How to write a website brief?

Introduction

Writing a website brief is essential for making an offer and giving you an estimate. It describes your vision and intentions for developing your on-line marketing. That is why we need to know a bit about your company in order to get a feel for how they should design your website. A good starting point would be to list the following:

• A couple of paragraphs about your company
• The products you sell or services you provide
• Are you an international company? If so, which countries?
• How long have you been established?
• Describe the company using five or ten words (e.g. young, vibrant, technology based etc.)

The new website

You must now examine what you need from the new website. A good starting point would be to consider the following:

• Outline the aims of the website ( e.g. to increase traffic, increase product awareness, generate more sales, offer e-commerce, advertise a new product or service)
• Who is the target audience? Has this changed from the old site? What are the demographics? (e.g. children, adults, socio-economic class, income levels, location, etc.)
• How will your target audience be accessing your site - via their phones, tablets or desktops?
• Is the new website part of a re-brand, or a new product launch?
• Is there other advertising taking place that the new website should tie in with?
• What are the unique selling points for your company, your products or your services?
• What industry are you aiming the website at?
• Is the market already saturated with competitors?
• List a few competitors' websites.
• For e-commerce websites, please detail who you bank with - this will be important for deciding on which payment gateway you should use.

The fun bit - the look and feel of the new website

• Please list around 5 websites that you like the look of, including brief notes on what you like about them.

The content of your new website

Start thinking about how you should populate your new site.

• Do you have the skills & resources available to carry out a content audit of your existing website?
• Who will be responsible for generating content?
• Can you provide any brand guidelines (preferably incorporating details on tone of voice, phraseology etc)?
• Do you have any corporate images, photography or videos?
• Can you provide your logo & corporate identity pack? Ideally in a vector format such as .eps, .pdf or .psd?

Technical requirements

You should outline any special technical requirements that your company might have:

• Do you already own the domain?
• Will you require hosting?
• Is it an intranet/extranet or internet site?
• If it is an intranet, is it a Windows only environment?
• Are you on a Windows server or a Linux server?
• Should you be catering specifically for text only browsers, audio web browsers or Braille readers?
• Is your site likely to be targeting people with special needs or requirements? I.e. limited mobility, colour blind, deaf, learning difficulties etc.
• Considering your exiting website’s analytics - do you have a high proportion of mobile users?

Maintenance

The ongoing maintenance of a website is an often overlooked aspect of the website's design.

• Who will be responsible for the on-going maintenance of the website?
• Do you have the skills, resources and time to maintain the website in-house?
• What happens if that member of staff leaves the company?
• Would you prefer to make an arrangement with the website design/ website development company for them to handle website maintenance?

Digital marketing

You are investing in a new website, so you want customers to see it, right? Now detail how you will promote it. An online business is no different to a traditional business, it needs marketing.

The digital marketing of a website is often overlooked when considering the website brief. The promotion of your website, in terms of increasing visibility in search engines and generating a sense of engagement, is vitally important to the continued success of the site.

There are a number digital marketing activities that you should consider:

• Social media campaigns.
• Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Display Network adverts (image & rich media adverts on relevant websites) - paid listings you see in search engines.
• Email marketing.
• Content marketing - i.e blogs, video content, newsletters, social media.
• Banner advertising on related websites.
• Affiliate marketing.

Your chosen activities will depend on your budget, your target market and the resource within your company to manage the activity. For example, you don’t want to run a social media campaign if your target market doesn’t use social media.

You should set the scene and outline any initial thoughts and research.

• Have you gained insight into the online habits of your target market? For example, do you know which websites they use, when they’re online and why they use the websites they use.
• What’s the product/service differentiator against your competitors?
• Have you previously run any digital marketing campaigns? i.e social media, PPC, email.
• If so, what did/didn’t work?
• Do you have any initial thoughts for digital marketing activity? If so, please detail.
• Do you have the skills, resources and time to maintain the digital marketing in-house?
• What is the budget for the digital marketing launch of the website?
• What is the digital marketing budget for the next 6 months? Does this include third party costs (such as PPC) and agency fees (set up & monthly management)?

Offline marketing

A website can also be supported by an offline marketing strategy, perhaps consider some of the following activities:

• Direct mail
• Brochures and flyers
• Outdoor advertising
• PR exercises
• Sponsorship
• Vehicle wraps

You might be thinking “why do they need to know about offline promotion?”

This is crucial if your communications are to be consistent across various channels. The decision making process is complex, people view product and services across a variety of devices and channels, at different times of the day. You need to ensure you capture their interest and engage with them at the right time, on the right channel.

Conclusion

You should finish your website design brief with a short conclusion, outlining what you would like to receive back from the design agency.