
Most weak articles were weak at brief stage. If the brief cannot say what the current top results get wrong, the writer has nothing to beat.
## What the brief must answer
The query and its variants. Who is searching and what they are trying to finish. What the current results already do well, and where they are vague, out of date or generic. What proprietary evidence you can add: your data, your case work, your operating detail.
## How to use it
Fill it in before commissioning, and refuse to commission without the gap and the evidence sections completed. Review the draft against the brief, not against taste. Keep the completed briefs — after a quarter they become the most honest record of why anything ranked.
Where this applies
- SEO
- Content Marketing
Work with Juno Park
This resource comes from the work Juno Park does. See what they offer, the results they can evidence, and how to start a conversation.
More from Juno Park
- FrameworkAn editorial calendar that holds up under a busy quarterCalendars fail when they schedule ideas instead of capacity. Ours plans one substantial piece, two derivatives and one interview per month, and leaves a slot deliberately empty.
- ArticleDistribution is the job, production is the easy partWe spent two years improving what we made and almost nothing on where it went. Reversing that ratio changed our readership more than any change to the writing did.
- GuideFounder-led social without becoming a content creatorFounders do not need a posting schedule. They need three recurring subjects they know better than anyone, and a way to capture what they already say in meetings.
- ArticleDocument ads: what to put in the first two pagesThe first two pages decide whether anyone reads page three, and page three is where most people put the substance. Reversing that order is the whole trick.
- PlaybookGetting a quarter of material out of one shootOne shoot day, planned for reuse, produces a main film, four short cuts, a set of stills and a written piece. Planned for one film, it produces one film.
- ArticleWhat community tone actually means in practiceEvery guide says match the tone of the community. Almost none say what that means concretely, so here are the specific choices we make, sentence by sentence.