Landing page brief template
One page, one thing the visitor should do. This brief makes you name that thing, and it shows why the copy decides the timeline.
For marketing teams briefing a campaign page, a product launch page or a sign-up page.
About 10 questions, mostly taps. Free, no account. About ninety seconds.
Start a website or digital product briefThis is what a finished website or digital product brief contains, with an example line in each section. Write it by hand from this, or answer the questions below by tapping and the page writes it for you.
The one thing that must not be got wrong
The constraint that overrides everything else.
“The booking flow must work on a phone with one thumb. Most of our bookings come from one.”
What we are making
The kind of site or product, and whether it is design only or design and build.
“A marketing site with booking. Design and build, on Webflow.”
Pages and templates
The page types and how many of each. Templates are counted for you.
“Home, six service pages, about, contact, a journal with around forty posts. Four templates.”
What it must do
Functionality, each item with what it implies.
“Booking with payment, a newsletter sign-up, two languages. Payments mean a privacy policy and card handling by Stripe.”
Who edits it afterwards
The person, their skill, and how often.
“Anna, once a week, comfortable with Webflow. No developer on staff.”
Audience and the one thing visitors should do
One person, one verb.
“For someone who has been recommended us and wants to check we are real. They should book a first call.”
Copy
Who writes it, and when it exists. This decides the timeline more than anything else.
“We write it. Drafts by 1 October, final by 15 October.”
Tone and references
Positions on scales; sites to sit beside and to avoid.
“Calm rather than energetic. Like the Aesop site for its restraint. Not like our competitors’ stock-photo hero.”
What exists
Logo, guidelines, photography, a domain, the current site’s analytics.
“Logo and guidelines, yes. Photography, no; budget for a half-day shoot.”
Budget, dates, sign-off
A band, the launch date, and who says yes.
“150–300k DKK. Launch by 1 December. Jonas signs off alone.”
Open questions
What is not decided, said plainly.
“Whether the journal migrates or starts fresh. Whether the second language launches on day one.”
You answer the questions. The brief writes these.
- Templates against pages
- What a CMS, accounts or payments imply
- Accessibility obligations
- Breakpoints, favicon and share image
- The production window copy decides
A landing page is the simplest thing on the web to brief and the easiest to brief badly, because its simplicity tempts people to skip the brief altogether. One page, one job. But the job is the part that gets left out, and a landing page without a stated job is a home page with fewer links.
The document above is a finished web brief with one page in it. The decisions below are the ones that decide whether the page can be designed at all.
The decisions that move the quote
One verb. The whole page exists to make one kind of visitor do one thing. Buy. Book. Sign up. Download. Get in touch. If the brief cannot name the verb, the page cannot be designed, because every decision on it, from the headline to the position of the button, follows from it. Two verbs is two jobs, and the page will do neither well.
Who arrives, and from where. A landing page has a source: an ad, an email, a search result, a QR code on a pack. The visitor arrives with an expectation the source set up, and the page has to meet it in the first screen. A page that follows an ad has to repeat the ad's promise. A page that follows a search has to answer the query.
Whether the copy exists. A landing page is mostly words and one or two images. If the copy is not written, the page cannot be finished, and on a three-week job that is the whole schedule.
Whether the images exist. If not, they have to be shot or bought, and either is a line in the estimate.
What the page must do. A form collects personal data and brings cookie consent and a privacy policy with it. Payments imply a checkout that has to live somewhere. A booking widget is an integration with someone else's system.
The number it is judged by. A landing page is the one deliverable whose success is a number. Say what the number is and where it is measured, so the designer knows the page will be judged on conversions rather than on taste. This is also the strongest argument for one verb.
The promise that must match. The price that must match the ad. The claim that must match the legal text. The offer that must be visible before any scrolling. On a landing page, that is usually the one thing that must not be got wrong.
Mistakes we see most
“A landing page for the spring campaign, to drive engagement.”
“One page, one job: book a free consultation. Traffic arrives from a Meta ad promising a free thirty-minute call; the page repeats that promise in the first screen.”
A verb and a source. Now the headline writes itself.
“We will send the copy once the design is approved.”
“Copy is not written. It is the schedule: Jonas drafts it by 15 September, final by 22 September. Design starts from the draft, not the final.”
On a three-week page, copy timing is the whole timeline.
“Please match the campaign look.”
“The one thing that must not be got wrong: the price on the page is 299 DKK a month, exactly as the ad says, visible before any scrolling.”
The promise that must match, stated as a fact.
Answer the questions below by tapping, and the brief records the verb, checks it against the functionality, and works out the production window from the copy dates.
What it asks, and why.
- ScopeWhat are you making?
A landing page and a shop are different jobs with different questions. Naming which removes half the tree.
- ScopeWhich pages?only when it applies
The difference between a template and a page is invisible to most people briefing, and it is the main reason web quotes are wrong.
- ScopeWho builds it?
"Design only" removes platform, hosting, integration and performance questions. Left open, everyone assumes the other side is building it.
- CraftWhich platform, and who edits it?only when it applies
The platform decides whether a CMS comes for free, whether custom development is implied, and what the handover looks like. When your own team builds it, the designer has to know what in, or the design will not fit the tool.
- CraftWhat does it need to do, and how accessible must it be?
Forms and payments carry legal obligations and imply a backend. Accessibility is a requirement in the EU that almost nobody volunteers, so it is asked.
- LookWhat already exists?
Copy is the single biggest hidden cost in web projects. Every unticked asset is a line in the estimate.
- LookWhat should they do, and who are they?
One verb is the hardest question in the set and the one most often dodged in a text field, which is why it is cards. Who it is for makes the verb specific.
- PracticalitiesBudget range
A band is a signal about which kind of job is on the table, not a commitment. Without one the designer guesses.
- PracticalitiesWhen does it need to be live?
A date only means something next to the minimum production window. If they do not fit, better to know now.
- PracticalitiesThe one thing that must not be got wrong
Every project has one. It is rarely written down because it feels obvious to the person who knows it.