Website Brief Template: What to Send Before You Ask for a Quote

A useful website brief fits on one or two pages. It says what the site should achieve, who it is for, which pages and features it needs, how far the content is, which languages it uses, when it should go live and what budget is realistic.

That is all a small business site needs. A thirty-page requirements document would be overkill for five to ten pages. Too little is a problem too: if your enquiry says only "a modern website for my company", every provider fills the gaps with different assumptions and the quotes become impossible to compare.

If you run a business in Germany and come from another market, a brief has one more job. It makes you settle the local questions early: German, English or both, who supplies the Impressum details, and who writes the privacy policy. Below you will find a template to copy, notes on filling it in, and a completed example.

What a brief is for, and what it isn't

A brief describes the project from the business side. It says what the site has to do, not how it is built. Which platform, which host, which typeface: those are things your provider can propose.

It does three jobs. It forces decisions before the project rather than halfway through. It gets you quotes based on the same picture. And it makes the first call shorter and more specific, because the basic questions are already answered.

A brief is not a contract. What binds you is the scope you later confirm in writing with the provider you choose.

The template

Copy it into a document or straight into an email and add your answer after each item. If you don't know something yet, write "open". That helps more than a guess.

How to fill in the important parts

Goal and main action

Pick one main action. A site that tries to push visitors towards a call, a newsletter, a shop and a job application at once usually ends up pushing them nowhere. Secondary actions can stay; one should come first.

Page list

Write down the pages you have in mind, even if the list isn't perfect yet. The Impressum and privacy policy belong on every list for a business site in Germany. Whether a one-page site is enough or each service needs its own page is covered in which pages a small business website needs.

The number of pages is one of the main price drivers, so count them and note the total.

Content status: the part people underestimate

"Who writes the text?" often affects price and timing more than design does. Many offers assume you deliver final text, and copywriting is a separate service. If you write "still to be written" honestly, providers can plan for it.

For images, rights matter. Under § 31 of the German Copyright Act (UrhG), if the types of use are not spelled out, the scope of a licence is determined by the purpose of the contract. So check with your photographer or stock provider that photos may be used on your site, and flag anything that is unclear in the brief.

Languages

This is the section international founders most often leave vague. A second language is more than a translation job. Google recommends one language per page and a separate URL for each language version, rather than switching language through cookies or browser settings. Five pages become ten.

Be specific about who writes the German version. Machine translation of your English text may be a starting point, but German-speaking customers notice stiff copy quickly. If only some pages need German (say, home, services and contact), write that down.

Contact form

Ask only for what you need to answer an enquiry. Art. 5(1)(c) GDPR requires personal data to be limited to what is necessary for the purpose. For a field-by-field view, see which fields a business contact form needs.

Impressum details

Only your business can supply these. § 5 DDG (the German Digital Services Act) sets out what the Impressum must contain, including name and address, for companies the legal form and authorised representatives, an email address, register entry and number, and the VAT ID where you have one. Regulated professions add their chamber, professional title and the applicable professional rules. Collecting this in the brief avoids a typical delay just before launch.

Budget range

Many people avoid naming a budget. A range helps both sides: providers can tell you what is realistic for it instead of guessing. Give the one-time figure and the monthly figure (hosting, maintenance) separately, and say whether you mean net or gross. German providers usually quote net plus VAT. For what drives the cost, read how much a small business website costs in Germany.

A completed example

From this a provider can see at once: nine pages in total, two of them German, an existing booking tool rather than a custom one, and German text that is not yet written. They can price the second language and point out that the launch depends on the translation.

Gaps that show up most often

When you don't need a full brief

If you are building a simple site with a home page, contact page, Impressum and privacy policy yourself in a website builder, you don't need a formal brief. A list of pages and texts is enough.

For a provider with a fixed package, sections 1 to 4 and 10 are often enough for the first enquiry. The rest can be settled in the call.

What happens next

With the brief ready, ask two or three providers for a quote. Our guide on comparing website quotes shows how to line up the offers point by point, and how a website project works explains what happens after you place the order.

You can send the completed brief to Ichii at info@ichii.de or copy the key points into the enquiry form. Our business website package covers up to 10 pages in one language, built with your final text and images, for a one-time EUR 790 net plus VAT. Copywriting, additional languages and custom design are quoted separately, which is exactly why sections 4 and 5 of the template help us give you an honest estimate.

Your next step

Copy the template, set aside an hour and fill in what you know. Mark the rest "open". If you'd like to talk it through with us, send the brief via our project enquiry.