Great Briefing, Great Text Part Two

Towards your goal

Knowing what makes a great article does not just help the writers. Whoever is familiar with the criteria for a great text can also convey this in the description. Here you can see the points which play a significant role in your order description and with them, you can give the writers a clear sense of direction.

Designate a target audience

Who are you trying to reach? Is your article to be directed to curious novices or experts, children or adults, women or men, singles or parents? Once you have defined your target audience, you have also given your article a concrete goal. Why are these people your target audience? Are they driven out of curiosity, or do they want to buy?

• State the required tone

Depending on your target audience, you may need a more serious and aloof tone, or a more relaxed, perhaps even colloquial tone to your article. You should also decide if you need the writer’s opinion to be clear in your text or if you would prefer it to be written objectively. Some clients prefer their articles to maintain a positive tone, but by all means welcome a little ‘critical criticism’.

• Address the reader address

The style of the article also influences how you need the reader to be addressed. Should it be more appropriate to have an article written with a more formal, third person tone, where the reader is not directly spoken to at all? Or would you prefer your readers to feel like you are talking directly to them?

• What kind of text do you need?

What type of article do you want? A product description, an advice column or just general information? Name the type of article you need, show the effect the text should have and what are the article’s primary functions. Should it inform or should it advertise and convince? Do you need it to teach, instruct, entertain or inspire? You should also state what type of website it will appear on.

• Ask for answers

Sometimes it really pays off to set the questions you need to be answered in the article. For product descriptions, for example, ‘What are the advantages and disadvantages of the product?’

• Set your desired article structure in stone

Can you already visualise your completed text before your eyes? Then let the writers know what it should look like and how you see it structured: Ordered in logically flowing paragraphs. Easy to follow. And always helpful are subtitles and a teaser.

Here you can see that a client has really given it his all to make his desired structure clear, but forgotten one or two things in the process. This would, of course, never happen to you.

• Make your SEO requirements clear

Textbroker gives you the possibility to utilise various different SEO options. With these you can instruct your writer to incorporate your specified keywords in their article to the given density. The order in which the keywords should be mentioned together with where they should appear in the text can also be stated in your order description.

• US or UK English?

Do you walk on a sidewalk or a pavement? Are you on holiday or vacation? Do you like to get a real bang for your buck, or just like to find a terrific bargain? And do you have an eggplant at home in your larder, or is it an aubergine sitting in your pantry? Whilst it might sound like the same language at times, there is no disputing there is more than the Atlantic separating the two continents. Don’t forget to specify if you want American or British English in your article.

If you take these points into account, or at least a few of them, then your writer has already got a few vital boundaries to move between. This goes a long way to ensuring that you get the article you have actually orders-tailor made and customised to your satisfaction.