How to brief a web design agency (with a free template)

We open about three hundred briefs a year. Some come in beautifully prepared: a clean document, clear objective, realistic budget range, decision-maker named. Most come in as a paragraph in an email saying "we need a new website, can you send a quote?". The first kind tends to become projects we win and deliver well. The second kind tends to either go nowhere or, worse, become projects where everyone is disappointed because nobody agreed what success looked like before it started.

A good brief isn't a formality. It's the single highest-leverage document you'll produce in your relationship with an agency, and it largely determines the quality of the proposals you'll receive, the accuracy of the pricing, and how aligned the project will feel six weeks in. A bad brief costs money before the project starts because every shortlisted agency has to guess, and the guesses inflate to cover ambiguity.

This article walks through what a good website brief contains, why each section matters, and the mistakes to avoid. The template at the end is free to copy. It's the same one we share with prospects who ask us how to approach the market.

Every good brief is written from the client's perspective, not the agency's. Source: Pexels

What agencies actually do with your brief

When a serious agency receives an inbound brief, two things happen in the first 48 hours. The leadership team reads it and decides whether to bid, and a senior strategist sketches a rough scope and pricing to validate whether the project is realistic.

The decision to bid is not just about whether the project is interesting. It's about whether it's likely to succeed. Agencies turn down work where the budget mismatches the ambition, where the decision-making process looks dysfunctional, where the objectives sound contradictory, or where the timeline is unrealistic. We turn down maybe 40% of inbound briefs. Most of those refusals trace back to ambiguity in the brief itself: the agency couldn't tell whether the project was viable.

A clear brief gets faster, more accurate proposals from better agencies. It also tends to attract the agencies you actually want to hear from. Agencies optimise their pipelines hard. The signal of a clear, professional brief moves you to the top of the queue.

The ten things every good brief includes

1. Company overview

Three sentences. What you do, who you serve, where you sit in your market. The agency doesn't need your origin story; it needs enough context to understand the business you're asking them to translate online.

2. Project type

One of: redesign of an existing site, new build from scratch, e-commerce build, landing page or campaign site, web app or product, migration. Each of these is a fundamentally different engagement with different timelines and cost structures. Naming the type upfront stops the agency proposing the wrong shape of project.

3. Business objective

The single most important field in the entire brief, and the one most often skipped or fudged. What does success look like in six months? More inbound leads? A specific revenue target? Higher conversion on existing traffic? Lower cost per acquisition? Better brand perception in a specific segment?

"A better website" is not an objective. Neither is "modernise the brand". Both are means. Push past the deliverable to the outcome. If the answer is "I'm not sure", say so. Better agencies will help you define it, and that conversation will improve the proposals you receive.

4. Target audience

Who are the primary users of the new site? Customers? Prospects? Investors? Existing customers researching feature usage? Job applicants? Be specific. "Hospitality operators in the UK running 5 to 50 venues, finance directors or operations directors" is useful. "Everyone in our market" is not.

5. Current site URL and what's working / not working

If you have an existing site, include the URL and your honest read on what's working and what isn't. Agencies will look at it before they reply anyway. Telling them what you already know about its strengths and weaknesses saves them time and stops the proposal restating things you've already diagnosed. Include analytics access if you can; if you can't, paraphrase the key numbers (monthly traffic, conversion rate, top entry points).

6. Scope

The pages or features you need. Not the design details, just the inventory. "Homepage, six service pages, case studies index plus detail template, journal index plus post template, contact, legal pages, plus a gated resources section." Agencies will probe this in conversation; an opening scope helps them sanity-check the size of the project.

For e-commerce or product work, this section is bigger: payment, accounts, search, filtering, integrations, subscriptions, internationalisation. If you don't know exactly, list what you think and flag the uncertainties.

7. Technical requirements

Any constraints or preferences on the technology side. CMS preference (or "agency to recommend"). Hosting preference. Integrations you need (CRM, marketing automation, analytics, payment processors). Performance requirements if you have any. Accessibility compliance level (WCAG 2.2 AA is the standard most B2B and public-sector projects target).

If you have none of this in mind, write "no preference, agency to recommend". That's a legitimate answer and a better one than guessing.

8. Design direction

Three websites you admire and a sentence each explaining why. This single piece of input does more to align design conversations than anything else in the brief. It tells the agency how you see, what you value, what feels modern to you. The "why" matters more than the "what": "I like Linear because the typography is confident and the layout feels calm" tells the agency far more than just "I like Linear".

Don't include direct competitors unless you specifically want the new site to look like them, which is rarely a good idea. Include references from adjacent or unrelated sectors.

9. Budget range

This is the section most clients want to skip. Don't.

Hiding the budget feels like negotiating leverage. It isn't. Agencies will guess high to protect themselves, low to win the bid, or simply walk away because they can't justify the cost of scoping without a budget signal. The result is a worse set of proposals, not better pricing.

Give a range. "£40,000 to £60,000" is plenty. The agency will tell you honestly whether the brief is achievable in that range, what trade-offs would be needed, and whether they're the right fit at that level. If you're genuinely uncertain, name a maximum: "we have up to £80,000 approved, but we'd prefer to spend less if the brief allows".

