Prepare a content request: brief, facts and approvals

Start with the goal: what the person should understand or do after seeing the content. “Know that we also install outside Quebec City” can be checked; “improve our image” can’t. If a piece of content has to carry three goals, plan three pieces instead.

Next, describe the audience: what they already know, the question they are asking and where they will read. A property manager comparing quotes doesn’t read like a homeowner discovering your trade.

Name the medium and its constraints:

• web page: its place in the site, its links and the action offered;
• article: the specific question it answers;
• visual: the channel, the dimensions and a very short embedded text;
• presentation: presented in person or read alone, as an editable file or a PDF;
• video: the target length, the screen orientation, the subtitles, the voice-over or the on-screen text.

Write the main message in one sentence; if you can’t, the content risks saying three things halfway. Finish with the call to action (request a quote, book a visit) and check that this next step works, for example that the form reaches an address that is actually monitored.

The template below brings together these decisions and those of the following sections. Its example is fictional: Atelier Boréal, a cabinetmaking shop invented for this illustration, is requesting a service page.

The person creating the content can’t check your prices, your territory or your conditions. For each fact to include, indicate the source that is authoritative (offer page, current price list, dated document) and the person who decides in case of doubt. If an old document serves as the basis, say what has changed since.

Separate three categories: confirmed, to be confirmed, not to be mentioned. A service on hold, a timeline you can’t meet or a certification still being obtained belong to the last two. Well-written text makes information more credible, not more true: an outdated offer that is well worded is still an error, just harder to spot.

Every figure needs a source and a date: “more than 20 years of experience” assumes a verifiable founding year. Testimonials and client names can only be used with the consent of the people concerned. Without proof, describe concretely how you work.

For the brand, adjectives help little: “modern and warm” can lead to ten different results. Instead, provide elements that can be applied:

• formal or informal address (vous or tu), and the in-house words to use or avoid;
• the logo as a source file, the colours and the fonts;
• the photos already approved, with their permitted use;
• two pieces of content you like, explaining why, and one you don’t.

If the logo is still to be created, say so separately: at Serafex, a logo can be reviewed on request, without this amounting to a full brand identity service.

Owning a file doesn’t give you the right to publish it. Under the Copyright Act (new tab), the author of a work is in principle its first owner; the employer is the owner of a work created by an employee in the course of their employment, unless otherwise agreed. An assignment is valid only if it is in writing and signed. A freelancer’s photos or a logo drawn by an acquaintance therefore don’t automatically belong to you.

In the brief, indicate for each image, video or text supplied who created it, the agreement that allows its use and the media targeted. For a stock image bank, read the licence: commercial use, permitted modifications, author credit. An image found through a search engine is not free to use for all that. For a specific contract, consult a lawyer.

Recognizable people require their own consent. Éducaloi points out that you can’t publish a photo or video in which someone can be recognized (new tab) (in French) without their consent, particularly to promote or sell something, including content created by artificial intelligence that appears to represent them. Keep a written consent that specifies the intended use.

Language is also decided in the brief. In its checklist for doing business in French (new tab) (in French), the Office québécois de la langue française points out that commercial documents must be written at least in French, whatever the medium, websites and social media included. Another language is possible if French appears in at least an equivalent way and the French version remains accessible on terms at least as favourable. The responsibility lies with whoever makes the information available to the public, even when a third party produced the content. The Government of Quebec also lists advertising among businesses’ French-language obligations (new tab) (in French).

So indicate the planned versions, the one that serves as the reference and the person who proofreads the French, without forgetting the text embedded in visuals, the subtitles and the on-screen text of videos.

Before the first version, name who reviews what: business facts, brand consistency and final approval don’t always belong to the same person. Designate someone to gather the comments and resolve contradictions before passing them on; two opposing instructions produce a version that satisfies no one.

Useful feedback names the version, the place, the problem and the expected change. “I’m not sure about the text” calls for a new interpretation; “version 2, second paragraph: we don’t install in Montreal, remove the mention” can be fixed on the first try. For a visual or a video, locate the element: the title, the sequence at 0:40, the third slide.

Correcting a fact or recropping a photo is a revision; changing the audience, the message or the medium after approval reopens the brief. For content creation with Serafex (web copy, articles, visuals and image retouching, videos, presentations), formats, quantities, revisions and timelines are agreed for each job.

Finally, keep distinct statuses:

• draft: a proposal to review, which doesn’t yet commit anyone;
• approved version: a decision about a specific version;
• published: the content is online or distributed where planned;
• checked online: someone has checked the real result, including links, images, mobile display and the call to action.

A request that has been logged is not production under way, and an approval publishes nothing. The Serafex platform also distinguishes, for website content, the statuses approved, published, checked online and indexed. For content intended for your website, the process can go as far as integration and publication, depending on the access and approvals planned. On the social media side, preparing a post doesn’t publish it, and the platform’s Social space is currently in development; see how to plan your social media content.

An AI assistant helps you turn notes into an outline, suggest title variations, adapt a text to another audience or spot the empty sections of a brief. It becomes risky when you ask it for the facts. Google Search Central’s guidance on AI-generated content (new tab) explains why: generative models don’t retrieve facts, they predict a likely sequence of words, which can lead to inaccuracies.

Google therefore recommends manually checking the accuracy and reliability of any AI-generated content before publication, including the page title, the meta description, structured data and image alt text. It also suggests explaining how a piece of content was created when that helps the reader.

In practice:

• provide your confirmed facts instead of asking the assistant to find them;
• have a person review every figure, name, price or condition;
• refuse any testimonial, statistic or certification you can’t prove;
• don’t paste confidential information into a tool whose terms of use you don’t know;
• check that a generated image doesn’t appear to represent a real person.

With Serafex, Seraf works from the information your account gives it access to: your instructions, your documents and your confirmed facts. A complete brief therefore directly improves the proposal, but reviewing the facts and approving the version to publish remain human decisions.

Before your next request, reread the template: every empty section is a question someone will have to guess the answer to.

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