Requirements: The Freelance Briefing Note
Your secret weapon to understanding exactly what your client needs
One of the issues that I often see with my fellow freelancers is not having a clear idea of exactly what a client requires from your content. This can lead to some big issues: low-quality work, missed deadlines, missing information, and more. I'm a strong believer in good client communication and asking questions to clarify issues, but there's another surefire way to create great work—the freelance briefing note.
It's a tool that adds one essential thing to the freelancer-client relationship—clarity. Here's how freelance briefing notes help you gather requirements, why they're a powerful tool, what to include, how to create one, and an example you can build from.
Let's get into it—you'll learn how you get information from their head to your keyboard.
What is a freelance briefing note?
A freelance briefing note is a tool you use to capture requirements from your client at the start of a project. The key features of a briefing note are to:
Ask questions of your clients to clarify their needs.
Gather requirements from your client on what they want from your content.
Allow them to provide that information to you in an easy and straightforward way.
Have a document that you can refer back to and remind yourself of the project details.
The exact format and questions in a freelance briefing note will vary between freelancers and the type of work you do. The questions that a freelance writer asks will be different to a photographer or designer.
I'll suggest some starting points for your briefing notes, and you can develop them further to meet your clients' requirements and improve your workflow.
Why is a freelance briefing note important?
A freelance briefing note helps you avoid mistakes and increases the likelihood you'll deliver high-quality work. It does this because you'll be able to ask important questions directly related to your client and the work they need. You'll then have an accurate document that details all of your client's requirements that you can use to create content. This helps to build trust and can lead to repeat work and better rates in the future.
What's the process for gathering requirements in a briefing note?
Here's what I do. Your process may vary from this:
Create a freelance briefing note template.
When engaging with a client, let them know that you will gather information from them using this template.
Send them a copy of the template – I normally do this as a Word doc on an email, rather than a shared Google Doc, as the idea of copying the Google Doc and updating the copy doesn’t seem to gel with clients! Word docs seem to be more intuitive for many.
When they want to commission a piece from you, they fill out the briefing note and send it through.
You keep the briefing note in front of you and refer to it when you’re creating your content.
Rinse and repeat from step 4 for each new request.
What are the requirements I need to gather in a freelance briefing note?
There are some common requirements that will be true for all freelancers. For example, you'll almost certainly want to understand:
The type of content that the client needs.
What the scope of this particular project is.
Who the intended audience is for your content.
Deadlines for when the client expects you to return the content.
What the client intends for your content to achieve, like outcomes or calls to action.
Any other existing content—from you or elsewhere—that the client likes and is using as an example.
Anything that the client would like you to avoid in your content.
Any useful sources of research, information, or inspiration that the client wants to share.
Links to any brand or other guidelines that the client wants you to follow.
Beyond these common requirements, you can include additional questions that are specific to the type of work you're doing. For example, if you're a freelance writer, you might ask:
The topic or article title.
The type of writing that the client wants you to do (e.g. blog article, white paper, case study, landing page copy, etc.)
Any target keywords or phrases.
Any particular style or approach that the client wants you to use.
The number of desired words in the content.
Any key points or outlines the client wants you to cover.
You need to balance the amount of information you require with how fast and easy it is for the client to fill out. I’ve honed my briefing notes over time to only ask the most important questions – I can often infer or research other stuff based on the information I do gather.
As with so much else in freelancing, you can start with something basic and refine it over time.
How do I create a template for my freelance briefing note?
The important thing about requirements gathering is that it needs to be simple and straightforward for your clients. You might use a Word doc that has all of the questions listed with a space under each for your client to add information.
You could use a Google Doc with a table in it where clients can add details. This is the approach I use, and I find it quite effective. You might use an online form that asks a client questions and gives them a text field to answer. The Typeform application is well-suited to this approach.
Test out various different styles and approaches to see what your clients like. If you'd like a starting point, here's the freelance writing briefing note that I use. You're welcome to make a copy of this and adapt it to your own needs.
This is a read-only Google Doc. To use this, open the link, then go to “File > Make a Copy” and then add it to your own Google Drive. Alternatively, just copy and paste the note format into a Word doc and use that.
How should I send my briefing note to my freelance clients?
You have several good options:
Use email, explain what the briefing note is and include a link or attach it as a file.
Meet with your client to talk through their requirements and fill in the note as you go.
Create an online form where you can send a link to your client and have them fill it in.
I hope this is helpful to you. experiment with your own freelance briefing notes to gather client requirements, and you'll have the information to do better work.