Content Marketing has emerged as the biggest buzz word in the field of marketing in the last couple of years. To a novice, it is about writing a few blogs and then waiting to see if it attracts traffic. To experts, it is using content as the backbone of all marketing initiatives. Being a specialist agency in Content Marketing, we’ve received all kinds of requests in the last few years. Most times, we have to explain to our clients that there are two words here that make this process happen – ‘Content’ and ‘Marketing’. These aren’t mutually independent and will have to work together if you have to see some magic in the form of traffic, engagement, leads and conversions on the website. Even then, we get requests for plain content writing – because we can churn out high quality content with regular frequency. We generally sit down with such a request and then turn it into a strategy that can help our clients look back six months from now and think that they did the right thing by hiring us. In this guide to writing a content marketing proposal, we’ve tried to outline what’s worked for us when it comes to creating a strategy for different industries and clients. Before you get to it, here’s a quick note – We also have proposal writing guides for Social Media Clients and Search Engine Optimization Clients. These templates and strategy can come handy when you create your next proposal. Now, getting back, here are steps to creating a content marketing proposal that’ll get you a client and also retain them. By the way, this proposal guide will come handy for both agencies and freelancers. The brief gathering process The brief for a content marketing strategy is generally gathered during a personal meet or a mix of a phone and email conversation. Asking a few pointed questions during this process is necessary to set the course of your strategy going forward. Here are two questions that can help you get started 1. What is your main goal behind having a content marketing plan? Universally, marketing has a few clear goals – activities that lead to traffic, engagement, visibility, branding and eventually leads and conversions. Does this percolate into the content marketing plan too? 2. How can content help you achieve your goals? For some businesses like E-commerce, the connect to the sales pipeline is clear. But for others like B2B products which people don’t directly buy online, being able to create a measurable content marketing strategy requires a few additional parameters. Setting goals Once you’ve collected the brief, it is time to translate them into concrete goals. Let’s take a B2C company selling groceries online, for example. Their goal was to “Use content marketing to increase conversions and generate revenue” To achieve this goal, you’ll have to define targeted metrics around it. For example, Metric 1: Generate x% of website revenue from content marketing Metric 2: Create content that ranks on the first page of Google for certain key terms Or another goal example for a B2B company can be Gain position as a leader in their industry The translated metrics for this goal can be Metric 1: Increase newsletter subscribers by x% Metric 2: Increase white paper downloads by x%. Metric 3: Increase content views by x% Internal research task a. Get thorough knowledge of the product / service you are selling: Real engaging content cannot come without understanding the product fully and how it works. Some industries are simpler than others since we may already be using the product every day. But when it comes to B2B, it is best to deep dive into Google and get a thorough research on the product and its categories. Our best bet is to generally spend some time with the product manager in the company. The human insights behind the product actually become its best story spinners. Besides, if you want to create cornerstone content, it can’t be all fluff and jargon but has to be based on experience to a certain degree. If you are doing this as a team, use a single doc to cap ideas: Typically, there may be more than one writer in our team taking up the job. This works well when you need multiple perspectives on the product. We have an internal guideline document that helps writers tether their ideas to the central document which are then viewed by editors and constructed into a coherent flow. Important: Before you move forward At this point, you have all the basic info necessary to take a deep dive and get started. So this is the best time to present a sample piece of content and get an email in place about timelines and approx budgets. But can you set an agreement without completing the content audit? It depends from client to client. For first timers, it is mostly a Yes. You see, the content audit below is a lot of work – and time from your internal team. So it is up to you to decide if you want to take up the full load before you actually bag the client. Whatever you discover from the content audit may have a direct impact on the overall budget. The budget here isn’t the entire cost of the project but more an approximate number that your client can have in mind. Budget discussions are never easy as you thread on a thin line. All agencies out there scream quality – but this can be proven only with time. We showcase ours by sharing case studies and testimonials from previous clients. As a newbie, not doing this has caused quite a bit of heartache for us. You may find only one rotten mango among the pile but it is still best to have a shield and stay prepared. Here’s why. I got duped by a rogue client. Here’s how you can protect yourself from one Content
