Quickly submitting a detailed social media proposal can be a deciding factor in whether a potential client signs with you or a competitor.
Using proposal templates is common for agencies and freelancers, but many are designed solely with a fast turnaround in mind.
Download our free social media proposal template to help develop a thorough, goal-oriented plan with more ease and speed.
Edit it according to your strengths and prospect’s business, as well as the explanations and examples below:
Social Media Proposal Template Breakdown
1. Cover Letter
Similar to a job application, the proposal’s cover letter acts a brief pitch and one-way exchange of pleasantries.
Open by saying you were happy to connect, as it helped you determine the prospective client’s social media marketing needs and goals.
Then, summarize some successes you’ve delivered to related clients. State you’ll work to reach similar goals when expanding the prospect’s social presence and executing future campaigns.
Conclude the cover letter with your signature. You should also provide your contact information, making it easy to access.
Following this format adds a sense of personalization to the proposal, differentiating you from competing agencies and consultants.
2. Executive Summary
The executive summary gives an overview of your proposal, focusing on social media marketing goals and the activities you’ll run to reach them.
When possible, clearly link the goals to business benefits. So, if you want to earn 5,000 Snapchat followers, explain that this platform may be the best way to reach teens and young adults because it’s the most popular platform among this demographic.
You should then list the tactics you’ll use to meet these goals, possibly referencing a competitor whose strategies have yielded desirable results.
By crafting the executive summary this way, you’ll succinctly demonstrate your knowledge of opposing businesses and how to potentially reach greater social media heights than them.
3. Goals
As implied in the previous section, the goals are the most important part of the proposal template, as they’ll indicate the benefits of running a social media strategy.
Once again, be sure to clearly link them to business benefits.
For example, running X ads over a set period of time will lead to Y landing page visits. In turn, this should generate Z conversions through the page’s opt-in form.
Demonstrating this link is especially important for clients who struggle to see the financial purpose of social marketing.
By doing so, the prospective client will understand why you’ve set your specific goals and should see that you’re capable of driving growth.
4. Activities
As goals generally seem meaningless without a plan to reach them, this section of the template explores the activities that drive your proposed social media plan.
Introduce a given group of activities by following this simple formula:
To reach [goal], we’ll perform the activities described below [for/during]
[number/duration/time period]
The activities themselves will vary by client, but typically include:
- Running Ads
- Executing Contests
- Posting X Times per Day
- Participating in Twitter Chats
- Creating Original Content X Times per Month
- Joining and Posting in Groups and Communities
- Running a Social Media Monitoring Strategy, Answering Questions and Addressing Opportunities it Uncovers
Listing tactics not only illustrates how you’ll meet the prospect’s goals, but paints a clear picture of where their budgets will go.
5. Competitor Analysis
Analyzing competitors in your proposal demonstrates you understand the nuances of a prospect’s industry.
Plus, it helps uncover tactics that resonate with target audiences, helping you set your goals and approaches.
Start by identifying two to five competitors. Analyze their social profiles or campaigns on different platforms, paying attention to:
- Top Posts
- Types of Content Shared
- Average Engagement Rate
- Posting Time and Frequency
- Follower Growth (if you can access a tool that measures it)
- Post Reach and Impressions (if you can access a tool that measures them)
Use the data you find to set benchmarks and adopt strategies that generate engagement. You can use this tool to help:
This should hasten your development of a dedicated audience.
6. Reporting Schedule
In this section, lay out the benefits of social media reporting, such as reviewing:
- Results
- How You’re Progressing in Terms of Reaching Goals
- New Directions
Preview what a typical reporting meeting will cover before suggesting dates, such as the first Monday of each month.
When running the meeting, Lee Odden – CEO of TopRank Marketing and author of Optimize – suggests reporting trends instead of reading number after number:
Anybody – and I mean anybody – can report tabular data and read ranking and traffic reports. It’s just reading numbers.
What differentiates and delivers value over saying “you’ve got more leads and you’ve got more traffic” is actually explaining why. Tell the story and provide insight.
I need to know what the trend is. Are we moving in the right direction? I think most executives who aren’t wearing their geek hats at the moment are interested in trend data.
If there’s a particularly-dramatic spike up or down, they want to understand why that happened and what we’re doing about it. At the same time, they want insights about trends that are going one way or another as well as insights about what we should do about them. Especially when it comes to any problems or opportunities.
That’s communication that delivers value when it comes to analytics.
>> CLICK TO READ LEE ODDEN’S FULL SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS INTERVIEW <<
7. Roles and Workflow
On top of covering who will handle which tasks, explaining roles and workflow acts as a “why us” or “why me” section to help convince the prospect to work with you.
For agencies, start by filling in a chart that illustrates team hierarchy and team member functions.
The person at the top should be the future client’s primary contact – the account manager. Below, include the analyst, copywriter, community manager and anyone else who will contribute to the aforementioned activities.
Here’s where persuasion comes in: Lead into a team member’s duties by touching on his or her qualifications.
For example, “Backed by seven years experience and three marketing campaign awards, our copywriter will handle …”
This structure allows you to explain team member functions while showing off their unique credentials and accomplishments.
8. Billing
Keep this section straightforward.
Include individual costs for ads, labour and everything else depending on how frequently the prospect must pay – usually monthly or yearly.
Present the total in a separate line for clarity’s sake. Additionally, make sure nothing important is missing from your invoice.
9. Terms and Agreement
The final section contains an area for signatures after describing the conditions of accepting your social media proposal.
These conditions may include:
- Stopping or withholding services if the client does not pay on time
- Renegotiating prices should the client request an amplification of activities
- Suspending social media services due to specific constraints
This section should also have a timeline of next steps that will occur once the client signs. For example, you may list content creation deadlines and contest dates.
Should the client sign, complete these steps on time and reach your goals to ensure a happy business relationship.
Final Thoughts About Using this Social Media Proposal Template
Think of this template as a starting point, which you should edit and supplement according to:
- The explanations in this post
- Your capabilities and constraints
- The client’s needs and budget
Each potential client will have different needs, but they should all appreciate a detailed proposal that demonstrates your commitment to meeting them.
Keyhole is a real-time conversation tracker that provides keyword and hashtag analytics for Twitter and Instagram.