Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:11:16 +0000

Lets face it there is no enjoyment in writing a proposals. You became a web designer to build web sites, no one thought to mention anything about the processes you would have to follow to find new contracts and clients. Unfortunately, web design proposals are one of those essential processes you have to learn, and learn well.

The biggest question I have asked myself in the past is – "Are they really worth all this hassle?" The answer sadly is YES, they are.

A client contacts you regarding a new web site, you will discuss it first, you will then ask him to fill out a project questionnaire, and then they they will no doubt ask “How much will that cost?”. You will have to explain to them that you will have to analyze the details of the project and that you will be in touch in a few days with the report.
Now, it is those details that clients like. It is those details that will decide whether you get the contract or not. Not only will you have to convey, within the proposal, a comprehensive account of the processes involved in developing the project, you will also have to convince them that you know exactly what you are doing and that you are the best person for the job. It has to build your clients confidence from the start and allow them to trust your expertise.

In this post you will find resources to help you write a successful web design proposal, that will help you to win contracts every time…. or at least most of the time!

What are your thoughts on web design proposals? What tips do you have? Please leave a comment and share your experiences.

Writing a Website Design Proposal

A website design proposal is a fancy way of saying quote. Often a potential client will come to you asking, “What will this kind of site cost me?” You should do some research, using a client questionnaire before giving the client a quote and submitting your proposal.
Website design proposals can take all forms – there’s no set way to create one. There will be some things you’ll see in all design proposals they are a must, and the author lists the most common, and adds a fair few insightful new sections.

Writing a Website Design Proposal »

Tutorial – How to Write a Basic Web Development Proposal

Knowing and understanding what exactly you should include in a proposal is the first step to convincing clients and winning contracts.
A professionally presented and well written development proposal more often than not decides whether you will win or lose the project. The proposal can also decreases the incidences of misunderstandings between yourself and your clients when the project is under way and acts as a basis for a formal contract.
Read this article for an in-depth analysis of what should and is expected from a web design proposal.

Tutorial – How to Write a Basic Web Development Proposal »

7 Tips For Writing A Winning Web Design Proposal

If you’re soliciting web design work in traditional ways, a major step in winning jobs is the proposal phase. There are certain things you can do to put yourself, your capabilities and your company in the best possible light, whether you’re outlining what you have to offer in an e-mail message, or submitting a complete proposal.
What would you put in a proposal?
In this article they outline in detail seven very useful tips for designers of any level and background and help you improve your proposal process.

7 Tips For Writing A Winning Web Design Proposal »

How to Write a Web Design Proposal – Anatomy of a Persuasive Proposal

If you plan on paying the bills, you can’t avoid the painful activity that is web design proposal writing. What you need to do is become more efficient and better at writing them. Outsource what you can and hack the rest!
Before you can quickly and efficiently write amazing proposals, you’ll need some basic background on what a persuasive proposal is made of. A proposal has to be persuasive, it must convince the reader that you are the absolutely best person for the job.

How to Write a Web Design Proposal – Anatomy of a Persuasive Proposal »

Five Steps to Writing Proposals That Sell [Find Clients]

In today’s market, if you can’t write good proposals, you won’t be able to sell. Its a simple fact.
Let’s face it: we’re in a buyer’s market when it comes to freelance services. For every job you bid on, you’re competing with five, ten, or even more other freelancers.
When you’re stuck in a crowd like that, you’ve got to find a way to set yourself apart, or face 20:1 (or even longer!) odds on winning that contract. How do you do that? How can you beat the odds?
Even if you have a prior relationship, a good proposal helps reinforce your ability to deliver. And if you’re part of a cattle-call, a good proposal can push you to the top of the stack.
If the thought of writing fills you with trepidation, this article covers in five simple steps you can follow to write proposals that sell. The steps they cover are:
1. Steal a proposal that works
2. Understand (and flatter) your target
3. First the end, then the means
4. Use simple words
5. The price is right (and this is a buyer's market)

Five Steps to Writing Proposals That Sell [Find Clients] »

Writing A Project Proposal – Don't Give Up!

Having 100% of project proposals accepted usually means that a freelance developer has had very few clients. Low percentage rates usually mean that proposals are being sent to people who didn’t ask or the proposal writer simply needs a few good “getting warmer’s” in the right direction.
The tried and tested tips, in this article, are to encourage the 100%ers to write more proposals and the low raters to take heart and give it another try.

Writing A Project Proposal – Don't Give Up!

