Skill: Content Brief Generator

This is Part 5 of a 16-part series on building your AI VP of Marketing with Claude Cowork. Previous: Writing the Playbook | Next: Skill: Brand Voice Checker

# Marketing VP -- Acme Widget Co.

This is the operating brief for all marketing work in this project.

## Business Overview
Acme Widget Co. sells industrial-grade fastening systems to manufacturing
plants across the Midwest. Founded 2019, 12 employees, $2.4M annual revenue.

## Target Audience
Operations managers and procurement leads at mid-size manufacturing plants
(50-500 employees). They care about reliability, lead times, and total cost
of ownership. Most are 35-55, skeptical of marketing, and make decisions
based on spec sheets and peer recommendations.

## Brand Voice
Direct, technical, no-nonsense, helpful. We sound like an experienced
engineer explaining a product -- not a salesperson pitching one.

## Marketing Goals
1. Generate 20 qualified leads per month through content marketing
2. Build email list from 600 to 3,000 subscribers by year-end
3. Publish weekly blog posts targeting "industrial fastener" search terms

# Brand Voice

## Tone
Direct, technical, no-nonsense, helpful, specific.

## Words We Use
- spec, tolerance, load rating, lead time, unit cost
- plain numbers and measurements over vague claims

## Words We Never Use
- game-changing, revolutionary, synergy, leverage, empower
- "we are excited to announce" or any variation

## Sentence Structure
- Lead with the fact or the benefit. Never lead with "we."
- Active voice always.
- Short paragraphs. One idea per paragraph.

What are Skills?

You have been giving your VP tasks by typing prompts into Cowork. Each time you need a content brief, you write a fresh request: describe what you want, specify the format, remind the VP about your audience. It works. But it is the equivalent of writing a new job description every time you ask your employee to do the same task.

Skills fix that. A Skill in Cowork is a saved prompt with a name. You create it once, and then you invoke it by name whenever you need it. Instead of writing a paragraph explaining what a content brief should contain, you type the skill name and hand it a topic. Same output, every time, in a fraction of the effort.

The difference between a skill and a one-off prompt is consistency. A one-off prompt produces whatever you happen to ask for in the moment. A skill produces the same structured output every time because the instructions are locked in. Your third content brief looks exactly like your first one -- same fields, same depth, same format.

When should you use a skill versus just asking your VP directly? Use a skill for any task you do more than twice with the same structure. Content briefs, social media posts, email drafts, competitor analyses -- anything with a repeatable format. Ask your VP directly for one-off work: brainstorming, answering a question, analyzing a specific situation.

Your CLAUDE.md is the employee handbook -- it tells your VP everything about the company. Your Rules are the policies on the wall -- they constrain behavior on every task. Skills are the step-by-step procedures in the operations manual. The handbook gives context. The policies set boundaries. The procedures define exactly how to execute a specific job.

Design the Brief Format

Before you build anything, decide what a good content brief looks like. A brief is the document your VP (or you) works from when creating a piece of content. Every field in it answers a question that, if left unanswered, leads to vague or off-target output.

Here is what your content brief should include:

Topic / Working Title. The subject of the content piece. Not a final headline -- a working title that clarifies what this piece is about. "Why operations managers need supply chain visibility" is a working title. "Supply Chain Blog Post" is not.

Target Audience Segment. Which of your audience segments (from your CLAUDE.md) is this piece for? A blog post for procurement leads reads differently from one targeting plant managers, even if the topic is the same. Naming the segment up front prevents the content from trying to speak to everyone.

Key Messages. Three to five bullet points that capture what the reader should take away. These are not sentences from the article -- they are the ideas the article must communicate. If you read the finished piece and cannot find each key message, the piece missed its brief.

Call to Action. What should the reader do after consuming this content? Download a spec sheet, request a quote, subscribe to the newsletter, share the post. One CTA per brief. If you cannot decide on one, the content is trying to do too much.

SEO Keywords. Five to ten search terms this content should target. These shape the headline, subheadings, and natural phrasing throughout the piece. They are not afterthoughts -- they inform the writing from the start.

Content Format. Blog post, email, social media post, landing page, case study. The format determines length, structure, and tone. A LinkedIn post and a blog post about the same topic require completely different briefs.

