Dear business owner with forty blog posts and no enquiries from any of them,
I’ve read posts like yours. “10 Digital Marketing Tips for SMEs.” “Why Your Business Needs Social Media.” Competent, tidy, perfectly spelled, and identical to the thousands of articles already ranking above them.
They don’t target anything a real person searches. They don’t say anything your business uniquely knows. They never link to the pages that make you money, and they end without giving the reader a reason to get in touch.
Seth Godin built a whole book, Purple Cow, on one image. Drive past a field of brown cows and you soon stop noticing them. A forty-first post that sounds like the other forty is another brown cow.
I’d bet your writer did their best with what they were given, which was probably a title and a line like “write 1,000 words on digital marketing for SMEs.” Nobody gave them a brief, and that’s where the forty posts went wrong.
A content brief is a one- or two-page document that tells a writer exactly what a piece has to achieve before they write a word. Give a good writer a bad brief and you’ll get a well-written article that ranks for nothing and converts nobody. Give an average writer an excellent brief and you’ll get a useful, targeted article that answers a real question and moves readers towards the business. The template below is the process behind how we plan our own articles. For the strategy behind content, read the content marketing guide.
The Template
1. Working title: [A clear, specific title, which the writer may improve]
2. Primary search term: [The main query the piece should rank for]
3. Search intent: [What the searcher actually wants, whether to learn, compare, find a provider or buy]
4. Reader: [Who they are, what they know already, what situation they’re in]
5. The one question this piece must answer: [In one sentence]
6. Our angle: [What we know or believe that most competing articles don’t say]
7. Outline: [Headings in order, with a line on what each covers]
8. Questions to answer along the way: [Related questions searchers ask]
9. Evidence and sources: [Our data, case studies, examples, and reputable sources to cite]
10. Internal links: [Pages this should link to, especially commercial ones]
11. Call to action: [What the reader should do next]
12. Format and length guidance: [Based on intent and competition, not an arbitrary word count]
13. Tone and rules: [Voice, words to avoid, claims that need evidence]
14. Deadline, owner and reviewer
Filling It In
Pick a search term real people use, that matches something you can help with, and that a business your size has a realistic chance of ranking for. Long, specific searches like “how to register for IELTS in Lagos” are usually easier to win than broad ones like “IELTS”, and the people searching them are closer to acting. Your Search Console data shows searches you already appear for, which is often the best place to find openings.
Search intent is the most important section, and the one most people skip. Search the term yourself and look at what already ranks. Step-by-step guides mean the searcher wants to learn how. Comparisons, reviews and “best of” lists mean they’re weighing options. Service pages, local listings and directories mean they want a provider, so you need a strong service or location page, not a blog post. Product and pricing pages mean they want to buy. Match the dominant intent, because a brilliant guide won’t rank for a search where people want to hire someone.
Describe the reader so precisely you could pick them out of a crowd. “A Lagos business owner spending on Instagram ads who suspects they aren’t working and doesn’t know how to check” is useful. “SMEs” is useless. The more specific the reader, the more specific and useful the writing. The customer research guide helps you find out who they really are.
The angle decides whether the piece deserves to exist. Read the top-ranking articles for your term and ask what they all say, and what they miss or get wrong. Your angle might be local context the others lack, a method from your own work, a caveat competitors avoid, or a clearer structure. If you can’t put the angle into words, don’t write the piece yet. It will only repeat what’s already out there.
Write the outline as headings in order, following the reader’s questions from understanding the problem to acting on it. With a good outline, the writer rarely wanders and the editor rarely has to restructure. Then collect the related questions searchers ask, from the “People also ask” box on Google, from questions customers put to your team, from your enquiry messages and comments, and from forums where your audience talks, and answer them clearly inside the piece. Clear, direct answers also help AI assistants understand and cite your content, as the AI search guide explains.
List the evidence the piece should use, like your own case studies, data from your work, worked examples and reputable sources for any claims, and flag every claim that needs support. An article full of statistics from unnamed sources erodes trust. One built on your real experience earns it.
List the pages it should link to, including related articles and, above all, the service or product pages that turn readers into customers. Content that never links to anything commercial produces traffic that goes nowhere. Note which existing articles should be updated to link to the new one, too. Then decide what a reader who found the piece useful should do next, and make it fit what they just read. Someone reading about fixing website speed might be offered a site audit. Someone reading a pricing guide might be offered a pricing review. A generic “contact us” loses to a specific, relevant next step every time.
