A useful website brief explains what your business needs the website to do, who it needs to help and what happens after someone gets in touch. You do not need to arrive with a finished design or a list of technical features.
For an owner-managed business, the best starting point is often a short document that makes your priorities clear. This guide takes you through what to include, with a worked example and a checklist you can copy into your own brief.
1. Start with the job your website needs to do
“We need a more modern website” is a reasonable starting point, but it leaves the most important decisions open. What would the new website make easier for your customers, and what would it make easier for you?
Choose one main purpose, then a small number of supporting goals. You might want to attract enquiries for a particular service, explain a complicated offering, sell products, or give existing customers a place to find information.
Make the goal concrete. For example: “Help local homeowners understand our garden design service and request an initial conversation.” That gives the designer something useful to build around: the right service information, examples of work, the area you cover and an obvious enquiry route.
2. Describe the people you want to reach
Write down who is most likely to use the website and what they need to know before taking the next step. A returning trade customer has different questions from someone who has never heard of your business.
- What brings them here? A recommendation, a search for a service, an existing customer relationship or a question about an order?
- What might stop them getting in touch? Unclear pricing, uncertainty about your service area, a lack of examples or not knowing what happens next?
- What should they do? Call, complete an enquiry form, request a quote, buy something or sign into a customer area?
Your recent customer conversations are a good source of material. If you repeatedly answer the same question by phone, the website may need to answer it too.
3. Plan pages around customer questions
A long page list does not automatically make a better website. Start with the information people need to decide whether you are right for them.
For a small service business, an initial structure might include a home page, separate pages for the main services, information about the business, genuine examples of work, answers to common questions and a contact page. Combine or expand these according to the business; there is no required number of pages.
For each proposed page, write one sentence explaining its purpose. A service page could answer: “What do you offer, who is it for, where do you work and how do I enquire?” If two pages would say almost the same thing, consider whether both are necessary.
4. Decide who will prepare and maintain the content
Content is often the part of a website project that takes longer than expected. Agree who will supply the words, photography, product information and examples of work, and who will approve them.
You do not need everything ready before the first conversation. You do need to be clear about the help you want. Writing from rough notes is a different job from placing finished copy into a design, and both should be reflected in the scope.
Think beyond launch. List the information that changes regularly, such as opening hours, team members, services, articles or products. Your content management system (CMS) should let the right people make those updates without making routine work unnecessarily complicated.
5. Follow an enquiry beyond the contact form
The form is only the start of a customer journey. Decide where an enquiry should go, who is responsible for replying and how you will know whether it has been followed up.
For example, a fictional landscaping business might need this simple process:
- A visitor selects the service they are interested in and sends an enquiry.
- The business receives the details and assigns someone to respond.
- The enquiry becomes a customer record with notes from the conversation.
- If appropriate, the business prepares a quote and later an invoice.
You may only need an email notification at first. If enquiries are getting lost between inboxes and spreadsheets, it is worth discussing whether your website should connect to a CRM. Describe the problem in the brief before choosing the software.
6. Separate launch essentials from later improvements
Put each requirement into one of three groups: needed for launch, useful soon, or a possible future idea. This helps you compare proposals and avoids letting a distant ambition delay a straightforward website.
A customer portal, targeted email campaigns or recurring billing could be valuable later. They should influence the conversation about the platform, but they do not all have to be part of the first build. Ask which future features can be added, what setup would be involved and what additional charges might apply.
7. Make budget, ownership and ongoing support clear
Share a realistic budget range and any genuine deadline. If a launch date depends on an event or a business opening, say so. Ask what information and approvals you will need to provide to meet it.
Compare both the initial project cost and the ongoing arrangement. Clarify what hosting, maintenance and support include; which updates you can make yourself; how extra work is quoted; who controls the domain; and what happens if you want to move away in future.
A useful proposal should make the scope and responsibilities understandable before you commit.
A website brief you can copy
Use these headings for a first draft. Short, specific answers are more useful than pages of vague requirements.
- Our business: What we do, who we serve and where we work.
- Main website goal: The most important thing we want it to achieve.
- Our visitors: Who they are and their main questions.
- Next step: What we want someone to do, and what happens afterwards.
- Pages and content: What we think we need, what we already have and where we need help.
- Updates: What changes regularly and who will maintain it.
- Launch essentials: The features we need now.
- Later possibilities: Tools we may want as the business develops.
- Budget and timing: Our working range, target date and any fixed constraints.
- Support: What we would like someone else to look after.
How Capitan can help
Capitan designs, builds and looks after websites for owner-managed businesses. Its connected platform also provides content management, CRM, email communications, quotes, invoices and other business tools, so you can discuss what you need now and what might be useful later.
You work directly with Paul, Capitan’s founder and creator. Bring your rough brief, your existing website or simply the problem you want to solve. You do not need to choose every feature before the conversation starts.
Talk to Capitan about your website or find out more about Capitan.