The Secret to Landing Clients Nearly 100% of the Time

Turning a prospect into a client is a process-based on a system. Identifying deliverables and executing campaigns for a client is a series of tasks based on a system.
Create the right system and you can almost flawlessly guarantee success and satisfaction every time.
In this informative and eye-opening article, the author not only writes about his experiences as a freelancer but also how they stumbled upon a system for winning over clients (nearly all the time) by simply outsourcing…

The Secret to Landing Clients Nearly 100% of the Time »

How to Make a Positive First Impression with Potential Clients

For clients, choosing a designer for their project is often based on their comfort level with the designer and their confidence that the designer will do a great job.
First impressions make a huge impact here and can either get you much closer to landing the job, or they can lead the client to eliminate you from consideration.
In this article they look at 11 significant factors that may influence the early impressions from a potential client. These are things that you should focus on to show that you should be considered for the work and that you are more than capable of giving them an excellent website that will be effective for their business.

How to Make a Positive First Impression with Potential Clients »

The Ultimate Design Brief

Your design can only be as good as the brief you worked from. The best projects are borne from briefs that are open enough to inspire ideas, while being specific enough to feel workable.
Unfortunately, clients who aren’t familiar with the design process don’t see carefully-written briefs as a high priority. This may be because they don’t have time. Quite often, it’s because the client hasn’t made fundamental decisions about the objectives of their marketing collateral.
This article talks about how to influence potential clients into writing detailed briefs that will allow you to write a winning proposal.

The Ultimate Design Brief »

Downloadable Web Design Proposal Samples

The first thing to make clear is that the below samples are not templates. Meaning, you can't just take them and use them for your own proposal.
What they do is demonstrate how to effectively and professionally write a winning proposal.

Website Proposal for Company X

Rogue Element Sample Proposal

Sample Website Proposal

Gold Sample Proposal

Professional Web Design Proposal Sample

Sample Web Design Contract, Budget, Timeline & Proposal

A Sample Web Design Proposal: The Designer's Blueprint for the Site

Free Web Design Proposal Contracts (I)

Free Web Design Proposal Contracts (II)

Free Web Design Proposal Contracts (III)

Proposal Apps and Services

Using a web based app to create your proposals is perhaps an option you should consider. There is of course, a trade-off in terms of customizability and originality when you compare templates to your own original documents, but what you get back in time saving may make it worth your while.
Below you will find the best online services for generating professional web design proposals.

Bidsketch

Bidsketch is a proposal-writing tool created specifically for designers. With Bidsketch, you can quickly and easily create elegant, customized proposals and send them to clients. You can also use Bidsketch to keep track of both existing clients and potential clients, so you can find the work you need to stay in business.
There are several professional-looking templates available for proposals, and you also have the option to create a custom template with a little HTML knowledge.
Bidsketch is not free, but you can try it for free for 30 days. The Premium plan costs $19 a month and the basic plan is only $9.

Try Bidsketch »

Video – Bidsketch Walkthrough

Proposalware

Proposalware has been developed and can be customised for almost all types of industry, so is not only restricted for web design proposals.
You can use this app via your computer or any smartphone, allowing you to send proposals quickly and timely and not wasting precious time preparing complicated forms and documents for every single contract.
This service offers a 60 day free trial and the premium package cost $10 per month and $100 per year.

Try Proposalware »

Video – iPhone Proposal Web Application ProposalWare.com

ProposalPad

ProposalPad is a unique system developed for web designers and graphic designers that makes it very easy to create FREE (with premium options) professional graphic and web design project proposals.
Its a very easy to use free service. All you have to do is upload your company information, color scheme, and logo initially, and you're good to go.

Try ProposalPad »

Flowlett

Flowlett is a complete proposal management system that goes beyond traditional CRM and messaging systems to streamline customer interactions around proposals. Once you create a business proposal (example: Quotes, Agreements, Marketing Creatives etc.), you can use Flowlett to route it internally for reviews and approvals, using serial, parallel or hybrid workflows that you define dynamically.
Once ready to present to the client, you can use Flowlett to securely collaborate with your client to finalize it. Once finalized, your client can securely approve it online.
They do give a 30 day FREE trial, where after you can choose between the Standard Plan ($15 a month) or the Plus Plan (from $50 a month).

Try Flowlett »

Video – Introduction to Flowlett

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I started in SEO working for an agency that required an annual contract. Clients who wanted to hire them had to be prepared to pay in full upfront for 12 months of service.

That’s a heck of a commitment, isn’t it?

The worst part is that most of the time what the client was “buying” wasn’t clear.

