January is when a lot of businesses decide that this is the year they finally fix their website. We get more enquiries in the first three weeks of the year than in the whole of December. And the projects that go smoothly almost always start the same way: with a short written brief.
Not a fifty-page document. One page, maybe two. Here's what we ask clients to put in it.
1. Why are we doing this?
One or two sentences. "Our current site looks outdated and we're embarrassed to send it to new clients." "We want to get more enquiries from Google instead of relying on referrals." "We're launching a new product line." The reason shapes every decision that follows.
2. Who is the website for?
Describe your best customers. Their age, their job, what they're worried about when they come to you, which device they're likely using. If you have more than one audience (say, customers and job seekers), list them and say which one matters most.
3. What should visitors do?
Pick one primary action. Call you, fill a form, book a slot, buy something, download a brochure. Then maybe one or two secondary actions. If everything is a priority, nothing is.
4. What pages do you think you need?
A rough list is fine. Home, About, Services, individual service pages, Case Studies, Blog, Contact. We'll refine it together, but your first instinct tells us a lot.
5. Websites you like (and why)
Share three to five sites you admire, even if they're not in your industry. More importantly, tell us what you like about each one. "Clean and lots of white space." "Easy to find prices." "Feels premium." A link without a reason is hard to learn from.
6. What content exists already?
Do you have text, photos, a logo, brand colours, testimonials, case studies? Content is the number one cause of website delays. A site can be designed and built in four weeks and then wait three months for someone to write the About page.
7. Budget and timeline
Give a range, even a rough one. It isn't about spending your whole budget; it's about suggesting options that are realistic. A ₹50,000 site and a ₹5,00,000 site are both valid, they're just different projects. Also tell us if there's a hard deadline, like a launch event or a trade fair.
8. Who decides?
Name the person who gives final approval. Projects stall when feedback comes from five people who disagree with each other.
Why this works
A brief forces the important conversations to happen at the start, when changes are cheap. It also gives you a way to judge the result. When the site launches, you can look back at the brief and ask: did we do what we set out to do?
If you're planning a website this year, write the brief first, even if you're not ready to talk to any agency yet. It'll make every conversation after that faster and better.
