Custom Briefs: Create Content on Any Topic

When to Use Custom Briefs

Use Custom Briefs for:

• Topics from customer conversations or support tickets
• Industry trends you want to cover before search data exists
• Content ideas from your brainstorm sessions
• Specific angles or perspectives not reflected in keyword data
• Thought leadership content where you're defining the topic

Use Keyword Briefs for:

• SEO-driven content based on search volume
• Topics from Google Search Console recommendations
• Competitive gap opportunities
• Trend-based content from rising searches

Creating a Custom Brief

From the Briefs Dashboard

1. Navigate to Briefs in the main menu
2. Click Create Brief
3. Enter your topic in the keyword field (despite the label, this accepts topics)
4. Select Custom from the Source dropdown
5. Optional: Set a target word count
6. Click Create Brief

From Brainstorm Ideas

When you generate brainstorm ideas, each idea card includes a "Use This Idea" button.

1. Navigate to Content Hub
2. Click Generate Ideas to create brainstorm suggestions
3. Review the generated ideas
4. Click Use This Idea on any idea card
5. The idea's title and description auto-fill into a custom brief form
6. Review and adjust if needed
7. Click Create Brief

This integration lets you go from brainstorm to brief in one click.

How Custom Briefs Work

Custom Briefs follow a three-step process:

Step 1: Keyword Derivation

ILLIXIS analyzes your topic and derives the best target keyword for SEO. This ensures your custom topic still has search visibility potential.

Example:

• You enter: "Meditate 20 Minutes Daily"
• System derives: "daily meditation"

Step 2: SERP Analysis

Using the derived keyword, ILLIXIS fetches search results and analyzes:

• Top 100 ranking pages
• Competitor word counts and structure
• Content gaps and opportunities
• Search intent signals
• Recommended word count

Step 3: Brief Generation

ILLIXIS combines your topic, the derived keyword, SERP intelligence, and your brand settings to create a full strategic brief with:

• AI insights on search intent
• Creative element selections (7 types: perspective, title format, hook style, etc.)
• Competitive intelligence
• Content strategy recommendations
• Why This Brief context

Providing Additional Context

Custom Briefs let you add detailed context to guide content generation.

When creating the brief, include:

• Specific angles you want covered
• Target audience details
• Key points to emphasize
• Related products or services
• Questions to answer

Example:

• Topic: "Morning meditation routines"
• Context: "Focus on working professionals with limited time. Include 5-minute options. Emphasize stress reduction over spiritual benefits. Target audience: corporate employees, ages 30-50."

The system preserves this context and displays it in the brief's "Content" card for reference when generating articles.

Duplicate Detection

Before creating a custom brief, ILLIXIS checks for duplicates across:

• Existing briefs (same keyword)
• Published content (semantic similarity)
• Content in progress

If a duplicate is found:

1. System shows a warning with details about the existing content
2. You can view the existing content or brief
3. You can create anyway (system appends "(2)" to the keyword)
4. Or cancel and use the existing content

This prevents duplicate content penalties and wasted quota.

Two-Phase Brief Creation

Custom Briefs use a two-phase architecture:

Phase 1: Brief Creation (3-5 minutes)

• Keyword derivation
• Duplicate detection
• SERP data fetching
• Intelligence analysis
• Creative element selection
• Full brief assembly

Phase 2: Content Generation (1-2 minutes)

• Reuses the stored brief prompt
• No SERP re-fetching
• Fast article generation

This architecture prevents duplicate API calls and ensures consistent content quality.

Entity-Sourced Custom Briefs

Custom Briefs can also be created automatically from Entity Gap Analysis. These briefs include:

• Article Topic: The entity name from your competitor analysis
• Topic Detail: The specific content angle
• Why This Matters: Relevance explanation based on competitor coverage

Entity-sourced briefs have structured context boxes showing this information.

Custom Brief vs. Trend Brief

Both use user-specified topics, but differ in data sources:

| Feature | Custom Brief | Trend Brief |
|---------|-------------|-------------|
| Trigger | User-specified topic | Detected rising search trend |
| Keyword Source | AI derivation | Pre-extracted from trend data |
| Search Volume | Direct search volume lookup | Projected volume via trend analysis |
| Best For | Any topic you choose | Emerging trends with momentum |

After Creating a Custom Brief

Once your custom brief is complete:

1. Review the intelligence: Check the "Why This Brief?" card for search intent and strategy
2. Review creative selections: See which perspective, title format, and hook style were chosen
3. Generate content: Click Generate Article to create the full piece
4. Edit if needed: Use the content editor to refine the generated article
5. Publish: Use the publishing workflow to send to your CMS

Regenerating Custom Briefs

If you want to refresh a custom brief with new SERP data:

1. Open the custom brief
2. Click the Actions dropdown
3. Select Regenerate Brief
4. System re-derives the target keyword
5. Fetches fresh SERP data
6. Selects new creative elements (avoiding recent selections)
7. Generates updated brief

Regeneration uses current search volume data, not projected trends, ensuring accuracy.

Best Practices

1. Be Specific with Topics Vague topics lead to vague briefs. Instead of "fitness," use "morning workout routines for busy professionals."

2. Include Context The detailed context field is optional but valuable. Use it to guide tone, angle, and emphasis.

3. Check for Duplicates Always review the duplicate warning if one appears. Creating duplicate content wastes quota and can hurt SEO.

4. Use Brainstorm Integration Generate 10 ideas at once, then pick the best 2-3 to convert to briefs. This is faster than creating briefs one by one.

5. Review Derived Keywords The system shows you the derived keyword before creating the brief. Make sure it matches your intent. If not, adjust your topic.

6. Let SERP Data Guide Structure The brief includes competitor word count analysis. Follow these recommendations for better ranking potential.

Common Questions

Q: Can I override the derived keyword? Yes. During Phase A (keyword derivation), you can provide your own keyword instead of using the AI-derived one.

Q: How is this different from creating a Keyword Brief manually? Keyword Briefs start with a known keyword. Custom Briefs start with a topic and derive the keyword for you. The end result is similar, but the starting point differs.

Q: Does this use my brief quota? Yes. Custom Briefs count toward your monthly brief allocation, just like keyword briefs.

Q: Can I create a custom brief for a topic with no search volume? Yes, but the system will warn you if the derived keyword has very low search volume. You can proceed anyway if it's for thought leadership or brand building.

Q: What happens if keyword derivation fails? The system falls back to using your topic as the keyword directly, then proceeds with SERP analysis.

Q: Can I edit the brief after creation? You can't edit the brief intelligence, but you can regenerate it with fresh data. You can also edit the generated article after creation.

Related Features

• Brainstorm Ideas: Generate topic suggestions to use with Custom Briefs
• Entity Gap Analysis: Automatically creates Custom Briefs from competitor gaps
• Keyword Briefs: SEO-driven briefs starting from known keywords
• Trend Briefs: Briefs based on rising search trends
• Content Hub: View and edit all content created from Custom Briefs