Almost nobody writes to me with a finished brief, and that is fine. Asking is what I am here for. But if you go through the questions below in advance, we cut the whole round trip by a few weeks and you get a more accurate price straight away.
You do not need an answer to everything
This article is not a test. It is a list of things I am going to ask about anyway. If you know the answer, write it to me straight away. If you do not, write “I do not know” and we will go through it together. That is a perfectly legitimate answer and I hear it often.
1. What the website should do for your company
Should it bring in enquiries? Save you phone calls because people read the answers for themselves? Sell? Or just exist so that nobody rules you out of a tender? Those are all valid goals, but they lead to three different websites.
2. Who it is for
The owner of a small company, a buyer at a large one and an end customer all read completely differently. The more specifically you describe who calls you today, the better I can write the page structure.
3. What a person should do on the website
One main thing per page. Call, fill in the form, download the price list, order. When a website is meant to do five things at once, it does none of them properly.
4. What people do not know about you and should
This is the most valuable thing you can give me. Usually it is something you say in meetings over and over and it is missing from the website.
5. What does not work on your current website
If you already have a website, write to me specifically about what annoys you on it. Can it not be edited? Can it not be found? Does it look old? Does nothing come through it?
The worst brief is “make it look nice”. The best one is “this specific thing annoys me”.
6. Who will manage the content
If you want to change texts and photos yourself, I will build you simple content management and show you how it works. If you do not, we do not have to build it and you save money. Either is fine, I just need to know in advance.
7. What you already have
A logo, photos, texts, access to the domain and the hosting, a shop with products in some system. The more of it there is, the less has to be made from scratch.
8. What your budget is
I know nobody likes this question. I ask it so that I can tell you straight away whether I can do it for that price. If I cannot, I say so immediately and neither of us wastes time.
9. When you need it by
If you have a fixed date because of a trade fair or an opening, tell me right at the start. That is how I know whether I can make it.
What happens next
From your answers I write a specification. It says what I will build and a price that holds. Only then do you decide whether we go ahead. You sign nothing up front.