Why is a Marketing Agency Proposal PDF Important?
A marketing agency proposal is one of the biggest obstacles standing between you and a new job. It is your opportunity to put all of your discussions, hard work, and ideas into one document that will hopefully win over your prospective client.
A killer advertising proposal should formally communicate your strategy. More importantly, it should show your client that you have listened to and understood their needs.
Note: You can take the stress out of sending an advertising agency proposal to client prospects when you sign up for Bonsai. You can use our free template to create a winning proposal.
5 Steps for Drafting a Creative Agency Proposal Template
Writing marketing proposals might be one of the most challenging obstacles you’ll face as a freelancer. We understand that a lot of pressure can be riding on this one document after you’ve invested so much time into a business relationship with a potential client.
How do you convey that you’re the best fit out of all the other marketing agencies?
The process of writing a marketing proposal might be easier than you think. Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the entire proposal, we recommend that you break the project down into five basic steps.
Step One: Research, Research, Research
Before you even think about creating proposals, you need to make sure that you have done ample research. Multiple discovery meetings with prospective clients can help you better understand their goals–which should be the sole focus of your creative agency proposal.
As a professional, it’s your job to ask the right questions to learn exactly what your client’s problem is. From there, you can use your expertise to solve it. In many cases, you might find your potential client needs some guidance through this step.
If you find that your new client is struggling to communicate their needs, you should have them answer questions like:
- What are your business goals for this year?
- How do you measure success?
- Do you have sales or revenue goals?
- What resources do you have to help you meet those goals?
- What challenges are you currently facing?
- Why are you seeking a marketing agency now?
- What is your budget for working with a marketing company?
- What is the cost to your business if you don’t hire a marketing professional?
Of course, these are just some examples to get all the talk started. As both you and your prospective client go through the process, you might find yourself with follow-up questions. The more you can learn about their business, the better you will be able to write your marketing proposal.
Step Two: Write Your Executive Summary
With a better understanding of your client’s business, you can finally start to edit your marketing proposal template. Most agency proposals will begin with an executive summary, so that is the next step you should take in the process.
What is an Executive Summary?
It is the place in the agency proposal template where you can communicate your client’s challenges in a problem statement. It’s critical that you outline all of the challenges and how your marketing services can resolve them.
How Many Pages Should It Be?
There’s no need to go into great detail in this part of the marketing proposal. That part will come later. Instead, you should create a high-level overview that demonstrates your understanding to your potential clients.
In some cases, you may be pitching your digital marketing services on a retainer basis. When that happens, we suggest that you go a step further when creating your executive summary.
For retainers, you need to create an outline that gives your client an overview of the projects you’ll be undertaking. You should also put each project in order and briefly describe what services they require.
Step Three: Map Your Client’s Goals & Targets
At this point in the sales process, you should have a solid idea of your client’s goals, but that’s not enough. You should be able to map them out in your creative agency proposal planning template.
What does it mean to map goals for a marketing plan?
You simply have to create a strategy for achieving the goals. From there, you can determine the metrics to measure your progress throughout each step. These metrics should be specific.
Example: Instead of saying that you want to increase email subscribers, you should say that you want to increase email subscribers by 50%. Not only does this help your client track your progress, but it also gives you a specific goal to work towards.
What are some other examples of goals to include in your marketing proposals?
- Increase leads by 200%
- Increase website visits by 70% month-on-month
- Double email open rates
- Increase Instagram followers to 10k in six months
- Increase Facebook engagement by 50%
- Increase conversion rates by 15%
Step Four: Gather Your Case Studies
Prospective clients love to see that you know the industry and how to deliver on your promises. There is no better way to do that than through case studies. In fact, this part of your marketing proposal could make or break the deal.
While you might have several different case studies to choose from, it’s important that you choose the right ones. Don’t be tempted to include all of them!
Instead, you want to thoughtfully pair your case study with each proposal. We recommend that you start by looking for one that illustrates the success you’ve had in your client’s industry.
From there, you can narrow down your options by looking for past clients with similar goals and similar business structures.
If you don’t have any case study to add to your marketing proposal, don’t stress. We’ll go over options for you in the FAQs below.
Step Five: Make It Official with Your Terms of Engagement
Don’t think of your marketing plan as a one-sided agreement with your potential client. Your marketing proposal templates should also detail what’s in it for you.
It’s highly unlikely that you’re offering any of your marketing services pro bono. Fortunately, most clients want to pay you what you deserve. However, it’s hard to do that without any payment terms or policies.
We know that discussing payment can be awkward, and in some instances, you might be afraid that it will scare a client off. As uncomfortable as the conversations can be, it’s always better to agree on these things beforehand. Otherwise, you could end up with a messy dispute down the road if you go over budget.
In your payment terms, you should discuss:
- The Prices for Your Marketing Services
- Whether You Charge a Fixed or Hourly Rate
- Methods of Payment Accepted by Your Marketing Agency
- When Payment is Due
- The Refund Process (If Applicable)
What Should You Include in a Marketing Proposal Template
In addition to the items outlined above, there are a few specific sections you may want to add to your marketing proposal template.
Scope of Work
This section of your marketing proposal is where you will go into more detail. While your potential clients should have a pretty good idea of the scope of work at this point in the sales pipeline, it’s important to get it all in writing.
