In the search for new, high-paying clients, a steady stream of rejection emails is common. Seeing the words “we are sorry to inform you”, or “unfortunately,” strung together can begin to crack the will of even seasoned marketing professionals.
The few ‘yes’ responses you manage to secure often come from low-paying clients, offering short-term contracts that offer little financial sustenance for your marketing agency.
If this sounds familiar, chances are your marketing proposal is holding you back. To secure lucrative, long-term clients, and turn those rejections into affirmative responses, you need a killer marketing proposal. 80% of marketing agencies compete for 20% of clients. To get ahead in this industry, your proposal needs to convincingly demonstrate how your skills and experience can meet the client’s individual marketing needs. Achieving this in a succinct, well-structured email is key to securing new clients.
Focus on Your Client’s Needs
The difference between an average marketing proposal and a strong proposal is often that an average proposal will focus on your strengths, while a strong proposal will focus on your client’s needs.
Your skills, awards, achievements and past experience are all relevant, but how can this be of direct benefit to the client? Tie your experience and skills into how it can add value to your client’s marketing needs to boost your proposal and clearly illustrate how you can be of use.
This effectively demonstrates that you have done your homework and genuinely have the customer’s best interests at heart. It also shows an understanding of the industry that they are in, familiarity with what their competitors are doing, and a clear strategy for tackling the challenges they face.
Offer Deliverables
Plenty of poorly written, generic marketing proposals will make vague promises to ‘increase sales’, or ‘boost brand awareness’. The best marketing proposals that secure the most lucrative clients offer specific, deliverable goals.
If you think that a short video shared across social media would benefit the customer and help increase brand awareness, include this in your proposal. Tell the customer that part of your strategy would be to produce a 30-second short. If you think that the company could benefit from a visual overhaul, tell them that you intend to design a new logo and bring the company website in line with the new aesthetic.
This helps the company see, not just the end goal— to boost sales— but how you will achieve the goal and where their money will be spent.
Use a Template for Structure
Proposals that leap erratically from one topic to another can feel disjointed and disorganized. Establishing a clear flow and structure will allow your professionalism and organizational prowess to come through to new clients.
Use a template to provide structure. Many seasoned industry professionals have made templates freely available online. You can find a template designed to secure higher conversions with qwilr’s marketing proposal templates.
Stay on Topic
Top companies receive hundreds, if not thousands, of marketing proposals every year. As a result, your clients will have very little patience for proposals that offer unnecessary information.
Every sentence of your proposal should be crafted to convey as much meaning and information in as few words as possible. Strip away redundant information and stay on topic at all times.
