An AI briefing is the written instruction that comes before every draft. It contains the target audience, the specific question, form of address, region, the business's services and what it doesn't offer, taboo words, structural guidelines and one or two example sentences in the desired tone. Once written, it's reused for every post and only the question is adjusted. The quality of the post depends more on the briefing than on the tool.
The tool is rarely the problem. Whether it's ChatGPT, a writing tool or a blogging system, they all deliver better texts when they know who they're writing for, what about and in what tone. This knowledge sits in the briefing. This page shows the template field by field and fills it in for a joinery, so you can see how specific the details need to be.
Why a briefing achieves more than a better model
A language model knows the average joinery from millions of texts, but not yours. It doesn't know that you don't build windows, that your customers live in Thurgau, or that you'd never say "premium quality". Without this information, it fills the gaps with the usual. The usual is German spelling, informal address, services from the standard industry list, and stock phrases. A briefing replaces the usual with your specifics. How the process continues from there is described in Writing blog posts with AI.
The template: ten fields
| Field | What goes in it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Target audience | Who's reading, what decision the person is preparing for | Controls depth and tone |
| Question | The single question the post answers, phrased the way it's googled | One question per post, otherwise you lose focus |
| Form of address | Formal or informal address, used consistently | The most common mistake: switching between them |
| Language | Swiss Standard German, ss instead of Eszett, CHF, apostrophe for thousands | German spelling immediately stands out to readers |
| Region | Catchment area, places that may be mentioned | Regional searches, trust |
| Services | Services | What the business offers, with details |
| Prevents generalities | Non-services | What the business doesn't offer |
| Prevents invented offerings | Taboo words | Words and patterns that must not appear |
| Stock phrases, marketing speak | Structure | Answer in the first paragraph, subheadings, table or list, FAQ, length |
| Structure for readers and Google | Example sentences | Two to three sentences, the way the owner would speak |
The tone can't be described, only shown
Two fields are missing from most briefings we see: non-services and example sentences. Both take five minutes and prevent half the corrections.
Target audience: Owners of detached houses and flats in Thurgau who are planning a kitchen, a fitted wardrobe or an interior door and have not yet obtained a quote. Not architects, not general contractors.
Target audience: Owners of detached houses and flats in Thurgau who are planning a kitchen, a fitted wardrobe or an interior door and haven't yet requested a quote. Not architects, not general contractors.
Form of address: you, used throughout, including in the FAQ section.
Language: Swiss Standard German. No ß. Prices in CHF, thousands separated with an apostrophe (CHF 25'000). No dashes as punctuation. Quotation marks as guillemets.
Region: Thurgau, especially Frauenfeld, Weinfelden, Kreuzlingen, Amriswil. No other cantons mentioned.
Services: Made to measure kitchens, built-in cupboards (including under sloped ceilings), interior doors, furniture restoration. Types of wood: oak, walnut, ash. Own workshop, installation carried out by its own staff.
Non-services: No windows, no front doors, no parquet, no kitchen appliances sold individually. No statements about delivery times.
Taboo words: high quality, bespoke, holistic, dream kitchen, "in today's world", lists in groups of three, "let's dive in", exclamation marks.
Structure: The first paragraph states the price range as a sample calculation. Subheadings phrased as questions. One table with the cost factors. A section on which kitchen suits whom. FAQ with three questions. 700 to 900 words.
Example sentences: "A kitchen from a joiner isn't necessarily more expensive, it's just calculated differently." "We'll tell you at the first appointment whether the effort is worthwhile for your layout." "If you're moving in three years, we won't build you a made to measure kitchen."
The last example shows what a briefing can achieve: it gives the text a stance that no model would have on its own. Further topics suited to this business are listed in Blog for joineries.
How to use the briefing
In ChatGPT or another chat tool, paste in the full briefing before your request, then formulate the task: "Based on this, write a blog post on the question …". With a blog system, you save the fixed part once in the settings; the question then comes from the topic plan. In both cases, the same applies: the draft is checked before it goes live. The checkpoints are listed under Checking AI blog posts.
Three mistakes that make briefings useless
- Too general. "Target audience: private customers" tells the model nothing. "Owners who are planning a kitchen and don't yet have a quote" tells it everything.
- Only positives. Without non-services and taboo words, you end up with a text that offers everything and praises everything.
- No tone. If you only describe the tone ("friendly, competent"), you get the standard tone. If you show it with three sentences, you get your own.
What to do with this
Take half an hour, fill in the ten fields for your business and use them to generate a first post. Compare it with a draft created without a briefing. The difference is usually so clear that the question of which tool is better answers itself.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an AI briefing be?
As long as it needs to be to rule out misunderstandings. A good briefing is between half a page and a full page. Shorter leads to generalities, longer is rarely read, neither by people nor reliably by models.
Do I need to rewrite the briefing for every post?
No. The fixed part (target audience, form of address, region, services, taboo words, structure) stays the same. For each post, you only change the question and, if needed, the example from the business. That's why the first briefing takes the most time, and every one after that takes almost none.
Does the same template work for ChatGPT and for a blog system?
Yes, the fields are the same. With ChatGPT, you paste in the briefing before every request. With a blog system, you save it once in the business's settings, and every post is created using it. The only difference is who provides the briefing for each post.
What's the most common mistake in briefings?
The "What we don't offer" field is missing. Models like to add services that are common in the industry. A joinery that doesn't make windows then ends up with posts about windows. This field prevents most incorrect statements.