How to brief a web agency: the ten questions that matter (template inside)

The quality of the quotes you receive depends on the quality of the brief you send. A vague brief gets vague, padded estimates. A clear one gets precise proposals you can actually compare. It does not need to be long: one or two pages that answer these ten questions is plenty.

The ten questions#

1. What is the site for? Name the one or two business outcomes it must drive: enquiries, bookings, sales, applications, donations.
2. Who is it for? Describe your main visitors and what they are trying to do when they arrive.
3. What is wrong with the current site? Be specific: slow, hard to update, out of date, not converting, not accessible.
4. What does success look like in six months? A number helps: “twice as many enquiries”, “half the time to publish a case study”.
5. What must it include? List the key pages and features, and anything it must connect to: CRM, booking, payments, newsletter.
6. What do you already have? Brand guidelines, logo files, photography, copy, hosting and domain access.
7. Who will write and supply the content, and when? This is the most common cause of delay on every project.
8. What is the budget range? A range is fine. It changes what an agency proposes, not just what it charges.
9. When does it need to launch, and why? A real reason (a trade show, a funding round) helps everyone plan backwards.
10. Who decides? Name one person who signs off, and anyone else who needs to be consulted.

Sites you like, and why#

Add three to five websites you admire and one sentence on each about what you like: the navigation, the tone, the way prices are shown. “I like it” tells an agency nothing. “It explains pricing without making me call” tells them a lot.

The template#

Copy this into a document, fill it in, and send it to every agency you are talking to. Same brief, comparable quotes.

PROJECT BRIEF — [Organisation name]

1. Purpose: The site must ...
2. Audience: Our main visitors are ... They come to ...
3. Current problems: ...
4. Success in six months: ...
5. Must include (pages, features, integrations): ...
6. What we already have (brand, photos, copy, accounts): ...
7. Content: written by ..., ready by ...
8. Budget range: £ ... to £ ...
9. Launch date and reason: ...
10. Decision-maker: ... (consulted: ...)

Sites we like and why:
- ... because ...
- ... because ...

What a good agency does with it#

• Asks follow-up questions before quoting, especially about content and integrations.
• Sends back a written scope that you can check line by line.
• Gives a fixed price for that scope, with options rather than surprises.
• Proposes a timeline with your content dates built in.
• Tells you plainly if something in the brief is unnecessary or would be cheaper another way.