The digital marketing landscape is constantly growing. But as the number of opportunities grows, so does the level of competition. To stay one step ahead of the competition, you must become more creative and effective in your marketing strategies.
To consistently secure a new client, you need to promote your products or services. And that's where client proposals come in.
A proposal is your sales pitch. It’s your opportunity to impress upon your prospects that you’re the best choice. A well-crafted proposal can significantly improve the chances of converting your prospects into new clients. Otherwise, they likely won’t hesitate to scrap it before even reading it.
Great proposals consist of two major parts:
Here, you will provide the services you offer, whether that’s digital marketing, search engine optimisation (SEO), social media management (SMM), or website design. This also covers the cost, timeline, and other important details of the offer.
Here, you explain to the prospect how they’ll benefit from the services you offer. Also provide the specific goals and strategies that make your agency the ideal choice for achieving its objectives.
READ: Drive Success Through Client Success
The main goal of a client proposal is to show prospects how doing business with you will benefit their company.
Now, let's look at how you can make your proposal unique and compelling to earn your prospects’ trust and increase your chances of closing a deal.
Meet your prospect. Do some research. Collect information that will help you better understand the project and your client’s needs.
Doing this lets you come up with a comprehensive proposal that clients can’t say no to. This will also save you a lot of time and hassle in the future.
The following information is crucial in creating a client proposal:
Although there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to writing a proposal, most high-quality proposals will include the following elements:
Place your name, your company’s name, the name of your prospect, and the topic of your proposal.
Keep this section visually appealing by going for a sleek and professional layout and content.
This is a brief summary of the entire proposal. And this might be the only section your prospect will read, so make it as persuasive and as comprehensive as possible.
The summary must include an overview of your brand, the current marketing trends and the products or services you are marketing, your target audience, and your project objective.
Let’s say you are a digital marketing agency. You can strengthen your executive summary by highlighting your expertise. You can state your industry experience and the brands you worked with.
Then you can specify the solution that you can offer, such as increasing your prospect’s site traffic and customer engagement through SEO and email marketing.
Make a clear statement about the problem you're trying to solve. You can make use of the information you’ve gathered while meeting and researching about your client.
For example, your prospect doesn't get much traffic. Take this as an opportunity to convince them that you are fully aware of the problem and the need to solve it.
Summarise your proposed solution and its benefits. A competitor analysis is also one way of convincing prospects to consider your proposal. Compare your solution with other similar services in the market.
State each service’s features and highlight the aspects where your service excels.
Show relevant examples of your work for past clients. Including a strong portfolio on your client proposal will help provide prospects a visual of what you can do for them.
After all, it’s one thing to say you can solve your prospect's problem and another thing to show them that you can.
This is where you detail the price of your solution. Clearly break down the costs so your prospect knows exactly what they're paying for and how much it'll cost.
Present a pricing table that lists down the different services you offer. For example, as a digital marketing agency, you may be offering SEO, social media management, and PPC in one package. Make sure you list them with their corresponding prices.
You can also include discounts, other optional add-ons, and the total amount.
Thoroughly cover important details, such as payment terms, deliverables, and other legal formalities. All parties involved should know what they can expect from each other. With the help of an attorney, draft a contract detailing all this necessary information.
Keep in mind that the purpose of your proposal is to sell your solution. And the next step to take is to close the deal.
Include a signature section where you and your prospect sign off once the proposal is accepted. Make sure they understand exactly what they're agreeing to.
READ: Next Step: Scale Your Digital Agency
First impressions really do count. That's why before hitting Send, proofread the entire content. Even a detailed and well-researched proposal will lose credibility if it has the slightest spelling and grammatical issue. If you can, have another member of your team review it before it goes out.
An effective proposal is an opportunity to obtain new clients. Make it count.
Start by following the steps above, and you'll be well on your way to writing a winning business proposal and gaining new clients in no time.