Steps for writing a strong marketing proposal

The marketing proposal is a document that you prepare for the prospective client to convince them that your marketing services are a perfect fit for their business. In today’s competitive world, it’s important to have a proposal that stands out and differentiates itself from the others

Your proposal should help the prospective client to make the decision in your favor, it should influence the customer and convince him/her to invite you for the further process (follow this checklist to develop such a proposal).

What do all strong marketing proposals have in common?

Below are the common factors to consider when composing a business proposal,

Information about your firm 

It is one of the most important parts of your proposal that readers look for. These are the details you should provide to your potential clients,

• Who are you?
• Which services/products you offer?
• How you do it?
• How long you’ve been in the industry?
• Why client should choose you over others?

Awareness of the problem

Show that you’ve understood the problem and done your research. Clarify that you know what the clients are expecting, address the problem they are facing.

Pricing and approach

Rough sketch of your method of solving the client’s problem and how much will it cost?

If you understand these factors then apply them while writing your marketing proposal and maximize your close rate.

Now let’s get rolling and look at a general structure your marketing proposal template should have.

Here are the easy steps or the proposal structure to write a strong marketing proposal

Step 1: Title or Cover Page

You only get one chance to make a first impression. The cover page of your marketing proposal is the first thing your prospect/sales lead is going to see hence you better make it impressive. A cover page of your proposal should look neat and should be easy to read. 

Tips for creating an ideal cover page,

• Name of applying organization and logo
• Project title
• Date
• Contact Information (personal contact name, address, country, phone, email, website)
• Name of the client you are applying to

Step 2: Executive summary

The executive in your proposal sets the tone for the rest. It outlines why the solution you are proposing is the most suitable and your company is well prepared to deliver it.

The cover letter of your marketing proposal has to be highly convincing with a focus on what benefits clients can have using your services. If you can’t get this section right, chances are high that the rest of the content in your proposal will be skipped.

The best practice of creating an impressive pitch is using your prospective client’s words them. This means simply describe the problem they are facing. 

Essential elements for your executive summary/cover letter,

• Opening paragraph
• Reason for the pitch
• Showing you understand the challenges
• Benefits they can get from our solution
• Goals

Step 3. Proposed solution

This section should include the details about your approach. However, the details should only be about the approach and not about the solution.

Key points to remember while writing this section,

• Give a rough sketch of the method you will use for the execution.
• Include the list of the specific services that are being offered.
• You should be ultra-careful about not going into detail.

Step 4: A realistic timeline with a list of deliverables

You must break down all the key steps and the timeline for your client. Providing an accurate timeline with deliverables allows you to set the client’s expectations early. That means how and when you will be able to implement your solution. 

Your implementation plan should include,

• List of deliverable
• Important Milestones
• Items in scope and not in scope
• A detailed timeline showing responsibilities

Step 5: Investment Fees

This is a crucial section because it is about money. So ensure you don’t make any pricing mistakes that might cost your business tremendously. If everything else falls in place/as expected, prospective clients will certainly want to know, how much it will cost him/her to accept your offer.

Keep things short and to the point and use a pricing table with a range of options that let your prospect or customer edit the quantities, select the services that best fit their needs, and allow them to customize your solution.

Step 6: About us

You can fill out this section with the expertise you have, who will be working with him/her, are you a known vendor in the market, whether for all good reasons, etc., the awards you won, the big list of your happy clients.

• Introduction 
• Name, faces, and credentials of the people who will be working on the campaign
• Client benefits

Do not forget to add vision and values because these two aspects have a long-lasting impact beyond the proposal. Clients would pay extra for the reliability factor once they realize you have principles, values, vision; and you stick to those values in all weathers.

Step 7: Social proof

In this section, you can make your clients visualize themselves working with you by telling the past clients success stories with similar issues with social proof or case studies or client testimonials.

Step 8: Legal fine print

Always keep the contract and your terms and conditions part of your business proposal template and get them signed together to avoid future conflict.

Step 9: Next steps

The final step for the winning marketing proposal is the clear call to action. Because obviously, you can’t expect the buyers to move forward on their own. Tell them exactly what to do next to get your offer. What they can expect to happen and how excited you are to be able to help them.