8 things to know about creating a website brief
We’ve recently delivered several high-profile websites on behalf of our customers. Ensuring that each site came together as planned was without doubt the product of a strong website brief before the project even began. If you’re considering a revamp of your company website, then here’s 8 things you need to know about creating one.
- 12th September
- Don’t dodge it – you need one
It’s easy to think that you can just get stuck in and everything will be alright, but without a solid brief you and the people working for you won’t deliver what you need. Recognise the importance of having a brief and give over due time and attention to creating it. It will pay dividends in the long run.
- Benchmark your existing site
Examine the traffic stats for your current site to see what’s working and what’s not. This is valuable intelligence to inform the development of your new site. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water if there’s part of your existing site that is worth retaining.
- It’s not just for your suppliers
While the brief will provide essential creative guidance for the website developers you employ, the process of creating the brief will also help focus your mind on documenting everything that’s important to you. It will help avoid heartache and potentially costly fixes further down the line if it’s all documented and available to all stakeholders.
- Style AND function
When creating a website brief, it’s easy to become fixated with what it will look like. Don’t forget the brief should also outline how the content will be written – your preferred tone of voice and make clear any functional expectations you have that will influence user experience.
- Be clear about what you like
Look around at other websites and build a mood board for websites you like. They don’t have to be competitors; just sites you like the look of or enjoy the experience they create. Document examples and share them with the suppliers working on your behalf. It will give a good steer for what you’re looking for.
- The devil’s in the detail
Make sure you capture as much detail as possible. In our recent briefs we even considered font style preferences and how much content would appear on each page for example. The more informed you and the other stakeholders can be, the better website you’ll end up with.
- Custom vs stock photography
There’s nothing worse that looking at a website and seeing images used that you’ve seen somewhere else. Imagery is often neglected in website development and frequently left to the end of the project. Use the brief to detail a clear plan for how you will arrive at the images you need. Think carefully about the use of custom photography versus publicly available stock images and even if they can coexist together. Remember the images will play a big part in how you project your personality.
- Give time over to SEO
Achieving good ranking won’t happen by magic. You need to make sure your content is answering the questions that your typical customer has. Make sure your brief considers SEO as part of the build and time is given over to influence the process of content development.
As one of our recent posts suggests, marketing success is a journey not an event and preparing your website as part of that journey is a critical step.
If you’d like help creating your website brief, then get in touch.
Boston Undrell is a Director at Asgard Marketing. She works closely with clients to ensure that the objectives and outcomes identified at the outset are achieved through the projects we deliver.