Website briefs are often written as a list of pages and features. The pages matter, but the brief has to start with who is visiting and what they're trying to find out. Otherwise you end up with a nicer version of the site you already had.
Below is a full example for a made-up company, written in the eleven sections of a one-page creative brief. The shaded notes are the places a website brief needs something a standard brief doesn't. If it's close to what you're working on, you can start from this example and change it.
Hollis & Reed website redesign
A 25 person accounting firm that works mostly with small businesses and freelancers. The website was built in 2017 and lists every service in the same size type. Almost all new clients come from referrals, and most of them look at the site before they call.
Referred clients visit the site to check whether the firm is right for them, and it doesn't tell them.
Referrals keep coming, but some of them go somewhere else after looking at the site. The firm keeps getting calls for work it's trying to move away from, like one-off personal tax returns.
Owners of businesses with a few employees, and freelancers whose income got complicated. Someone they trust gave them the firm's name. They're on their phone, checking whether this firm works with people like them and roughly what it costs.
“Accountants all seem the same. I'll call and see if they even take clients my size.”
“They work with businesses like mine, and I can see about what it costs before I call.”
Accountants for small businesses and freelancers, with prices you can see before you call.
Most of their clients have fewer than 20 employees. Monthly packages list a starting price. Every client gets a named accountant, not a shared inbox.
Must meet WCAG 2.1 AA. The booking tool they already pay for stays. No stock photos of handshakes or calculators. Staff photos only with each person's okay.
Sitemap and templates for the homepage, three service pages, pricing, team and contact. Copy for all of them. Mobile designs first, then desktop. A handoff file with components for the build.
Kickoff 7 October, sitemap and content plan 16 October, design routes 30 October, client review 4 November, final designs 20 November, build starts 1 December, live mid-January.
The One-Page Brief is free and there's no sign-up. It checks your brief for the usual problems, and you send it as a link so people can comment on the section they mean and approve it with their name.
Need it as a file?
The One-Page Strategy Kit has the creative brief, the messaging framework and the measurement plan as fillable PDFs and Word files, for when a client wants a document. It's $19.
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A weekly note on account planning for agency strategists. One thing that changed, the tension in it, and what I'd do Monday. The first part of every issue is free.
Written by Cody Simmonds. I also write The Rationale, a weekly note for agency strategists.