Forget arbitrary word counts. Look at what ranks and ask what it takes to answer the question thoroughly, and better. Some queries are best answered in 600 words, and others need a full guide. Specify useful formats too, like tables for comparisons, numbered steps for processes, templates people can copy, or a calculator or checklist where that would serve readers better than more text. Finally, spell out your brand voice, the words to avoid and the rules about claims. Plain language, no unexplained jargon, no statistics without a named source, no promised results. A shared style guide keeps this section short.
Thirty Minutes of Competitor Research
- Search your primary term in a private browser window, set to your target location where possible.
- Open the top five results and note their format, length, headings and what they cover.
- List what they all include. Readers expect these topics, so your piece needs to cover them too.
- List what they miss, like local context, practical steps, limitations, templates and examples. This is where your angle lives.
- Check “People also ask” and the related searches at the bottom of the results page.
- Ask an AI assistant the same question and note which sources it relies on and what it says. That’s the baseline answer your piece needs to beat.
A Worked Example
| Brief section | Example |
|---|---|
| Working title | How to Register for IELTS in Lagos: Dates, Fees, Documents and Venues |
| Primary search term | ielts registration lagos |
| Intent | Mostly learn, then act. People want the steps, then want to book |
| Reader | A first-time test taker, likely applying to study or work abroad, anxious about getting the process right |
| The one question | “Exactly what do I need to do to book my IELTS test in Lagos?” |
| Our angle | Step-by-step with the practical details other guides skip: document problems that cause delays, how to choose between test formats, and what happens after booking |
| Internal links | Registration page, test dates page, preparation courses, results and courier page |
| Call to action | Book a test date |
When the draft comes in, judge it against the brief. Your personal taste can wait. Does it answer the one question clearly, early on? Does it match the search intent? Is the angle still there, or has it gone generic? Are the claims supported, and are the internal links and call to action in place? Would the reader described in the brief find it useful?
Briefing an AI Writer
Plenty of businesses now use AI tools to draft content, which makes a good brief even more important. Give an AI tool a vague instruction and you’ll get the most generic version of the topic ever written. Paste in the full brief, including the reader, the angle, the outline, the evidence and the tone rules, and ask for a draft that follows it.
Then edit hard. Add your real examples, check every claim, and cut anything generic. The angle and evidence sections are where AI drafts are weakest and where your experience is worth the most.
The Refresh Brief
Updating an article that already has some visibility is often faster and more effective than writing a new one. Use a shorter brief.
Current URL: [page address]
What it ranks for now: [top queries and positions from Search Console]
What’s outdated: [facts, prices, screenshots, dates]
What’s missing: [questions searchers ask that the page doesn’t answer, and what competing pages cover]
What to remove: [thin or repetitive sections]
New internal links to add: [newer related pages]
Title and description changes: [if click-through rate is low]
Start with pages ranking roughly between positions 8 and 20 for valuable searches, because they’re closest to page one. The Search Console guide shows how to find them. Keep the same URL when you refresh a page, so it holds on to the visibility it has already earned.
Whether new or refreshed, record the primary term and the goal in your content log. After a few months, check Search Console to see whether the piece ranks for its term, and your analytics to see whether readers take the next step. Pieces that rank and don’t convert need a better call to action. Pieces that don’t rank may need a sharper angle or stronger internal links. The SEO timeline guide covers how long to wait before judging.
Post Forty-One
Before anyone writes another article, fill in a brief for it. If you can’t complete the angle section, you’ve just saved yourself the cost of post forty-one.
If content isn’t the only thing underperforming, the free 2-minute diagnostic will show which of your four walls is weakest. Content that brings no enquiries usually points to Attract, though sometimes the leak sits further down.
Spending ₦1M or more a month on marketing? The free 30-minute Leak Check will show you three places that money is leaking.
This template is free to use and adapt. Search results, features and ranking factors change over time. This is general information, not a guarantee of rankings or traffic.
This article covers one part of a bigger system. Our guide to digital marketing in Nigeria shows how the four walls fit together, and the order to build them in.
