Academy › Automation Marketing with Claude › Lesson 3

The content engine: brief to draft to repurpose

Turn one approved brief into a blog post, an email and social posts, with a human gate. · 9 min read

One good idea should become several assets. The risk is speed without judgment, so this workflow has exactly one gate where a human decides what goes out.

What you will build

A repeatable pipeline: brief, outline, draft, edit and check, then repurpose.

Pipeline: brief, outline, draft, edit and check as a human gate, then approved master post repurposed to email, LinkedIn post and short posts Figure 1. Everything left of the human gate is draft. Only the approved master post is repurposed.

Step 1: Write the brief

A good brief is five lines. Fill it in yourself, do not ask Claude to invent it.

Topic:
Reader (who and what they already know):
Goal (what they should do or believe after):
Angle (what makes this different):
Must include / must avoid:

Step 2: Outline first

Using the brief below and the brand-voice and audience docs in this project,
propose an outline: working title, 5-7 H2 headings with one line each,
and the single takeaway. Do not write the post yet.
List any claim in the outline that needs a source.

Approve or edit the outline. This is cheaper than rewriting a draft.

Step 3: Draft

Write the post from the approved outline. 900-1200 words.
Follow the brand-voice guide. Mark every statistic or factual claim with [CHECK]
so I can verify it. Do not invent quotes or numbers.

Step 4: The human gate

Edit like an editor: cut the opening, fix the facts behind every [CHECK], add one real detail only you know, and read it aloud. Only now is it a master post.

Step 5: Repurpose

From the approved post below create:
1. A 120-word email with one link and one clear next step
2. One LinkedIn post: an insight, a short story, a question
3. Five short post variants, each from a different angle
Keep the facts identical to the post. Do not add new claims.

Worked example

A consultant wrote a brief on “why monthly reports go unread”. The outline flagged three claims that needed sources. She replaced two with her own client examples and cut one. The final post, email and five posts took about 45 minutes, most of it editing.

Common mistakes

  • Repurposing before editing, so errors multiply.
  • Asking for “10 viral post ideas” instead of angles from your own post.
  • Publishing the first draft because it reads smoothly. Smooth is not true.

Checklist

  • Brief written by me
  • Outline approved before drafting
  • Every [CHECK] resolved
  • Repurposed assets match the post’s facts