Writing the brief for your website
A clear brief is not only for the supplier: it is what lets you compare two quotes and squeeze the uncertainty out of the price.
· 6 min read · Noor Studio Agency
Why it lowers the price
A supplier who does not know exactly what is being asked prices the uncertainty. That margin is invisible in the quote but real in the total, and you pay it whether the risk materialises or not.
A precise brief removes that margin, and gives you something more useful still: two quotes answering the same document are finally comparable.
What it must contain
A page or two is enough. What matters is precision, not length.
- What the site has to achieve, in one measurable sentence: receive quote requests, take bookings, sell online, reassure before a call.
- Who your customers are, and what they need to find in thirty seconds.
- The list of pages you envisage, even roughly.
- What already exists: logo, photography, copy, an old site, social accounts. And above all what does not.
- Must-have features, separated from nice-to-haves. That distinction is the most useful thing in the document.
- The languages, now. Adding one later costs more than planning for it.
- Your deadline and your budget range. Naming a range does not weaken your position: it saves you three irrelevant quotes.
What it should not contain
Two temptations to resist. The first is describing the solution rather than the problem: dictating a technology or an exact page layout deprives you of the expertise you are paying for.
The second is a list of sites to imitate without saying what you like about them. "Like this site" means nothing; "like this site, for the way the prices are presented" is an instruction someone can act on.
Content: the question to settle first
Write down, explicitly, who supplies the copy and the photography, and by when. It is the line that derails more projects than any technical issue.
If the answer is "we will see", you already know the reason for the delay to come. Better to cut the scope and launch five complete pages than plan fifteen that will wait for months.
And at Noor Studio Agency?
You do not need a brief to call us: the free consultation exists precisely to build one together, and you leave with it even if you give the project to somebody else.
A project to scope?
Thirty minutes is enough to tell you what is worth doing now, what can wait, and what it involves.