Writing a website brief for your next website project

So you’re starting a new and exciting project or have decided to refresh your existing website, great, but what next? The foundations to a great website begin with a strong website brief, an overview of what you want the website to achieve, who are your competitors and what sets you apart etc.

Although Actuate will help you outline your goals and strategy during our discovery phase, we’ve also put together a handy list of items you may wish to consider thinking about for your website brief.

Your Branding

Do you have an existing brand or brand guidelines you can share? Or do you have any design preferences you’d like implemented on your site? What are your brand’s values?

Your Business

Outline your business and list your USP’s (unique selling points). What is your company history? What are your achievements? Have you won any awards?

Your Ideal Customer

Who is your ideal customer or customers? What are their pain points, and how do you plan to fix them? List their key characteristics, age, gender, location, income, family status. Consider creating a customer persona.

Your Competitors

Who are your top competitors, and why? How do you plan to compete with them? What makes you and your product better?

Your Project

What do you want your new website to achieve? If you are planning a redesign, why have you decided to take this step? Do you have real-world data (surveys, focus groups, analytics) that can help with the planning of your project? What is your budget?

Your Success Criteria

How are you planning to measure the success of your new site? Is it based on the number of sales, revenue, email signups, position on Google search? Do you have any secondary or tertiary goals for the website?

Your Deadline

When do you wish to launch the website? Who are the key stakeholders?

Your Infrastructure

Do you want us to host and manage your website, or do you have hosting already in place? If you’re using your own provider, who are they and what is the server spec? Do you have the option to install your own server extensions? What support is offered?

Conclusion

Once broken down into manageable sections, your website brief becomes an easy document to compile and will become a solid blueprint for your new project. Without taking the time to consider these essential factors, it’s easy for a digital agency to wander off-track, so don’t ignore this first step.

Your website brief doesn’t have to be perfect and may very well contain gaps that an excellent digital agency like Actuate can help fill during our discovery sessions. The critical aspect of writing a website brief is taking some time to think and consider your answers to the questions posed above; doing this helps create a roadmap that your digital agency can follow and deliver on.

Good luck, and we look forward to building on your foundations to create a website that not only looks great but also works well for your and your customers.