- A great brief is one page. Two if you must. Never twenty.
- Cover seven things: who, what, why, for whom, success metric, constraints, references.
- Include a budget range. Hiding it wastes everyone's time.
- Reference sites tell agencies more about you than 5 paragraphs of adjectives.
- Reply within 24 hours during the pitch process. Slow brief = slow project.
Most "we need a website" emails arrive at agencies in a state that makes a useful quote impossible. The agency replies with generic estimates, the founder gets ten different numbers, and three weeks pass before anyone knows what's actually being built.
A good brief solves this in 24 hours. Below is the template we wish every prospect sent us, with the seven sentences (or short sections) that turn vague intent into a tight quote.
The 7-part brief
1. Who you are
One sentence. "We're Alactic, an independent digital agency working with founders worldwide. Past clients include X, Y, Z." If you're a startup, a one-line pitch ("we're building Y for Z") is enough.
2. What you want built
The thing. Specifically. Not "a digital presence" — "a 7-page marketing website with a CMS, a contact form, and a blog."
3. Why you want it built
The business reason. "We're launching a new product in Q3 and our current site doesn't represent the brand." Or "We're seeing 40% bounce on the homepage and need a redesign before we double our paid spend." The why determines the how.
4. Who it's for
The user, in one sentence. "B2B procurement managers at logistics firms with 50–500 staff." Be specific. "Everyone" isn't a useful answer.
5. What good looks like
One or two measurable outcomes. "Increase conversion from homepage to demo request from 1.2% to 3%." Or "Pass Core Web Vitals on mobile." Or "Launch by April 15 with content for 6 service pages."
If you can't articulate success, the agency will either define it for you (badly) or measure success by "did the client approve the design", which isn't useful to anyone.
6. Constraints
Three things:
- Timeline: "Need to launch by Aug 30" or "flexible, but ideally Q3".
- Budget range: "$15K–$30K" or "$50K–$100K". Yes, share it. Reasoning below.
- Hard requirements: "must integrate with HubSpot", "WCAG 2.2 AA compliance", "must work on our existing AWS account".
7. References
3–5 sites you love and 1–2 you actively dislike, with one sentence each on why. "Linear.app — clean, fast, the typography hierarchy works. Vercel.com — too dense for our audience. Cluely.com — love the energy but too playful for B2B."
References communicate aesthetic preferences faster than any adjective list. "Modern, clean, sophisticated" means nothing. "Like Linear but warmer" tells an agency exactly what to design toward.
Why include a budget
This is the single most-asked-about line item, so it gets its own section. The argument against ("they'll just quote up to my budget") sounds reasonable. The reality is the opposite.
Without a budget range, an agency has three options:
- Guess high. They send a quote based on what they'd build for an enterprise client. You see the number, run away. Match wasn't real.
- Guess low. They scope a basic version, you sign, scope creeps, change orders pile up, project blows up. Worst outcome.
- Refuse to quote until they've done a discovery call. Now you've added a week and a sales conversation to the timeline.
A range — even a wide one — solves all three. "$15K–$30K, depending on what you'd recommend" tells the agency how to scope, signals you're a real prospect, and gets you a real number fast.
The brief, copy-paste template
Subject: New project · [Your company] Hi Alactic team, We're [one line about who you are]. We'd like to build [specific thing], because [business reason]. Our audience: [specific user description]. Success looks like [one or two measurable outcomes]. Constraints: · Timeline: [target date or "flexible, ~12 weeks"] · Budget: [range, e.g. "$20K–$40K"] · Must-haves: [integrations, compliance, brand requirements] Reference sites we like: · [URL] — [one-line why] · [URL] — [one-line why] · [URL] — [one-line why] Reference we don't want to look like: · [URL] — [one-line why] Best email for follow-ups: [your email] Decision-maker: [you / someone else] Thanks! [Your name]
That's it. One page. Reply will land within 24 hours.
Common brief mistakes
The 30-page RFP
Companies that procure software through formal procurement send 30-page Requests for Proposal with appendices. Smaller agencies usually skip these — the response cost outweighs the win probability. If you must use an RFP format, at least lead with a 1-page summary so the agency can decide whether to engage.
"We'll know it when we see it"
If you can't describe what good looks like, the agency will guess, and you'll spend three rounds of design figuring out you wanted something different. Pre-decide. Use references. Bring opinions.
Hiding the decision-maker
If the contact person can't sign the contract, the agency is essentially in a sales process where the actual buyer is invisible. Loop them in early or you'll re-pitch when they show up at week 4.
Adjective soup
"Modern, clean, professional, bold but minimal, sophisticated yet approachable" — every brief has this paragraph. It means nothing. Replace it with three reference URLs and "we want to look more like X than Y."
The vanishing brief
Founder sends brief, agency replies in 24 hours, founder goes silent for 2 weeks. By the time you respond, the agency has booked someone else's project into the slot you'd have filled. Move at the speed you want the project to move.
What happens after the brief
A good agency reply within 24–48 hours will include:
- A rough scope confirmation ("here's what we think you're describing").
- A ballpark price within your range.
- A proposed timeline.
- Two or three clarifying questions.
- A request for a 30-minute call to align (sometimes — not always needed).
If you're getting back a 12-page proposal full of generic boilerplate, that's a bad sign. The agency is trying to win on volume of pages, not signal of fit.
Frequently asked questions
How many agencies should I brief?
Three to five is plenty. More than that and you'll exhaust yourself comparing apples to oranges. Each agency you brief deserves the same brief and the same speed of response. Stagger them by a few days if needed.
Should I share my brand guidelines in the brief?
If you have polished guidelines, attach a PDF. If you have a half-finished doc or just a logo, share what you have without apologising. The agency would rather see "we have a logo and these three colours" than "brand work in progress, we'll send later".
What if I don't know what I want?
Be honest about it in the brief. "We need to be online by November but we're not sure what the site should be — keen to do a discovery sprint before scoping the build." A good agency will offer a paid 1–2 week discovery to figure it out together, then quote the build with confidence.
Should I send the same brief to freelancers and agencies?
Yes, with the same content. Freelancers will quote lower and faster; agencies will quote with more polish. Comparing them on the same brief shows you the real trade-off. We dig deeper in freelancer vs agency.
Send a brief using the template above to [email protected] or via /#contact. We reply within 24 hours with a real number, a real timeline, and the name of the person who'd lead the project.