Target Length. Word count or duration. "800-1200 words" for a blog post. "150-300 words" for an email. This comes from your content standards (Article 4). Including it in the brief means your VP does not need to look it up.

Each field exists because skipping it leads to predictable problems. No audience segment? Generic tone. No key messages? Rambling structure. No CTA? Content that entertains but does not convert. The brief is a contract between you and the content -- it defines what "done" looks like before a single word is written.

Build the Skill

Open your Cowork project. Navigate to Skills and create a new skill. Name it content-brief.

In the skill prompt field, paste the following:

Generate a structured content brief for the topic provided.

INPUTS
- Topic: [the user provides this when invoking the skill]

BRIEF FORMAT
Produce the following sections in this exact order:

## Content Brief: [Working Title]

### Target Audience
Identify the most relevant audience segment from the project context.
Describe who this piece is for: their role, their priorities, and what
problem this content helps them solve.

### Key Messages
List 3-5 specific, concrete takeaways the reader should walk away with.
Each message should be one sentence. No vague generalities -- every
message must connect to the audience's real situation.

### Call to Action
One specific action the reader should take after reading this content.
The CTA must match the content format and the audience's stage in the
buying process. "Request a quote" is specific. "Learn more" is not.

### SEO Keywords
List 5-10 search terms this content should target. Include a mix of
short-tail (1-2 words) and long-tail (3-5 words) keywords. Prioritize
terms the target audience actually searches for over industry jargon
they would not type into Google.

### Content Format and Length
Recommend the best format for this topic and audience (blog post, email,
LinkedIn post, landing page, case study). State the target word count
based on the project's content standards.

### Outline
Provide a section-by-section outline with 3-5 sections. For each section:
- Section heading
- 2-3 bullet points describing what this section covers
- The key message this section supports

### Competitor Differentiation
One paragraph on how this content should position us differently from
competitors. What angle, evidence, or perspective makes this piece ours
and not something a competitor could publish unchanged?

### Distribution Notes
Suggest 1-2 channels where this content should be published or promoted,
based on the audience segment and format. Include a one-sentence rationale
for each channel.

RULES
- Pull audience information, brand voice, and content standards from the
  project context. Do not ask the user to provide what is already in CLAUDE.md
  or Rules.
- Be specific. "Manufacturers who are evaluating new fastener suppliers" is
  useful. "Business professionals interested in our products" is not.
- Every key message must be testable -- you should be able to read the finished
  content and verify whether each message appears.
- If the topic is too broad for a single piece of content, say so and recommend
  how to split it.

Save the skill.

Test It

Invoke the skill with a real topic. In your Cowork project, run the content-brief skill and provide this topic:

Why operations managers need supply chain visibility

Your VP should produce a brief that looks something like this (the specifics will reflect your CLAUDE.md):

Content Brief: Why Supply Chain Visibility Saves More Than It Costs

Target Audience

Operations managers at mid-size manufacturing plants (50-500 employees) who currently track supply chain status through email, phone calls, and spreadsheets. They are dealing with late shipments, production delays caused by missing parts, and no reliable way to forecast delivery timelines. They make purchasing decisions based on data, not marketing -- give them numbers and evidence.

Key Messages

1. Manual supply chain tracking costs an average ops manager 6-8 hours per week in follow-up calls and email chains.
2. Visibility into supplier lead times reduces production stoppages caused by late deliveries.
3. The cost of a visibility tool is measurable against the cost of a single day of unplanned downtime.
4. Starting with visibility into your top 5 suppliers by volume covers 80% of your risk without requiring a full platform rollout.

Call to Action

Download our supply chain visibility checklist -- a one-page worksheet that helps you calculate your current tracking costs and identify your highest-risk suppliers.

SEO Keywords

• supply chain visibility
• supply chain management manufacturing
• operations manager supply chain tools
• reduce production downtime suppliers
• supplier lead time tracking
• manufacturing supply chain optimization
• supply chain visibility ROI

Content Format and Length

Blog post. 800-1200 words per content standards. Structure: problem statement, cost of the status quo, what visibility changes, how to start small, CTA.