In this part of the marketing proposal template, you should take the time to clearly define what your new clients can expect and what you will provide. You should also include any services that will be handled by your team members.
If there are any social media marketing services you don’t provide, this would also be where you clarify that point. Doing so will help to avoid any confusion in the future.
Termination Details
Many marketing agencies that work on retainer detail the termination process. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated. It could be as simple as requiring a written notice. Some marketing proposals dictate that the client must give a 30-day notice.
Intellectual Property Ownership
As a freelance marketing agency, you must not overlook intellectual property rights. Unless stated in your contract, you retain the copyrights to the work you provide.
However, many clients push for exclusive and indefinite use of your work so that you can’t use it anywhere else. It’s ultimately up to you and your client to decide what you are comfortable with.
If you’re trying to build a marketing portfolio, this section will be important to you. You may wish to include a clause that allows you to use the project as a case study in some situations.
Marketing Contract
If your clients are happy with all of the details in the proposal, they may be ready to go ahead and go forward with your services. You can save time and move the project along by adding your advertising contract to the end of your marketing agency proposal.
We strongly recommend that you take advantage of electronic signatures. It makes it easier for a potential client to sign the agreement. You no longer have to wait for them to sign and fax or mail a physical document.
What to Avoid in Your Marketing Proposal Template
Now you know more about what you should include in your marketing proposal template, but are there things you should avoid? The answer is yes! There are actually several things you should avoid when writing your creative agency proposal planning template.
Distracting Graphics
While it’s necessary to make your marketing proposal template your own, you shouldn’t get carried away with the colors and graphics. They can help draw attention to your marketing agency, but sometimes they get in the way of what matters most–what you can do for your prospects.
Exaggerated Promises
We know that you really want a client to sign a deal, but you should win them over based on realistic goals that you can achieve. Never be tempted to exaggerate the numbers in your marketing proposal. Nothing can make a client more frustrated and dissatisfied than a marketing agency that doesn’t deliver on its promises.
Not Focusing on Your Client
Don’t forget to focus on your client as you write your marketing proposal. Though you want to tell your clients about your success, the proposal isn’t about you. Instead, you should make sure that you focus on how you plan to help their company on this project.
Creating a Marketing and Ad Agency Proposal is Simple with Bonsai
Are you feeling stuck on your marketing agency proposal? If so, Bonsai is here to help. We offer completely free advertising agency PDF templates to help you deliver more proposals to leads. We also provide other related templates to save your business time and money.
Those aren’t the only reasons freelancers choose Bonsai for their marketing proposals. Our company also offers several benefits with our free marketing proposal template.
Customize Your Marketing Proposal
We know that no two businesses are the same, so your proposals should reflect your unique brand. Instead of settling for generic formats and colors, we give you the option to completely personalize your advertising agency business plan PDF. You can add your own logo, brand colors, and more.
Send Out Proposals Faster
If you want to speed up the time it takes to get an advertising agency proposal to client, PDF format templates are the way to go. Instead of writing out an entirely new marketing plan every time, you can simply edit our free marketing proposal template to fit each project.
Utilize Convenient E-Signatures
With Bonsai, you no longer have to wait days or weeks to get a response after you send your marketing proposal. All of our proposal templates come with convenient e-signature features.
If your client is happy with the marketing plan you provided, then they can sign your contract immediately. This will save you time because you won’t have to wait for them to mail it or meet with you in person.
FAQ About Marketing Proposals
Whether you are writing the marketing proposal on your own or with a team member, we’re sure you’re feeling overwhelmed at this point. Fortunately, you’re not alone.
We understand how much pressure you feel to get the proposal just right before you send it to your client. If you feel like you still have questions, we recommend that you read on to get some answers.
Why Send a Marketing Proposal in PDF Format?
You certainly have a lot of options for how you choose to send an advertising agency proposal to client. PDF format remains one of the more popular options for many reasons.
First and foremost, nearly every person knows how to open a PDF file. They are commonly used in project planning, sales, and other aspects of business. You won’t have to worry about whether or not your client will be able to open the document.
Secondly, clients can’t edit PDFs. If you were to send your marketing template in a word document format, your client could accidentally delete one page without knowing it. PDFs are view-only, so your team won’t have that problem with your projects.
Lastly, we love that PDFs make it easier to communicate with your team to seal the deal with your leads. You no longer have to lose momentum while wait to mail your proposal.
What Should I Include if I Don’t Have Any Case Studies?
Case studies are crucial to the success of any marketing proposal. However, they are time-consuming to write.
If you don’t already have several case studies prepared, you should consider assigning the task to a team member. It’s always wise to have these done before you get to the proposal stage of your business, but you may be able to get one finished quickly.
For those who don’t have any time to write a case study, you aren’t left without any options. You can contact some of your past clients and ask them to provide you with a testimonial. We also suggest that you share any of the work that you did for them.
How Do You Turn Leads into Clients with No Experience?
It will take some strategy on your part, but it’s not impossible. After all, everyone has to start somewhere. You could always offer to do a campaign for free or for a reduced fee. From there, you can use that project as a case study.
Another option is to use your own business as a case study by showing the success you’ve had in marketing yourself. If you choose this option, try to show as many numbers as possible.
Ask yourself: What does your website traffic look like? Do you have a growing social media presence? These types of questions will help you create a case study out of your own business.
