Having A Writer Help Build Article Briefs Can Be Better Than Going It Alone

In a former life, I was a passionate assignment editor. I spent my days building detailed outlines for magazine articles. I discovered something: the more time I put into clearly communicating exactly what I wanted, the closer to “print ready” a piece would be when it was submitted.

But these days, it seems anyone running a content strategy for a brand—much less a portfolio of brands— has less and and less time to spend building assignments (aka creating really good briefs). Or is it just me?

I’ve found a process that lets me share pieces of the task, though. And I’m now 100% sure that involving the writer who will also be drafting the copy in the brief creation process yields stronger content than if I’d spent my own time building everything, the way I once did.

The premise

To understand the customer’s perspective using Audience Ops, I’ve contracted them to write blog articles for ARPU. When Sara, Director of Operations, suggested I add on article briefs, I agreed. Instead of going from a few bits of info (title, headers, resources) to a first draft, they add in an article brief review phase.

What this meant for me: I could give goals, context, research materials (in this case links to moments in recorded conversations that I know would be great to include), suggest an article framework, and indicate if and how the product should be included, but I don’t have to create the outline.

Instead, the writer creates an outline and I have the opportunity to review it and add comments in the Google doc to my heart’s content BEFORE ANYTHING IS ACTUALLY WRITTEN.

Our workflow (if you’re curious)

Every 16 weeks I take a day and draft summaries of 8 articles I think we should publish (based on conversations that occurred during our live series, Subscription Ecommerce Live, on questions our customers have been asking, and on feature releases that are coming down the pike).

Then, 2 weeks before work on an article begins, I receive a thorough outline to review. I assess the order of ideas, the examples and proof that will be used to back each idea up, answer questions the writer has left for me about the product or the audience’s familiarity with specific topics, and add requests (like, “Please add something about XYZ here. This resource would be good to link to.”).

Two weeks later, I review an article that is 70% “ready” (which I consider really great for outsourced work) and add revision requests. And a few days later, I have a draft that needs only minor tweaks before I hand it back off to Audience Ops to set up in our CMS and send me a preview of the scheduled article, which I also approve (or hop in to make final revisions to) before it publishes.

What I’ve found

The mental load this has lifted off of me is huge. I keep my focus on overall strategy but stay “in the content” without doing all the heavy lifting.

And because I work with the same talented writer week after week, he is both learning my preferences and building his knowledge of how our product works and how to highlight it in noninvasive ways when appropriate.

The collaborative approach has established a stronger relationship than the usual assignor/assignee relationship. I like to think that the process of planning, giving feedback, and going back and forth in the early phase of creating content is keeping us more accountable to each other, which benefits ARPU’s target audience in the long haul.

Interested in testing out this brief collaboration process for your content? Contact Audience Ops.