The website briefs that produce the best websites are rarely the longest ones. The strongest we receive run to a page or two, say a great deal about the business and end with a budget range and a date. The weakest run on for pages, specify the colour of every button, and never mention what the site is supposed to bring in.
Below is the brief we wish every enquiry came with, with an addition for online stores and a template you can copy straight off the page.
What is a website brief for?
A brief has one job, which is to make the proposals you receive comparable. When three agencies read the same clear description of what the site must achieve, you get three proposals you can judge against each other and against your goal. When they each receive a different half-conversation, you get three quotes for three different projects, and the lowest number wins by default because nothing else can be compared.
It also changes what you are quoted for. A brief that describes the business goal earns you a proposal about how to reach it. We would far rather read "we need trade customers to reorder without phoning us" than "we like clean, modern design with a blue palette", because the first sentence tells us what to build and the second tells us about taste, which we can learn in an hour on the first call.
What should a website brief include?
Ten short sections cover almost every project we have worked on. None needs more than a paragraph, and several need only a line.
1. Your business in three sentences. What you sell, to whom, and what makes customers choose you over the alternative. If you find the third sentence hard to write, say so; it usually means the website's real job is to answer it.
2. The one thing the site must achieve. Enquiries, bookings, online orders, trade accounts, recruitment applications: name the primary outcome and, if you can, the number that would make the project a success. "Thirty qualified enquiries a month" is a target we can design to, in a way that "more leads" never is.
3. Who it is for. Your best customer, described as a person rather than a segment, and any second audience that matters, such as trade buyers alongside retail. Where they arrive from also helps: a site that meets people from Google search is built differently from one that meets them from a printed leaflet at a show.
4. What you have now, and what is wrong with it. The current site's address, what it does well, where it fails, and whether you want the new one to replace it or build on it. An offer of analytics access here is worth a page of description, because what visitors do on the current site tells us more than any of us could guess.
5. Must-haves and nice-to-haves, kept apart. Booking, payments, a customer portal, a connection to your accounts package or CRM, a blog, multiple languages. The separation matters more than the list: a project where everything is essential has no way to fit a budget, while one with a clear core and a wish list can be shaped.
6. Branding: what exists, and what needs making. Say whether you have a brand you are happy with, a brand kit for us to follow, or nothing beyond a logo made years ago. If guidelines exist for logo files, colours and typography, send them, and if the brand is due a refresh or a full rebrand, say that too, because it changes both the budget and the order the work happens in.
7. Content: who writes it, and what photography exists. This is the section most briefs skip and the one that decides your launch date. Say whether you will write the copy, want the agency to, or have a copywriter, and say what photography you own and whether it still reflects the business today. We include professional copywriting for each page as standard in every project we build, because waiting on content from the client was the most common reason we saw a launch date slip. It is rarely for want of good intentions, and we have written about where the time goes.
8. Examples, with the reason. Two or three sites you admire and what specifically you admire about them, plus one you dislike and why. The reasons are the useful part. "We like how simply this one explains a complicated service" guides a design; a bare list of URLs only shows us your taste in other people's work.
9. Constraints: the date and the range. A real launch date, particularly if it is tied to a season, a trade show or a rebrand, and a budget range. More on the range below, because it is the section people most want to leave blank.
10. Who decides. Who signs off the work, how many people will review it, and whether anyone outside the business, such as a marketing consultant or a franchisor, needs to approve it. A project with one decision-maker and a project with a committee of six run to different timelines, so it is worth saying at the start which of the two yours is.
How should you state a budget?
The fear behind the blank budget line is that naming a figure invites a quote for exactly that figure. The problem with leaving it blank is that an agency then has to guess between the three or four sensible ways to build almost any site, and a guess means you are quoted for less than you wanted or more than you can spend.
The answer is a range with a sentence attached. "Between £8,000 and £12,000 for design and build, excluding photography, and we would stretch for a booking system that removes our phone admin" gives an agency everything it needs to propose well. It says which tier of solution to propose, what you value enough to pay more for, and what sits outside the number.
If you are unsure what range is realistic, we publish what websites cost in the UK and what ecommerce sites cost so that the range in your brief has some ground under it. The range also gives you a quiet test of the proposals that come back: one that lands exactly at the top of it regardless of what it includes deserves a closer read.
What to add to an Ecommerce Project Brief?
An online store brief needs everything above and a second page, because the operational detail decides the build. These are the questions we ask on the first call for every store project, so answering them in the brief lets that call start on the harder questions.
- Catalogue size. Roughly how many products, and how many variants: forty candles in three sizes is a different build from four thousand components with compatibility rules.
- Current platform. Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, a marketplace, a bespoke system, or nothing yet.
- What must move with you. Orders, customer accounts, reviews, and the existing page addresses, so that search rankings are preserved deliberately rather than patched after launch. Our migration cost guide lists what to gather before asking for quotes.
- A search benchmark. Which pages bring in traffic today, ideally as an export from Google Search Console, so the move can be measured against real numbers.
- Integrations. Accounting software, fulfilment or warehouse system, email platform, EPOS in a physical shop, and anything else the store must talk to.
- Payments, shipping and tax rules. Payment methods you need, shipping zones and rates, and whether you sell internationally or intend to.
- Trade or wholesale. Whether business customers need their own pricing, minimum quantities or a login, because a B2B portal is a project in itself.
- Marketing that depends on the site. Email flows, loyalty schemes, subscriptions and any advertising whose tracking must survive the rebuild.
The template
Copy the headings below into a document, answer each in a few sentences.
WEBSITE BRIEF: [Business name], [date]
1. About us
What we sell, who buys it, and why they choose us.
2. What the website must achieve
The primary outcome, and the number that means success.
3. Who it is for
Our best customer, any second audience, where they find us.
4. What we have now
Current site address. What works, what does not.
Replace it or build on it: [x]
Analytics access available: yes / no.
5. Must-haves
[list]
Nice-to-haves
[list]
6. Branding
Brand kit or guidelines for you to follow: yes / no.
What exists: logo, colours, typography, other.
Needs a refresh or rebrand: yes / no / not sure.
7. Content
Copy: we write it / agency writes it / copywriter.
Photography we own: [describe]. Needs refreshing: yes / no.
8. Example websites
Two or three we admire, and the reason for each.
One we dislike, and why.
9. Timeline and budget
Launch date and what it is tied to.
Budget range: £[x] to £[y], including / excluding [items].
10. Decisions
Who signs off, how many reviewers, any outside approvals.
ECOMMERCE ADDITION
Products and variants: roughly [n] / [n].
Current platform: [x].
Must migrate: orders / customers / reviews / page addresses.
Search benchmark: top pages by traffic today.
Integrations: accounts, fulfilment, email, EPOS, other.
Payments, shipping zones, international selling.
Trade or wholesale customers: yes / no, and their needs.
Marketing and tracking that must survive the rebuild.
What happens when you send it?
When a brief like this reaches us, we read it carefully before we reply, examples included, along with your current site if you have one. What comes back first is a conversation rather than a price, because a brief always leaves a few things open: the questions it raises for us, and the preferences you have about how the project is run and how closely you want to be involved. Once that conversation has happened, we have everything needed to put together a proposal that will perfectly cover all points from your brief.
If you have a brief ready, or half of one, email it to us and we will take it from there. Our fifteen questions to ask a web design agency post is the best way to compare agencies and decide which is the best fit for you.
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