, and the frequency of the occurrence in the competition pieces. Or, click on the cited URLs to visit the page to understand their content. 

6. Key Terms - You can add the most vital aspect of a content brief through the ‘Key Terms’ tab. It showcases all the terms extracted by NLP fetched by the Scalenut tool from the top-ranking pages focused on your primary keyword. The NLP results can be sorted based on their frequency of occurrence on the pages, importance, and presence in H Tags. In addition, you can also check the examples of the usage of each keyword listed in a separate pane in the same tab.

On the right side of your screen, there is a sidebar where our powerful AI creates your content brief. You can view all your selections with respect to the H Tags, the references, and the FAQs. Or, add extra keywords, references, and notes that the writer needs to keep in mind while writing the content piece.

Quick Tip: Click on the ‘Back to Editor’ option on the upper right corner of your screen to get back to the editor. Here, you can paste your content outline and start developing it. You can also use our powerful ‘Cruise Mode’ to form the first draft of your content within minutes.

That’s all for the content brief section in the Scalenut editor and how you can leverage it.