A brief doesn’t need twenty pages. It needs to answer the questions that will come up in the first meeting anyway. Answer them in writing and every agency prices the same thing, so you compare quotes rather than interpretations.
What the brief has to include
- A business goal, not a deliverable. Not “a new website” but “more inquiries from companies in our industry” or “sales stops apologizing for the website when they send the link”. If you have a number, give it.
- Context. Who you are, what you sell, to whom and who you compete with. A link to the current site and the materials you already have.
- Scope. What needs to be made and what already exists. Is there copy, photography, a brand? Do you need other languages or a CRM integration?
- Constraints. A deadline that actually means something, like a trade show or a launch, and the systems you won’t give up.
- Budget. At least a range. Without one, agencies guess: one prices the minimum version, another everything that could possibly be done.
- Who decides. Who approves the work and how many people will give feedback. It genuinely changes the schedule.
- How you’ll choose. Price, timing, industry experience, way of working. An agency that knows how it will be judged answers what matters to you.
Why you should share the budget
Many companies hide the budget because they’re afraid the agency will “spend all of it”. In practice, no budget has the opposite effect: you get quotes you can’t line up, because each one describes a different project. The lowest price often means the narrowest scope, not the best deal.
It’s better to give a range and ask what fits in it. Better still, ask for options: what you get at the low end, what at the high end and what waits for later. Then you’re discussing decisions, not discounts.
What to leave out
- A list of adjectives. “Modern, dynamic, professional” fits every company. Instead, name three brands you like and say what exactly you like about them.
- Solutions instead of problems. “We need a chatbot” ends the conversation. “Customers ask sales the same five questions” starts it, and the answer may turn out simpler.
- Requirements just in case. Every feature in the brief ends up in the quote. If something is a nice-to-have, label it as one.
How to compare the responses
Ask every agency for the same information and put it in a table:
- scope as a list, not paragraphs,
- a schedule showing what you get in which week,
- the number of directions and rounds of revisions,
- who exactly works on the project,
- when the copyright and source files pass to you,
- what happens after handover.
A brief plus that table is the simplest way to base the choice on facts rather than on whose presentation looked nicer.
A short template
If you want to start right away, copy these headings and answer each in a few sentences:
- Company and product
- Project goal and how we’ll measure success
- Audience
- Scope: what needs to be made, what we already have
- Deadline and why this one
- Budget range
- Who decides
- Selection criteria
- When and in what form we expect the proposal
If you don’t know the answer to some of these, that’s information too. In the first call, which is free, we go through them together, and then we send a proposal in three options, each with scope, schedule and price.
Let’s talk about your project
The first call takes 30 minutes and is free. After it, you know whether we can help and what it will cost.
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