No, I’m not talking about underwear! I’m talking about writing a great brief for your website!
When I get briefed to create a website or “fix” an existing one, I might get something like this:
Client: I really need to do something about my website. Nobody visits it. The person who used to fix things left and I don’t have time to keep it up to date. I don’t have any passwords for it anyway. It’s a bit embarrassing!
Me: Tell me what you’d like it to be like – what are you selling/telling/advertising etc etc, what do you want to get out of it? What is your website’s reason for being?
Client: Not sure. Whatever you do will be better than what we’ve got now.
Me: How about we sit down, go back a step and start with devising a plan?
Or I might get something like this …
Client: I really need to get a website happening for my business. I’ve got Facebook, but I don’t know what to put on there. I need an online shop, an image gallery, lots and lots of pages but I haven’t written anything yet. Oh, and I need an email newsletter. And I saw this really cool website the other day and I really want mine to be exactly like that but maybe not quite the same. Not sure what else I need, but we can make it up as as we go along.
Me: How about we sit down and work through what you want, toss around a few ideas, and then we can come up with a plan.
Client: Oh, but can’t you just get the website started and I can just fix it up afterwards?
And that gets you back to the first example! Good grief .. this is about your business and its success!
Notice that I haven’t said anything about money here, but a sad fact of life is that budget does play a big part in how a website is developed. The cheapest option is not always the best, nor is the most expensive one. I’ll write some more about this particular topic another day!
I know I’m a creative person, but I need information to work with before I can make any kind of recommendations about your site! And that’s where a good job brief comes in. The lack of a one can make a job more challenging, and whilst I do love a good challenge, the site is for your business, not mine! A well defined brief (and subsequent plan) will make the process smoother, and you will be much more likely to get exactly what you want!
These next two are not job briefs, and yes, they are real examples that I’ve been asked to quote on!
Job brief #1 All layout, pictures, content supplied. I just need you to put this into a php website please.
Job brief #2 Can you convert our psd to WordPress. All that needs to be done is the logo/header and the left navigation buttons. Very quick and easy job.
Needless to say, I declined to quote on these jobs! I might be great at what I do, but!
So, when you’re thinking about your website, and how to make it work the best way possible for your business, a written brief will be invaluable for your designer. It will be invaluable if you are creating the site yourself. It means you’re clear about what you want, what you need to ask questions about, and knowing what you don’t want! And all of that information will help with the planning process.
I’m on a bit of a mission these days to work with clients to plan and document their websites. All of my new website packages come complete with a Planning Guide (I must come up with a zippy name for it!) which takes you through the whole process. This Guide will be available soon as a free eBook. If you’d like me to get in touch when the Guide is available, let me know here.
With a good job brief, a plan, and an involved client, a professional designer should deliver a site to you that:
- does what you need it to do, i.e. meets your brief;
- is flexible enough that it can accommodate new functions (again, this is a key point in writing your brief), and
- that you can manage in a reasonable amount of time every week. If you don’t have time, make sure you have a backup (or a maintenance plan!)
The notion of actually writing a brief for work on your business website (or Facebook, or Twitter, etc) can be difficult to get your head around. All I can say is, it’s a worthwhile investment of your time. You wouldn’t build or renovate your house without having some plans. You wouldn’t market your business without a plan (or you shouldn’t anyway!). Your website shouldn’t be any different!
Your website doesn’t have to be long, but you do need to write it down! This brief then forms part of your overall plan, and beyond that, your “manual” for your website. It’s surprising how many businesses don’t know where their site is hosted, and how to access the admin tools for it. All too often, only one person in an organisation knows the “behind the scenes” stuff. If that person leaves, it can be devastating and I’ve worked with clients who have been in this situation.
So, planning really does pay off. Right from the get go!
Do you write a ‘brief’ for work on your website (or social media etc etc)?