The market reality in the UK in 2026: a serious brand website with a CMS, custom design, two languages, SEO foundations and a 6 to 12 page scope runs £25,000 to £75,000 from a reputable agency. E-commerce, product builds and large multilingual sites run higher. Anything under £10,000 from an agency (not a freelancer) is either a templated build or a loss-leader.

10. Timeline and milestones

When do you want the new site live? Are there fixed external dates (a product launch, a trade show, an investor milestone, a fiscal year-end)? When does decision-making need to be complete to hit the launch?

Add the decision-making process. Who signs off the agency selection? Who signs off design? Who signs off content? If the answer is "the founder approves everything", say so. If it's "an internal steering committee meets fortnightly", say so. Agencies plan their delivery cadence around your decision velocity.

The clearest briefs are written after a planning session, not before one. Source: Pexels

Common brief mistakes

"We'll know it when we see it." This is the most expensive sentence in the briefing process. It means the agency has to guess what you want, present a direction, watch you reject it, present another, and burn discovery hours before any real work starts. Replace it with structured design references and clear objectives.

Hiding the budget. Already covered. Don't.

Too many stakeholders, no single decision-maker. A brief that lists six people who all need to sign off, with no named final authority, signals a project that will slow to a crawl. Either name a single decision-maker upfront or describe the decision process explicitly.

Confusing features with objectives. "We need an AI chatbot" is a feature, not an objective. The objective is reducing support tickets, or qualifying leads faster, or whatever the chatbot is meant to achieve. Briefs that list features without objectives produce solutions in search of problems.

Asking for ideas without committing to a project. Some buyers approach agencies with vague briefs hoping to harvest free strategic thinking. Serious agencies will detect this in 15 minutes and disengage. If you're at the exploration stage, say so: ask for a paid scoping engagement or a conversation, not a full proposal.

Sending the same brief to a dozen agencies. Three to five is enough. More than that, you'll struggle to evaluate the proposals seriously, and agencies will sense the long-shot odds and put less effort in.

The brief template

Copy this and fill in your answers. Keep it to two or three pages.

PROJECT BRIEF

Company overview
[3 sentences max. What you do, who you serve, where you sit in the market.]

Project type
[ ] Redesign of existing site
[ ] New build from scratch
[ ] E-commerce build
[ ] Landing page or campaign site
[ ] Web application or product
[ ] Migration to new platform
[ ] Other: ___________

Business objective
[What does success look like in 6 months? Be specific. Numbers if you have them.]

Target audience
[Primary user(s). Be specific: sector, role, geography, context of use.]

Current site
URL: ___________
What's working: [2-3 bullet points]
What's not working: [2-3 bullet points]
Monthly traffic (if known): ___________

Scope
Pages or sections needed:
- _____________
- _____________
- _____________
Features needed:
- _____________
- _____________

Technical requirements
CMS preference: [your preference or "agency to recommend"]
Hosting preference: [your preference or "agency to recommend"]
Integrations required: [CRM, analytics, payment, etc.]
Languages: [single language or list]
Accessibility level: [WCAG 2.2 AA / other / not specified]

Design direction
Sites we admire and why:
1. [URL] — [why, 1 sentence]
2. [URL] — [why, 1 sentence]
3. [URL] — [why, 1 sentence]

Budget range
£__________ to £__________

Timeline
Ideal launch date: ___________
Fixed external dates (if any): ___________

Decision-making
Primary contact: [name, role, email]
Final decision-maker: [name, role]
Process: [e.g. "founder reviews and signs off weekly" or "steering committee meets fortnightly"]

Anything else we should know
[Sensitivities, internal politics, known constraints, things you've tried before that didn't work.]

🎬 Watch: Inside a brief conversation

What a productive first agency call sounds like.

What happens after you send the brief

A good agency will respond within two or three working days with one of three outcomes.

A proposal-stage call request. Most reputable agencies want a 30 to 45 minute conversation before writing a proposal. The brief tells them whether it's worth pursuing. The conversation tells them how to scope it. If an agency writes a detailed proposal off a brief alone with no call, be cautious; they're either guessing or copy-pasting.

A polite decline. Sometimes the brief doesn't fit. Maybe the budget is below the agency's floor, or the timeline is unrealistic, or the technical requirements sit outside their stack. A direct decline is a sign of an agency that respects your time. The worst response is a half-hearted proposal from someone who clearly isn't a fit.

Clarifying questions. A few well-aimed questions before proposing is a good sign. It means the agency is engaging with the substance rather than firing back a template.

After the conversation, expect a written proposal within five to ten working days. A serious proposal covers: their reading of your brief, recommended scope, approach and process, team and roles, indicative timeline, fixed or estimated cost, terms and assumptions. If pricing is presented as a single number with no breakdown, ask for the breakdown.

Take two to four weeks to evaluate proposals properly. Compare them on substance, not just price. The cheapest proposal is rarely the best value. The most expensive isn't automatically the best either.

A good brief is the first artefact of a working partnership. Source: Pexels

Send us your brief, or build one with us

If you've got a brief ready, send it through and we'll come back to you within two working days with either a request for a call or an honest read on whether we're a fit. If you don't have a brief yet and would rather build one together, our intake form walks through the same questions in 15 minutes and produces a document you can use with us or anyone else you choose to approach. Start here.