How to write a brief for SEO promotion

You have found a customer for SEO-promotion of the site, received consent to carry out the work and are about to conclude an agreement. Congratulations, you are ready to start! But first send the customer a brief to make sure exactly what he needs.

The specialists of the Workspace tender platform told what questions should be in the brief, how to draw up this document and how to convince the customer to fill it out.

What is a brief and why is it needed

Brief (not to be confused with TK!) – a document that is drawn up by the contractor, and filled out by the customer. A kind of mini-interview where the client answers questions about his business, product or service, the subject of promotion.

There are no strict rules in the brief: the client writes in his own words how he sees the work of SEO promotion, his wishes and conditions. And only then, on the basis of this document, you draw up a TOR, where you tell how you will make his dreams come true.

Some customers are skeptical about filling out the brief. Usually such skeptics make the following arguments:

All these arguments can be easily refuted and convinced the customer that filling out the brief is not a whim, but a necessity for a better understanding and completion of the task.

The client says how long? Not at all, it usually takes 15-20 minutes to complete the brief (of course, if he has already thought about this task before and knows at least approximately what indicators need to be achieved). Yes, the voice is faster, but you can be sure that you haven’t forgotten anything. And most importantly, they were recorded in writing. After all, the brief is an internal document, you can refer to it if disagreements suddenly arise. Our practice says that this is a fairly convincing counterargument.

Is the client afraid to reveal secret information? Calm him down, convince him that you are also a man of action and are worried about your reputation. Moreover, the digital world is narrow, it is enough to behave dishonorably once – word of mouth will instantly spread it to the whole district.

The client thinks that you are a pro and you yourself should guess what exactly he needs and for what purposes? Yes, it will be more difficult. Try to speak the language of business: say that with the help of the brief you will better understand the goals and objectives of the project, evaluate your resources to complete the project (whether there will be enough time, effort, will you manage it alone or will you have to involve specialists), estimate the cost (and name an adequate price ), minimize the risks of work (if the contractor knows exactly what to do, the chances of getting a perfectly matching product increase significantly).

If the customer rests and does not want to fill out the brief, we advise you to part with it. Yes, it is a pity. Yes, I don’t want to. But later it can save you a lot of wasted money, nerves and time. Time for which we could find another adequate client.

What should be in the brief for SEO promotion

The specialists of the tender site have developed a universal brief that reflects the main points of search engine optimization. You can supplement it with your own or send it already prepared (the template will be at the end of the article).

Вrief cap

Here the client must indicate the basic brief information: his contacts, the site to be promoted, the desired deadlines, the project budget (monthly or one-time) and the format for selecting the contractor (if the customer sends the brief to several contractors at once, it will be easier for you to understand how it will be selected best).

Information about the company

Let the client tell what kind of organization he has, what he does, where he is geographically, what niche he occupies, what goods and / or services are in priority. All this will help you understand what tactics to choose when promoting, how much the customer’s goods are in demand, whether there is a demand for them, whether seasonality operates in a niche, etc.

Project information

In this block, the customer tells why he needs search engine optimization at all and what goals he is going to achieve with her (and your!) help. For example, reach the top and outperform competitors from your region, attract traffic and increase sales on the site, etc.

If the client has already ordered this service, let him specify when it was, who was involved in the promotion and what results it led to. It will be easier for you to work if you know what mistakes your predecessors made and what the client does not like.

If the customer still has developments and materials from previous performers (a list of key phrases, statistics, etc.), this must also be indicated.

Information about competitors

Next, find out about the customer about his direct competitors in his price segment, about their strengths and weaknesses. This will help you independently analyze the indicators of competitors, their place in the issue, the dynamics of indicators and build up from them even at the stage of developing a promotion strategy.

Target Audience Data

The most important question, thanks to which you will understand who are all these people who visit the client’s website and perform targeted actions. This will help with internal optimization of the site: it is enough for one segment of the target audience to show the product with the CTA button, the other needs to warm up for a long time and bring it to registration or call the manager with all its might.

Also, the customer can indicate in the brief any additional information at its discretion.

Making a brief on SEO

We have already said that there are no strict rules in filling out the brief: the main thing is for the client to clearly tell what he wants. Of course, it is more convenient to do this not in a notepad, but in a well-structured document. As promised, we are giving a ready-made brief sample for SEO promotion. Download it, send it to the customer and start working. I wish you success!