Write Blog Posts with Claude
Go from topic and brief to a full first draft. Use Claude as your co-writer, not a replacement for thinking.
The situation
The brief is approved. The keyword is picked. The draft is due Thursday and it's still blank.
After this guide you'll have a process that turns a brief into a draft you're proud to edit, not embarrassed to read.
What you walk away with
A complete first draft from a brief in under 20 minutes
A blog post structure that works for any topic
A co-writing workflow you'll use for every article
The difference one prompt makes
Don't
write a blog post about content marketing trends
Do this
Write the first draft of a blog post for our B2B marketing blog. Topic: why most content marketing fails to generate leads. Target keyword: "B2B content strategy." Target reader: Marketing Directors at companies with 50-500 employees who have a content team but aren't seeing ROI. Angle: the problem isn't content volume, it's that content is disconnected from buyer intent. Structure: intro with a provocative stat or claim, 3 core sections with subheadings, concrete examples in each section, conclusion with actionable next steps. Tone: direct, no buzzwords, uses "you" to address the reader. 1,200 words.
A complete brief (audience, angle, structure, tone, word count, keyword) produces a draft that needs editing, not a rewrite.
Write the brief before you open Claude
The brief is not optional prep work. It is the actual work. Before you type anything into Claude, write down: the topic, your specific angle on it, the target reader (role, company size, pain point), the primary keyword, the structure you want, the tone, and the target word count. If any of these are vague, the draft will be vague. 10 minutes on the brief saves 40 minutes of rewriting.
Ask Claude to generate 5 possible angles first
Before committing to your angle, ask Claude: "Here is my topic and target audience. Give me 5 different angles I could take for this article, with a one-sentence explanation of what makes each one interesting." You might find a sharper angle than the one you started with. Pick the one that feels most true to what you actually believe, not the most provocative one.
Ask for the outline before the full draft
Give Claude your full brief and ask for an outline: section headings, one sentence per section explaining what it covers, and the opening hook. Review the outline before you ask for the draft. If a section heading is weak or the structure is wrong, fix it here rather than editing 1,200 words later.
Draft section by section for better quality
Do not ask Claude to write the full 1,200 words in one pass. Ask for the intro and first section, review it, then continue. This lets you catch tone drift early, steer the argument if it goes off-track, and add your own examples or data before Claude invents ones you'd have to remove. The extra 10 minutes of oversight produces a noticeably better draft.
Ask Claude to generate 5 title options
Never use the title you started with. Once the draft is done, paste it back to Claude and ask: "Generate 5 title options for this article. Prioritise search intent and clarity over cleverness. Include the target keyword in at least 3 of the 5." Pick the one that most clearly matches what the article actually delivers and what a reader would type into Google.
What's next?
Write email campaigns with ClaudeNew guides, when they ship
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