Getting a client brief is like receiving one of those IKEA furniture instructions. Sure, the basic outline is there—but we both know there’s room to make this thing way cooler than building just another standard bookshelf. 📚
“We need content that stands out in the B2B SaaS space.” Yeah, and I need a Red Bull can that will actually make me fly. But just like my questionable relationship with liquid energy, there’s always more to the story.
See, when a brief lands in our inbox at 31Cookies, we don’t just nod along and create another ‘10 Project Management Tools’ snooze-fest. We’re the ones who look at that brief, tilt our heads sideways, and think, ‘Okay, but what if we made this actually interesting?’
Let me show you how we take those (sometimes) vanilla briefs and turn them into content that makes your target audience forget they’re supposed to be ‘professionally scrolling’ through LinkedIn. 😉
The Art of Reading Between the Lines
First thing every morning, after my ritualistic ‘good morning girly’ to my work bestie (yes, we’re that team), I sit down to devour my mom’s famous parathas while scanning through briefs.
Reading briefs needs a special eye.
When someone asks for product-led content, they don’t just want another features list. The magic happens when we blend valuable insights about a topic while naturally showcasing how their product makes it happen.
Take gamification at work, for example. Instead of diving straight into product features, we’ll break down what makes gamification tick, share the real benefits, and then smoothly demonstrate how the client’s product turns these concepts into reality.
Adding My Spin
This gets me excited. After demolishing my breakfast and understanding the brief’s core needs, we enter my favorite territory: making it awesome. 🤭
When everyone else writes generic how-to guides, we create content that solves real problems. A blog about employee recognition? Sure, we’ll cover the psychology and benefits, and then show exactly how the client’s dashboard feature makes it happen in real time.
A how-to guide definitely gets the job done, but what makes you go, ‘okay, that was actually cool’? That’s us adding our spin to content.
Take this one client who came to us for standard SaaS product-led content. We threw in some ‘Pro Tips,’ ‘Fun Facts,’ and ‘Did You Know?’ sections.
Not groundbreaking, right? Wrong.
They loved it so much, they made it their organization-wide standard. Even their other content partners had to follow suit. *victory dance*
Pricing jargon? See you later, hater 👋🏼
Let me walk you through a real example. We got a brief for a blog on product pricing strategies. Pretty standard stuff: cover different pricing models, their benefits, and implementation steps. The usual suspects.
But standard wasn’t going to cut it. Looking at this brief, we saw an opportunity to create something readers would actually bookmark and return to.
Sure, we’d cover the basics, but why stop there?
Well, here’s what we did:
- Sprinkled Warren Buffet’s timeless pricing wisdom
- Real-world examples (or snapshots) that looked like this:
📊 Strategy Snapshot: Apple uses a high-price strategy for its products, positioning them as premium offerings. Customers are willing to pay a premium for the brand’s perceived value, design, and innovation.
Then came our practical additions:
- A comparison table that helped readers actually decide which strategy fits their needs
- Pro tips for smooth implementation
- A section on common pricing pitfalls because everyone learns better from others’ mistakes, right?
After building this strong foundation, we introduced the client’s SaaS product, showing exactly how their platform supports these strategies in action.
And well…what can I say. The client’s internal team spotlighted this blog. Their editor said something that made our day: “Okay, loved this piece. I have studied pricing, and I think you folks covered everything possible in this blog. The Fun Facts and Did you Knows added so much value for a reader! Also enjoyed the Snapshots! What a great way to add examples even though the brief didn’t mention it!”
🤝 Friendly Reminder: The best briefs aren’t static. They grow and evolve through collaboration, feedback, and insights, and are constantly refined as a project develops.
Collaboration FTW
My editorial team springs into action when a new brief is assigned. An editor takes the first pass, adding their insights for unique POV, writer guidance, and how to integrate the client’s product, before sending it my way for a final review.
We ask questions like ‘How does this feature solve that specific pain point?’ and ‘Where can we show the product in action?’ and ‘Could we add customer testimonials here?’
🍪 Good to Know: We use ClickUp to manage all our projects. This way, we’re able to focus on each client efficiently and give your content ideas the attention they deserve. Collaborating with our team is also waaaaaay easier.
Briefly Genius
Look, I’m going to be honest. Creating great product-led content is just another Tuesday for the 31Cookies team.
And well, the uniqueness we add to content briefs is not extra credit work, it’s part of the deal. Every topic deserves more than just feature dumps; readers want solutions, and we show them how to achieve them with your product.
Let’s turn your next brief into something your audience can’t ignore. My team’s ready—are you?
