Weekly content marketing trend brief, automated every Monday

Every Monday at 7am, run a weekly content marketing trend brief for my team. The trigger is a cron schedule. Skip the run gracefully and post nothing if nothing crosses a meaningful threshold so the Slack channel does not get spammed on slow news weeks.

Configure the watchlist directly inside the prompt. It should hold a short list of industry themes and competitor topics I care about, each with a GDELT-friendly query (themes can use operators like theme:ECON_STOCKMARKET, competitor topics can be a brand name plus a topic). Default to sourcelang:english unless I add languages. Treat this list as the single source of truth for what gets tracked.

For each item in the watchlist, call GDELT's Article Volume Timeline (DOC 2.0) operation twice: once over the last 7 days and once over the prior 4 weeks, so you can compute the rise in coverage versus the baseline. Then call GDELT's Article Tone Timeline (DOC 2.0) over the same two windows to detect tone shifts (flag anything where average tone moves above +5 or below -5, or swings meaningfully versus the baseline). Rank the watchlist by a combination of volume rise and tone shift, and keep the top 3 to 5 rising themes.

For each of those top themes, call GDELT's Search News Articles (DOC 2.0) operation to pull the most-cited recent coverage from the last 7 days (sourcelang:english by default). Read the headlines and snippets and pick out the strongest angle, the outlets driving the conversation, and 3 to 5 representative source links.

Draft one structured content brief per theme with: a working title, a short explanation of why it is trending right now (mention the volume jump and tone shift in plain language), a suggested angle, our point of view hook for the team to react to, the 3 to 5 source links with outlet names, and a recommended format such as blog post, newsletter section, or LinkedIn thread.

Use Notion's Create a Page operation to add one page per brief into my Content Pipeline database. Configure the database id in the prompt. Map the working title to the page title and put the rest of the brief into the page body as readable sections. Set any status property to a default like Idea or Draft so the team can pick them up.

Finish by using Slack's Send a Message operation to post a single Monday digest to my marketing channel. The message should list each new brief with its title and a link to the Notion page, and call out the single hottest theme of the week at the top so the team knows where to focus first. Configure the Slack channel in the prompt.

Additional information

What does this prompt do?

Compares the last seven days of global news against the prior four weeks to find the themes and competitor topics that are clearly rising or shifting in tone.
For each top theme, pulls the most-cited recent coverage and picks the strongest angle and the outlets driving the conversation.
Drafts a structured content brief per theme into your Notion content pipeline with a working title, why it is trending, a suggested angle, your point of view, source links, and a recommended format.
Posts a single Monday morning digest to your marketing Slack channel with links to the new briefs and a callout for the hottest theme. Skips the post when nothing crosses a meaningful threshold.

What do I need to use this?

A Notion workspace with a content pipeline database you already use for planning posts and campaigns.
A Slack workspace and the channel where your marketing team wants the Monday digest.
A short list of industry themes and competitor topics you want tracked, configured directly in the prompt.

How can I customize it?

Edit the list of themes and competitor topics so the briefs match the beats your team actually writes about.
Change the schedule, the comparison window, or the rising threshold if Monday at 7am is too early or you want a different bar for what counts as a real trend.
Swap the destination Notion database or the Slack channel so the briefs land in the pipeline and the digest reaches the right room.

Frequently asked questions

Where do the trending themes come from?

They come from global news coverage volume and sentiment over the last week, compared against the prior four weeks. You give the workflow the themes and competitor topics you care about, and it tells you which ones are heating up.

What does each Notion brief contain?

A working title, a short explanation of why the theme is trending now, a suggested angle, a point of view hook for your team to react to, three to five source links from the strongest recent coverage, and a recommended format like blog post or newsletter section.

What happens on a slow news week?

If nothing rises above a meaningful threshold, the workflow skips posting to Slack and creating Notion pages so your channel does not get spammed with empty digests.

Can I track competitors as well as themes?

Yes. The configured list can mix industry themes and specific competitor topics, and both are compared the same way so you can see when a rival's story is gaining momentum.

Do I need to be a news data expert to run this?

No. You only configure the themes and competitor topics in plain language. The workflow handles the comparison, the source pulls, and the writing for you.