A Copywriter Brief: What to Tell Your Writer to Get a Good Text

Why the brief decides the quality of the text

When a draft disappoints, the cause is often not the writer’s skill but the information they were given. A copywriter brief is the document that moves what you know out of your head and into a form someone else can use. It saves the writer from guessing, saves you from rounds of revision, and gives both of you something to point to when you disagree about what was asked.

This article sets out what goes into a brief for an article, advertorial or press text, with a worked example and a short list of common faults. It does not cover how to write the text itself; for that, see how to write an effective advertorial. The checklist below applies whether the writer is in-house, a freelancer or an agency offering article writing for SEO.

If you prefer to fill in a form and receive a structured document, our advertorial brief generator turns your answers into a brief you can copy or download. The generator is a convenience; the thinking behind it is what this article describes.

1. The objective: what must this text achieve?

Begin with the purpose, in one sentence. “To explain how our service works to people considering it” is a purpose. “To be good” is not. Typical objectives include:

• Introduce a new product or service to people who do not know it.
• Answer a recurring customer question in depth.
• Support a particular page with a relevant, contextual link.
• Announce a fact such as an opening, an appointment or a result.
• Build understanding of a complex topic before a sales conversation.

Say what the reader should know, feel or do after reading. If the text needs to produce one measurable action, name it, but be realistic: a single article rarely does everything.

2. The audience: who will read it?

Describe readers, not demographics alone. What do they already know? What are they worried about? Where will they read the text: on a trade site, a local news site, a lifestyle blog? A text for specialists can use technical terms; a text for general readers must define them.

• Role and context: a homeowner comparing quotes, an HR manager looking for a training provider, a visitor planning a weekend.
• Knowledge level: novice, informed, expert.
• Common misunderstandings the text should correct.
• Objections they typically raise.

If you do not know your audience well, say so, and share what you do know. A writer can work with an honest, partial picture.

3. The message: the three things the reader must take away

A brief that lists twelve messages produces a text that makes none of them. Choose a main message and up to two supporting ones. Add the facts that back each one: figures, dates, certifications, process steps. Mark which facts are confirmed and which are provisional.

It is also worth listing what the text should not say. Perhaps a feature is not yet available, or a comparison with a competitor is not allowed. Saying so removes a source of rework.

4. Tone, format and length

Tell the writer how the text should sound and what shape it should take.

• Tone: informative, friendly, formal, technical. Examples help more than adjectives.
• Point of view: company voice (“we”), neutral third person, or the voice of a named expert.
• Length: a range, not an exact count, with the reason (a publisher’s guidance, a page layout).
• Structure: headings, lists, a box with key facts, a closing call to action.
• Language and spelling: which language, which variety, how to write names and terms.

If you have an example of a text you like, attach it and say what you like about it. Examples work better than long descriptions, but be clear that you want the approach, not the wording.

5. Keywords, links and anchors

If the text is meant to support search visibility, give the writer what they need to do so without distorting the text.

• Main phrase and a few related terms, with the instruction to use them naturally.
• The page the text should support and why a reader would want to go there.
• Link targets and anchor wording, if you have views. Say how many links are wanted and where; our guide on how many links to put in an advertorial discusses sensible numbers and positions.
• Attributes, if relevant: for example, whether you want links to carry nofollow or sponsored. The reasoning is explained in dofollow, nofollow, sponsored.

Avoid demanding that a phrase appear a particular number of times. Good text uses the main phrase where it is natural and varies the wording elsewhere.

6. Sources and facts

Writers cannot verify what only your company knows. Give them materials: product sheets, past articles, internal explanations, interviews with specialists, the data you want to use and where it comes from. Say which statistics are public and which are internal.

Ask the writer to flag every claim they cannot verify. An honest draft with a list of questions is better than a confident draft with invented detail. Our article on sources, data and quotes in advertorials goes into how to make claims checkable.

7. Restrictions: legal, editorial and brand

This section prevents the most expensive surprises. List:

• Regulated claims. Health, finance, alcohol, gambling and supplements carry special limits. Tell the writer which apply.
• Forbidden formulations: unsupported superlatives, guarantees, false urgency, attacks on competitors, fake reviews.
• Brand constraints: names, spellings, claims that legal has approved.
• The publisher’s rules. If the text will appear on a third-party site, ask for those rules before the draft. For our publication, the rules are on the publishing rules page; for typical grounds of refusal, see why advertorials get rejected.
• Images: who supplies them, what licence, whether identifiable people have given their consent.

Remember that the brief is not legal advice. If you are unsure about a claim in a regulated sector, ask a qualified professional before you commission.

8. Logistics: deliverables, deadlines and approvals

Many conflicts are logistical. Specify:

1. The deliverable and format. Succes Grup, for example, takes one Word (.docx) file per article, with the links already inserted on the anchors.
2. Who supplies the image and in what format: a landscape JPG or PNG, with the source stated or a licence that allows use.
3. The deadline for the first draft and for final text.
4. Who approves, and how many people. Name them.
5. How many revision rounds are included.
6. Where the text will be used and when, if the date matters.

Approvals deserve extra attention. A text that has to pass a director, a lawyer and a product owner takes longer than one that does not; build that time into the plan.

A filled-in example (hypothetical)

The following brief is invented to show the level of detail that helps. The company, product and details are fictional.

Notice what the example does. It states a purpose, ties the text to one page, names things to avoid and sets limits on revision. A writer given this brief can start immediately and knows when they have finished.

After the draft: giving feedback that works

A brief does not end when the draft arrives. How you respond affects the final result as much as how you commissioned.

• Read the whole thing first, then comment once, not in dribbles.
• Separate corrections from preferences. A wrong fact must be fixed; a different tone is a preference that may change the brief.
• Refer to the brief. “The brief asked for a practical tone; this paragraph reads like a brochure” is more useful than “I do not like it”.
• Collect internal comments before sending them. Contradictory comments from several colleagues are the most common cause of repeated revisions.
• Keep what worked. Add the lessons to your brief template for next time.

Common faults in briefs

• “Write something about us.” No purpose, no audience.
• Everything at once. Eight messages, six keywords, three calls to action.
• Hidden restrictions. Rules revealed only after the draft is delivered.
• No sources. The writer fills the gaps, and risks inventing.
• No decision-maker. Nobody has authority to approve, so the draft circulates indefinitely.
• Treating the brief as fixed. If the situation changes, update the brief and say what changed.

Next step

Write your next brief using the eight headings above and notice which one you struggle with; that is usually the part of the project that is least clear. Two related topics can improve the result: the question-and-answer format described in FAQ pages for SEO and AI answers, and the structure of markup in schema.org and JSON-LD for articles. For an example of how the topics in a brief change with the sector, see tourism and hospitality advertorials.

If you would rather hand the work to a team, our SEO article writing service can take a brief like this and write a draft with the publishing rules in mind, which should reduce the chance of a rewrite. You can start with whatever information you have today.

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