1. Budget

2. What Do Your Users Want?

It might sound like a simplistic statement, but it is rare brief indeed that is written from the perspective of the users.

More often a website is built based on what the client wants the public to see of them and their services, rather than thinking of how the site might better aid their customers or prospects. Again, this is a simple wrong that you can right just by knowing your business.

Speak to your customers and get them involved in the briefing process. Ask them how your new website might improve your working relationship? Could it offer functionality to make processes easier? When you put this down in writing to your development studio, think about creating a pen portrait of your typical customer.

3. What Do Your Staff Want?

Again, very often overlooked. If you work in a medium to large sized organization, I would put money on it that you will have numerous processes that could be made easier or even automated by the clever use of a website or an online application. And all you have to do is take the time to consult your staff and bring them into the project planning process.

Perhaps you have staff who spend time posting details to customers – this could be handled online with a support section or with downloadable documents. For companies of 50 staff and over we’d strongly suggest consulting all team leaders or managers as to how a website could free up their staff’s time, allowing them to focus on other more vital tasks. You need to ensure that by the time you consult an development company to design and build your site you have considered every way in which that site can streamline back office functions.

4. What Sites You Like

And not just a page of links please. Do some structured online research of what websites might be useful to present to the development studio. This should not be seen solely as a beauty contest where you just present designs that you like. Try to find sites that meet some pre-determined criteria. For instance:

5. How Do You Update Your Site?

It’s a given that a site that is regularly updated with useful and interesting content will attract attention and drive brand allegiance. This much we know. So with that in mind you need to think practically about how you and your business plan to produce this content.

Being clear about what content you are able to produce, what content you need to produce, and specifically who will be doing it, will be invaluable when you scope out what Content Management System you require.

Do you have any provision in house to resize graphics? Can you source and edit photography if you need to update images? If not then you will need to be mindful that your development studio doesn’t produce a design that relies on retouched photography that you can’t maintain. All this detail is, as I hope you can see, crucial.

6. Content Management Systems

Now it’s quite possible that you have either never even heard of branded Content Management Systems, or if you have your experience of using them might be limited. And that’s fine.

Being realistic about exactly what level of control you require over a site is fundamental to ensuring that you (a) get the system that is right for you and (b) save money by not developing unnecessary features.

So often I hear that question asked ‘What level of control do you want over your sites contents?’ to which the reply is always the same – ‘total control.’ The questions ought to be ‘what level of control do you really need over your sites’ content?’ Hopefully you now know exactly what content you will be producing in which case you will know what level of CMS edibility you must have, and any further functionality you can afford is a bonus. This level of detail is essential for a development studio to accurately price, and there is little point in them spending weeks (as they may do) constructing a CMS where only a small percentage of its capabilities are actually used.

7. Schedules

OK, another obvious one. And one that is common to any endeavour right?

Building a website, producing a brochure or building a shed. You need to know what is involved and when it's needed. But websites still often catch people off guard.

Some advice to help you on your way with this one; be clear from the beginning who makes up the website project team at your organization, what the process of approval is, and who is sourcing content.

Who is sourcing content? Possibly the greatest cause of delays in web projects come from an under-appreciation of just how much time it takes to source images, text and quotes for the site. Ensure you allow time for sourcing the material . Providing accurate material on a timely basis to a development studio will result in a far smoother project.

8. Measure Your Success

Has it worked? How will we know? Has it addressed the problem we had before, or do we have the same problem only with new pictures and copy?

Put simply, this part of the brief will encourage you to distil precisely what the problem is that you are addressing with a new site. Then you need to address directly how you will judge whether the new site has been a success. That might be an increase in inquiries, newsletter signup, sales, visits or a drop in telesales calls as people rely on online ordering. Either way, be clear about this so you can put in place a method to record this data. It might be an analytics package that does this, or it might be training for telesales to encourage them to ask how a customer learnt of a promotion. Either way, this needs to be thought about in advance and communicated to the agency so they fully understand all factors they need to consider to achieve your goal, and then provide clear evidence of that.

9. Evolve and Grow

How do you see the site progressing in the years to come?

This is another reason why it is so crucial to have a website working party within your organization, and for you to encourage people to take part in the sourcing and publishing of new information.

If you have a vision for the future of the site then communicate this to your development studio, as they can not only make recommendations as to how this might be achieved, but they can also factor this in to their initial designs. Have you scheduled any surround activity that will promote the launch of the site?

Perhaps you have PR launching, radio, advertising or e-marketing all set to coincide with the live date of the site. For goodness sake don’t keep this a secret as all of this will be crucial for your development studio to know.

10. What Exactly Is It That You Do?

Never assume that your development studio will simply understand what it is that your business or product does!

And never assume that they don’t need to know what you do because they are simply building a site from copy and images supplied. Take time to give a short(ish) description of what your business does. Explain what sets you apart from your competitors, and what is special about your approach to your work.

Development studios will work with a lot of customers who each offer a variety of services, and once they understand exactly how your business operates you can benefit from their experience in servicing similar operations online.