Briefs play a key role in selecting an agency and set your project up for success. To help you craft an excellent brief, we've laid out what makes a great brief for digital projects.
Selecting the right digital agency for your organisation is a major decision, and one that will shape the digital projects you deliver. Any competent agency will deliver work that meets the requirements outlined in your brief, but a great agency will do far more, ensuring you get the best possible outcomes for your project.
When you’ve decided it’s time to draw upon the skills of a digital agency, you’ll need to write a brief that outlines what you are hoping to achieve and the resources you have available. Rather than simply thinking of your brief as an obligatory or contractual requirement of running a compliant tender process, we recommend that you think of it as an opportunity to find the absolutely ideal agency to support your organisation. In addition, an excellent brief will allow agencies to understand your challenges and think creatively to come up with the best possible solutions to reach your goals.
Why is writing a great brief important?
What should your brief include?
Objectives:
Clearly set out what you are looking to achieve, and what metrics or benchmarks you’ll be using to determine success. This allows agencies to suggest creative solutions that might differ from what you originally thought you required but will better achieve your objectives. A strong response will speak directly to your objectives, rather than focusing specific technologies or methods.
Partnership:
What are you looking for in a supplier? Is this a one-off project, or the start of something bigger? Provide some guidance on what your ideal type of agency relationship looks like. Cultural fit is such an important part of finding the right agency, so be transparent about the qualities you are looking for.
Technology:
Do you need to use a specific technology for your project? Is this a must have or simply a preference? If you’re technology-agnostic, outline the main qualities you are looking for from the ideal solution. For example, you might be open to suggestions on which CMS to use, but have a preference for one that is flexible, secure, and has no licencing fees. That helps narrow the field, so you only get agencies with the right experience responding. Do you need to use a specific technology for your project? Is this a must have or simply a preference? If you’re technology-agnostic, outline the main qualities you are looking for from the ideal solution. For example, you might be open to suggestions on which CMS to use, but have a preference for one that is flexible, secure, and has no licencing fees. That helps narrow the field, so you only get agencies with the right experience responding.
Content:
Consider what you want to do with your existing content and make this clear up-front. Do you want to migrate all your old content to the new website? Do you have internal resource to do this, or will you require support? We recommend conducting a content audit ahead of time to help inform this question. The amount of content migration required can have a large impact upon the costs of the project, so it is really helpful to make this clear.
Design:
Have you already developed a set of digital brand guidelines, or will you want to create those as part of the project? Will the project be applying a brand that’s already developed, or will it include a re-brand which you’d like expert assistance with? Provide agencies with an idea of the style you are looking for. It’s helpful to provide examples, such as a list of sites you aspire to. Don’t feel like you should only list design examples from within your sector. For example, if you’re a university, don’t feel you should only be looking to university websites for inspiration. Include great examples of design even if they’ve never been applied to your sector before.
Users:
Provide a concise summary of what you know about your existing users. How do they find the existing site? Are there any common pain points you’ve identified? If you’re embarking on a project that’s aimed at attracting new types of users, describe the sort of reach you might anticipate in the future.
Integration with third-party systems:
Always list any essential integrations for your project and the platforms they relate to. Your site might have a need to integrate with a specific CRM, payment gateway, or collections management software, which will require specialist skills in the agency’s tech team. Being upfront about your tech stack means you can be sure you’re choosing the agency with the right skills for the job.
Dependencies with other projects:
Be clear if your brief represents a stand-alone project or forms one part of a larger digital transformation. It’s useful to know which elements could flex, and which are set by the needs of the wider project.
Timeline:
Lay out clearly when you need the work to be completed. Be sure to mention any hard deadlines, such as events, that are inflexible and must be met. Agencies have to juggle studio capacity so being clear about the timeline lets them plan accordingly. Don’t set hard deadlines if you actually have flexibility. The ideal agency might not respond to your brief because they would miss a launch date you have set just because it felt right.
Stakeholders:
Being clear about who will be consulted, and who is responsible for sign-off helps agencies tailor their response. It’s also a crucial exercise to conduct yourself. Mapping out who your stakeholders are and ensuring they are aligned is crucial to delivering successful digital projects.
Budget:
Digital projects can vary hugely in costs depending on your requirements, and a budget helps agencies to understand what scope of work we should be pitching. Even if you don’t have an exact budget, you should provide a range so suppliers can understand if they might be a good fit. If you don’t provide a budget, you risk not receiving responses from high-calibre suppliers who won’t bid on work with no stated budget.
Alongside providing a number or range, it’s also worth noting if this figure includes or excludes VAT. You should also state if the budget is for the development of the project only, or if it needs to accommodate costs for post-launch maintenance. Make this clear as it may affect a great agency’s decision to bid for the work or not.
Response:
State what format(s) you want the response to be provided in, when the deadline to respond is, and how you’ll score the responses