The brief decides which stories we send you for each client. Editing it is the best way to improve your alerts.
Why the brief needs editing
When you add a client, we write the brief for you. It's deliberately broad. We don't know yet which corners of your client's world you want to pitch on, so a wide net in the first week shows you the full range.
Left alone, a broad brief keeps sending broad alerts. You get near misses and the useful stories get buried. Ten minutes of editing fixes most of that.
The parts of a brief
Client summary
One or two lines on who the client is and what they do.
Send alerts about
The subjects the client can credibly comment on. This is where most of your editing should happen.
Never alert about
Stories you don't want, and subjects the client should never be linked to.
Strictness and countries
How closely a story has to fit before we alert you, and which countries' news we watch.
Write the situation, as well as the topic
Most topics only matter to your client some of the time. A hotel brand doesn't want every travel story, only the ones that make people cancel or rebook.
An energy supplier doesn't want every heatwave story, only the ones about demand, the grid or bills.
So write the situation into the line.
Instead of "heatwaves", write "forecasts and warnings of an upcoming heatwave". To keep the rest out, add "the effects of heatwaves" to Never alert about.
Instead of "online scams", write "scams that happen on resale or marketplace sites".
Instead of "travel disruption", write "travel disruption big enough to make people cancel or change hotel bookings".
A worked example
Here's a brief for an energy supplier, before and after editing.
Before, as we wrote it
Send alerts about: energy, renewable energy, energy prices, utilities.
Never alert about: nothing.
After editing
Send alerts about
Energy price cap changes, energy bill rises and fuel poverty
Blackouts, grid strain and supply disruptions
Renewables, heat pumps and the EV charging rollout
Cold snaps and heatwaves, when the weather itself is the news, or when energy demand, the grid or bills is the subject
Major national events that strain the grid
Never alert about
The client's own product launches and company news
Energy markets outside the UK
Oil and gas commodity trading
Anything directly related to wars
Electric vehicle news that isn't about charging
Air quality
Stories where the weather is only the backdrop, like a race, a court case or a health story
Every line in the second version came from an alert that was nearly right.
Common questions
Help, I'm getting too many alerts
First check whether they're relevant. If they are, and there are just too many to keep up with, switch that client to roundups instead of instant alerts. You'll get them in one or two messages a day, with the best opportunities first. Raising the strictness will also cut the number.
I'm getting lots of irrelevant alerts
Go through the last week of alerts and sort each miss into one of the three kinds above. Most irrelevant alerts come from a line in Send alerts about that names a topic without the situation. Rewrite those lines first, then add anything you never want to Never alert about.
I'm barely getting any alerts
Usually the brief is too narrow, or the subjects the client can talk about aren't written down. Add them.
A story I'd have pitched never came through
Check whether the brief names that subject in the words a news story would use. Send us the story as well and we'll look into it.
Why did the same story go to more than one client?
A big story can be relevant to several clients. Each client is matched separately against its own brief.
If your alerts still aren't landing the way you want, message us and we'll help you tune the brief.