Social Media Proposal – the Process of Creating It

Marketing agencies and freelance social media professionals know how important a social media proposal is. They need it to convert prospects into clients and make them say ‘yes’ to their social media skills.

Whatagraph marketing reporting tool
Indrė Jankutė-Carmaciu

Oct 25 2019 6 min read

Social Media Proposal – the Process of Creating It

They have two options:

  • To write their own social media proposal or download a printable social media proposal template.
  • Or customize it according to their client, which is considerably faster

Before we tell you how to write your own social media marketing proposal, you need to understand the goal and importance of this process.

What Is a Social Media Proposal?

It’s a document you give to your prospects explaining how you plan to achieve their goals. In other words, it’s the part when you convince your prospects of your abilities. A social media proposal comes before you sign the contract, being an essential stage of the sales process of the most successful companies.

Basically, when your prospect sees your proposal, they must see that you’ve understood their needs and offered them the best ways to achieve them.

How to Write Social Media Proposals

To be able to write a social media proposal for any prospect, you first need to do research for your client’s business. Discover their goals, audience, competition and current social presence. Also, you can use social media analytics tools to gather more useful information. The purpose is to discover:

  • Their goals
  • Their current social presence
  • Their current challenges

This will not only help you create the perfect proposal, but it will also tell you if you’re a true fit. Sometimes, a prospect may require a service you don’t offer or expect your services for a low cost.

Once you’re done with the research, start writing your proposal

Parts of a Successful Social Media Proposal

Introduction

Start your proposal by telling your prospect that you understand their requirements based on the research you’ve conducted previously. Establish a relationship by using words such as you, we, and yours. Try to link their goals to the social media goals that you can provide.

Present Social Media Goals

State at least 3 to 5 specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely social media goals. (S.M.A.R.T.)

e.g. “Increase Twitter followers by 30% by the end of the year.”

The goals you present should help your prospects achieve their overall business objectives. However, don’t promise them something you won’t be able to achieve. Setting too ambitious goals will damage your relationship with the prospect and weaken your proposal.

Scope of Work

In this part of the proposal, state what you will do for your prospect. Since this is the largest part, you can break it into smaller pieces:

Content creation – this part can include creating a social media content calendar, writing captions, recording videos, taking photographs, creating images, and curating business-related content.

Network selection – explain the reason you’ve chosen certain social networks. For example, the prospect’s competitors are active there, or the social network is more suited to their target audience.

Posting schedule – outline how frequently you’ll be posting to the specific social networks and why. If Facebook is one of the networks you’ve chosen, you can say: “We’ll post different types of content twice a day to increase your reach.”

Brand monitoring – state which hashtags and keywords you plan to track and how you’re going to respond.

Engagement and community – state how frequently you plan to engage with followers, and what you will be doing to achieve that. For example, two hours a day sharing user content or responding to comments.

Timelines and milestones – in addition to the regular posting schedule for specific campaigns.

Analytics and reporting – explain what you will track, the reason, and how frequently you’ll give reports.

Project Milestones & Deadlines

This part will tell the prospect how you plan to measure the success of the project. Will you send them regular updates? What analytics do you plan to monitor? What measurements will help you determine the success of the project?

For example, if the first milestone is increasing Facebook reach over the next three months, state the social media analytics tools that will help you measure the reach.

Proof of Work

You should be aware that you’re probably not the only one who sends your prospect a social media proposal. Therefore, make sure they know why you are the best fit for their goals and needs. To achieve that, use case studies, results, and testimonials from past clients whose goals were similar to theirs. Reorganize and curate your social media portfolio - the more relevant your examples, the stronger your proposal.

Terms of Agreement

This part should include your fees, payment terms, and reasons for termination of the agreement.

What Should the Prospect Do Next?

Outline the next steps for your prospect to avoid a continual back-and-forth between you and them. Can they ask for revisions on your social media proposal? Will you follow up after a few days? Should they submit an initial payment?

What About Using a Social Media Proposal Template

You can always use a free social media report template that can be customized to each of your prospects. Here are a few advantages of using a template:

  • You can use it time and time again
  • It saves you time
  • It prevents you from forgetting any important part of the proposal
  • It helps you become consistent

To Sum Up

The proposal gives you a chance to convince your prospects of your abilities and make them hire you. You can write your own or use a social media proposal template and customize it to your prospect’s needs. Remember, the stronger the proposal, the higher the chances of your prospect of becoming a client. So, spend as much time as needed to create a proposal that will win and keep more clients.

Published on Oct 25 2019

Whatagraph marketing reporting tool

WRITTEN BY

Indrė Jankutė-Carmaciu

Indrė is a copywriter at Whatagraph with extensive experience in search engine optimization and public relations. She holds a degree in International Relations, while her professional background includes different marketing and advertising niches. She manages to merge marketing strategy and public speaking while educating readers on how to automate their businesses.