Outline

Section 1: The 6-Hour Problem

• How much time ops managers spend chasing supplier status updates
• The hidden cost of manual tracking (errors, delays, missed signals)
• Supports key message 1

Section 2: What Breaks When You Cannot See

• Production stoppages traced back to late supplier deliveries
• The downstream cost: overtime, expedited shipping, missed customer deadlines
• Supports key message 2

Section 3: Visibility is Not a Software Pitch

• Frame visibility as a practice, not a product
• Compare the cost of one day of downtime against the cost of tracking tools
• Supports key message 3

Section 4: Start With Five Suppliers

• Identify your top 5 suppliers by volume or criticality
• Apply basic tracking (expected delivery date, actual delivery date, variance)
• Supports key message 4

Competitor Differentiation

Most supply chain content targets logistics directors at enterprise companies and assumes the reader has a dedicated supply chain team. Our angle: this is for the ops manager who is the supply chain team. Practical, small-scale steps that do not require a six-figure platform or a dedicated analyst.

Distribution Notes

• Company blog: Primary publication channel. This topic targets high-intent search queries from ops managers researching supply chain problems.
• LinkedIn: Repurpose the opening section (the 6-hour problem) as a standalone LinkedIn post linking to the full article.

Review the output against three questions:

Are the key messages specific enough? Each message should state a concrete claim or insight. "Supply chain visibility is important" fails. "Manual tracking costs 6-8 hours per week" passes -- it gives the writer something to build a section around.

Is the CTA actionable? The reader should know exactly what they get and what they do. "Download our checklist" works because it names the asset and implies immediate value. "Contact us to learn more" fails because it asks for effort without promising a return.

Are the SEO keywords realistic? Check that the keywords are terms your audience would actually search. "Supply chain visibility" is a real query. "Synergistic procurement optimization" is not something anyone types into Google.

Iterate

Your first skill output will not be perfect. Skills improve the same way any process does -- through testing and adjustment.

Common refinements after the first test:

The key messages are too vague. Add a constraint to the skill prompt: "Every key message must include a specific number, timeframe, or measurable outcome. No message should work as a generic statement about any company in any industry."

The brief does not mention competitors. The Competitor Differentiation section should reference your actual competitive landscape. If it produces generic positioning, add context to your CLAUDE.md about your top competitors and their messaging.

The CTA does not match your content assets. If your VP keeps recommending downloads you do not have, add a section to your CLAUDE.md listing your available content assets: lead magnets, landing pages, demo booking links, newsletter signup URLs.

The SEO keywords are too broad. Add a constraint: "Prioritize long-tail keywords (3-5 words) over short-tail keywords. Include at least 5 long-tail terms."

Each time you refine the skill prompt, run it again with the same topic and compare outputs. When the brief consistently produces something you would hand to a writer without heavy edits, the skill is ready.

The Faster Way -- /skill-creator

You just built a skill by hand. You designed the output format, wrote the prompt, tested it, and iterated. That process matters because you now understand what goes into a skill -- the field design, the constraints, the testing loop. You know what makes a skill prompt specific versus vague, and why each field in the brief exists.

Now here is how to build skills faster.

Cowork includes /skill-creator, which builds skills through a guided conversation. Instead of writing a skill prompt from scratch, you describe what you want the skill to do, and /skill-creator asks questions to fill in the details -- what inputs the skill needs, whether it should pull context from CLAUDE.md, how many key messages to generate, whether to recommend a format or let you specify one.

After four or five questions, it generates a complete skill prompt -- similar to the one you wrote manually, but shaped by your answers. You review it, adjust anything that does not match your intent, and save. The result is the same: a named, reusable skill. The path is faster because /skill-creator handles the prompt engineering.

From this point forward in the series, new skills will lead with /skill-creator since you now understand the fundamentals. You know what a skill prompt contains, why each section matters, and how to test and iterate. That knowledge means you can evaluate what /skill-creator generates and fix anything it gets wrong.

What is Next

You have a skill that generates content briefs -- structured, consistent, and grounded in your business context. Every brief pulls from your CLAUDE.md and follows your Rules without you restating them.

But a brief is a plan. The content written from that plan still needs to sound like you. How do you know whether a blog post drafted from this brief actually matches your brand voice? You read it, sure. But your VP can check it first.

In Article 6, you build a Brand Voice Checker -- a skill that reviews any piece of content against your brand standards and flags where the voice drifts. Your VP writes the draft and then audits its own work before you see it.

Part 5 of 16 -- Your AI VP of Marketing series | Next: Skill: Brand Voice Checker