Getting new clients. Getting better clients. For most social media marketing agencies, this is a bigger struggle than coming up with great content for their existing clients. After all, there is a lot of competition out there and convincing potential clients that you’re the right choice can be very difficult.
What you need is a sales document that shows off your stellar portfolio and convinces the client to hit that “buy” button. What you need is a social media proposal.
Here is how to write one so that you can easily win new clients and show your social media marketing expertise. We’ll show you what you need to do before writing and precisely which sections to include in your proposal.
Show off how well you know the client in the introduction
There is one thing that all great social media marketing proposals have in common – they talk about the client and their needs, not what your agency does. In fact, all great proposals come after great client meetings and discovery sessions.
Before even starting with the proposal, have a meeting or two with the prospective client and find out what they need from you as the agency or freelancer. They will say that they need a better content calendar, more leads from social media, less work on their profiles, etc. Dig deeper to find out what they really want, i.e. what they are not saying.
In many cases, it’s something simpler, such as more time – since they don’t have to create content for their social media profiles. Others want to get more sales from social media. Whatever it is, find the true reason they need your services.
When writing your proposal introduction, talk about solving this specific problem and use your client’s exact words that they used in the discovery sessions. In fact, it’s a great idea to record the meeting and write down the words that they use to describe their problems – you’ll need this for later.
By the way, if you don’t feel like writing all of the proposals on your own, you can use a social media marketing proposal template.
Explain what you will do in the detailed specification
The second part of the proposal is the detailed specification, where you explain exactly what you will do for the client. Cover the technical bits here, but only use the expressions that the client understands.
Show what platforms you will be covering, how much content you will be creating, how many posts per week you will do, how you will leverage user-generated content, who will be in charge of the process, etc. The more you cover here, the fewer questions that the client will ask later on. Moreover, if something goes wrong later on in the process, this is the section that you can both refer to in case of any disputes.
Of course, do your best not to make any promises in this section because you can’t predict the results that your work will have. However, do make promises about what you will deliver.
Include a case study
Social proof is incredibly powerful and there is nothing better to show your expertise than an independent claim from a third party. Always include a mini case study in your proposals, talking about a similar client whose problem you solved.
This can be a short testimonial, review, video, quote, or even a full-blown case study. The more similar the client from the case study is to the client who’s reading the proposal – the higher the chances of conversion. For example, if you’re pitching a client in conversational commerce, including a case study most closely related to this type of work.
Have a super simple pricing section
No matter if you’re a freelancer or a social media marketing agency, you probably have multiple offers and packages. We did some research to find out the best strategy for pricing and we actually found out that a single offer works best. In other words, don’t offer any upsells or cross-sells, or complex packages.
The main purpose of your social media marketing proposal is to get the client to say yes to working with you. Meaning, it’s a simple yes/no choice. If you introduce packages and upsells, you’re only forcing the client to make a complex choice which they may not be ready to make yet. So, keep your offer super simple.
Include the timescales
Time is of the essence, especially for the client. This is a section that is crucial for getting the client’s signature but so many agencies and freelancers leave it out completely. This is the place where you mention when you can deliver the work, what your content calendar will cover and how you will space the posts you create. If your client has an important date coming up (such as a product launch), it’s worth noting this and mentioning that you will complete your content plan and calendar before the event takes place.
The terms and conditions
Hate it or love it, this section is a necessity if you want your clients to say “yes” more quickly. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a lawyer to put together a section for terms and conditions. There are plenty of T&C generators online that can create your terms within minutes. Just copy and paste them across your proposals and you can give your clients peace of mind so that they can sign without worrying about any risks. Most of today’s proposal software comes with this section by default.
The next steps
Some things in life are implicit, like paying for your groceries before you leave the store. However, your clients won’t just know what they need to do once they finish reading your proposal. The great thing is that you can create just a few simple guidelines, such as:
- Sign the proposal
- We’ll send you an invoice for half of the agreed sum
- We schedule the kick-off meeting
- We start working on your social media campaigns
Just a few sentences are enough to give your clients a direction and set expectations for what happens next.
Wrapping up
Your ideal social media marketing proposal does not require you to be a great writer. In fact, everything you need is solid preparation and knowing exactly what your client wants. If you use this methodology and include all of the sections mentioned in this article, you’ll have no trouble winning new social media marketing clients.
About the Author
Mile Zivkovic is a Head of Content at Better Proposals, a software company that automates the way you create, manage and send business proposals. He enjoys writing on topics such as SaaS, marketing, freelancing, and entrepreneurship.
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