How to write a winning creative proposal

October 24, 2016 11:35 am Published by Kirsty Sharman

Webfluential empowers creators and influencers by providing technology in the form of Pitched by Webfluential and the Quoting Engine. The technology places power into the hands of our creator community by allowing them to pitch their creative proposals to marketers as opposed to waiting for marketers to approach them.   With great power comes great responsibility, so we decided to compile a list of tips, tricks and guidelines for creating a proposal that is more likely to be approved by a marketer. Read our tips below and be sure to comment with your own tips for writing a winning proposal.  

Research, Research, Research

Your first step is always to do research — analyse the client’s needs, analyse the limitations of what you can offer, analyse the interests of your audience and identify a place where the requirements of each of the parties overlap.   The most important element of a good pitch is clearly communicating that you understand the client’s problems and goals. A good understanding allows you to craft a creative proposal that’ll hopefully solve their problem(s) and reach their goals effectively.  

Why Choose You?

It makes no sense for a marketer to accept your pitch if they have no understanding of who you are. As with any conversation, begin with a greeting and then introduce yourself. Explain why you think you are a suitable candidate to collaborate with the marketer and help them reach their objectives and goals. In the same way that you need to do research before pitching, you need to make it easy for the marketer to understand exactly who you are and how you could help. Courtesy goes hand in hand with an introduction, so remember to thank the marketer for the opportunity pitch on their brief.  

Elevator Pitch/Executive Summary

When pitching on a brief, you become a salesman — you sell your creative proposal as the one that’s best suited to meet the client's needs. A good salesman is someone who is able to succinctly and persuasively pitch their idea or product.

  Your creative pitch should have a summary at the beginning, which shows your understanding of the problem, explains your suggested solution, defines the target audience (in this case the target audience is your followers) and why you are the right person to execute.   Being able to distill your creative proposal into a few sentences is incredibly valuable. This part of your pitch is the hook which will either win or lose you the pitch.   Insider tip: It’s easier to create the elevator pitch introduction after you’ve created the entire proposal.  

References & Recommendations

As with CVs, having good references can influence a decision, so include a few of your references with your pitch. Provide examples of your idea to allow the marketer to get a clearer picture of your idea in action, as well as examples of your previous work. This informs the marketer that you’re able to create, as well as execute a creative strategy.   Make sure that you include examples of what your content will look like or links to previous pieces of content you’ve created.   In your pitch, you’re not only selling your creative idea, but also your thorough understanding of your audience. While the marketer may know exactly what they want for their brand, they don’t have the same understanding of your audience that you do. Leverage this understanding of your audience into creative recommendations the client may never have thought of. The brief from the marketer sets the destination but it’s up to you to decide how to get there. Don’t be scared to think out the box, just make sure the audience need is met. Copy and paste is not pitching.  

Structure

Finally, a marketer will often have to go through hundreds of proposals. To make their job easier, it’s important to structure your proposal so that it’s accessible. Tell the marketer everything they need to know in a quick and concise way. We’ve provided a breakdown of the elements which should be included in your proposal:   Title: Give your pitch a creative title Overview: Introduce yourself and provide an overall picture of your creative proposal. Target Audience: Provide some details about your audience and why it’s the audience the brand wants to be talking to. Plan: This is where you get into more detail by highlighting your strategy. Include  the finer details, as well as  provide a timeline and rollout schedule for  your content. Also make sure to define the channels you will use. Performance: Provide client with an overview of the expected results of the campaign in terms of reach and engagement. Budget: Share the cost-to-client and include any discounts you’d like to offer. Appendix: This is where you add any other information of value including your references. Check out an example of what a great proposal looks like here and login here to create your own proposal.