Your website project won’t succeed on good looks alone. Before a designer opens Figma or sketches a layout, they need a clear understanding of your business, goals, and audience. Without a proper brief, you risk ending up with a site that looks decent but doesn’t deliver leads, sales, or credibility.
🔑 Key Takeaways
- A strong brief saves time, money, and rework later.
- Include business context, goals, target audience, and competitor insight.
- Plan content, functionality, and conversion actions before design starts.
- Clarify SEO, analytics, budget, and post-launch support upfront.
Here’s how to put together a brief that sets your project up for success.
🧭 Jump to:
🏢 Introduce Your Business
Start with context. Tell your designer:
- Who you are and what you do
- Who your customers are
- Why you’re investing in a new website now (new product, rebrand, growth stage)
This helps the web design agency see your brand in the right light. For example, when Stonyhurst College came to us, their brand identity no longer reflected their heritage. Clear background information meant we could design a site that honoured their history while moving them forward.
🎯 Define Your Goals
Before talking about visuals, clarify what you want your website to achieve. Do you want to:
- Generate more leads?
- Sell products online?
- Build credibility?
- Educate customers?
Tip: Share your top two or three goals so your designer can prioritise accordingly.
👥 Describe Your Target Audience
Your website isn’t just for you – it’s for your customers. Share details about:
- Who they are (demographics, roles, industries)
- What problems they face
- How they typically use the web
If you’ve got personas or insights from analytics, include them. When we worked with Hyndburn Council, understanding the community’s needs shaped every design decision.
🔍 Review Your Current Website
If you already have a site, outline what works and what doesn’t. For example:
- Does it generate enquiries?
- Is it mobile-friendly?
- Are there features you want to keep?
This prevents repeating old mistakes and gives a starting point for improvements.
📊 Provide Competitors and Inspiration
Show your designer websites you admire – and those you don’t. Highlight specifics:
- Competitor sites you want to benchmark against
- Layouts or features you’d like to replicate (or avoid)
- Examples of tone and style that reflect your brand
Tip: Don’t just say “make it modern.” Point out why certain sites work for you.
⚙️ Outline Features and Functionality
Think beyond appearance – what does your website need to do? Common features include:
- Blog or news section
- E-commerce store
- Booking or scheduling system
- Contact forms
- CRM or email marketing integrations
Be clear about must-haves versus nice-to-haves.
🗂 Draft Your Sitemap
Even a rough list of pages helps guide the design. Typical structures include:
- Home
- About
- Services (with subpages)
- Blog or news
- Contact
If you have niche needs (downloads, resource hubs, client portals), flag these early.
🎨 Share Branding Guidelines
Your website should reflect your brand identity. Provide:
- Logo files
- Brand colours and fonts
- Tone of voice guidelines
If you don’t yet have formal branding, tell your designer so they can help create consistency. (See our branding services if you need to build these foundations first.)
✍️ Clarify Content
Design and content go hand in hand. Decide upfront:
- Will you provide copy, images, and video?
- Do you need agency support with copywriting, photography, or video production?
Delays in content are one of the biggest causes of project slowdowns. Be realistic about your readiness.
💷 Set a Budget and Timeline
Designers can tailor solutions to your budget and deadlines. Be upfront:
- Share a ballpark budget or range
- State key dates (launch, campaign, event)
- Ask what’s realistic within those limits
This avoids wasted time and mismatched expectations.
📈 Plan for SEO, Analytics, and Conversion
Think about how success will be measured:
- Do you want SEO optimisation to generate long-term traffic?
- Will you need Google Analytics or GA4 tracking?
- What actions should users take on each page (enquiry form, call, download)?
This ensures your site isn’t just visually appealing – it actively drives results.
🚀 Decide on Post-Launch Support
A good brief covers more than launch day. Consider:
- Ongoing maintenance
- SEO or digital marketing support
- Training for your team to manage content in-house
Agencies like ours often provide full SEO services and post-launch support to keep your site working hard.
📝 How You’ll Evaluate Proposals
Let web design agencies know what matters most when you’re reviewing proposals:
- Price
- Creativity
- Relevant case studies
- Industry experience
This transparency helps agencies respond with proposals tailored to your priorities.
❓ FAQs About Web Design Briefs
Not every business owner has written a web design brief before – so it’s natural to have questions. Below we’ve answered some of the most common ones our web design and development company hears, covering everything from what a brief should include to how detailed it needs to be.
What is a web design brief?
A web design brief is a document that outlines your business, goals, audience, competitors, and technical needs so your designer knows exactly what to deliver. It sets expectations and avoids wasted time.
How long should a web design brief be?
It doesn’t need to be a huge document. A few pages with the right details – your goals, target audience, required features, budget, and timeline – is usually enough. Clarity matters more than length.
What happens if I don’t provide a brief?
Without a brief, designers are forced to guess at your goals. This often leads to misaligned design, budget overruns, and a site that fails to convert. A brief protects both you and your agency.
Should I include competitors in my brief?
Yes. Sharing competitor sites helps your designer understand your market, spot opportunities to differentiate, and avoid repeating what already exists.
Do I need to know about SEO before writing a brief?
No – but it helps to include whether SEO and analytics matter to you. Agencies like Media Village can build this into the project if flagged early.
👉 Final Thoughts
A strong brief is the foundation of a successful website. It ensures your designer understands not just what your site should look like, but what it should achieve.
The more detail you provide – from your business background to your audience, goals, and competitors – the better equipped your designer will be to deliver a site that supports your business growth.
At Media Village, we’ve helped organisations across Lancashire – from schools like Westholme to manufacturers like Reed Medical – transform their digital presence through clear briefs and collaborative web design services.
📞 Start a conversation with our web design team today.
Written by Austin
Head of UI & UX and Web Design at Media Village
Austin leads the UI, UX and web design side of projects at Media Village. He works closely on website structure, user experience, and front-end design decisions that influence how a site feels, functions, and performs commercially. His input helps ensure new websites are not only visually strong, but properly aligned with the goals, complexity, and growth plans behind each project.
