Despite the explosion of podcasts, video and social media content, email marketing remains the most profitable strategy to bring in business.
Helping clients build a list and cultivate relationships is an invaluable skill. Your email marketing proposal is the perfect opportunity to convey this value.
How can you do this well?
Writing an effective proposal requires a different approach than writing a marketing email. You need to know what to say, what to leave out, and how to arrange everything in a way that gets results.
There is a lot of confusion about this topic. So let's clear up the mystery and discuss how to make email marketing proposals work for you!
The email marketing proposal serves as an introduction to potential clients. It's your chance to recommend a solution that solves their most frustrating business problems. The best proposals include these details while offering compelling reasons to hire you.
In some ways, the process is similar to writing a marketing email.
There is certain information you need to get across. But you also have to find reasons to get people to want to keep reading and eagerly anticipate the next email hitting their inbox. It's a mix of information and persuasion.
Because you do this for a living, you have a leg up over others, like programmers or graphic designers, who have less experience with marketing strategy. And that's a good thing, because the bar potential clients are using to judge you is higher.
Clients won't give you the chance to market to their customers if you can't market yourself in your proposals. Here are a few key things you need to make them work.
Every email you send is different…
But patterns emerge. Regardless of the audience or content, you'll probably need a compelling subject line, plenty of white space, and a call to action. These elements show up time and time again.
This is similar to how it works for email marketing proposals. Some marketing plan projects are much more complicated than others, but they all share key elements every client is looking for.
Hitting on these elements, in a structure that has been tested and proven to get attention, increases your chances of winning gigs.
What do you need to include?
Here are the most common elements in small-scale email marketing projects. (Think launching a single marketing campaign or writing an autoresponder sequence.)
The elements above work great for short-term, one-off projects. But sometimes email marketing is much more involved, with consulting, research, and ongoing content creation and reporting.
Here are some of the most common elements for large-scale email marketing projects:
As an email marketing expert, you understand that knowing your audience will make every message you send more effective.
You can apply this thinking to your proposals as well. Instead of just skimming the request for proposal (RFP) and regurgitating the requirements, you can go deeper.
Nothing replaces a quick call or meeting to truly understand your potential clients. This doesn't take long. It shows the clients that you're committed to the project. And, if you ask the right questions, you can come away with insights you would never find in written RFPs.
Here are a few questions to get you started:
Including these answers in your proposals will give you a serious edge over competitors. Because you've done the digging to hone in on the key issues, clients will read the proposal and feel like you're reading their minds.
Writing proposals doesn't have to be a nightmare anymore. Keep the tips above in mind. You'll save a lot of time and frustration by following a proven formula. Then it just becomes a matter of adapting that formula to suit each unique project.
Ready to get started?
Check out these free email marketing proposal below.
An email marketing campaign is a great way to directly reach your customers, and elegantly written content can do more than keep potential customers informed about what your organization is up to— it can lead to valuable conversions. To ensure that you’re grabbing your customers’ attention and reaching as many people as possible, you need expert advice in setting up your email marketing campaign. At {my_company}, we’re committed to helping you maximize the potential of your campaign, and by inviting us into your confidence we can help you by:
Experts Helping You Help Yourself
{client_name} deserves the best email marketing campaign that it can muster. {my_company} will train you on the tools you need to design a beautiful and effective campaign, and we’ll make sure it’s ending up in the right inboxes.
By retaining us, {client_name} can be sure that you are receiving the most up-to-date advice according to current best practices in the areas of:
To meet {client_name}’s needs, as described above, we recommend the following email marketing services as part of this project:
MailChimp Coaching
{my_company}’s consultants will guide you through the process of setting up and refining your campaign using leading email marketing application MailChimp.
Design and Copywriting
{my_company} will tweak or overhaul your campaign’s appearance and help you produce the most persuasive copy.
Precise Campaign Execution
{client_name} needs to get its messages to the potential customers who are most likely to convert. {my_company} will help you build a robust subscription list that focuses on quality rather than just quantity, including a lead-nurturing campaign focused on conversion and a post-purchase campaign focused on up-sales.
Email Marketing Consulting Services
|
$3,560 |
{client_name} needs to use its time doing what it does best: providing great [describe industry/service/product]. By working with {my_company} to design and execute an email marketing campaign, {client_name} can focus on running its organization while we take care of making sure that your campaign is as attractive and effective as possible.
If {client_name} chooses {my_company} to provide email marketing services, our timeline would proceed as follows:
| Phase | Activities | Completion |
| MailChimp Coaching | In-person or online meeting between stakeholders at {client_name} and {my_company} to train in the proper use of MailChimp’s email marketing application. Service customization will be agreed upon and timelines set. | 03/15/XX |
| Copywriting Support and Subscription List Building | {client_name} will receive copywriting support and {my_company} will provide an updated list of quality subscribers, including a lead-nurturing campaign and a post-purchase campaign. | 05/30/XX |
| Consultation Meeting or Further Service Customization | In-person or online meeting between {client_name} and {my_company} to discuss progress and renew the terms of the consultancy, including adding or removing services. | 07/10/XX |
To take advantage of this proposal and proceed with the project as outlined, {client_name}’s next steps must be to:
Once completed, {my_company} will contact {client_name} to schedule a project launch meeting to make introductions and gather information before beginning the work.
We are happy to make changes to project scope on {client_name}’s request at any time, but this may be subject to additional billing.
{my_company} assumes {client_name} has permission from the rightful owner to use any code, scripts, data, and reports provided by {client_name} for inclusion in its materials, and will hold harmless, protect, and defend {my_company} from any claim or suit arising from the use of such work.
{my_company} retains the right to display web content elements as examples of their work in their portfolio and as content features in other projects.
This agreement becomes effective only when signed by agents of {client_name} and {my_company}. Regardless of the place of signing of this agreement, {client_name} agrees that for purposes of venue, this contract was entered into in [STATE] and any dispute will be litigated or arbitrated in [STATE].
The agreement contained in this contract constitutes the sole agreement between {client_name} and the {my_company} regarding all items included in this agreement.