Many of proposals read something like this:

“Acme SEO Consulting will optimize Client’s website for search engines using best practices and proprietary tools and techniques. Work may include the following:

• Title tag optimization
• Headline optimization
• ALT text optimization
• Keyword research
• Keyword density improvements
• Canonicalization corrections
• Crawl testing
• Robots.txt setup / maintenance
• Broken link scans
• Link building
• Competitor research
• Internal link optimization
• PageRank sculpting
• 301 redirects”

Whew, sounds pretty advanced, doesn’t it? For someone new to the world of SEO most of these deliverables may as well read, “Flux capacitor installation, GKC valve distribution correction, Removal of vermicious knids.”

The question most people are asking when they read a proposal like this: how do these things all add up to me getting a positive return on my investment?  How do they translate into more sales/leads/etc?

As an SEO I know that several of the bullet points above are often crucial optimization points. It’s my job to know which and when/where they’re required – and what the priority is to implement each one when it’s on the table.

There’s also a lot of muddy language in the example above that leaves the actual deliverables impossible to pin down. “Best practices,” “proprietary tools and techniques,” “work may include” – these are all nice ways of saying, “we’re not telling you exactly what we’re going to do.”

From an agency standpoint the argument is often, “well, if we give clients the detailed plan upfront won’t they just take the proposal straight to a low-cost competitor and get the same work for less?”

This is not a great attitude to take in approaching business relationships, is it?  ”Well, these people could be trying to screw us so let’s tell them nothing.”

It also misses an important point: Internet Marketing needs are different for every website.

Projects Must Be Tailored for Unique Needs

Believe me, it would be great if every client that picked up the phone and called us or contacted us through our website fit into a cookie-cutter mold for SEO and other Internet Marketing services. Everyone would get the same work at the same cost and, most importantly, they’d all see the same positive results.

Happy, prosperous clients = happy, prosperous agency

Unfortunately that’s just not how it works.

The truth is that your website and needs are unique.

• You’re in a unique market with unique competitors
• You’ve been in business for a unique amount of time
• You’re offering is one-of-a-kind (hopefully)
• Maybe you’ve got an in-house email list, maybe you don’t
• Maybe you’ve got an extensive profile of inbound links, maybe not
• Your website might need a design/usability overhaul, or it may be beautiful, usable and brand spanking new
• You could be running pay-per-click campaigns
• You might have a blog or articles on your website
• You may have web analytics installed or not – and for how long?
• Perhaps you have staff in-house who can handle website updates and creating new content – on the other hand, you might need to outsource these

Sure, many of the principles of SEO and Internet Marketing apply across all, or most, websites and markets. But with so many variables and unique characteristics the work (and budget) required to reach your goals are always particular.
It makes sense, then, that any Internet Marketing company, whether they’re proposing SEO, pay-per-click, email marketing, web design or all of the above, should customize their offering to the client’s needs, doesn’t it?

How to Know What You’re Getting Into

You can probably tell where this is going. Any project, whether it be SEO or another form of Internet Marketing, should have specific strategies, tactics and timelines geared for your particular situation.

If you’re looking to hire an agency, a project proposal should be a plan and not a reiteration of the agency’s selling points. The litmus test here: does the proposal focus on you and your needs, or does it reiterate why you’d want to hire the agency, some of their general methodology, their experience, etc. Sure, that stuff is important too, but a project proposal isn’t about the agency – it’s about the game plan and how it’s going to help you achieve your goals.

Some of the questions that should be on your mind when reviewing a project plan:

• What are the goals of this project?
  • More search engine traffic / exposure?
  • More leads?
  • More sales?
  • Do these goals make sense for your business model?
• How will the goals be achieved?
  • What strategy the agency is proposing?
  • What are the specific deliverables?
  • What is the timeline for those deliverables?
• Why will this strategy work?
  • What is the logic behind the strategy?
  • Has this strategy worked before?

Without the answers to these questions, isn’t it tough to know 1) what you’re aiming for and 2) how you’ll get there?

Imagine evaluating a year-long SEO project six months in. How are you going to evaluate the work that’s been done so far? How are you going to tell whether things are going well or not? If the plan or proposal was vague and listed lots of “possible” tactics/deliverables and no real timeline or goals it’s going to be pretty tough, right?

The basic reason most SEO projects fail

The essential reason most SEO projects fail isn’t because the work being done is shoddy (or the agency is just not worth their salt). That might be the case, but more often the cause of failure is the lack of a specific goals, strategy and detailed tactics/deliverables.

You can’t call something a “success” until you define that term. Take pains to understand upfront what your goals are for a project – and when an agency provides a quote make sure they’re addressing your goals, detailing the specific methods of reaching them and explaining logically why it’s all going to work.

About the Author Mike Tekula is the Director of Marketing at http://unstuckdigital.com/ – a results-driven Internet Marketing agency that provides SEO Consulting, SEO Training and other Internet Marketing services.

Post from: http://www.sitepronews.com/