How to Brief a Web Design Agency (Template + Checklist)

The quality of an agency's proposal is directly proportional to the quality of your brief. A vague brief gets you vague pricing, misaligned timelines, and a project that keeps needing redirection. A clear brief gets you accurate quotes, better creative thinking, and a faster start. Here's exactly what to include.

The Full Project Brief Template

Copy and complete the following before contacting any agency. The more specific your answers, the better the proposals you'll receive.

Section 1: Company & Context

• Company name and URL: [Your current website, if any]
• What you do in one sentence: [Avoid internal jargon — write it as you'd explain it to a customer]
• Target audience: [Describe the person most likely to buy from you — their job, their problem, their stage]
• Key differentiators: [What makes you meaningfully different from the alternatives your audience considers]
• Existing brand assets: [Logo files, brand guidelines, approved fonts, colour palette — or note if these need to be created]

Section 2: Project Goals

• Primary business objective: [e.g. generate inbound leads, reduce sales cycle, support a fundraise, replace an outdated site]
• Primary conversion action: [What should a visitor do? Book a call? Request a demo? Buy a product? Submit a form?]
• Success metrics: [How will you measure whether the new site worked? Enquiry volume, conversion rate, lead quality, traffic growth?]
• What is the current site not doing well? [Be specific — "it looks outdated" is less useful than "the contact form gets 2 submissions a month and we don't understand why"]

Section 3: Scope

• Pages needed: [List the pages — Homepage, About, Services (list each), Case Studies, Blog, Contact, etc.]
• Content status: [Will you provide written copy? Do you need copywriting? Are images available or needed?]
• Integrations required: [CRM, email marketing, analytics, booking, payment — name the tools and whether they're existing or to be set up]
• Platform preference: [WordPress, Shopify, custom build, or open to recommendation? And why, if you have a preference]
• Out of scope: [What are you explicitly NOT including in this project? This prevents scope creep proposals]

Section 4: Process & Constraints

• Budget range: [€/$/£ minimum to maximum. Agencies without a budget range cannot give you a meaningful proposal.]
• Target launch date: [Hard deadline, soft target, or flexible? Note any external dependencies — product launch, event, fundraise]
• Decision-maker: [Who has final sign-off authority on design and scope? Will there be others involved?]
• Feedback turnaround: [What's a realistic window for you to review and respond to design deliverables?]

Section 5: Reference & Direction

• Sites you admire and why: [3–5 examples with a specific note on what you like — "I like the layout of X, the tone of Y, the navigation of Z"]
• Sites you want to avoid looking like: [Optional but useful]
• Brand personality: [3–5 adjectives that describe the feeling your brand should create — e.g. confident, approachable, precise, minimal, warm]

Pre-Send Checklist

Before sending your brief to any agency, confirm:

• I have defined a primary business objective (not just "a new website")
• I have listed the specific pages needed
• I have stated our content readiness (who writes it, when it will be ready)
• I have named the integrations required
• I have provided a realistic budget range
• I have named one decision-maker with sign-off authority
• I have included 3–5 reference sites with specific notes on what I like
• I have noted any hard deadline and why it exists
• I have listed what is out of scope

What Not to Include in Your Brief

As importantly — a few things that make briefs worse, not better:

• Overly detailed visual specifications. Telling an agency "I want the headline to be 48px bold in navy blue" before the design process begins constrains creative thinking without improving outcomes.
• Mood boards without context. A Pinterest board of beautiful websites is less useful than three specific examples with a note on what specifically appeals to you about each one.
• Competitor dossiers. A brief is not a research assignment for the agency. Keep competitor information to "here are 2–3 competitors and one differentiator we have over each."