How to Brief a Writer So the Article Sounds Like Your Company
When a company is unhappy with an article, whether from an agency, a freelancer, or an internal writer, the complaint is usually the same: "It's fine, but it doesn't sound like us." Sometimes that means the tone is off. More often it means the article is generic, because the writer was given a topic and nothing else, and had to fill the gaps with what anyone could find online.
The fix is not a better writer. It is a better brief. A good brief takes about twenty minutes of an expert's time and turns a competent writer into someone who can write as if they work for you. This is what goes in it.
The question, in the customer's words
Start with the exact question the article answers, phrased the way a customer would phrase it. Not "content about supplier qualification" but "How do I know whether a new supplier is actually certified, or just says they are?"
That single sentence does more than any style guide. It tells the writer who the reader is, what they are worried about, and what a satisfying answer looks like. It also becomes the working title, which keeps the article honest.
The reader, in one paragraph
Who is asking this, what is their role, and what situation are they in? "A quality manager at a mid-sized device manufacturer, who has been handed a new supplier by purchasing and needs to sign off on them within two weeks, and has been burned before by a certificate that turned out to be expired."
A writer who can picture that person will make a hundred small decisions correctly: what to assume, what to explain, which examples will land, how formal to be.
The answer, from someone who knows
This is the heart of the brief and the part most companies skip. Before the writer starts, the expert answers the question themselves, badly and briefly, in notes or in a fifteen-minute recorded conversation.
What matters here is the material only they have: the actual steps they follow, the number that surprised them, the mistake they see people make, the thing the official guidance gets wrong, the story of the time it went badly. This is what makes the article rank and what makes it sound like the company. A writer can shape it. A writer cannot invent it.
Do not polish these notes. Rough and specific beats tidy and vague.
What the article must include and must not
A short list of each. Must include: the three certification bodies that matter in this industry, the free lookup tool, the two red flags. Must not include: a pitch for the company's product in the first half, any claim about competitors, anything about pricing we cannot back up.
This is also where compliance lives. If there are words the company cannot use, claims it cannot make, or disclaimers it must carry, they go here, once, so the writer is not guessing.
How the company sounds
Three or four sentences, not a style guide. "We write plainly and confidently. Short sentences. We take positions when the evidence supports them. We never use exclamation points, and we do not call anything 'cutting-edge.' We sound like a knowledgeable colleague, not a brochure."
If you have two or three existing pieces that sound right, link them. Examples beat adjectives.
Where it sits in the plan
Tell the writer what the reader should do when they finish, and what other articles this one connects to. "The next step is to book a supplier audit call; link the audit page once where it fits naturally. This article should link to the ISO overview post and the incoming inspection checklist." That turns a standalone article into part of a structure.
Practicalities
Length as a range, not a target. Deadline. Where the draft goes. Who reviews it and how quickly they will turn it around. Whether the writer should suggest a title and description or use the ones given.
What a brief looks like when it is done
It fits on a page:
- Question: one sentence, customer's words.
- Reader: one paragraph.
- Expert's answer: rough notes or a short transcript.
- Must include / must not include: two short lists.
- Voice: three sentences plus example links.
- Next step and related articles.
- Length, deadline, review.
Twenty minutes for the expert, ten for whoever assembles it. The article that comes back will need a fraction of the editing, will contain things no competitor could write, and will sound like the company because the company's knowledge is in it.
The brief is the strategy
Companies sometimes treat the brief as an administrative step before the real work. It is the other way around. Choosing the question, defining the reader, and extracting what the expert knows is the strategic work. Writing is the execution. Get the brief right and almost any competent writer, or any competent tool, will produce something worth publishing. Get it wrong and no amount of talent downstream will save it.
